Jigar Shah on the solar industry: ‘We embrace innovation because it is in our blood’
“We are being looked at by everyone from prominent political campaigns to elected officials in our towns and counties to provide the economic development needed for the nation’s recovery from Covid.”
Morning Brief: AES invests in solar startup 5B, Switch selects Tesla batteries for datacenters
Also in the brief: Hecate Energy, the largest privately-held independent solar power developer in the U.S., sold its 514 MWac solar project, plus the chart of the day.
PG&E, Tesla begin construction on one of the world’s largest batteries
With 182.5 MW and 730 MWh of capacity and expansion capabilities that would bring it to 1.1 GWh, the Moss Landing battery energy storage system is set to be even bigger than Tesla’s Hornsdale project in Australia, as big-battery development takes off worldwide.
CPS announces plans to bring nearly 1 GW of solar to Texas
The utility has taken the first step towards bringing 900 MW of solar, 50 MW of storage and 500 MW of firming capacity to the Lone Star State, all in pursuit of CPS’ 50% renewable by 2040 goal.
The U.S. installed more microgrids in 2019 than ever before
While then vast majority of microgrid projects are still for distributed fossil generation, the share of renewable microgrids is rising, driven by high-volume adopters, like The Red Cross.
Breaking up the patent monopoly for the benefit of batteries
The patent monopoly is at odds with the global need for battery storage technology and if this norm continues, technology will not be able to be released in time to keep up with current climate goals.
Tesla EVs show profit while solar business hits new lows in revenue and deployment
It was a series of firsts, including a profitable full year and Megapack turning a profit that factored into CEO Elon Musk explaining that he has “never been more optimistic or excited about the future of Tesla.” Austin is confirmed as the site of the next Gigafactory.
VC investment in storage, smart grid and energy efficiency is down significantly in 2020
A new report shows that both venture capital and total corporate funding to the three sectors are down, driven by battery storage funding failing to compare to a record-setting 2019.
Morning Brief: Sol Systems and Microsoft partner on 500 MW of solar, PVEL’s new inverter test lab
Also in the brief: Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary NV Energy goes full-on solar-plus-storage, and single-axis tracker analysis.
The West and Midwest favor solar-plus-storage; the East favors gas
Proposed solar-plus-storage projects far surpass proposed gas units in the West and Midwest.
