Markets & Policy

Tucson Electric Power is the first Arizona utility to finalize a rate plan since the Arizona Corporation Commission all but ended net-metering in the state for new customers – and they are taking advantage of it.

Storage provider Ice Energy has signed a contract with the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) to provide its innovative Ice Bear 20 ice battery system for use in up to 100 residential locations.

For the third straight year, legislators in the Show Me state are trying to pass a bill to allow power-purchase agreements there – and they believe they may have the support to make the third time the charm.

Aerospec Technologies is providing PV farm performance analysis with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that costs a tenth of on-ground analysis for a typical 100 MW array, according to Lance Li, CEO of the company.

Vaisala has launched a new solar weather station that provides all of the instrumentation required by solar project developers, operators and engineering teams for best practice resource assessment and monitoring.

H.R. 861, introduced last week by freshman Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), has one simple objective stated right in its title: to terminate the Environmental Protection Agency.

Interview: In December Energy Democracy, a book telling the story of Germany’s Energiewende from the perspective of citizen ownership of renewable energy, hit the shelves. The book is the latest collaboration of Political Scientist Arne Jungjohann and renewable energy writer Craig Morris, currently a senior fellow at the IASS in Potsdam, who worked together on the German Energy Transition website (energytransition.de). pv magazine caught up with Jungjohann to talk about the book, and why citizen involvement in energy is important.

Under the guise of creating “consumer protections” from unscrupulous installers, two companion bills in the state place such onerous requirements on solar companies that it could significantly slow down the industry’s progress in the state. Other legislation moving through New Mexico’s legislature would boost solar. Will the real New Mexico solar policy please stand up?

The Solar Foundation’s 2016 National Solar Jobs Census shows that project development was the fastest growing job function last year at over 53 percent, while manufacturing jobs were up a robust 25 percent plus. Overall employment in the industry rose by over 24 percent to over 260,000 jobs. More than one out of every 50 new jobs created in the U.S. during 2016 was created by the solar industry.

Can solar be moved from a must-take contract to a dispatchable resource – and provide grid services as well? Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) has a look at how this could work.