Policy

Also in the brief: Duke Energy Renewables has officially completed the 200 MW Rambler Solar project, Nikola Corporation has broken ground on its soon-to-be 1 million-square-foot manufacturing facility, Nelnet Renewable Energy will be managing services for 20 MW of community solar in New York.

The long-awaited overhaul of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 is upon us, bringing with it substantial changes to the policy that has benefited over 30% of today’s solar facilities. What these changes will mean for American solar moving forward remains to be seen.

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.

4 GW of offshore wind and land-based renewables are set to come to the Empire State, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo looks to achieve the state’s renewable energy mandates while also kickstarting a post-Covid economy.

In this legal update regarding the implementation of FERC Order No. 872, Jason Johns, Jennifer Mersing and Jessica Bayles of Stoel Rives LLP break down the most significant changes made by the order and how they will serve to limit PURPA’s efficacy moving forward.

“The energy from solar can consistently charge a 4-hour storage device having the same installed capacity” prior to the hours of peak demand, says a new study. In Arizona and New Mexico the capacity value is 99%.

The biggest shift from Biden’s previous plans involves the money and timeframe for spending it: $2 trillion over four years, rather than the $1.7 trillion over ten years previously proposed.

“Getting interconnection of storage right is absolutely fundamental to avoid potential barriers for rapidly rising energy storage deployments,” said Jason Burwen, of project partner Energy Storage Association.

Members of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District Board of Directors will vote tonight on a “Climate Emergency Declaration” that could set the utility on track to become carbon neutral by 2030.

More than 450 organizations, 57,000 individuals and 37 states submitted comments opposing the NERA petition that could have ended the net metering program that has helped the residential and commercial solar industry to grow over the last decade.