Vietnam opens 450 MW solar plant
Ho Chi Minh City-based construction company Trungnam Group said its army of laborers took just 45 days to perform site clearance for a project which took shape within 102 days.
Corrected — California’s lucrative energy storage incentive gets fiscally misused once again
What is it about California’s SGIP subsidy that brings out the worst in people and corporations? Usually it’s companies gaming the ratepayer-funded incentive, this time it’s installers helping individuals with second homes siphon off funds intended for the disadvantaged.
Morning Brief: Ameren Illinois chairman, ‘Our position on net metering credits has not changed’
Also in the brief: Nefarious deeds at the DOE — blocking yet another study favorable to renewables. The North American Energy Resilience Model joins the Seams study as a victims of agency bias.
Pennsylvania has the opportunity to kickstart community solar — and its economy
Removing the state’s ban on community solar, an initiative which has gained immense bipartisan support, will create thousands of jobs and billions in economic development dollars.
Morning Brief: Pennsylvania looks to make community solar legal, Constellation signs 100 MW of supply contracts
Also in the brief: Wyoming regulators are critical of Pacificorp’s transition plan and solar and renewable industry leaders have begun an initiative to increase workforce diversity and inclusion throughout the industry.
Solar-plus-storage replaces coal plant in New Mexico, makes carbon-capture retrofit moot
The utility is planning on replacing the San Juan coal-fired station’s 847 MW of capacity with 650 MW of solar generation and 300 MW/1,200 MWh of accompanying energy storage. The new plan all but kills a proposal from San Juan’s owner and the City of Farmington to add a carbon-capture retrofit to the station.
Trump pulls tariff exemption for bifacial panels — again
Proclamation issued Oct. 10 cites impact of imported bifacial panels on U.S. solar manufacturing, while also raising the scheduled fourth-year tariff rate from 15% to 18%.
Project Sunlight wants to scale low-income solar nationwide — without subsidies
The end goal of the three-year project is to use market-based financing to install 20 MW of low-income community solar at multifamily affording housing, while trimming 20% off subscribers’ electricity bills.
Off-grid solar funding concentrated in just three companies
With a previous 50-50 split between equity and debt investment funding for the off-grid market shifting to 84% debt, and commentators stating most of this year’s backing was agreed before the onset of Covid-19, fears are mounting about the prospects for the sector.
US residential solar set for a record-breaking year — despite and because of 2020
Over the course of this strange year, American residential solar companies such as Sunrun, Vivint, SunPower and Tesla claimed they could weather the Covid storm with remote selling and new online strategies. It turns out they were right. BloombergNEF forecasts that Americans will install 3 gigawatts of solar on residential rooftops in 2020.
