Morning brief: Elon Musk’s battery day ‘will blow your mind,’ Chinese module prices expected to rise 12.5%
Also in the brief: Powerhome has partnered with Generac, Duke Energy is donating $150,000 in low-income bill relief, Seychelles readies the world’s largest salt-water floating solar plant and more.
Massachusetts doubles the size of its SMART solar incentive
Dubbing the measure an “emergency regulation,” the incentive program’s capacity has been expanded to 3.2 GW of incentive blocks, with specific carve-outs for smaller projects and low-income community solar projects.
Morning Brief: Satellites help predict cloud cover for solar plants, REC Group did not infringe Hanwha Q-Cells’ ‘215 patent
Also in the brief: Vistra is increasing the size of its Oakland battery energy storage project, a University of Arkansas professor researching solar project cybersecurity and more.
Duke warns solar producers it may cut power purchases
In the face of exceptionally low demand linked to the lack of commercial and industrial energy consumption and mild weather, Duke Energy has warned independent power producers and state regulators that the company may stop purchasing power that it’s contracted to buy from solar plants.
Morning Brief: Rick Perry bucked Congress’s clean energy mandate
Also in the brief: How a conservative coal county built the biggest community solar energy project in East Kentucky. Why 30M solar rooftops should be in the next relief bill
Virginia passes 100% clean power mandate
Gov. Ralph Northam has signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires the state’s utilities to switch to 100% clean energy by 2050, while also adding 16 GW of solar and onshore wind, 3 GW of energy storage and the closing of all the state’s coal power plants by 2024.
Massachusetts struggles to incentivize behind-the-meter storage
While praised for the level of large-scale energy storage the state’s Clean Peak Standard is anticipated to bring, opponents have called the policy “a waste of ratepayer funds for behind-the-meter energy storage.”
Morning Brief: EIA on net metering, Li-Cycle’s first shipment of commercially recycled battery material
Also in the brief: the chance that Covid-19 gives to reform our energy system, Engie has signed tax equity financing for a 2 GW portfolio, Panasonic names inaugural class of Elite Residential Installers and more.
6 takeaways from EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook
Even EIA expects that U.S. coal generation will fall by 20% in 2020. The agency forecasts the electric power market will add 19.4 gigawatts of new wind capacity and 12.6 gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity this year.
NEXTracker CEO challenges solar projections from Energy Information Administration
“EIA’s projections greatly underestimate the growth of solar and significantly overestimate coal’s persistence in the energy mix,” says Dan Shugar, CEO of NEXTracker.
