From the editor: SEIA’s solar+ plan falls short on ambition
The organization’s “ambitious goal” of solar supplying 20% of the nation’s electricity in 2030 looks more like a forecast, and vision for rapid decarbonization is coming from the climate movement and the American Left, not SEIA.
A 7th grader’s prize-winning solar project, Canadian Solar secures $50 Million: pvMB 5/16/19
Hello one and all to the Thursday edition of the pvMB. Today we’ll be looking at Anheuser-Busch’s new 2.7 MW solar system at its New York brewery, Pivot’s awarding of 11 community solar projects in Illinois, Recurrent Energy selling its Mustang plant and more!
The view from above: Heliolytics on the evolution of solar site inspection
In this interview Heliolytics CEO Rob Andrews talks about the factors behind the emergence of piloted aerial inspection as the dominant form of site inspection, and also the unique challenges posed by wind damage.
LONGi launches new high-powered half-cut bifacial module
The Hi-MO 4 offers power ratings up to 430 watts, with module efficiencies as high as 19.2%, as the latest high-powered module to hit the floor at Intersolar Europe.
A billion-dollar silicon carbide complex is coming to North Carolina
Cree, which pioneered the innovative semiconductor material, is planning to increase silicon carbide production 30x through a massive investment in a fab and materials megafactory in Durham, North Carolina.
Designing for and monetizing curtailed solar power
Research by NREL and First Solar has produced highly accurate, real-time estimates of available aggregate peak power that a curtailed solar power plant can deliver to support the broader needs of the grid.
Jay Inslee, defender of Earth, TEP joins the Energy Imbalance Market: pvMB 5/9/19
Welcome one and all to today’s edition of the pvMB. Before you tackle today, we’ve got renewables coming to Montana, Illinois’ City Water, Light and Power giving coal the boot, the one week countdown until Solar Cup 2019 and more!
Sunrun aims to replace big power plants
By providing solar + storage, contracting to supply capacity in wholesale markets and even considering microgrid communities, Sunrun is taking on more and more of the space traditionally occupied by utilities and the large, centralized generators that they rely on.
New York utility gives free hardware to solar and EV buyers
ConEdison is supplying the ConnectDER solution—which accepts solar and EV wiring directly at the electric meter—when customers install solar and electric vehicles. Installation of the device avoids costly electric panel upgrades.
Fire at Tennessee polysilicon fab, NJ man scams the feds for $3 million in solar rebates: pvMB 05/06/19
It’s Monday, and it is pvMB time. Today in addition to the dark news in the headline, we also bring you three new directors at Rocky Mountain Institute, and record levels of solar curtailment in California this April.
