Grids & Integration

Chart of the day: Researchers with Vibrant Clean Energy have created a model that outlines how upgrading the nation’s existing transmission system or building an entirely new one could save the country hundreds of billions of dollars by 2050.

Here’s a high-level cost estimate of what transmitting solar power underneath an ocean might cost for the proposed $16 billion Australia–ASEAN power line.

Don’t build a battery that costs $1 billion, only works 2% of the time and only moves around 100 GWh of electricity. Instead, build an Energy Imbalance Market or an Extended Day Ahead Market for $100 million that moves around hundreds of GWh of electricity.

And $156 million for energy retrofits from Redaptive.

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.

A report just released by the University of Texas at Austin’s Webber Energy Group has tackled how much solar each state could develop along interstate interchange and exit locations and how much this solar could potentially be worth.

Also in the brief: Macquarie Group and Siemens AG are forming Calibrant Energy, a venture that will invest in the energy-as-a-service sector in the U.S.

The EIA’s most recent Electric Power Monthly report shows that solar has accounted for nearly 3.4% of the country’s generation so far in 2020, with wind being responsible for another 8.5%. Meanwhile, coal has plummeted to just 17.8% of the nation’s total, down nearly 30% from just last year.

Also in the brief: $1 million fine at stake as Minnesota solar developers fault Xcel for project delays, more on interconnection.

Order 2222 raises the stakes — distributed resources are already starting to have material impacts on utilities’ planning efforts, and higher penetrations of distributed resources will amplify the need for better forecasts.