Too cheap to keep: How throwing away power is the best way to balance the grid
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.
Energy funding: Voltus raises $25 million for demand response and DERs, plus VC for new solar silicon production
And $156 million for energy retrofits from Redaptive.
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.
America’s highways have significant solar potential
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.
Morning Brief: Installer Sigora Solar acquires Aztec, Generac acquires Enbala, Louisiana goes solar
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.
Solar and wind generation continue to expand rapidly while coal is in a tailspin
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.
Morning Brief: Energy secretary slams ‘radical environmentalists,’ touts gas and nuclear as California’s energy future
Also in the brief: $1 million fine at stake as Minnesota solar developers fault Xcel for project delays, more on interconnection.
SEPA rolls out blueprint for tackling integrated distribution planning
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.
Morning Brief: California modernizes its distributed energy interconnection rules, Pine Gate launches wave of Michigan solar
Also in the brief: Natron Energy, a supplier of fire-safe sodium-ion batteries using Prussian blue chemistry, has achieved a UL listing for its battery.
Duke Energy, developers and regulators advance solar in the Carolinas with ‘queue reform’ and cluster studies
To address developers’ frustrations with its interconnection process, Duke Energy worked with solar industry associations to map out a second proposal aimed at rationalizing its interconnection process in 2022, after the existing queue is cleared.
