Solar capacity could soar with electrified transport and heating
With wide adoption of electric vehicles and heat pumps, Colorado’s least-cost grid would reach 21 GW of solar capacity, 12 GW of wind, and 7 GW of storage by 2040, while electric rates would decline. These modeling results apply to other states as well.
Solar (and efficiency) are driving down peak demand in New England
The impacts of solar on New England’s grid are transforming the needs of the system, and this is new ground for the region.
Grid solutions: An interview with Greg Tremelling of Oztek
In this interview, pv magazine sits down with Greg Tremelling, VP of business development at Oztek Corp, to talk about his company’s solutions and where he sees the energy storage industry going.
First Solar advises contracting for solar capacity, not MWh, to enable flexible operation
Flexible solar plant operation can save a utility money. First Solar says it’s time for solar power purchase agreements to catch up to that fact.
A penny for your powerlines
Research by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that overall costs of transmission needed to integrate variable renewables is between 0.1-1¢/kWh, on top of the 2.9-4.6¢/kWh utility scale wind and solar power costs.
Back to the battery future
Rocky Mountain Institute’s new predicts unprecedented battery storage development in the next decade and beyond. And, while li-ion will remain to be the tech that’s hot in the streets in the short term, the future is diverse.
America’s largest floating solar project completed
Ciel & Terre USA has completed a 4.4. MW floating solar array in Sayreville, New Jersey, the largest of such a project in North America. This is an important step for a technology that NREL predicts could reach 9.6% of current electricity generation.
FERC looks at potential cyberattacks on dispersed grid assets
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has agreed to evaluate the potential risk of a coordinated cyberattack on geographically distributed targets on the electric grid, as recommended by the U.S. General Accounting Office. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has pushed back.
The Midwest’s solar future will be unlike anything seen before
Fitch Solutions Marco Research has boldly predicted the region will be a main driver towards the 100 GW of solar power capacity expected to hit the U.S. over the next 10 years. The procurmeent will be led by city and utility commitments to renewable energy, the falling costs of solar and the continued expansion of popular community solar programs.
Decentralization is more than a dream
Advocates say that PG&E’s power shutoffs for 750,000 California residents could have been at least lessened with the implementation of distributed solar + storage, and note that communities can keep critical facilities online with microgrids.
