Technology

PowerLedger’s xGrid is a blockchain-based electricity trading platform that’s now being used in a Pennsylvania business park, in addition to Chicago, California, a large housing unit in Australia, plus a few more locations.

Happy Valentines Day and welcome to your pv magazine USA morning brief! Today we’ll be looking at a Tesla Powerwall owner who’s system was so efficient in an outage, he didn’t know there was one, the limbo of Illinois solar projects, a team of teenage girl engineers that designed a solar powered tent for the homeless and everything else you need to know this morning.

Happy hump day to you and welcome to the pv magazine USA morning brief. Today we’ll be looking at an Australian company’s drone powered by solar wings, Southern Arkansas University Tech going solar and everything else fit to get you caught up on solar news.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s move to phase out three gas-fired power plants by 2029 is expected to accelerate the transition to 100% renewable energy by the largest municipal utility in the nation. But there are big questions about the role that local solar + storage will play.

Welcome to today’s pv magazine USA morning brief and thanks for spending your morning with us. Today we’re looking at English researchers’ development of a solar flag, two community solar projects in Illinois under fire, University of Northern Iowa’s new group-buy program and everything else on our solar slate. Let’s ride!

The research and consultancy group’s study of the latest polar vortex shows the need for greater interconnection of grids and 18-40 hours of energy storage in the Upper Midwest under high renewable energy scenarios. It also shows a potential role for nuclear power; but other extreme weather events tell a different story.

Solar, wind and storage can provide 7 essential grid services, which will help enable them to gain an ever-increasing share of electricity generation.

PREPA’s draft IRP calls for rapid deployment of solar and batteries, including the installation of as much battery storage as is currently online in the entire United States over the next four years, in a system broken up into “minigrids”. However, it stops short of utilizing behind-the-meter PV and storage.

NREL has begun an effort to improve its ability to model deployments of variable renewable energy sources across the U.S. power grid. This effort has begot two papers as of yet – one a broad analysis of how four specific models work and how to improve them, and the second a comparison of the varying outcomes of models under normalized conditions.

In our first pv magazine USA morning brief in February, we also give an update on S5!’s patent infringement case, introduce a new director for GRID Alternatives’ Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund, and provide you with a pair of technical reports on DER integration/grid modernization to start your day.