Arizona regulators rebuff utilities, order turn from gas to renewables
As an historic first, the Arizona Corporation Commission has voted not to acknowledge the gas-heavy energy resource plans of utilities, and is pushing instead an aggressive clean energy plan by one of its members.
Pilot project for flywheel storage underway in Hawaii
Utility Hawaiian Electric has announced the start of operations of a pilot project featuring flywheel energy storage technology provided by Amber Kinetics. The project will test the technology’s capability of supporting the grid and allowing further integration of renewable generation.
Berkeley Lab scientists confirm century-old theory of high performance batteries
Researchers in the U.S. have confirmed the existence of a novel state of the element manganese, first proposed in a journal dating from 1928, which could allow for the development of low-cost, high performance batteries for grid level and other energy storage applications.
Solar to help Texas meet this summer’s peak demand
The state is expecting nearly 400 MW of additional utility-scale solar by this summer, as the most significant source of new generation to help it meet summer peak capacity needs.
1366 abandons plans for New York factory
The innovative wafer maker will be building its first commercial-scale factory overseas.
Blockchain for energy raises $150 million in January
GTM Research shows $300 million raised by 122 blockchain companies since the second quarter of 2017. 50 of those companies are less than a year old.
Solaria suing partner over trade secret misappropriation
The company is suing Genesem, a South Korean equipment manufacturing partner, for using Solaria’s technology outside of agreements.
FPL completes 298 MW of solar
The utility has brought four 74.5MW solar plants online. FPL now owns 930MW of solar generation resources.
12 hours of energy storage enough for U.S. to run on 80% solar+wind
Scientists in California have modeled a solar-heavy/wind power electricity grid, without nationwide HVDC, that could reliably deliver 80% of U.S. electricity needs. 100% of needs would require 3 weeks of energy storage.
US researchers get the lead out of perovskites
Scientists led by Brown University have developed perovskite solar cells, which replace the toxic lead common to many of these material structures with titanium. The researchers say that with further optimization, the material could eventually be ideal for use as a tandem cell layer.
