Three new types of solar power plants emerge in 2019
2019 was a year of change for the solar and energy storage industry, as we shifted from deploying pure wattage to making projects a lot smarter with oversized DC-AC ratios, up to 60% capacity factors, and solar plants that shine only at night.
FERC appointees want 4¢/kWh clean energy tax to fund fossil fuel welfare
FERC’s PJM Interconnection ruling: all utility scale nuclear and renewable energy bids must meet a new “minimum offer price rule” equivalent to any state-level incentives in order to “level the playing field” with fossil fuels.
Net metering survives in Idaho
State regulators have overwhelmingly ruled to deny Idaho Power’s proposal to decrease the net metering rate for residential solar owners by 50%.
Here’s how utilities use their resource plans to block solar power
At least seven utilities chose to bias their resource modeling against solar in 2019. The good news is that transparent utility modeling could fix the problem.
SunCast Episode 209 – Podcaster Roundtable: Jon Powers, Barry Cinnamon and Nico discuss podcasts as a marketing channel
In this this Flashback Friday episode, Nico, Jon Powers and Barry Cinnamon talk about podcasting and how folks in the solar business are leveraging the power of podcasting to amplify their message.
Utility scale solar power as cheap as 70¢ per watt and still falling
Government researchers find that Florida has dethroned California as the largest market, trackers dominate, solar+storage compensation diversity, and a lot more in Berkeley Labs annual utility-scale solar power report.
5 stories that sparked conversation in 2019
Certain articles at pv magazine strike a chord with readers and spark greater discussion among the community. Here are the most discussed articles of 2019 at pv magazine USA.
5 most popular articles at pv magazine USA in 2019
Certain articles at pv magazine catch fire and capture the imagination of our solar colleagues as well as a wider, equally nerdy, audience. Here are the most widely read pieces of the year at pv magazine USA.
Kauai was 100% renewably powered for 32 hours over the last month
The Hawaiian island of 70,000 residents has achieved this feat on 11 different occasions since before Thanksgiving, anchored by a five-hour period on December 10. Plus, a world tour of high-penetration renewable hotspots.
Minnesota first state to integrate potential national distributed energy interconnection standard
The state has integrated the IEEE Standard 1547-2018 into its interconnection application requirements for distributed energy — seeking to make solar power more valuable to the grid and faster to connect.
