California

California has set a new record for peak output of utility-scale solar at more than 10.5 GW, as well as for renewable energy overall. However, the state’s grid operator is still curtailing solar and wind while hydro and the last nuclear plant run full-steam.

Our first solar power policy roundup looks at a bills to scrap net metering while raising the RPS in Connecticut, the establishment of performance-based ratemaking for utilities in Hawaii, and more.

Clean Coalition, NREL and City of San Diego are working on solar siting and designing a feed-in-tariff program to drive grid resilience via distributed solar power.

The latest report by Mercom Capital finds VC investment in battery storage companies rising five-fold year-over-year to $299 million in 12 deals.

The Glendale, California City Council voted 4-1 to put a gas generation plant upgrade on hold to explore renewable energy and storage options.

A session at BNEF’s Future of Energy Summit explored how renewables paired with energy storage are successfully competing with new gas plants.

And inaugural global energy storage report by GTM Research finds that while the United States remains the world’s leading market with newly installed capacity of 431 MWh, China is poised to rise to second place globally in 2019.

The R-PACE program, between 2010-2015, added 1.1 W of solar power per capita overall to larger cities in the Californian market. The Berkeley analysis suggests many of the projects wouldn’t have been built otherwise.

Recurrent Energy’s ‘Crimson’ project is proposed for siting on public land, and is moving forward in its environmental review.

The state’s grid operator has chosen utility PG&E’s proposed mix of substation upgrades, energy storage, renewable energy and demand response to replace a petroleum-fired plant.