Florida

The court is the first stop of the ballot initiative which would break up the big utilities, introduce retail choice, and enshrine the right of residents to generate their own power.

In today’s pv magazine USA morning brief, we also bring you a settlement involving Sunrun, a hearing for a bill to repeal the former LePage Administration’s “gross metering” in Maine, and other goodies.

The power giant says that coal, gas and nukes will not be able to compete with clean energy, and that renewable energy deployment is “just getting started”.

The utility’s ’30 x 30’ plan centers on installing more than 30 million solar panels, as one of the most ambitious unveiled by any utility to date. The plan is projected to allow FPL to get more than 40% of its electricity from zero-emission solar and nuclear by 2030.

Duke Energy has presented a plan to the City of Orlando for a 1 to 3 MWac solar plant plus a 5 to 10 MW energy storage facility at a local sewage plant. The project is the first of potentially 14 solar+storage sites at strategic city locations.

The agency expects solar and wind to again dominate capacity additions in 2019, with solar showing modest market growth. If anything, this estimate is conservative.

A state senator has filed legislation to alter the definition of “public utility” to exclude those installing renewable energy devices of up to 2.5 MW on their own property and selling it to others, on their own property.

In part 2 we look at more of some of the action in 2018, from the dramatic growth of the 100% renewable energy movement to California’s mandate for rooftop solar on new homes.

Between tariffs on everything under the sun, Elon Musk’s $40 million tweet and the boom in energy storage, it’s been one Hell of a year.

An analysis of a First Solar power plant in Tampa, Florida suggests that by operating solar plants with more flexibility operators can save money for ratepayers – while also allowing for significantly higher penetration levels of renewables.