Locals suing for net metering, utility wants scale and energy storage
Jacksonville, Florida’s municipal utility has gotten rid of net metering and lowered the rate paid for excess solar produced electricity. Concurrently, the utility is pushing larger scale solar and energy storage programs.
Clean energy versus gas
Solar and energy storage, either on their own or as part of clean energy portfolios, are showing that they can compete with natural gas in the United States. But will regulators wake up to this reality before half a trillion dollars worth of future stranded assets are built?
Florida regulators clear the way for Vivint’s solar lease
Vivint Solar has joined other national residential solar companies in the Florida market as state regulators confirm that their solar lease contract does not violate state law by constituting the sale of electricity.
Construction starts on 450 MW-DC of Florida solar
Black and Veatch has started work on four massive solar plants for Florida Power and Light, which will bring the utility to over 1.2 GW-AC of installed solar some time next year.
NextEra expects storage to add half a cent to solar in mid-2020’s
The power giant has made a number of bold statements about the future of solar, wind and batteries, as the company’s development arm reaches a record backlog of renewable energy.
Florida’s distributed solar market doubled in 2017
State regulators have released a report showing that 6,283 new distributed generation systems connected to the power grid in 2017, nearly double the volume deployed in 2016.
Made in the USA
In the wake of the Section 201 tariffs, the United States is seeing a minor renaissance in solar module manufacturing. However, in terms of why this is happening, the tariffs are only one part of a more complicated story.
Seven U.S. cities to power municipal operations with renewables
In this op-ed for pv magazine, Will Driscoll outlines the plans of several large U.S. cities to power government buildings entirely with renewable energy.
Large-scale solar stays strong in Q1 2018 (w/chart)
Thanks in no small part to modules stockpiled before the Section 201 tariffs hit, both the utility-scale and “non-residential” market segments grew year-over-year in Q1. And while the duties are expected to play a greater role in 2019, there are other factors supporting ongoing market growth.
What China’s subsidy pull-back means for U.S. solar (part 2): manufacturing
Global oversupply and a collapse in module prices are not good news for manufacturers. But the details are always more complex, and many of the factories planned for the United States appear to be staying the course.
