Kansas

Clean energy advocates praised the utility commission’s ruling as a major victory. Some regulators, however, suggested they may be open to similar fees in the future.

The 5.1 MWh system will include blackstart capability to help the Kansas Power Pool recover from a grid outage.

Also in the brief: Utah lawmakers push to block cities from banning natural gas. Climate risks are accelerating. Here’s what Duke, PG&E and 16 other utilities expect to pay, plus Invenergy signs up customers for $1.6 billion, 1,310-megawatt Samson solar energy generation facility.

Kansas’ largest utility Evergy wants to charge PV panel users — or everyone, plus Dominion fighting community solar, Utah PSC decides to lower export rate.

Also in the brief: NextEra developing a 500-MW solar/500 MW battery project in Kansas, PV system output during California smoke is near zero, solar in Wyoming and Sunrun is cleared to acquire Vivint by US DOJ.

Also in the brief: Evergy launches a ‘Sustainability Transformation Plan,’ SOMAH celebrates its first birthday and more.

Also in the brief: IREC on energy storage interconnection, Wunder Capital and partners to invest more than $100 million in U.S. commercial solar, Photosol buying land rights near coal plants with eye toward transmission, and NREL on recycling solar panels.

Also in the brief: Alchemy Renewable Energy has closed on deal to acquire a 44.5 MWdc solar energy portfolio, Ormat Technologies has begun the commercial operation of the Rabbit Hill Battery Energy Storage System, Kansas’ largest solar project ever has officially gone live and more.

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that a fixed fee for distributed solar customers violates state law. Vote Solar and Sierra Club brought the case, with representation from Earthjustice.

Solar contractors added another 1.8 gigawatts of small-scale solar in the ten sunniest states last year. In Hawaii and California, solar groups described their ambitious policy goals to keep the momentum going.