Virginia lets Dominion build 240 MWac of solar – with conditions
State regulators are allowing Dominion to bill its electric customers for the costs of two plants, while providing the renewable energy credits to Facebook. The approval includes a performance clause, wherein the utility will pay if the plant doesn’t deliver as expected.
Corporate clean energy smashes records
Companies in the United States accounted for more than 60% of the clean energy deals signed by corporations worldwide last year, according to BloombergNEF. A proposed renewable portfolio standard for Chinese business, though, could turn the picture upside down in a year’s time.
pvMB 1/28/19: Michigan’s largest rooftop solar + battery project goes online, BlackRock’s new head of renewables and more.
Welcome to your workweek and new week of the pv magazine USA morning brief. Today we’ll take a look at Minneapolis’ “Green Zones,” a 5.5 square mile solar farm in Wisconsin and everything else you need to start your week in solar news.
Solar demand overwhelms Michigan utility – not “predictable”
Consumers Energy has asked Michigan regulators to suspend solar power interconnection applications as the increase in applications was “substantial, and too sudden, to allow to Company to respond” with appropriate resources.
Monsters of the Midwest: Giant solar farms approved in Illinois and Michigan
In the previously middling Midwest, local authorities have approved two solar projects totaling 340 MW in Illinois and Michigan, each of which is larger than anything put online to date in these states.
Killing coal in Colorado with solar+wind+storage by 2025
Per an analysis by Vibrant Clean Energy, it’ll take approximately 2.8 GW of solar power, 8 GW of wind and 765 MW / 3 GWh of energy storage to allow Colorado to shut down its 4 GW of coal by 2025, while also lowering electric rates by 5%.
FERC asserts jurisdiction over PG&E contracts
While acknowledging that the law is “unsettled,” FERC has said that it and the bankruptcy courts have concurrent jurisdiction over power contracts, as other generators holding PG&E contracts join the fray.
NextEra: solar and wind plus batteries will be “massively disruptive” to conventional generation
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”.
Clash of the energy titans
PG&E has filed a response to NextEra’s request to protect its power purchase agreements, by arguing that no harm has yet occurred, FERC doesn’t have jurisdiction, and that ongoing case law referenced by NextEra is not applicable.
pvMB 1/25/19: Digital Reality+SunEnergy1+Facebook+80MW, Ikea hits 56 MW and more…
Happy Friday. In today’s pv magazine USA morning brief Forefront Power and Arcadia Energy are moving through 75 MW of community solar in New York, Florida Governor Desantis is lacking renewables, and solar is still exponential.
