Ten research teams aim for long-duration storage at 5¢/kWh
To get long-duration storage costs down to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, research teams funded by ARPA-E are pursuing breakthroughs in flow batteries, hydrogen storage and other technologies—even thermovoltaics.
Utility scale solar power as cheap as 70¢ per watt and still falling
Government researchers find that Florida has dethroned California as the largest market, trackers dominate, solar+storage compensation diversity, and a lot more in Berkeley Labs annual utility-scale solar power report.
If solar and wind are so cheap, why are their haters making so much noise
A report from US research labs shows natural gas as the leading reason wholesale electricity pricing has fallen over the last decade across the country, however, looking at key markets it is clear there are larger downward effects where wind and solar have been most heavily deployed.
A penny for your powerlines
Research by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that overall costs of transmission needed to integrate variable renewables is between 0.1-1¢/kWh, on top of the 2.9-4.6¢/kWh utility scale wind and solar power costs.
Small solar is getting bigger, cheaper and more efficient
LBNL’s annual Tracking the Sun report, comparing 2017 to 2018, saw module efficiency rise almost 10%, system prices decrease 5-7%, median system size increases, and significant variability in all of those data points across the 1.6 million systems surveyed.
Department of Energy shows wind and solar power will dominate fossils
A Department of Energy report on wind energy showed nuggets of research on solar power – including a 280 GW interconnection queue and continued declines in pricing, as well solar’s encroachment on wind’s Midwest territory.
Demand charges, energy arbitrage and behind the meter energy storage payback periods
Research done by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on energy storage shows time of use billing allowing for energy arbitrage opportunities, while more widely available demand charges having a more widely available opportunity.
The ten-year, 73 gigawatt renewable energy business plan
Renewable portfolio standards across 29 US states represent significant, legally required additions of wind and solar – including 15 states whose requirements will drive more than 11 GWac of solar power.
California electric car culture to cheaply cook the duck curve
Analysis by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that California’s electric car mandate could relieve “duck curve” stress at much better pricing than new standalone energy storage, if properly utilized.
It’s starting: Cuts at national labs slash more than 500 jobs
Though NREL and Berkeley Lab are not specifically mentioned – yet – the cuts at two other labs could signal dim times ahead for these two vital labs for renewable energy research.
