Solar Power
Big Utilities Go Big on Utility Storage Deals
Pacific Gas & Electric will install 1.6 gigawatts of large energy storage projects between August 2023 and June 2024 to help meet its share of a requirement to add 11.5 GW of new resources by mid-decade to help balance the grid. The utility announced on Jan. 24 it signed nine 15-year agreements for large […]
Federal Agency Pushes Grid Operators on Increasing Distributed Energy into Markets
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has directed the California grid operator and five others to prove they are lowering market barriers for loads of combined resources from large and small energy users. The agency wants the regions to put aggregated distributed energy resources on an equal footing with traditional generation.
Much of the distributed energy […]
Booming Clean Energy Highlights Transmission Needs
Record growth through the end of last September brought the combined installed wind, solar, and battery storage capacity in the United States to 186.7 GW, according to the just-released Q3 Clean Power Quarterly by America Clean Power. California had over 22 GW of that capacity.
With clean energy resources becoming a significant portion of […]
CPUC Okays Expensive New SCE Battery Project
Investor-owned utilities in California have lobbied hard to reduce payments to people who feed their excess rooftop solar power back into the grid, arguing the compensation costs ratepayers too much. At the same time, Southern California Edison has pushed for permission to recover from customers $1.23 billion for 537 MW of new battery storage. […]
CPUC Proposes Big Changes to Rooftop Solar Payments and Charges
A firestorm of controversy followed the just-released proposed decision from the California Public Utilities Commission that would make big revisions to the compensation paid to rooftop solar owners under Net Energy Metering.
The “enormous” charges and reduced payment are “a big hatchet job to rooftop solar,” said Brattle Group Principal and nationally recognized rate […]
First Ever Tax Exempt Bonds Issued for Community Energy Renewables
Three community choice aggregators in the San Francisco Bay Area expect to reap considerable savings from the issuance of $2.2 billion in tax-exempt bonds to cover the costs of more than 400 MW of renewable power contracts over 30 years.
The bonds are an alternative way to pay for the power supply contracts. The aggregators […]