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Solar Electric
CPUC Chops Solar Rooftop Payments & Adds Battery Incentives, Few are Happy
The California Public Utilities Commission approved on a 5-0 vote a controversial revision to the program that slashes payments for...
Utility Regulators Pitch Cutting Big Fixed Fees on Small Solar Units
California utility regulators’ proposal to increase the costs of small solar rooftops and lower payments for excess power sent to...
Energy Commission Approves Big Grants for Long-Duration Microgrid and Electric Trucks
The California Energy Commission voted on Oct. 12 for three grants totaling $42 million for a non-lithium-ion microgrid project east...
Legislative Update
Bills near the finish line would require corporations with more than $1 billion in revenue to reveal the carbon intensity...
25 GW of Offshore Wind in California by 2045 is Doable, CEC Finds
Up to 5 GW of floating wind turbines can be installed several miles off the coasts of Central and Northern...
CEC Funds Climate Impact Study, Truck and Ride Sharing Charging
The California Energy Commission approved nearly $10 million in grants Wednesday to projects incorporating climate change impacts into electricity system...
Regulators Propose Combining Distributed Resources and Real Time Pricing to Allow Customer Generation to Support the Grid
California just took another big step toward bringing more customer-owned rooftop solar, batteries, and electric vehicles into its evolving power...
Bills Advancing Community Solar & Carbon Capture by Natural Lands Move Ahead
While the controversy over how much to pay owners of home rooftop solar projects for energy supplied to the grid...
Bills Advancing Power Line Undergrounding and Alternative Energy and Vehicles Pass
The state Senate energy committee has approved legislation to accelerate the undergrounding of overhead power lines to reduce fire and...
GUEST JUICE: Smart Solar Reform is within California’s Grasp
by V. John White and Ed Smeloff New appointments by the Governor to the California Public Utilities Commission create an...
Virtual Power Plants Gain Ground
Virtual power plants are beginning to help meet peak power demand in California and across the globe at an affordable...
DOE Strives to Lower Costs of PV Panel Recycling; CA Law may be a Model
The U.S. Department of Energy released a plan on Friday that aims to increase the recycling of photovoltaic panels heading...
SMUD Signs Utility-Scale Solar-Storage Deal
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has signed a long-term contract for 200 megawatts of solar power paired with a 100...
Ninth Circuit Says Some Rate Hikes on Solar Owners May Be Illegal
A stunning ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in an Arizona case indicates utilities may face limits on...
New CPUC Chief Faces Barrage of Anger Over Solar Rooftop Pay Changes
Alice Reynolds’ first meeting as the new president of the California Public Utilities Commission was dominated by three hours of...
Storage Surges, but Will Rooftop PV Payment Changes Affect its Pairing with Solar?
Well before California signed international agreements to slash climate-harmful emissions from the energy and building sectors at last month’s COP-26...
Distributed Batteries Reach 700+ MW, But Much More Needed
Battery systems installed at California homes and businesses now total 721 megawatts, with roughly 70% percent of them, about 42,000...
Subsidies Spurred Small Solar Growth, Focus Shifts to Home Energy Storage
Hundreds of articles have addressed the controversy over how much residential solar rooftop owners should receive for the excess power...
Solar Groups Propose Customer-Owned Solar-plus-Storage Microgrids to Regulators
An innovative proposal from Vote Solar and other solar advocates would demonstrate that customer-sited solar and storage can provide reliability...
11.5 GW of clean energy assures reliability, CCAs add more renewables
To attain 11.5 GW of clean electricity by mid-decade, no additional fossil fuel plants will be needed to ensure grid...