Latest News
Energy Department Backs Community Solar
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced Tuesday that her agency has launched three initiatives to help drive significant new installations of community solar by 2025, equivalent to 5 million solar roofs. That would represent a [...]
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 [...]
Approved bill speed local solar permits, Feinstein urges rooftop solar changes
Legislation to accelerate city permitting of small solar projects passed the Senate 31-1 on Jan. 24. SB 370 by Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) requires immediate online permitting of residential solar and battery projects in [...]
Reducing cyber risks, R&D decarbonization funds, escalating rooftop solar debate
Federal energy regulators focus on cybersecurity this week. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wants standards that protect the power system from cyber attacks from insiders. FERC’s Chair also backs legislation setting reliability standards for natural [...]
FERC Seeks Stronger Protections for Electric and Pipeline Systems
During its first meeting of 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission addressed only one issue: cybersecurity. It began work proposing that the North American Electric Reliability Corp., a standards and enforcement body, write rules to [...]
Energy Commission Frames R&D Decarbonization Budget
The California Energy Commission is taking a broad look at changes needed to reduce natural gas use. At a Jan. 19 workshop, the agency sought input on its 2022-23 funding cycle for projects that help [...]
Aliso Canyon Well Blowout Subject of Health Study
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is taking bids for a study on the harm caused by the months-long methane release from the Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field in L.A. County. [...]
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 [...]
Energy Experts and Terminator Blast CA’s Reduced Support for Rooftop Solar
Those calling for overhauling the California Public Utilities Commission's proposed changes in rooftop solar’s Net Energy Metering now include a former federal energy commission chair and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The pending decision’s “discriminatory [...]
Steps Forward on DOE Share of Infrastructure Bill Funding
The $1.3 billion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed last November must next pass through the nearly one dozen agencies that will implement it, and then to the states. Now [...]
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 clashing public response to the controversial proposed decision to both lower payments for electricity from [...]
Doors opening for consumers supplying the energy market, CPUC president’s debut, big bucks for climate mitigation
The California Energy Commission is breaking ground with its new rulemaking to automate consumers' ability to get paid for sending power from their grid-connected water heaters, EVs, and other devices into the market. This new [...]
Tight Energy Supply Brightens Prospects for Pumped Storage
California uses lots of electricity to push massive amounts of water from the Bay-Delta rivers to farms, homes and factories in Central and Southern California. A critical portion of that electricity is generated by hydropower [...]
Draft State Budget Includes More than $22B to Address Climate Crisis
The Governor pitches spending $22.5 billion to slash climate pollution from the transportation and energy sectors, and to address wildfire, with a focus on helping disadvantaged community members.
Energy Agency May Turn Automation of Grid-Connected Devices into Reality
The California Energy Commission took the key first step toward a customer-led power sector that would help balance the grid during times of stress with the launch of its Load Management Standards rulemaking in late [...]
Letter to the Editor
Thank you for lifting the lid on the unhealthy proliferation of diesel backup generators in your Dec. 9, 2021 editorial: JUICE: No Guarantees New Diesel Backup Will Sit Mostly Unused. While the systems keep power flowing during weather-related outages, they produce harmful local air emissions, run many more hours than in the past, and are vulnerable to fuel supply risks.
Community Energy Teams Up to Acquire 670 MW of New Power
Three community energy providers have joined together to meet urgent clean energy requirements and are seeking bids for nearly 670 megawatts of fossil-free power that can be ready over the next two to four years. [...]
More fire liability for PG&E, hydro back online, Sacramento happenings
The start of 2022 brings with it new and all too familiar news. California fire investigators find Pacific Gas & Electric formally responsible for last year’s Dixie Fire that burnt across five counties over four [...]
Could Fault in State’s Second Largest Fire Lead to Third PG&E Bankruptcy?
State investigators concluded that Pacific Gas & Electric's electric wires ignited last year’s massive Dixie Fire, which went on to burn almost one million acres. Over its 104 days, the fire killed one person and [...]
Hydropower Plant Back Online After Winter Rains
The Department of Water Resources’ Hyatt hydropower plant at Oroville Dam in Butte County is back generating electricity, thanks to recent heavy precipitation, the agency reported Jan. 4. Not all the turbines are operating, though. [...]
New Legislative Committee Chairs and Energy Bills in 2022
With the new year comes new faces on the legislature’s energy committees, new bills, and a second chance for two-year climate and energy legislation.