Demand for energy is expected to soar by mid-century as the state attempts to electrify everything from transportation to home-heating systems. To help get there, the California Independent System Operator recently proposed building an estimated $9.3 billion in new transmission projects over the next decade. The CAISO Board of Governors is scheduled to discuss the ambitious plan at a hearing on May 18. The blueprint’s most costly venture is a proposed 145-mile high-voltage transmission line between Imperial Valley and northern San Diego County, projected to cost ratepayers about $2.3 billion. The idea is to take advantage of fallowed farmland and other rural landscapes where large solar fields can generate power relatively cheaply thanks to their economies of scale.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last Thursday unveiled a sweeping plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions install from the U.S. power industry. The proposal would limit how much carbon dioxide power plants, which are the source of more than a quarter of U.S. emissions, can release into the atmosphere, putting the industry on a years-long course to billions of dollars of new equipment or shut down. The proposal, more than 18 months in the making, reflects constraints imposed on the EPA by the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the agency cannot impose a system-wide shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but can regulate plants by setting technology-based standards applied on-site.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on May 9 released a proposed framework for designating National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors for specific transmission projects. The corridors would be established in areas where DOE has determined new or upgraded power lines would benefit consumers by easing existing or future constraints that limit the ability to move power to where it is needed, the department said in a notice of intent and request for information. The U.S. transmission system needs to expand by 1.3 to 2.9 times to meet the Biden administration’s goal of having 100% emissions-free electricity by 2035, the DOE said, citing estimates by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service have released guidance pertaining to the domestic content bonus included in the Inflation Reduction Act; solar PV projects will need to meet requirements for both their PV and their steel components in order to benefit. The guidance outlines two tiers of domestic content requirements. Steel and iron products will have to be 100% U.S.-made in order to qualify for the bonus – which constitutes 10% on top of the existing IRA adders – while manufactured products (including PV modules) will need to be 40% produced in the U.S.
Vistra Energy’s expansion of Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility is scheduled for completion this summer. The project, developed on the site of a former gas power plant, began operation with the 300 MW/1,200 MWh first phase in 2020, and was followed up by Phase II, which comprises a separate 100 MW/400 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). Phase III, which began construction in January 2022, will bring Moss Landing BESS’ total power and energy storage capacity to 750 MW/3,000 MWh and is on track to come online this summer. At present, the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility is the world’s largest battery storage facility.
Imerys is partnering with TotalEnergies to install a 15 MW solar system paired with a 7.5 MWh energy storage system at Imerys’s Lompoc facility in Santa Barbara County. The Lompoc industrial site began its diatomite mining and processing operations in the 1890s. The new renewable power installation will cover 50% of the current electrical energy demand of the site.
Pattern Energy Group (Pattern) has signed power purchase agreements with Shell Energy North America and Regents of the University of California to deliver a portion of the green electricity from its 3.5 GW SunZia Wind project in New Mexico. Pattern’s SunZia Transmission line will facilitate the delivery of renewable energy to the western energy markets from SunZia Wind, the largest wind project in the western hemisphere. Construction of the SunZia Wind project is anticipated to commence this year.
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