Renewable Energy Focus
KPCC - Mar 27
Los Angeles has the largest municipal solar program in the country, but its growth is being limited by backlogs at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), according to a preliminary study released Friday by UCLA and USC researchers. Researchers presented the results of the study at City Hall on Friday morning as part of a workshop on LADWP’s feed-in tariff program, which allows commercial properties with rooftop solar panels to sell power to LADWP at competitive fixed rates. The agency plans to purchase 150 megawatts of power through the program by the end of 2016. Currently seven megawatts are being generated, with about 50 more in the pipeline.
Solar Industry Magazine - Apr 6
President Barack Obama has set a goal to train 75,000 workers, including military veterans, by 2020 for the growing solar energy sector. The president made the announcement at Hill Air Force Base in Utah as part of an event focusing on clean energy technology. The new goal, up from the figure of 50,000 announced a year ago, builds on the progress of the Department of Energy's Solar Instructor Training Network, which includes nearly 500 partnering educational institutions across the country.
PV-Tech - Apr 2
The renewable energy arm of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment empire and green power utility, NRG Energy, top a list of the leading investors in utility-scale solar. At the top of the list, compiled by WikiSolar, is NRG Energy, with 12 plants totaling 729 megawatts, closely followed by Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE), previously known as MidAmerican Energy, with two projects totaling 728.8 megawatts. The two companies have jointly invested in the 350-megawatt Agua Caliente plant in Arizona, while the Buffett company owns the 550-megawatt Topaz project built by First Solar and currently the world’s joint largest operational PV power plant. BHE also owns the Solar Star project in California currently being built by U.S. firm SunPower, which at 579 megawatts will overtake Topaz as the world’s largest plant when it is finished later this year.
American Wind Energy Association - Apr 2
Wind energy saved 2.5 billion gallons of water in California in 2014 by displacing water consumption at the state’s thirsty fossil-fired power plants, playing a valuable role in alleviating the state’s record drought. Wind energy’s annual water savings work out to around 65 gallons per person in the state (200 gallons per household), or the equivalent of 20 billion bottles of water.
U-T San Diego - Mar 30
San Diego held onto its near-top ranking for rooftop solar energy capabilities in a second annual survey of U.S. cities, even as local regulations are being revised to reduce the payback from solar on utility bills. A survey of major U.S. cities released Friday by the nonprofit Environment California Research & Policy Center placed San Diego in second place for its solar-energy capabilities at the close of 2014. The growth of solar power among San Diego households, businesses, and agencies also outpaced Los Angeles, the nation’s leader in local solar power.
Renewable Energy World - Mar 31
Investors have spent more than $2 trillion on clean energy plants in the past decade and last year added more renewable capacity than ever before. The $270 billion spent in 2014 on renewable technologies such as wind and solar reversed a two-year dip in investments and brought in a record 103 gigawatts of clean energy power generation, according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Program, the Frankfurt School, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Notable Renewable Energy Projects and Deals
Silicon Valley Business Journal - Apr 8 Santa Clara County will install SunPower solar panels on 32 acres of land, which will make the county one of the top 10 renewable energy users in the U.S. The county voted on Tuesday to proceed with purchase agreements that will place solar farms built by San Jose-based SunPower on five sites, according to the Mercury News. The 9-acre site on Malech Road at South San Jose will be the largest site, with additional solar farms popping up at the former Hellyer Park landfill, Reid-Hillview Airport, near Guadalupe Parkway in South San Jose, and Holden Ranch in Morgan Hill. One more site at the San Martin Airport was approved last month.
U-T San Diego - Apr 6
The state's top utilities regulator is backing a proposal to build a new natural gas power plant at Carlsbad to replace power once provided by the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), on Monday recommended approval of the new plant adjacent to the existing, gas-fired Encina Power Station on the Carlsbad coastline. The five member utilities commission, which had been scheduled to vote on the matter on Thursday, is likely to take up the issue in early May. Picker's recommendation runs counter to a proposed decision last month by a judge at the agency, who said the new Carlsbad plant should wait until competing bids from cleaner power sources can be evaluated.
SFGate - Mar 24
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend permit rights for Altamont Winds Inc. to operate in the Altamont Pass, despite charges by environmentalists that the company’s technology is outdated and will unnecessarily kill nearly 2,000 birds. The decision came after around two hours of contentious debate that pitted environmental groups against labor advocates, and against a local company that says it’s being upstaged by giant multinational competitors. Environmentalists accuse Altamont Winds of dragging its heels on a “repowering” process that would replace its current windmill fleet with higher-efficiency turbines that would be less dangerous to birds, mostly because the company would need fewer of them to meet the same energy needs and could move them to safer locations.
PennEnergy - Mar 31
Solar power company Canadian Solar Inc. completed the acquisition of solar power developer Recurrent Energy from Sharp Corp. The transaction was supported by Export Development Canada's issuance of Performance Security Guarantee of up to $75 million to backstop letters of credit issued against project development obligations by Recurrent Energy. Recurrent's seven late-stage projects totaling about 1 gigawatt are located in California and Texas and are expected to be built and connected to the grid prior to the investment tax credit expiration at the end of 2016.
PV-Tech - Apr 2
Having built a 6-megawatt PV power plant in 2009 and 2010 as the EPC, Solar Power, Inc., has returned to acquire the Aerojet solar projects, originally built for a brownfield Superfund site in Rancho Cordova, California. SPI Solar said that it had installed the PV system at Aerojet under a 25-year power purchase agreement to help power the site's extensive groundwater remediation program.
