Two dozen states sue Obama over coal plant emissions rule

A coalition of 24 states, led by West Virginia, and a coal mining company, Murray Energy Corp., filed lawsuits Friday to challenge the most significant piece of President Obama’s environmental agenda, his signature climate change rule for power plants. The litigants accuse the Environmental Protection Agency of going far beyond the authority Congress granted to it by ordering a significant transformation of states’ electricity generation, moving away from fossil fuels like coal and toward lower-carbon sources like wind and solar power. They are asking the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn the rule. They also want the court to immediately stop its implementation while it works its way through the courts.

Wind power now cheaper than natural gas for Xcel, CEO says

Xcel Energy Inc., the biggest U.S. provider of wind power, expects long-term contracts for the technology to beat the cost of natural gas, another sign of the rapid transformation of the power market. Xcel, the Minneapolis-based utility that serves eight states, is receiving bids for 20-year power purchase agreements at about $25 a MWh for wind energy, Chief Executive Officer Ben Fowke said in an interview Friday at Bloomberg News headquarters in New York. While gas prices are close to historic lows, he doesn’t see them remaining there forever, and Xcel expects prices for electricity from the fossil fuel to be closer to $32 a MWh over the same period.

San Diego Gas & Electric and solar industry negotiate tariff deadline

San Diego Gas & Electric agreed Wednesday to negotiations with rooftop solar providers to resolve what happens if the current solar tariff expires before new rules are finalized next year by the California Public Utilities Commission. The rooftop solar industry fears its business could drop off suddenly without some kind of extension to the current solar tariff, which it says could expire as soon as January. San Diego Gas & Electric says the current tariff, known as net energy metering, unfairly heaps costs for maintaining the grid onto non-solar customers, and has so far resisted appeals to extend the current tariff temporarily.

Ikea to install Nevada’s largest single-use retail solar array on future Las Vegas store

Ikea plans to install a solar energy system atop its Las Vegas store opening in the summer of 2016. Panel installation will begin this winter, with completion expected in spring for what will be the largest single-use rooftop solar array by a retailer in Nevada.

Sunrun surpasses 100,000 residential solar customers

San Francisco-based residential PV installer Sunrun has reached a total of 100,000 household solar customers, whose PV systems have generated more than 1.3TWh of electricity. Sunrun claims their installations will have saved customers more than $100 million on electricity bills.

Livermore school board moves ahead with solar project

The Livermore Valley Unified School District Board approved participation in a solar energy project at a meeting last week, with up to nine sites proposed for solar installations. The district will work with SunEdison and School Project for Utility Rate Reduction on the project. The district will save upwards of $8 million during the 20-year contract, with over $200,000 in savings realized in the first year.