Focus
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE - Oct 8 Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer is facing one of the biggest decisions in his more than four years as head of the city of San Diego — whether to approve a government-run alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric. The choice, expected in coming weeks, represents a sharp fork on the road to fulfilling the mayor’s ambitious pledge of running the city on 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. The success of the city’s Climate Action Plan largely hinges on meeting the target. Within two decades, nearly half of all annual greenhouse-gas reductions achieved by the city are expected to come from increased use of renewable energy.
SFGATE - Oct 9 The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose joined this week in urging the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to delay voting on a proposal that they say could "disrupt the state's clean energy programs and increase energy fees for utility customers." The proposal concerns the so-called exit fees charged to customers who switch from buying electricity from investor-owned utilities to buying it from local governments. The local programs are intended to provide cleaner energy or lower costs or both. The five-member commission is scheduled to vote on two versions of the exit fee proposal at a meeting at its San Francisco headquarters on Thursday.
ENERGY STORAGE NEWS - Oct 4 Nevada could cost-effectively deploy between 750 megawatts and 1,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030, according to an economic study commissioned by the state Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) to investigate the potential for the technology. Massachusetts, California, New York, and Arizona are among the states that have already implemented or closely investigated the implementation of procurement targets for energy storage, mainly by utilities. The PUCN and the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy commissioned economists from Brattle Group to produce the study.
MICROGRID KNOWLEDGE - Oct 1 Fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy has secured $100 million in project financing from Key Equipment Finance, as it sees demand grow for microgrids. Key Equipment Finance will provide lease financing for fuel cell projects in the commercial and industrial sector, totaling about 10-15 megawatts. The financing comes as the California company says it sees strong momentum for fuel cells as building blocks of microgrids. In June, the company announced that its fuel cell technology will provide primary power for a 1.1-megawatt microgrid being installed for JSR Micro, a precision manufacturing company in Silicon Valley.
Projects
RENEWABLES NOW - Oct 9 Texas utility CPS Energy on Monday broke ground on a project that will include a 5-megawatt solar installation and a 10-megawatt battery storage system. The company's first solar energy and battery storage project, worth $16.3 million, will be located in San Antonio, on land provided by Southwest Research Institute.
UTILITY DIVE - Oct 5 The Department of Energy (DOE) proposed to provide funding for the first U.S. freshwater offshore wind facility, a 20.7-megawatt project in Lake Erie off the coast of Cleveland, Ohio, according to documents released on Tuesday. The DOE published a final Environmental Assessment for the Icebreaker Wind project, being developed by Norwegian-owned Fred Olsen Renewables and the nonprofit Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard. DOE concluded that a broader environmental review, in the form of an environmental impact statement, would not be needed for its funding proposal.
ARIZONA DAILY STAR - Oct 9 A power-line project to connect what will be Southern Arizona’s biggest solar-energy farm to Tucson Electric Power Co.’s grid is headed to final approval by state regulators. In late September, TEP won approval from the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee to build a new substation and transmission lines along South Swan Road to bring a future 100-megawatt solar farm and linked 30-megawatt battery storage project online. The Arizona Corporation Commission must still give its final approval, following the line-siting panel’s approval of a required certificate of environmental compatibility for the project.
