Renewable Energy Focus
Bloomberg - Aug 24
President Barack Obama will announce on Monday a $1 billion increase in loan guarantees for renewable energy projects as part of a series of steps to promote development of clean energy. The federal government also will ease access to financing for home-energy improvements made by some low-income families and approve a transmission line for a California solar facility, according to a White House fact sheet released before the president spoke at a clean energy summit in Las Vegas. After legislative efforts to limit U.S. carbon emissions failed in Obama’s first term, he has made climate change a focus of his remaining time in office by taking regulatory action, including stricter rules on power-plant emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
PV-Tech - Aug 27
Regulators in Nevada and Colorado have separately issued rulings that will throw a lifeline to the states’ respective solar net metering programs. Nevada’s Public Utilities Commission has extended existing net metering rates to new customers until December 31 after a 235-megawatt cap on residential solar installations was reached last week, several months earlier than initially expected. Meanwhile regulators in Colorado have ruled to leave the state’s net metering rules unchanged following efforts to have them reduced.
Chico Enterprise-Record - Aug 26
A four-year investigation has concluded that officials of the solar company Solyndra misrepresented facts and omitted key information in their efforts to get a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government. The Fremont company's collapse soon after getting federal backing provided ammunition to lawmakers and other critics who portrayed it as wasteful government spending. The company's failure likely will cost taxpayers more than $500 million. The report by the Energy Department's inspector general was released Wednesday.
Times of San Diego - Aug 25
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) marked a milestone last week when it generated a record 1,042 megawatts, more than the venerable Encina power station in Carlsbad, from renewable energy. The record was set at 12:51 p.m. on August 19 during the recent Southern California heat wave. The 1,042 megawatts figure does not include the energy produced by the utility’s 61,000 rooftop-solar customers.
Portland Business Journal - Aug 25
Oregon has taken another step toward procuring as much as $46.7 million in federal grants for an offshore wind project. The state formed the WindFloat Pacific Offshore Wind Advisory Committee, which will work on the proposed Principle Power offshore wind demonstration project off coast of Coos Bay. Berkeley, California-based Principle is one of three companies in line to receive Department of Energy funds to explore the renewable energy form's viability.
PV Magazine - Aug 27
Solar mapping provider Mapdwell reports that San Francisco has the potential to host 3 gigawatts of high-yield rooftop solar, according to their latest mapping. This follows a similar study of New York City, where Mapdwell found over 11 gigawatts of capacity across the city's five boroughs. This is a particularly high capacity for San Francisco, as the city covers only 47 square miles with a mere 850,000 inhabitants, one-tenth the population of New York.
Notable Renewable Energy Projects and Deals
PV-Tech - Aug 25
A mammoth 485-megawatt PV plant project in California has passed the final hurdle to gaining federal approval after several years of back-and-forth changes to its development plans. Blythe Solar, also known as Blythe Mesa, will be built on over 3,587 acres and connected to a substation operated by investor-owned utility Southern California Edison. This connection to the local network via a 230kv transmission line reserved for generation interconnection needed federal approval because the line will cross over five miles of public lands. The installation itself will be on private land, most of which was apparently formerly used for agriculture.
SolarServer - Aug 25
PSEG Solar Source has acquired the Columbia Solar Project from Hanergy America Solar Solutions, a subsidiary of Hanergy Holding Group Limited. The solar photovoltaic facility, built on a remediated brownfield, is located 40 miles northeast of San Francisco in Pittsburg, California.
ReNews - Aug 27
Eon Solar has broken ground on the 20-megawatt Maricopa West solar PV project sited on land bought from Maricopa Orchards in California. The German utility is working with Signal Energy Constructors at the Kern County site. The solar park will use a single-axis tracking system and 89,000 photovoltaic panels, all expected to be operational later this year.
