Focus
Senate blocks Green New Deal
■New York Times - March 26
The Senate blocked consideration of the Green New Deal on Tuesday, ending a Republican effort to hitch Democratic presidential candidates to the climate plan and paint Democrats as out-of-touch socialists and fantasists. But the hours of discussion that preceded the desultory procedural vote marked the most extensive examination of climate change on the Senate floor in years. The fight also took on larger dimensions as a proxy for the 2020 presidential battle. Democrats said they intended to move forward on a number of fronts. In the House, a senior Democratic leadership aide said lawmakers would introduce sweeping legislation this week to require the Trump administration to stay in the Paris Agreement on climate change and create a plan for meeting the United States’ commitment to the global climate deal.
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News
U.S. enters ‘coal cost crossover’ thanks to falling solar and wind costs
■Solar Industry Magazine - March 26
According to new research from Vibrant Clean Energy and Energy Innovation, the U.S. has entered a “coal cost crossover,” meaning the majority of existing coal plants are increasingly more expensive than new sources of cleaner energy. The report states that new wind and solar power could replace roughly 74 percent of the nation's current coal fleet at an “immediate savings” to customers. Moreover, by 2025, this number would grow to 86 percent.
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San Francisco metro region has the most solar jobs in the nation
■Smart Cities Dive - March 21
The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro region has the most solar jobs in the nation with 22,101 workers in the industry, according to a new analysis from The Solar Foundation. Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and Boston also lead the nation in solar jobs. Overall, there were 242,343 solar workers in the country in 2018, a 3.2 percent decrease from 2017. Still, 29 states saw increases in the solar industry, as governments roll out new clean energy incentives and targets. California remained the top state for solar, with 76,838 jobs, and the state is home to 8 of the top 10 counties for solar.
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GE sells 650MW of renewable energy assets to Enel
■Greentech Media - March 22
General Electric has sold 650 megawatts of joint-venture-owned renewable energy projects, less than two months after trumpeting an expansion of its renewables arm. The sale involved seven projects belonging to Enel Green Power North America Renewable Energy Partners, an equally owned joint venture between Enel Green Power North America, and GE Capital’s Energy Financial Services, GE’s energy investing arm. The assets included 25 megawatts of geothermal at Cove Fort in Utah and 13.4 megawatts in Salt Wells, Nevada; 400 megawatts of wind at Cimarron Bend in Kansas and 150 megawatts in Lindahl, North Dakota; and a 59.5-megawatt geothermal-solar facility in Stillwater, Nevada.
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New Mexico enacts bill for 100% carbon-free power
■North American Windpower - March 25
Last Friday, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., signed into law the Energy Transition Act, which boosts New Mexico’s renewable portfolio standard and establishes a target of 100 percent carbon-free power. According to the governor, S.B.489 creates a pathway for a low-carbon energy transition away from coal while providing workforce training and transition assistance to affected communities.
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Thermal energy storage finds a niche
■Microgrid Knowledge - March 25
Thermal energy storage is gaining ground in industrial refrigeration applications, which consume more energy per cubic foot than any other utility load, said Collin Coker, vice president, sales and marketing, Viking Cold Solutions. Thermal energy storage generally involves salt water-based solutions that can absorb heat and supplement refrigeration. In these applications, thermal storage offers cost advantages over lithium ion batteries, he said. Viking Cold Solutions and Axiom Energy are participating in demand management programs to provide thermal energy storage in refrigeration applications, including numerous projects in California. For example, the company has worked with Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric, and other utilities.
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Projects
Big batteries are coming to Southern California
■PV Magazine - March 27
This week Macquarie announced that it has closed on debt financing for 97 megawatt-hours of batteries as the third phase of a 63-megawatt/340 megawatt-hour battery project for Southern California Edison. Notably, this project does not consist of a few large batteries, such as those utility PG&E is deploying in Northern California, but behind-the-meter systems for “grid-constrained pockets” of its service area in the urban sprawl in the western end of the Los Angeles basin. According to reliable sources, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is also planning to deploy 1.8 gigawatts of batteries as part of the plan to replace the local capacity that will be lost when three large gas plants are shut down, as part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s plan to rapidly decarbonize Los Angeles.
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Farming company wants to go all-solar. Here’s where it’s planning to build
■Fresno Bee - March 25
The Wonderful Company, a conglomerate with a significant presence in farming and food packing in the central San Joaquin Valley, plans to convert all of its U.S. operations to fully renewable electricity sources within the next six years. The company already has solar power projects at several processing facilities in the Valley and another facility in Paso Robles, and it signed an agreement earlier this year to build a 23-megawatt solar project on fallow farmland the company owns in the Valley. The ambitious new goal includes plans to build more renewable electricity projects on land the company owns in Madera, Fresno, Kings, and Kern Counties.
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