Senate bill would create first national energy storage target

California gave the U.S. energy storage market a boost in 2013 when regulators set a 1.3-gigawatt target for the state's three investor-owned utilities. The mandate has resulted in a wave of contracts for battery and thermal storage projects in California, including a record-breaking 250-megawatt procurement from Southern California Edison. Now, one national lawmaker wants to do the same for the rest of the country. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced legislation to the Energy Committee last week that would set national targets for energy storage by 2021 and 2025 in order to meet growing peak demand on the grid and help the integration of renewable energy.

U.S. DOE announces $32 million to boost solar workforce training and drive CSP innovation

The U.S. Energy Department (DOE) has announced $32 million in funding to help train American workers for the solar energy workforce and to further drive down the cost of solar by developing innovative low-cost concentrating solar power (CSP) collectors and increasing access to critical solar data. The DOE is making up to $12 million available to develop a diverse, well-trained solar support workforce, including professionals in the insurance, real estate, and utility industries, who consumers rely on when they choose solar.

Berkeley Lab opens new solar research facility

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has opened the Solar Energy Research Center, which contains laboratories committed to the research and development of fuels from sunlight. The 40,000-square-foot, three-story structure cost $59 million and will house about 100 people associated with the lab’s Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, or JCAP.

Low-income homeowners get free solar panels thanks to cap-and-trade program

Despite plunging prices in the last seven years, rooftop solar arrays remain an expensive home improvement, costing $15,000 or more. A new California program, however, aims to make solar power available to lower-income families, using money from the state’s fight against global warming. Run by Oakland nonprofit Grid Alternatives, the effort will install home solar arrays in disadvantaged neighborhoods, using $14.7 million raised through California’s cap-and-trade system for reining in greenhouse gas emissions.

Solar shines as sellers sometimes pay buyers to use power

Move over, shale. The sun is now the fastest-growing source of U.S. electricity. Solar power capacity in the U.S. has jumped 20-fold since 2008 as companies including Apple Inc. use it to reduce their carbon footprints. Rooftop panels are sprouting on homes from suburban New York to Phoenix, driven by suppliers such as SolarCity Corp. and NRG Energy Inc. Giant farms of photovoltaic panels, including Warren Buffett’s Topaz array in California, are changing power flows in the electrical grid, challenging hydro and conventional generators and creating negative prices on sunny days. The surge comes after shale drilling opened new supplies of natural gas, contributing to the 47 percent drop in oil since June.

Norway fund could trigger wave of large fossil fuel divestments, say experts

Norway’s decision to dump all coal-focused investments from its $900 billion sovereign wealth fund could unleash a wave of divestment from other large funds, according to investment experts. The fund, the largest in the world, is one of the top 10 investors in the global coal industry. Norway’s wealth fund owns 1.3 percent of the entire world’s traded stocks, and the new policy is likely to see it shed investments in companies all over the world, including Germany’s RWE, China’s Shenhua, Duke Energy in the U.S., AGL Energy in Australia, Reliance Power in India, and Japan’s Electric Power Development Corporation.