News
Bay Area CCAs launch 30-MW distributed battery solicitation to weather grid outages
Greentech Media - November 5
Community choice aggregators (CCAs) representing three San Francisco Bay Area counties have launched a 30-megawatt behind-the-meter battery solicitation aimed at protecting vulnerable customers and communities from the massive fire-prevention power outages of bankrupt utility Pacific Gas & Electric. Tuesday’s requests for proposals from East Bay Community Energy, Peninsula Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, and municipal utility Silicon Valley Power are the latest step taken by state and local authorities to bolster solar-storage systems as a solution to the wildfire and power outage conundrum. The goal is to equip up to 6,000 homes and hundreds of businesses in Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties with batteries, combined with new or existing solar systems.
SB Energy to acquire 1.7-GW solar portfolio from Intersect Power
Power Technology – November 1
SoftBank Group subsidiary SB Energy has agreed to acquire five solar plants with a combined capacity of 1.7 gigawatts from utility-scale renewable energy developer Intersect Power. Two of the solar facilities, Athos I (350 megawatts) and Athos II (300 megawatts), are located in Riverside County, California. The other three projects are located in in Texas: Titan (375 megawatts) and Aragorn (250 megawatts) in Culberson County and Juno (425 megawatts) in Borden County.
Walmart and Tesla settle lawsuit over rooftop solar panel fires
Los Angeles Times – November 5
Walmart Inc. has settled its lawsuit against Tesla Inc. over fires at more than half a dozen of the retail giant’s stores. Walmart sued the electric-car maker and solar company in New York State Supreme Court in August, alleging that Tesla solar panels had sparked fires at seven or more of Walmart’s stores. Terms were not disclosed in the filing announcing the deal. The lawsuit was filed days after Tesla announced a new strategy to revive its struggling solar unit.
Wind power O&M expenditures set to boom
North American Windpower – November 4
According to a new report by IHS Markit, U.S. wind power operations and maintenance (O&M) annual spending is expected to increase to more than $7.5 billion by 2030, representing a 50 percent increase above 2018 spending levels. The projected increase in O&M spending follows the race to leverage the soon-to-expire U.S. federal tax credit for wind energy. The new report also highlights variation in regional trends. For instance, Texas far outpaced other states and provinces in 2018 wind O&M spending and employment, with the state’s 2018 O&M spending amounting to nearly $1.3 billion. California followed with more than $400 million in 2018 O&M spending.
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