Renewable Energy Focus
Solar Industry Magazine - Oct 13
Reports of the death of utility-scale solar in the U.S. have been greatly exaggerated. A new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says the increasing cost-effectiveness of solar power has resulted in a 70 percent decline in power purchase agreement (PPA) prices since 2009. Going forward, the report predicts that PPA prices for solar will continue to decline, while natural gas prices are expected to float upward with increased demand.
NBC News - Oct 14
Toyota Motor Co. wants to virtually eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles from its fleet by 2050, and it is betting that hydrogen cars, rather than electric vehicles, will be the long-term answer. The Japanese car manufacturer recently introduced the Mirai, its first retail fuel-cell vehicle, and though sales have so far been measured in the hundreds, the target is to reach 30,000 annually by 2020, and even higher in the years beyond.
Bloomberg - Oct 14
U.S. Supreme Court justices raised doubts about a federal rule that rewards industrial consumers for cutting electricity use, hearing arguments in a clash between the Obama administration and the power-generation industry. The hour-long session Wednesday suggested the court was likely to give at least a partial victory to generators that say the national government is overstepping its bounds and infringing on state regulation of the retail electricity market. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rule sets rates for an energy-saving practice known as “demand response.”
The Hill - Oct 8
The House approved a bill Thursday to speed up energy development on Native American land and for Alaska natives. The bill, from Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), passed on a 254-173 vote, with about a dozen Democrats voting in favor. The legislation promotes energy production on Indian lands by streamlining the federal permitting process for tribal energy projects. Under current law, the Interior Department is required to sign off on any lease a tribe might sign with an energy company.
KUSI News - Oct 14
A revised plan for a controversial Boulevard solar farm project that's been in the works for several years received approval Wednesday by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The decision comes after county supervisors voted 4-1 to rescind an earlier approval of the Soitec solar farm's Final Program Environmental Impact Report in San Diego Superior Court this summer after deciding that an optional energy storage facility, which was added after public circulation of the report, violated the California Environmental Quality Act. The supervisors approved the revised plan when the energy storage facility was removed from the Rugged Solar project.
Los Angeles Times - Oct 13
Orange County's largest landlord is installing battery-powered energy systems at more than a dozen office buildings as part of a state initiative to combat global warming and rebuild capacity lost when the San Onofre nuclear power plant was shut down. Irvine Co. plans to install the systems, which would use batteries purchased from Tesla, to provide electricity during periods of peak demand, typically hot summer days when tenants turn up their air conditioners. The systems, which charge up during periods of low use when electricity is cheaper and more abundant, are expected to be installed on about 15 buildings in Irvine and Newport Beach.
North American Windpower - Oct 14
EDF Renewable Energy says its 194-megawatt Spinning Spur 3 Wind Project in Texas reached commercial operations on September 28, three months ahead of schedule. The clean electricity generated from the project, enough to power approximately 58,200 homes, will be provided to two municipal utilities, Georgetown Utility Systems and Garland Power & Light, under long-term power purchase agreements.
