Tag Archive for: renewable

Renewable energy development is transforming the US countryside. It could be a chance to restore the iconic prairies.

A THIRD of North America was once an ocean of grass stretching from what is now central Canada to Mexico. Today, almost all of that original habitat, called prairie, is gone, ploughed for agriculture, paved over for cities and roads, or taken over by encroaching trees and shrubs. Most native prairie remnants are unmarked and hidden to the untrained eye – at least until the spring bloom reveals what grows there.

So, it was a surprise for Danish energy company Ørsted to learn that the field in which it planned to build a giant solar facility was among the largest areas of intact prairie left in Texas. It was also a “wake-up call” for conservationists, says Kirsti Harms at the Native Prairies Association of Texas. “Suddenly there are thousands of acres going into these solar projects.” Unlikely as it seems, this could be good for both clean energy and biodiversity.

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Source: New Scientist

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On August 21, the City of Santa Barbara began construction on a 425 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic system and BESS at the Granada Garage.

On August 21, the City of Santa Barbara began construction on a 425 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic system and battery energy storage system (BESS) at the Granada Garage. This project will generate, store, and supply electricity to the Granada Garage, Granada Offices, and the 911 Call Center while also reducing electricity costs at the Central Library across the street.

The project will produce approximately 700,000 kWh per year of clean renewable electricity, equivalent to powering over 150 Santa Barbara homes. In addition to increasing local renewable electricity capacity, project benefits include improved regional air quality and energy reliability, and supporting the local green energy industry.

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Source: Independent

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Wind and solar power are breaking records, and renewables are now expected to overtake coal by 2025 as the world’s largest source of electricity.

Delivery vans in Pittsburgh. Buses in Milwaukee. Cranes loading freight at the Port of Los Angeles. Every municipal building in Houston. All are powered by electricity derived from the sun, wind or other sources of clean energy.

Across the country, a profound shift is taking place that is nearly invisible to most Americans. The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet, as well as historically the most polluting, is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels.

A similar energy transition is already well underway in Europe and elsewhere. But the United States is catching up, and globally, change is happening at a pace that is surprising even the experts who track it closely.

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Source: The New York Times

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MCE continues to expand its local renewable energy portfolio with two new solar projects in Contra Costa and Napa counties.

MCE, a not-for-profit renewable electricity provider in northern California, continues to expand its local renewable energy portfolio with two new solar projects in Contra Costa and Napa counties.

The 1 MW Byron Hot Springs Solar project in unincorporated Contra Costa County has a 20-year term with Renewable Properties, a commercial solar energy developer. Located on top of a storage facility, Napa Self Storage 2 will supply 0.65 MW of solar power over its 20-year term with Shorebreak Energy Developers.

“Projects like these are helping us secure a carbon-free future,” says Shanelle Scales-Preston, chair of MCE’s board of directors. “All renewable projects – including roof-top, community solar and utility-scale projects – are necessary. We need all of the above to meet our growing needs.”

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Source: Solar Industry

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The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage system, has been expanded to 750 MW/3,000 MWh.

The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage system, has been expanded to 750 MW/3,000 MWh.

Moss Landing is in Monterey County, California, on the site of a gas-powered plant. It’s owned by Vistra Energy (NYSE: VST), an Irving, Texas-based retail electricity and power generation company that owns the second-most energy storage capacity in the US.

Vistra today announced that it completed Moss Landing’s Phase III 350-megawatt/1,400-megawatt-hour expansion, bringing the battery storage system’s total capacity to 750 MW/3,000 MWh, the largest of its kind in the world.

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Source: electrek

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New transferability and direct pay provisions for clean energy tax credits are a “game changer for renewable energy development” in the US.
New transferability and direct pay provisions for clean energy tax credits are a “game changer for renewable energy development” in the US, Shearman & Sterling partner Mona Dajani told Energy-Storage.news.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its eagerly-anticipated guidance on the two new provisions in mid-June, and the industry has until mid-August to comment on the proposals.

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Source: Energy Storage

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San Diego Gas & Electric has completed two additional utility-owned energy storage facilities totaling 171 MW.

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has completed two additional utility-owned energy storage facilities totaling 171 MW, enough to power almost 130,000 homes for four hours.

The 131 MW Westside Canal project, located in Imperial Valley – home to a high concentration of solar, wind and geothermal generation facilities – is the largest storage asset in SDG&E’s energy storage portfolio; the 40 MW Fallbrook project, located in Northern San Diego County, is the second largest in its portfolio.

By the end of this year, SDG&E’s energy storage portfolio is expected to reach 345 MW of power capacity, sufficient to meet over 15% of its customers’ load on a typical day and 7% on a system peak day. These energy storage assets participate in the energy markets managed by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), allowing CAISO to store and dispatch clean energy from the facilities to meet electricity demand as needed.

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Source: Solar Industry

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Solar is growing at 33.7% year-on-year and is now at twice the capacity of coal power in China, according to a new report.

Today, the China Electricity Council, a state-approved nonprofit national trade association, released its first-quarter report, the “Operational Situation of [the] Electric Power Industry.”

As of the end of March, according to the report, China’s installed power generation capacity was 2.62 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 9.1%. Every category of fuel – that is, both renewables and fossil fuels – saw year-on-year installed capacity increases.

Overall, the installed generation capacity of non-fossil-fuel energy power generation was 1.33 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%, accounting for 50.5% of the total installed capacity, and the proportion increased by 3 percentage points year-on-year.

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Source: electrek

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Solar and wind power hit a new record this year, generating more U.S. power than coal for the first five months of the year.

Solar and wind power hit a new record this year, generating more U.S. power than coal for the first five months of the year, according to preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration.

It’s the first time on record that wind and solar have out-produced coal for five months, according to industry publication, E&E News, which first calculated the figures.

Official EIA data, which is released with a lag, shows wind and solar energy out-producing coal for January, February and March, while real-time figures “indicate that same trend continued in April and May,” EIA spokesperson Chris Higginbotham said in an email.

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Source: CBS News

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Texas is fast becoming a leader in solar power. So far this year, about 7% of the electric power used has come from solar, and 31% from wind.

Strafed by powerful storms and superheated by a dome of hot air, Texas has been enduring a dangerous early heat wave this week that has broken temperature records and strained the state’s independent power grid.

But the lights and air conditioning have stayed on across the state, in large part because of an unlikely new reality in the nation’s premier oil and gas state: Texas is fast becoming a leader in solar power.

The amount of solar energy generated in Texas has doubled since the start of last year. And it is set to roughly double again by the end of next year, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Already, the state rivals California in how much power it gets from commercial solar farms, which are sprouting across Texas at a rapid pace, from the baked-dry ranches of West Texas to the booming suburbs southwest of Houston.

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Source: The New York Times

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