Tag Archive for: solarenergy

The Edwards Sanborn Solar & Energy Storage project incorporates the highest capacity solar farm in the US with the largest battery storage system in the world.

Solar and batteries go big in the desert

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Discussions of solar energy can be quick to point out its intermittent nature: the Sun does not always shine in any one place all the time. It does, however, shine quite a bit in the Mojave Desert in California. And as it happens, the Mojave is the location of a large new solar power plant integrated with battery storage. The Edwards Sanborn Solar and Energy Storage project incorporates the highest capacity solar farm in the United States with the largest battery storage system in the world.

The facility came online in February 2023 and became fully operational in January 2024. The OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9 captured this image of the project and its nearly 2 million solar panels on January 12, 2024. The site lies approximately 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, in an area of the U.S. with some of the largest amounts of solar energy reaching the ground.

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Source: Earth Observatory

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Many hands have been trying to make space solar happen for many years, and now the US Space Force may be helicoptering in to lend a hand.

The US Space Force is catching space solar fever

The idea of beaming clean energy down to Earth from orbiting arrays of solar panels seemed pretty wacky when it first crossed the CleanTechnica radar. However, the technology building blocks are already at hand. It’s just a matter of scaling, systems integration, and adjustments for space-hardiness. That sounds simple enough, but many hands have been trying to make space solar happen for many years, and now the US Space Force may be helicoptering in to lend a hand.

The Space Solar Race Is For Real

Research teams from the US, China, and the UK are among those chasing the space solar rainbow. The attraction of space solar is the potential for 24/7 solar power at the multi-gigawatt scale, all year long. That has implications for military use as well as civilian life.

The US Department of Defense has already begun using solar arrays and energy storage to build more resilience and security into its facilities and operations. Access to solar energy from space would kick that effort into high gear.

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Source: Clean Technica

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For about 5hrs on Jan. 28, under the scorching heat of the sun, over 1/3 of the electricity running on Texas’ power grid came from solar power

Solar power fuels over 36% of electricity demand in Texas for 5 hours

For about five hours on January 28, under the scorching heat of the sun, over one-third of the electricity running on Texas’ power grid came from solar power.

The solar spectacle, recorded by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), cranked up production to an impressive 15,222 MW of solar at 10:09 am, reported the KUT News.

Then, at the peak of the day’s crescendo, at 3:10 pm, the solar power waltzed in, powering a remarkable 36.1 percent of the electricity demand. The sun continued to contribute around a third of the overall energy demand every hour from 11 am to 4 pm.

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Source: Interetsing Engineering

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Updated roadmap for solar development will help meet President Biden’s goals for net-zero electric grid by 2035.

Biden administration expands solar energy development throughout West

The Department of the Interior today announced an updated roadmap for solar energy development across the West, designed to expand solar energy production in more Western states and make renewable energy siting and permitting on America’s public lands more efficient. The Bureau of Land Management also announced the next steps on several renewable projects in Arizona, California and Nevada, representing more than 1,700 megawatts of potential solar generation and 1,300 megawatts of potential battery storage capacity.

Together, these milestones represent continued momentum from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda – a key pillar of Bidenomics – which is working to accelerate the clean energy and transmission buildout to lower consumers’ energy costs, prevent power outages in the face of extreme weather, create good-paying union jobs, tackle the climate crisis, advance the priorities of clean air and environmental justice for all, and achieve the President’s goal of a 100 percent clean electricity grid by 2035. During the Biden-Harris administration, the BLM has approved 47 clean energy projects and permitted 11,236 megawatts of wind, solar and geothermal energy on public lands – enough to power more than 3.5 million homes.

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Source: US Department of the Interior

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Acumen, the $250M blended finance facility, plans to give 16 sub-Saharan African countries access to electricity with off-grid solar energy.

Building a solar power ecosystem in 16 sub-Saharan African countries

How to give households in the poorest and toughest-to-reach countries in sub-Saharan Africa access to electricity? How to do that, while also building a sustainable and thriving solar power industry in those markets?

Those questions are what the Hardest-to-Reach Initiative aims to address. Launched late last year by “patient capital” pioneer Acumen, the $250 million blended finance facility plans to give 16 sub-Saharan African countries access to electricity with off-grid solar energy. The goal is both to help Acumen-backed enterprises already providing solar energy in Kenya expand to these nations and to incubate small local companies.

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Source: Forbes

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Meta has signed a 330MW solar Environmental Attributes Purchase Agreement (EAPA) with Adapture Renewables in Arkansas and Illinois.

Meta signs 330MW renewable energy agreements in Illinois and Arkansas

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Meta has signed a 330MW solar Environmental Attributes Purchase Agreement (EAPA) with Adapture Renewables in Arkansas and Illinois.

The social media giant will buy solar energy from three of Adapture Renewables’ solar projects that are currently under development in the two states.

The three solar projects are expected to have an economic impact of more than $400 million, creating 500 temporary jobs during construction and 25 full-time positions once operational.

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Source: Data Center Dynamics

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Of 131 million US households, about 4.5 million have added rooftop solar. 2023 set a record with more than 1 million EVs sold in the US.

Electric vehicle owners and solar rooftops find mutual attraction

When Jim Selgo moved to his home in Goodyear, Arizona in 2019, he quickly had rooftop solar installed, having had a positive experience with solar at his previous home.

Less than a year later, motivated to take more action to address climate change, he said, Selgo bought his first electric vehicle, a Nissan Leaf. He hasn’t paid for electricity or gasoline since.

With solar, “You take advantage of what you’re producing at your own house,” he said. “Adding an EV just increases your savings and adds to the value of the whole project.”

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Source: US News

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The SEIA and Wood Mackenzie research group said the US solar sector is expected to add a record 33 GW of new generation capacity in 2023.

US adds 33GW of new solar capacity in 2023

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A new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Wood Mackenzie research group said the U.S. solar sector is expected to add a record 33 GW of new generation capacity in 2023, a 55% increase from 2022.

The groups said that even with growth expected to slow over the next year due to economic and interconnection challenges, solar energy is expected to be the largest source of generating capacity on the U.S. power grid by 2050. The report released Dec. 7 said that government policies supporting solar power are among the reasons for the industry’s rise.

“Solar remains the fastest-growing energy source in the United States, and despite a difficult economic environment, this growth is expected to continue for years to come,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “To maintain this forecasted growth, we must modernize regulations and reduce bureaucratic roadblocks to make it easier for clean energy companies to invest capital and create jobs.”

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Source: POWER

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Pearl Crop’s Stockton location is the largest site in the portfolio, and the project will provide 86% of the facility’s annual energy usage.

California food processor is getting 2.2-MW solar portfolio

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Renewable America (RNA) will build a 2.2-MWDC commercial solar project portfolio for Pearl Crop, a food processing company in central California. The portfolio involves four projects across three different locations in Ripon, Linden, and Stockton, California.

“We are thrilled to back Pearl Crop in their pursuit of sustainability objectives while also expanding the reach of solar across California,” says Ardi Arian, President & CEO of Renewable America. “Pearl Crop is an integral part of California’s agricultural landscape, and we applaud its leadership in the transition to solar energy.”

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Source: Solar Power World

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In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report, FERC says solar provided 9,924 MW of new domestic generating capacity

US solar energy capacity could soon overtake wind power

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A review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data newly released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals that solar has grown faster in electrical generation than all other energy sources as well as outpaced them in new U.S. generating capacity added during the first three quarters of 2023.

In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through September 30, 2023), FERC says solar provided 9,924 MW of new domestic generating capacity or 42.4% of the total. Moreover, solar capacity additions during the first nine months of this year were almost a third (32.8%) larger than for the same period last year.

The new solar capacity additions edged past the 8,962 MW of new natural gas (38.2%) and were nine times greater than that provided by the new 1,100-MW Vogtle-3 nuclear reactor (4.7%) in Georgia as well as by oil (54 MW) and waste heat (31 MW).

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Source: Solar Power World

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