Renewables

Four projects have won a competition launched by the Department of Energy (DOE) in April 2019 to help shorten the commissioning time for pumped storage hydropower projects and revitalize the hydropower industry.  The grand prize winners or the Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time (FAST) Prize competition were selected by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) […]

Renewable energy off-take by large corporate entities is on the rise. Google in September of this year made its largest-ever renewable energy procurement announcement, announcing 18 new renewable energy agreements, totaling 1,600 MW. That puts Google at the top of the voluntary renewable energy purchasers list, after Facebook had grabbed the top spot a year […]

At the end of last year, the power market began to lose steam. The credit market wasn’t as strong as it was at the start of the year and many people began speculating “doom and gloom” for the market. However, over the last few months, the power market has picked up and is beginning to […]

Research from the University of Tokyo, along with that of two other groups, shows Japan’s coal-fired power plant fleet is at economic risk as the country adds more generation from renewable energy resources such as solar and wind. The report, called “Land of the Rising Sun and Offshore Wind,” released Oct. 6 and based on […]

Reports from several news outlets say that Energy Secretary Rick Perry could step down from that role as soon as November. The Washington Post on Oct. 4 said Perry plans to step down by year-end and return to the private sector. The Post cited four unnamed individuals who it said had been briefed on Perry’s […]

Solar power is expected to take a larger share of global power generation across the next 30 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), as renewable energy continues to be adopted worldwide. The EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019), released Oct. 2, shows 28% of the world’s power came from renewables in 2018, […]

Xcel Energy has announced an agreement with Lightsource BP and EVRAZ North America to develop a $250-million, 240-MW solar power facility in Pueblo, Colorado. The plant will provide power to the EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel facility in Pueblo. Xcel said the plant will be the largest on-site solar facility dedicated to a single company. The […]

The energy industry is currently moving from a traditional, highly regulated production model dominated by electricity utilities to a decentralized, deregulated model featuring a higher proportion of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. With subsidies in decline, renewables are reaching grid parity—with costs equal to or less than traditional sources. Not surprisingly, […]

A substantial shift in implementation of distributed energy resources (DERs) is on the horizon with the collision of new technologies and higher energy demand. Innovation is spawning an abundance of potential

Foreign energy companies are investing in Africa as that continent builds out its power generation infrastructure. But there are risks to those investments, as some governments—Angola, Tanzania, and Libya

The growth of distributed power generation worldwide is increasingly reliant on microgrid systems incorporating several technologies, including solar power plus battery storage. The move toward more commercial

Utilizing new technologies in today’s business environment is a necessity for operations leaders looking to optimize their resources. Smartphones, GPS, radio-frequency identification (RFID), on-demand/cloud

First Unit at 2-GW Coal Plant in Malaysia Begins Operation. The first of two proposed 1-GW coal-fired power plants in Port Dickson, Negi Sembilan, Malaysia, began commercial operation on Aug. 22, expanding

Hydrogen is emerging as a formidable player in the energy transition, owing to its potential to decarbonize a range of sectors and its versatility. According to a June 2019–released report prepared for the G20 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the government of Japan, 76% of dedicated hydrogen produced today (around 70 metric tons) […]

The power industry is witnessing rapid changes thanks to technology. Networks are evolving, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has taken root, with autonomous systems contributing to the rise of

STERLING, COLO. – Sept. 30, 2019 – NextEra Energy Resources is donating a fully-functional decommissioned wind turbine nacelle to Northeastern Junior College’s Wind Technology program as a learning tool for one of the nation’s top wind technology education programs. A nacelle is the protective shell that houses all of the turbine machinery atop a wind […]

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Sept. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Signal Energy, the Chattanooga-based leading engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm in the renewable energy industry, has created a new subsidiary called Signal Energy DG to serve the distributed generation energy market. Distributed generation power is generated by energy sources like solar panels or wind turbines to create electricity […]

ENGIE, the world’s largest independent power producer, has signed an innovative volume firming agreement (VFA) with Microsoft that will allow the technology giant to buy “firm” power from wind and solar projects in Texas under a specially structured power purchase agreement (PPA).  The companies on Sept. 24 said the long-term PPA will allow Microsoft to […]

NRG Energy has joined a growing list of major U.S. coal generators that want to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.  The Princeton, New Jersey-based energy company on Sept. 24 said it would accelerate carbon goals it set in 2014 to reach its 50% GHG reduction target (from a 2014 baseline) by 2025—not […]

DTE Energy has announced a goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, following steps by Duke Energy, American Electric Power, and NRG Energy to do the same over the past two weeks. The Detroit-based company on Sept. 26 said it would go beyond its existing commitment to reduce carbon emissions 50% by 2030 and […]

DALLAS, Sept. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Tri Global Energy, LLC, the leading wind developer in Texas and a dominant wind leader in the U.S., and the managers of the Fluvanna Renewable Energy Project, LLC, announced today that project owner and partner, TERNA ENERGY, S.A., has achieved commercial operations on the 158 megawatts (MW) Gopher Creek Wind […]

Winners of The Cleanie Awards—the only comprehensive awards program focused exclusively on the clean energy industry—were unveiled on Sept. 24 during North America Smart Energy Week in Salt Lake City, Utah. “The Cleanie Awards honors companies and individuals at the forefront of innovation for the clean technology and renewables industries,” said Elyssa Haynes, program director for […]

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Sept. 24, 2019) — Panasonic unveiled its new residential energy storage system, EverVolt™, new products and enhancements, and other solar portfolio announcements today at Solar Power International 2019. The EverVolt™ features a  modular design and is available in AC and DC-coupled versions, offering a flexible solution optimized for homeowners’ energy needs and budgets. The […]

FREMONT, Calif.—September 24, 2019 — NEXTracker, a Flex company, introduced today a new member of its smart single-axis solar tracker family—NX GeminiTM. The next-generation two-module-in-portrait (2P) tracker is optimized for customer sites with hard soils, challenging terrain, irregular parcel shapes and high-wind requirements. The combination of NEXTracker’s flagship NX HorizonTM and NX Gemini offers customers the industry’s […]

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is meeting this week in Salt Lake City, Utah, joining with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to present North America Smart Energy Week, which this year includes both the long-running Solar Power International gathering along with Energy Storage International. A big theme this week is the integration of […]

Salt Lake City, Utah (September 24, 2019) — ABB today introduces its collaboration on the new Universal 10/4 Residential Storage System powered by Humless’ groundbreaking 48V Universal Energy Management (UEM) and ABB’s UNO-DM-TL-PLUS line of residential inverters. This is the solar power industry’s first all-in-one ESS that intelligently manages the flow of electricity from any […]

Two companies who recently announced they are creating what they consider North America’s largest behind-the-meter (BTM) deployment of energy storage technology have said they plan to expand the service, providing a long-term solution for controlling costs and promoting energy sustainability for businesses. Executives of the two companies—Honeywell and NRStor C&I—told POWER in a Sept. 23 interview […]

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on Sept. 23 released what it calls a roadmap for solar power, among the group’s first steps into a 10-year period that SEIA has dubbed the “Solar+ Decade.” SEIA on Monday in a news release said its initiative puts solar power on a path to provide at least 20% […]

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 23, 2019 — As part of the largest-ever renewable energy purchase by the automotive industry, E.ON today announced that it has signed an agreement with Honda for offtake from E.ON’s Boiling Springs Wind Farm. Under the terms of the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA), Honda has contracted for 120 megawatts (MW) of […]

New York City (September 23, 2019) — Schneider Electric announced today at Climate Week NYC 2019 that it is drastically stepping up its commitment to carbon neutrality with three new actions: (1) accelerating its 2030 goal of carbon neutrality by demonstrating carbon neutrality in its extended ecosystem by 2025, bringing forward its objective by 5 years […]