Solar

U.S. utilities continue to announce closures of financially troubled and older coal-fired power plants even as government officials work on a bailout plan to keep them operating. Owners of a coal plant in Montana that has only been online since 2006 informed the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week of plans to shutter the […]

Virginia regulators are ready to consider a proposal to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in the Northeast, becoming the 10th state in the nation’s largest carbon-trading market. The move comes as newly elected governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, prepares to take office in a state where the Republican-led legislature has shot down previous […]

Utilities across the country are gearing up for an attack on the power grid November 15 and 16. Thankfully, it’s only a drill. But in the event of an actual emergency, a real physical and cyberattack on the U.S. electricity infrastructure, GridEx IV—a biennial exercise conducted by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC)—will help […]

In the next 25 years, the world will turn increasingly to renewables and natural gas to meet energy demand, turning away from coal, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2017 (WEO). As in previous years, the report makes predictions based on different scenarios. This year’s include a New Policies Scenario, which […]

ROCKLIN, Calif., November 14, 2017—SMA today announced that 13 Sunny Central Storage inverters are being used in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) Beacon Energy Storage System, a 20 MW battery storage project at the Beacon Solar Plant in the Mojave Desert. The new storage project will be owned and operated by […]

The Digital Solar Plant testbed evaluates solutions to accurately predict energy generation, improve utilization and reduce maintenance costs NEEDHAM, MA – NOVEMBER 8, 2017 The Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™), the world’s leading organization transforming business and society by accelerating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), today announced the Digital Solar Plant testbed. The testbed is […]

ExGen Texas Power (EGTP) Holdings LLC and ExGen Texas Power LLC, a subsidiary of Exelon Corp., on November 7 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware is aimed at reducing the company’s debt, and four of EGTP’s five natural gas-fired power plants in Texas would be owned by lenders […]

The U.S. House of Representatives on November 2 proposed a tax bill that would phase out the wind energy production tax credit (PTC), extend a tax credit for the nuclear power industry, add credits for geothermal and fuel cell programs, and end a tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles. Wind energy proponents decried […]

The PJM Interconnection, the largest regional transmission operator in the U.S., faces many problems: adapting to state policies designed to skew power markets in the face of natural gas and renewable

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the need for cheap electricity in Southeast Asia will drive global demand for coal for power generation through 2040, even as many countries continue to retire coal-fired plants and cancel projects for new coal facilities. IEA, which is set to release its World Energy Outlook 2017 on November 14, […]

Florida Power & Light (FPL), which recently sustained a blow to its nuclear expansion plans, on October 19 said it’s about halfway through an ambitious plan to add eight new solar plants in the state by early 2018, as it continues to increase its photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity as part of a larger strategy to […]

More than 300 solar employees laid off this summer following a recent surge of U.S. photovoltaic (PV) panel imports may be eligible for federal entitlement, including income support and allowances, the Department of Labor (DOL) has determined. In petitions for Trade Adjustment Assistance filed with the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration by laid-off solar workers […]

[Ed. note: This post was first published on October 5, 2017, and was updated on October 17, 2017, with embedded video from the DRONEWEEK television show.] DRONEWEEK is a television program that will air on the Viceland network beginning Monday, October 9, 2017, and continuing each night throughout the week. Each episode will feature footage […]

An analysis by the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute shows wind power generation capacity in Texas may already have surpassed coal-fired capacity in the state, and wind almost certainly will have leapfrogged coal by early next year, as wind farms continue to dot the landscape while more coal plants in the state are […]

Mexico’s energy reform began in 2013. It has opened up key parts of the country’s electricity sector to new market participants, foreign investors, and innovative technology. Prior to the reform, Mexico operated under a traditional, vertically integrated model with the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) responsible for all power supply functions from generation to distribution. […]

Electricity from a 5.76-MW solar farm in Massachusetts will be stored in an adjacent energy storage system as part of a plan announced October 4 by ENGIE North America (ENGIE NA) and Holyoke Gas & Electric (HG&E). The project is part of Massachusetts’ Peak Demand Management Program. HG&E, which received a $475,000 grant from the […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) set a three-week window for comment on the proposed Department of Energy (DOE) grid resiliency rule that 11 power trade groups—representing natural gas, wind, solar, public power, and power consumers—worry could have serious ramifications for competitive markets because it favors coal and nuclear. The groups filed a joint motion on […]

POWER magazine—the oldest-running trade publication for power generators in the world—has since its establishment in 1882 been a valuable resource for business and technology developments. Here are compelling excerpts from the magazine’s voluminous pages over the 14 decades it has been published. [Scroll down for full content.] Source: POWER magazine archives. All rights reserved.  —Sonal […]

A joint venture of two Russian companies is building a solar power project in southern Siberia based on heterojunction technology (HJT), which is touted as a high-efficiency solar cell concept. Researchers

The toy everyone had on their Christmas wish list has become a technological phenomenon being used across a range of industrial sectors. That toy is the unmanned aerial vehicle—more commonly known as a drone. As the drone’s number of uses grows, so does users’ knowledge thanks to the highly sensitive detection methods they employ. One […]

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on September 22 found that photovoltaic (PV) solar cells being imported into the U.S. are causing “serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic industry.” The decision comes in a highly contested case filed by bankrupt solar panel manufacturer, Suniva, and SolarWorld. The […]

In a split decision, the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed a decision of the North Carolina Utility Commission that an advocacy group has infringed on Duke Energy’s state-sanctioned monopoly on the sale of electricity. The September 19 decision concerns an agreement between the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NC WARN) and a […]

Dubai’s government on September 16 said its state energy utility has awarded a $3.9 billion contract for construction of a 700-MW solar power plant at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The government said the project includes an 850-foot-tall tower that will receive focused sunlight, the world’s tallest such structure in a solar […]

The solar industry enjoyed its largest second quarter in history, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) announced, kicking off the annual Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Las Vegas. In the latest U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, GTM Research and SEIA found that in Q2 2017, the industry installed 2,387 MW of solar photovoltaics (PV), […]

Hanging like a thick fog over the proceedings of the annual Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Las Vegas, an ongoing trade case cast uncertainty on the industry. The case, which pits two solar manufacturers against just about everybody else in the industry, was the focus of several panels and nearly all side conversation at […]

U.S. utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems have achieved the targets set by the Department of Energy’s  (DOE’s) SunShot Initiative three years early, the DOE announced on September 12 at the Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Las Vegas. The average cost of utility-scale solar is now 6 cents/kWh. The original 2020 goal of the SunShot Initiative […]

Mexico’s energy reform, which began in 2013, has opened up key parts of the country’s electricity sector to new market participants, foreign investors, and innovative technology. Prior to the reform

Canadian Solar Expands Solar Power in Japan. Canadian Solar in July started commercial operation of its latest group of photovoltaic solar power plants in Japan as it continues to build its solar presence in

The combination of solar power and water is in use around the world, with various solar arrays placed on lakes to provide renewable energy from the sun. However, a project in Portugal has found a new way to

Xcel Energy on August 29 said it wants to retire 660 MW of coal-fired generation capacity as part of a “Colorado Energy Plan” that also includes adding as much as 1,700 MW of renewable energy and 700 MW of natural gas-fired power generation to its portfolio in the state. A key element of the proposal […]