California

Arizona Public Service (APS) announced Jan. 22 that it plans for all its power generation to be carbon-free by 2050, and also said it plans to produce nearly half its power from renewable sources by 2030. APS joins other U.S. utilities who have put forth similar goals in recent years. APS, which has been criticized […]

IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 14, 2020 —  Sunpin Solar, a California-based solar developer, held a groundbreaking ceremony on January 10th, 2020, celebrating the start of construction on its 98 MW Titan Solar 1 Project in Ocotillo Wells, California. This is Sunpin Solar’s second large utility-scale solar project in California, following the successful completion of the 96.75 […]

The Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 19 released a draft tax package for clean energy projects that includes a five-year extension of the 30% solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), along with new incentives for energy storage. The legislation also supports incentives for electric vehicles (EVs), offshore and onshore […]

In the September issue of POWER , I wrote about a public utility (JEA) that is exploring privatization, and in October, I looked at a city (Boulder, Colorado) that is exploring municipalization. While I think

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) wants to cap its liabilities from damages caused by California wildfires at about $18 billion, according to the reorganization plan filed by the bankrupt utility September 9 in federal court in San Francisco. The amount is less than half what creditors, including insurance companies and wildfire victims, say they are […]

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) reportedly will soon file a restructuring plan that includes more than $14 billion in equity commitments, as the utility looks to recover from billions of dollars in liabilities tied to its role in California wildfires that caused the company to file the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history. Bloomberg on […]

After flowering between 2008 and 2014, power from biomass has withered in the face of market forces. Furthermore, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have resisted regulatory action that could boost the industry

Venture capital investments in battery storage companies and projects rose significantly year-over-year through the first six months of 2019, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group. That level of activity is consistent with the growth in energy storage noted by speakers on July 24 at the Storage Week Plus conference in San Francisco, California. […]

Six of the 10 most-destructive wildfires in California’s history have occurred over the past two years, and the state’s aging electrical infrastructure is a big part of the problem. According to a report from Gov. Newsom’s Strike Force, equipment owned by California’s three largest investor-owned utilities has ignited more than 2,000 fires (about 1.5 fires […]

Hurricane season is underway and summer heat already has arrived in many areas, which again puts the spotlight on utilities, the power grid, and disaster response plans after a series of major weather events and wildfires caused outages and other disruptions in the U.S. and Caribbean in recent years. “We’re seeing these events occur, and […]