California

The Department of Interior (DOI) has approved the 485-MW Blythe Mesa Solar project, a photovoltaic (PV) project that will be built in Riverside County, Calif. RRG Renewables’ project will be built on 3,587 acres of private land—”primarily lands that have already been disturbed by agricultural use,” the agency pointed out—under the jurisdiction of Riverside County […]

It may not be powering its ships using the sun, but the U.S. Navy will soon be using solar power to keep at least some of the lights on at 14 of its installations in California. The Department of the Navy (DON) recently signed an agreement with Western Area Power Administration and Sempra U.S. Gas […]

With the landslide re-election of Governor Jerry Brown, California looks certain to continue its suite of low-carbon policies, including the AB32 cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases, energy efficiency programs funded to the tune of a billion dollars a year, and its renewables portfolio standard (RPS) of 33% by 2020. In fact, Gov. Brown has suggested […]

Regulators in California last week initiated rulemaking to push the state’s three investor-owned utilities to incorporate distributed energy resources (DERs) into the planning and operation of their electric distribution systems. The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) Aug. 14 Order Instituting Rulemaking establishes rules, policies, and procedures to guide Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, […]

California has set an ambitious target of connecting 1.3 GW of energy storage to the grid by 2020. In October 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) mandated that 200 MW of this goal come in

The era of Big Solar has arrived, and at the moment there are none bigger than Ivanpah. For overcoming numerous obstacles to build the world’s largest solar thermal plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is awarded POWER’s 2014 Plant of the Year Award. When the 392-MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in Nipton, Calif., […]

NRG Energy’s shopping spree, which has seen it become the nation’s largest merchant generator through a string of acquisitions, continued this week as subsidiary NRG Yield announced on June 4 that it has agreed to acquire the mammoth Alta Wind facility in Tehachapi, Calif., from Terra-Gen Power LLC. The Alta Wind farm has an operating […]

A natural gas shortage triggered by extreme cold weather in much of the U.S. and Canada has affected supplies to power plants in drought-stricken California and forced the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) on Thursday to issue a conservation alert.  CAISO said the natural gas shortage was only affecting Southern California but appealed to customers […]

A years-long drought afflicting California could put financial pressure on a number of the state’s hydropower generators, a ratings agency warns.  Fitch Ratings on Friday said that while the financial impact could be manageable, utilities that depend on hydropower generation for the most part may be forced to use more expensive generation and purchased power […]

A series of derivative lawsuits has recently been filed against the officers and directors of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) based on the explosion of a PG&E gas transmission line in San Bruno