Renewable Energy Focus
The Desert Sun - Feb 10
The political landscape has changed, with Republicans now controlling both the House and Senate, but Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein is again proposing legislation to conserve more of the California desert. Her proposal would create two new national monuments: the Sand to Snow National Monument would encompass 135,000 acres from the desert floor in Coachella Valley to the peak of Mount San Gorgonio, and the Mojave Trails National Monument would include 965,000 acres that were donated to the U.S. government. The bill also features several provisions to promote renewable energy development, including one that requires the exchange of hundreds of thousands of acres of isolated state parcels surrounded by national parks and wilderness.
The Guardian - Feb 11
America’s biggest state pension funds came under rising pressure on Tuesday to dump coal companies from their combined $500 billion portfolio, in a major escalation of the fossil fuel divestment campaign. California senate leader, Kevin de Leon, said he was introducing a bill calling on the two state funds, CalPERS, the public employees’ pension fund, and CalSTRS, the teachers’ pension fund, to drop all coal holdings. The bill is part of a larger package of climate measures, endorsed by Governor Jerry Brown, aimed at gearing up California’s efforts to fight climate change.
Solar Server - Feb 12
The Solar Foundation has released state-by-state data from its annual job survey, showing that California continues to hold the top spot in solar jobs nationally and that it is the first state to ever surpass 50,000 solar jobs with 54,680. Nearly half of the U.S. states have doubled (or more) the size of their solar workforce since 2012.
Los Angeles Times - Feb 9
On Monday, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell dedicated one of the largest photovoltaic solar energy farms in the world, located near Joshua Tree National Park in Riverside County. Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, a 550-megawatt farm that is the largest on public lands managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management, began operating in December 2014 and will provide enough energy to power more than 160,000 average California homes annually, said Georges Antoun, chief operating officer of the farm’s Tempe, Arizona-based developer First Solar Inc.
Greentech Lead - Feb 12
Google is partnering with NextEra Energy to power its Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View. Google will enter into a 20-year agreement with NextEra Energy to buy wind power from the Altamont Pass wind farm in eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Beginning in 2016, Google will receive approximately 43 megawatts of wind energy from this plant according to the contract.
Renewable Energy Magazine - Feb 12
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) asked state regulators for permission to build an estimated 25,000 electric vehicle (EV) chargers at sites in Northern and Central California. If the plan is approved, the project will be the largest deployment of EV charging stations in the U.S. The chargers would be located at commercial and public locations, including multi-family dwellings, retail centers, and workplaces, with around 10 percent of the chargers allocated for use by disadvantaged communities.
Notable Renewable Energy Projects and Deals
PV Magazine - Feb 11
This week, SunEdison announced a plan to develop 22 megawatts of solar rooftop installations in Los Angeles. In an agreement with local solar developer PermaCity, SunEdison will build and operate the solar projects as part of the Beacon Bundled Solar contract that the company was awarded last July by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
