Renewable Energy Focus
Sacramento Bee - Mar 21 Yolo County and the City of Davis are joining a growing number of communities in California in buying their own electricity with the hope of getting less expensive energy from greener sources. The two local governments recently voted unanimously to move forward with a Community Choice Energy program that will let them form a joint power authority and enter into contracts to buy electricity on the wholesale energy market. The program, which begins in March 2017, will also let residents opt out and continue purchasing power through the utility service provider, PG&E.
Solar Industry Magazine - Mar 24 The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has entered into an agreement to purchase up to a 25 percent ownership stake in Desert Sunlight Investment Holdings LLC, which owns two solar photovoltaic power generation facilities near Palm Springs. The facilities began commercial operations in late 2014 with a capacity of 550 megawatts, selling all of their output to California utility companies under long-term contracts. CalPERS will purchase the ownership stake from Sumitomo Corp. of Americas through its Gulf Pacific Power LLC account, a partnership between the Pension System and Harbert Management Corp., one of its external infrastructure investment managers.
Charlotte Business Journal - Mar 23 Duke Energy Renewables has bought its seventh solar project in California for an undisclosed price. That is second only to the 217 megawatts worth of solar at 23 projects the company has in North Carolina. The Longboat project was developed by EDF Renewable Energy, the California-based North American subsidiary of the French company, EDF Energies Nouvelles.
PV-Tech - Mar 23 Residential and commercial PV provider SolarCity has raised $131 million through a new tax equity fund in order to finance residential, commercial, and military solar projects. The fund will account for the capital cost of solar equipment and installation. The financing partner has not been disclosed.
Greentech Media - Mar 22 Apple announced this week that 93 percent of its facilities worldwide now run on renewable energy. The new benchmark shows that Apple is making good on its environmental promises two years after the company pledged to become 100 percent renewable in 100 percent of the company’s operations, including all of its offices, retail stores, and data centers.
Bloomberg - Mar 16 California regulators gave the owners of the world’s biggest solar-thermal power plant more time to avoid defaulting on a contract with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. after failing to supply power they had guaranteed. The California Public Utilities Commission approved a PG&E proposal at a meeting Thursday that would avert a declaration of default through July 31 if the owners of the Ivanpah solar farm in California’s Mojave Desert pay the utility for shortfalls in generation. Ivanpah is owned by NRG Energy Inc., BrightSource Energy Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and operated by NRG.
North American Windpower - Mar 21 The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed an initial review of an unsolicited lease request from Trident Winds LLC for a floating wind project offshore Morro Bay and deemed the request complete. The proposed project would generate up to 800 megawatts of power through roughly 100 floating foundations. A single seafloor transmission cable would bring the electricity to shore.
