The California Independent System Operator’s board on May 23 approved a $6.1 billion, 10-year transmission plan that includes projects to deliver offshore wind to customers. Transmission projects to access clean energy resources total about $4.6 billion and are all in Pacific Gas & Electric’s service territory. Reliability-driven projects total about $1.5 billion. Two offshore wind-related transmission projects in Northern California — costing an estimated $2.7 billion and $1.4 billion — will be open to competitive bidding.
Two laws enacted in 2023 as part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s infrastructure streamlining package are intended to facilitate development of certain energy, water resources, transportation, semiconductor manufacturing, and other infrastructure projects. SB 147 allows the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to issue permits authorizing the incidental take of “fully protected species” for qualifying projects, while SB 149 requires expedited resolution of California Environmental Quality Act lawsuits for qualifying projects.
The Biden administration on May 29 proposed expanding tax credits that have for years boosted U.S. solar and wind energy projects to cover a wider range of clean energy technologies including nuclear fission and fusion. The Treasury Department announced its guidance for Clean Electricity Production Credits and Clean Electricity Investment Credits, created under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, that will be available in 2025 as the previously available wind and solar production and investment tax credits sunset.
By some criteria, 1290 Embarcadero in Morro Bay seems like a prime site for a facility to store renewable energy. The coastal land houses a power plant that shuttered a decade ago. Vistra Corp.’s proposal for a 600 MW battery storage project on a portion of the site includes remediating the area and removing the plant and stacks, readying the land for future development. But some locals in the small city on California’s Central Coast disagree, and placed a measure on the ballot this fall that could impact the project’s future.
A $12 million, 3 MW solar plus storage microgrid has been commissioned at the Aemetis ethanol plant in Keyes. The system will reduce the amount of grid electricity required by the plant during peak demand hours. The microgrid, which is designed to maximize energy production and minimize energy costs, was funded in part by an $8 million grant from the California Energy Commission.
Ample sunlight and tens of thousands of abandoned oil wells and experienced oilfield workers have made Kern County the focus of a new battery-storage technology. The plan is to retrofit depleted oil wells to store concentrated solar energy in super-heated groundwater for long periods of time, then use that heat to drive turbines when energy demand rises. If it works as planned, the project — which is being run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and a private investment group and has been dubbed GeoTES, for geological thermal energy storage — has the potential to overcome some of the renewable energy transition’s greatest hurdles.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee on May 23 rejected a recommendation to cut a proposal for what would be the state's largest wind farm in half, giving new life to the $1.7 billion project. Plans for the Horse Heaven wind farm originally included up to 222 wind turbines across 24 miles of hillsides in the Tri-Cities area of eastern Washington, plus three solar arrays covering up to 8.5 square miles.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed an environmental review that will allow a Gulf of Maine offshore wind research lease to move forward with further work including a power-purchase agreement, officials said on May 28. The state of Maine has proposed putting 12 offshore wind turbines producing 144 MW of electricity atop University of Maine-developed floating platforms, and the state can move forward after the lease assessment found no significant impacts for the proposed site about 28 nautical miles off the coast, southeast of Portland.
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