Focus
GREENTECH MEDIA - Aug 2 There’s a bottom to bottoming-out solar bid prices, according to a new report from GTM Research. In recent years, predictable and transparent tender programs have pushed unsubsidized solar auction prices lower and lower, with prices dropping an average of 74 percent since 2009 and seven record-breaking bid prices coming in the last two years. But new research signals there’s an end to the market’s “crazy-low” prices, according to GTM Research. The magic number is $14.70 per megawatt-hour in a 2022 scenario with optimal financing and technology costs. GTM Research projects global average power-purchase agreements for tendered solar will reach $40 per megawatt-hour by 2022 or sooner, from the current level of $60 per megawatt-hour.
BLOOMBERG - Aug 3 Companies and agencies, excluding utilities, agreed to buy 7.2 gigawatts of clean energy worldwide so far this year, already shattering the record of 5.4 gigawatts for all of 2017, according to a report Friday from Bloomberg NEF. The surge comes as communities, nations, and companies set clean-power targets, part of a growing global effort to curb climate change. In the U.S., corporations signed a record 4.2 gigawatts of contracts this year, about 58 percent of the global total. They did so despite a wave of federal policies that have the potential to crimp demand for clean power, including tariffs on solar panels, steel and aluminum, and a sweeping overhaul of the federal tax policy.
UTILITY DIVE - Aug 3 Community choice aggregation (CCA) is growing rapidly in California, and a new report estimates that at current rates the alternative providers will serve more than half the state's customers within a decade. The new analysis from Next 10 finds CCAs are currently serving an average of 52 percent renewable power, while the state's investor-owned utilities (IOU) are aiming for 50 percent by 2020. CCA offerings range from 37 percent to 100 percent renewables, while IOU plans range from 32 percent to 44 percent renewables. Because of the rapid growth, state regulators are working to ensure grid costs are equitable and that customers remaining with an IOU don't wind up paying more as a result of CCA attrition. The California Public Utilities Commission last Wednesday issued a proposal to reform the amount that CCA and Direct Access customers pay in order to protect remaining customers.
NORTH AMERICAN WINDPOWER - Aug 3 Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has announced new grant funding for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LNNL) and Stanford School of Engineering’s Spormann Laboratory to conduct new power-to-gas research. The two entities will also receive $800,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy. SoCalGas will provide co-funding of $400,000 in addition to $125,000 of seed funding it provided in 2017. The initiative will research the use of microbes to convert carbon dioxide directly to methane using renewable electricity: a process known as microbial electromethanogenesis (ME). If developed as envisioned, ME could become a highly efficient, large-scale storage technology for excess wind and solar energy.
SOLAR INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - Aug 7 Demonstrating the rooftop solar industry’s revival in Nevada, the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has announced the fulfillment of the first tier of the new net energy metering (NEM) program. Over the weekend, according to the PUC, the applied-for and actually installed capacity for the rooftop solar NEM program in Nevada exceeded a combined total of 80 megawatts under the Tier I excess energy credit rate structure, which was established last year by A.B. 405, a bill to restore NEM in the state. In late 2015, the PUC ruled to significantly reduce NEM buyback rates, hindering Nevada’s rooftop solar market. In turn, Tier II is now officially open, says the commission, which makes note that Tier I will continue to remain open until it reaches a total of 80 megawatts of actually installed capacity.
RENEWS - Aug 2 EDF Renewables North America is selling 50 percent interests in the 200-megawatt Glacier’s Edge wind farm in Iowa and 132-megawatt Valentine solar facility in California for an undisclosed price to PGGM Infrastructure Fund. Completion of the sale is subject to regulatory approval and customary conditions precedent. EDF maintains a 50 percent stake in the projects and will provide management and operations and maintenance services for the projects. The deal follows an earlier agreement between the two companies for PGGM to take 50 percent stakes in the 200-megawatt Red Pine and 154-megawatt Rock Falls wind farms in Minnesota and Oklahoma, respectively, and the 234-megawatt Switch Station 1&2 solar plant in Nevada.
Projects
THE DESERT SUN - Aug 1 The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it would allow a proposed hydropower plant to move forward in the California desert east of Palm Springs, just outside Joshua Tree National Park. Supporters say the $2.5-billion "pumped storage" project could be used to store excess electricity generated by solar and wind farms, allowing that clean energy to power California after dark, or during times when the wind isn't blowing. But critics say the hydroelectric power project would drain billions of gallons from a desert aquifer and harm species such as bighorn sheep, golden eagles and desert tortoises, on public lands surrounded on three sides by one of the country's most popular national parks. Eagle Crest Energy Company has partnered on the 1,300-megawatt hydropower project with NextEra Energy Resources. BLM’s decision allows the developer to build a 12-mile transmission line and a water pipeline across federal lands. But Eagle Crest has yet to announce a power purchase contract to sell the electricity the hydropower plant would generate, a key step before construction begins.
SOLAR POWER WORLD - Aug 8 Wells Fargo Renewable Energy and Environmental Finance have completed the final $85 million in tax-equity funding for Sempra Renewables’ 200-megawatt solar generation facility near Fresno, California. The funding represents the last phase of more than $190 million in financing for four solar farms collectively known as the Sempra Great Valley Solar Project. Sempra Renewables—a subsidiary of energy-holding company Sempra Energy SRE—built and operates the Great Valley Solar Project, a 1,600-acre facility with 860,000 solar modules.
