Focus
GREENTECH MEDIA - Sep 13 Utility solar project procurement soared in Q2 2018 as component prices declined and home solar installations steadied after a 15 percent contraction last year, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Solar Energy Industries Association. This is the first quarter where the data clearly show that tariffs took a bite out of the solar market. Some previously announced projects were canceled or delayed due to the tariffs. The report forecasts an acceleration of solar deployment in the second half of 2018 driven by utility-scale projects. According to the report, 8.5 gigawatts of utility PV projects were procured in the first six months of the year, the most ever procured in that timeframe. This includes 26 projects exceeding 100 megawatts.
REUTERS - Sep 16 SunPower Corp. on Tuesday announced that some of the solar cells and panels it produces overseas will be excluded from the Trump administration’s 30 percent import tariffs, sending the company’s shares up 15 percent. SunPower is based in San Jose, but it produces most of its solar products in Mexico and the Philippines. The company has publicly lobbied for its products to be exempt from the tariffs, arguing the funds it was spending on duties were being diverted from investments in American jobs in research and development and domestic manufacturing. “With today’s decision that SunPower’s highly differentiated IBC cells and modules are excluded from tariffs, we are able to turn the page,” SunPower Chief Executive Tom Werner said in a statement.
UTILITY DIVE - Sep 18 The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has released a proposal aimed at fixing the emission shortfalls of the state's premiere incentive program for behind-the-meter energy storage, suggesting a state-wide partnership to develop a greenhouse gas (GHG) signal. One of the top policy goals of the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) was to reduce GHG emissions. But evaluations have shown that the SGIP storage projects have, in fact, increased greenhouse gas emissions. As the state is grappling with this reality, California lawmakers extended the program at the end of August by passing SB 700. The bill extended SGIP for another five years and refreshed the $800 million in funding for the program. Governor Jerry Brown has yet to sign the bill.
COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE - Sep 14 Governor Jerry Brown signed a pack of climate change bills last Thursday that he hopes will rid the state’s notoriously crowded freeways of “dirty cars and trucks.” In a signing ceremony aboard the San Francisco Bay Area’s first-ever hybrid electric ferry, Brown inked 16 bills including a measure aimed at increasing the number of electric vehicles in Uber and Lyft’s ride-share fleets, and a new program that will reimburse Californians who buy replacement electric vehicle batteries. The transportation package is supposed to push California toward Brown’s mandate of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on state roads by 2025 and 5 million by 2030.
Projects
SOLAR INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - Sep 18 Ciel & Terre USA has completed a 252-kilowatt floating solar PV system for the Lake County Special Districts in California. The project was completed on behalf of Kelseyville County Waterworks Dist. #3 in partnership with local contractor North Coast Solar. Financed by a municipal lease, the Ciel & Terre Hydrelio solar power system is floating on a man-made wastewater treatment pond in Kelseyville, and it is expected to produce up to 1,650 kilowatt-hours in its first year. According to Ciel & Terre, this is the first public floating solar power system installed in California.
TIMES-STANDARD - Sep 13 The Redwood Coast Energy Authority, with support from several private companies, is one step closer to developing the first offshore wind farm on the West Coast, according to its executive director Matthew Marshall, having submitted a lease application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. According to Marshall, if approved the lease would give the authority and its partners “site control” over an ocean area of approximately 70 square miles, meaning they have exclusive project rights to that area. This doesn’t mean the project will span 70 square miles, Marshall said, instead it defines the boundaries of where Redwood Coast could put the project. The proposed wind farm would consist of 10 to 15 wind turbines, capable of producing 100-150 megawatts, according to Marshall.
FORT MORGAN TIMES - Sep 19 With a plan to get the majority of its power from renewable energy by 2026, Xcel Energy Colorado on Tuesday celebrated the completion of one of the projects that will help realize that goal — a 300-turbine wind farm that sprawls across five counties on the Eastern Plains. The 600-megawatt Rush Creek Wind Project covers nearly 100,000 acres in five counties. It is the largest wind farm in the state and the first large-scale wind farm owned and operated by the utility. Rush Creek was built with all made-in-Colorado turbines, produced in Vestas plants in Brighton, Pueblo, and Windsor. Landowners and the counties will reap $180 million in lease payments and property taxes during the project's 25-year life.
