Biden Official Says Texas Storm Shows Infrastructure Need
The Biden administration said it will work with states and businesses to make infrastructure more resilient after a winter storm led to widespread power outages in Texas. Read more →
California’s Big 2021 Decision on Grid Reliability: Expand Supply or Manage Demand?
California is facing a major decision under a tight deadline — whether it should push for large-scale power plants and batteries to prevent a repeat of its August 2020 rolling blackouts this coming summer or turn to behind-the-meter resources such as batteries and demand response. Read more →
Texas Storms, California Heat Waves and ‘Vulnerable’ Utilities
In California, wildfires and heat waves in recent years forced utilities to shut off power to millions of homes and businesses. Now, Texas is learning that deadly winter storms and intense cold can do the same. Read more →
California wastes its extra solar, wind energy. Could hydrogen be the storage key?
No amount of solar panels and wind turbines alone will be enough for California to reach its goal of a clean electrical grid unless the state can solve its energy storage problem. The state already generates an abundance of energy from wind and solar farms, particularly during the sunny and blustery spring and early summer months. Read more →
Mexico’s Path to 100%
Considered a global initiative, the Path to 100% movement seeks to find reliable, quick and cost-effective ways to fully decarbonize electricity. To achieve this, there are a variety of paths available to every country. What would Mexico’s roadmap look like? Read more →
3 graphs that shed light on the ERCOT power crisis
As work continued to restore electric power across the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region, data firm Lium released a series of graphs that offer early insight into the state’s grid performance in the days before the blackouts and immediately after. Read more →
Cal-ISO renewable capacity climbs, storage resources coming onto system
At-a-Glance The California Independent System Operator added 2.1 GW of capacity to its grid in 2020 with another 3.3 GW permitted with online dates in 2020 or 2021 as the state works to achieve its ambitious 100% clean energy mandate over the next 25 years. To learn more, read “Cal-ISO renewable capacity climbs, storage resources Read more →
6 Out-of-the-Ordinary Energy Concepts From 2020
It’s been a “business-as-usual” year for renewables, despite the societal upheaval wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Most 2020 headlines continue to highlight conventional renewable segments such as solar and energy storage. On the margins, virtual power plants have gone mainstream and green hydrogen has emerged as the energy carrier of choice for tomorrow’s fuel systems. But COVID-19 did little to dampen enthusiasm for more obscure energy concepts. Read more →
The New Green Energy Giants Challenging Exxon and BP
A decade ago, NextEra, Iberdrola and Enel were sleepy regional utilities with little name recognition. Now they are fast-growing giants with market values rivaling the likes of oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC, thanks to their early all-in bets on wind and solar farms. Their early lead in the global transition away from oil has put these companies on track to become the major energy companies of the coming decades—the “green energy majors.” Read more →
California’s pathway to 100% clean electricity begins to take shape, but reliability concerns persist
California's energy agencies are taking a first stab at assessing possible pathways to the state's ambitious goal of achieving 100% renewable and zero-carbon electricity by 2045, but concerns about system reliability — especially in light of the rolling blackouts — continue to plague regulators. Read more →
Amazon Backs 26 Green Projects in Drive to Renewable Energy
Amazon.com Inc. made an announcement in December to say it was backing 26 new wind and solar utility projects around the globe, a massive investment that the company said made it the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy. The retail and technology company said the utility-scale projects, located in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S., would have the capacity to produce 3.4 gigawatts of electricity. Read more →