Signs of a problem within California’s power system emerged a full day before the blackouts hit. Trader Dov Quint sat in his basement outside Boulder, Colorado, scouring the state’s day-ahead power market for opportunities to profit from California’s heat wave.
As Californians again experience rolling blackouts, and millions more are threatened with losing power, Stanford University economics and energy-markets professor Frank Wolak said it was clear “California policy makers completely forgot the lessons from the crisis…in their rush to go green.” Read more →
New Mexico regulators unanimously approved a plan to add renewable energy and storage to replace a portion of the San Juan Generating Station's capacity owned by Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM). The portfolio includes 650 MW of new solar resources and 300 MW of battery storage, totaling over $1 billion in investments within the districts impacted by the San Juan plant closure. Read more →
NextEra Energy is closing its last coal-fired power unit and investing in its first green hydrogen facility in Florida. With its Florida Power & Light (FPL) utility, NextEra will propose a $65 million pilot that will use a 20-megawatt electrolyzer to produce 100% green hydrogen from solar power. If approved by state regulators, the project could come online by 2023. Read more →
Energy Cast is a regular podcast featuring some of the top experts across all links in the industry chain. Those include coal, nuclear, efficiency, renewables, oil and gas, as well as top government researchers. Longtime project manager Jay Dauenhauer created it and has been hosting Energy Cast for several years. Read more →
Xcel Energy serves 3.3 million electricity customers in eight states — Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. In August, it announced plans to help put 1.5 million electric cars on the road in those states by 2030. Read more →
The United States solar energy market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 15 percent during the forecast period of 2020-2025. Factors such as supportive government policies to meet more energy demand through renewable energy is likely to drive the United States solar energy market. Read more →
According to a new report from the World Resources Institute, an international research organization, 41 states managed to cut their carbon emissions between 2005 and 2017, even as their economies grew. The states leading the charge might not be the ones you expect. Read more →
To date, gigawatt-scale announcements in the hydrogen sector have been dominated by oil titans such as Shell, BP and Equinor, typically involving plans for meeting large sources of existing demand in industrial clusters and in some cases their own oil refining operations. Read more →
An innovative new financial approach is accelerating the electric sector’s financial transition from coal to clean. “Solar for coal swaps” could help refinance the 26 GW of existing coal plants that will be uneconomic compared to local renewables in the near term, using private capital to fund community-level investment for publicly-owned cooperative retail utilities, while supporting local economic development. Read more →
Cities have been a major contributor to climate change, accounting for more than 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. But in recent years, a growing number of cities across the United States have enacted and acted on new renewable energy goals. A new tool from the American Cities Climate Challenge Renewables Accelerator, the Local Government Renewables Action Tracker, showcases renewable energy deals made by U.S. cities, counties, tribal governments, municipal utilities and community choice aggregations since 2015. Read more →
Renewable power has taken up a record share of global electricity production since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting a transition away from fossil fuels could be accelerated in the coming years. The past few months have shown that renewable energy has become more dependable, sector experts say, accounting for well over half of output in some European countries, while grid operators proved they could successfully manage larger doses of fluctuating energy flows. Read more →
Apple is pledging to become carbon neutral across its business, including its mostly overseas supply chain by 2030. Within the next 10 years, the tech giant will ensure every Apple device sold will have been produced with no net release of carbon into the atmosphere. The company also plans to reduce its emissions by 75% and develop carbon-removal solutions for the remaining 25% of its footprint. Read more →
