The Maryland General Assembly approved a bill on April 8 that would raise the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 50 percent by 2030 from 25 percent by 2020. The measure would require a study to create a comprehensive plan to achieve a 100 percent goal by 2040. The legislation adds to the growing list of state-level…...
Rep. Michael Doyle, a Democrat representing Pennsylvania, introduced legislation on April 4 that would expand the solar investment tax credit to include energy storage technology for utilities, businesses, and homes. The current tax code provides the credit for battery technologies paired with a solar installations. (H.R.2096) More than 100 House Democrats, led by Congresswoman Haley…...
Both chambers of the Maryland legislature passed two bills on March 29, which seek to expand community solar and incentivize energy storage pilot programs in the state. House Bill 650 was proposed by Democratic Delegate Marc Korman on February 6 and requires the Public Service Commission to establish an energy storage pilot program by June 1. The pilot projects…
Utah Governor Gary Herbert, a Republican, signed the Community Renewable Energy Act, which will assist communities in achieving 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, setting up a framework between them and Utah’s largest electricity provider, Rocky Mountain Power Inc. House Bill 411 was introduced on February 26 by Republican Representative Steve Handy and allows municipalities or counties to apply for 100…
PJM Interconnection LLC is joining forces with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory to study the integration of distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar, into the operator’s grid, according to an April 2 press release. The Argonne laboratory will be supporting PJM’s Distributed Energy Resource Ride-Through Task Force in developing guidelines for so-called “ride through” and…
The Florida Public Service Commission approved cost recovery for two of Duke Energy Florida LLC’s solar projects, totaling about 150 megawatts of capacity, according to an April 2 press release. The two projects, located in the northern part of the state, are the 74.9-megawatt Hamilton Solar farm and the 74.9-megawatt Columbia Solar farm. Hamilton was originally developed by Tradewind…
DTE Electric Company submitted its 2019 integrated resource plan to the Michigan Public Service Commission on March 29, outlining the company’s strategy for the next 20 years. The plan focuses on a transition from coal to renewables, boosting energy efficiency and accelerating carbon emission reductions. The utility’s plan calls for about $2 billion to be invested in renewable…
In this update, fossil-fuel rich New Mexico is the latest state to join the 100-percent-clean-energy club, a strong sign of the momentum building for pro-renewable policies across the U.S. New Mexico’s Democrat-led House charted a course for the state to obtain all of its power from carbon-free resources by 2045, with intermediate goals of 50 percent by…...
A decade into the nation's vast solar expansion, pitched battles continue to play out from the Northeast to the Midwest over how to set payouts for surplus supplies from the rooftop solar systems, throwing the future growth of the technology into question. Still, other states in the Northwest to the mid-Atlantic are studying how to chart a path forward.
PJM Interconnection LLC on March 29 filed a proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revise its energy and reserve market rules to properly value the energy reserves that support grid reliability by providing the flexibility needed to accommodate the evolving resource mix. The grid operator said that the growing variability of power demand…...
The Maryland legislature on March 28 approved a measure that would extend the state’s community solar pilot through 2024 and remove the limit on the maximum number of subscribers in the program. The legislation would also include annually increasing capacity levels for each program category, modifying the current requirement that allows restrictions to enable regulators…...
The U.S. Energy Department will provide up to $130 million to support research and development of early-stage solar technologies, according to a March 26 news release. The funding will support up to 80 projects focused on photovoltaics, concentrating solar-thermal power, soft costs reduction, innovation in the solar manufacturing sector, and advanced grid integration technologies. The…...
