Delmarva Power & Light Company on Feb. 13 asked the Delaware Public Service Commission to approve its 2019 program for the procurement of solar renewable energy credits, or SRECs, to comply with the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard, which requires the percentage of retail energy supplied by renewable resources to increase over time to 25…...
The compliance obligations under Ohio’s renewable portfolio standard have been shifting from electric distribution companies to competitive retail suppliers as consumers are exercising their choice of electric service providers, according to a Feb. 11 draft annual report by the Ohio Public Utilities Commission staff. Competitive suppliers were responsible for about 77 percent of Ohio’s overall…...
Democratic Senator Ed Markey and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a Green New Deal resolution on Feb. 7 setting out the goals and aspirations of the ambitious plan which seeks to tackle the nation’s contribution to climate change by making it carbon free over just a decade. The resolution calls for unprecedented, World War II-style mobilization of the U.S. economy…
The Michigan Public Service Commission approved Consumers Energy Co.’s plan to build new wind generation facilities needed to meet the utility’s voluntary renewable portfolio standard of 50 percent by 2030, but delayed a decision on the company’s request to add 100 megawatts of solar citing unrealistically high cost projections, according to a Feb. 7 press release. As part of…
The United States has more than 2,500 utility-scale (larger than one megawatt) solar photovoltaic electricity generating facilities, most of which are relatively small and collectively account for just 2.5 percent of utility-scale electric generating capacity and 1.7% of annual electricity generation, based on EIA data through November 2018. North Carolina has 433 utility-scale solar photovoltaic…
Renewable energy resources accounted for about 28.1 percent of New York’s electricity generation in 2017, according to a Feb. 7 report from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, analyzing progress toward the Clean Energy Standard which requires half the state’s electricity to come from renewable energy by 2030. The 28.1 percent contribution…
The U.S. installed about 31 gigawatts of new generating capacity in 2018, up from 27 gigawatts in the prior year, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s energy infrastructure update, released on Feb. 5. Natural gas-fired power dominated the capacity additions, accounting for about 20 gigawatts, while wind and solar provided 6 gigawatts and 4.2 gigawatts,…
New utility-scale solar projects totalling 2.1 gigawatts have locked into agreements to connect with the Texas grid in 2019, or enough to more than double the system’s solar capacity, with even larger amounts in store for 2020, according to a Feb. 5 report by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. While Texas is known for…
The Virginia state House of Delegates on Jan. 31 voted 86 -12 to reject a bill that would have required all of the state’s electricity to come from clean energy after 2036 while also placing a moratorium on new fossil fuel developments. (HB 1635) The bill would have put Virginia in line with California, District…
The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued an order on Feb. 1 clarifying ownership of capacity and energy rights of facilities under net metering and Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, programs participating in the ISO New England Inc.’s forward capacity market. The order allows owners of storage-paired facilities to retain their energy or capacity…...
Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc. outlined a strategy to continue procurement of demand reduction beyond the 41 megawatts initially planned for 2019 through 2021 under its Brooklyn/Queens Demand Management, or BQDM, program, according to a Jan. 29 filing with the New York Public Service Commission. The company said the strategy, which details the program’s budget…
New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on Jan. 17 unveiled the most aggressive plan of any state to eliminate global warming emissions and achieve 100 percent carbon-free power in just a couple of decades. Cuomo's legislative package, dubbed the "Green New Deal," is designed to put the state on a path to wipe out its carbon footprint by 2040 by slashing the heat-trapping emissions not just in the power fleet, but across the entire economy including the transportation and agriculture sectors and through building efficiency.
