The Southwest Power Pool Inc. (SPP), the grid operator for 17 states in the central and western U.S., on Aug. 16, 2022, announced that its “Market+” service offering designed to provide hurdle-free transmission service and facilitate reliable integration of fast-growing renewable resources, has gained the attention of customers in the Western Interconnection. The service, which…...
Wind generation represented 32 percent of total U.S. energy capacity growth last year, according to an Aug. 16 news release from the U.S. Energy Department. The sector employs 120,000 people and currently supplies adequate energy to power about 40 million households. The agency issued three reports discussing the onshore utility-scale, offshore utility-scale, and distributed wind…...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering revisions to greenhouse gas emission limits for heavy-duty vehicles, according to an Aug. 15 press release. The proposal marks the third phase of a comprehensive plan designed to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. The agency invites small businesses to take part as small entity representatives on an…...
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission on Aug. 15 announced a partial multi-party settlement in Puget Sound Energy’s existing rate increase request, explicitly addressing the company’s Green Direct Program. The agreement is subject to authorization by the three member commission. The program permits commercial and governmental clients to willingly purchase 100 percent of their energy…...
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), passed by the U.S. Congress on Aug. 12, includes a historic $369 billion investment in energy security and climate change programs over the next ten years.
The Supreme Court of Ohio issued a decision upholding the Ohio Power Siting Board’s issuance of a certification of environmental compatibility and public necessity to build the Icebreaker project in Lake Erie. The six-turbine, 20.7 megawatt offshore project would be constructed by the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, around 10 miles off the coast of…...
The New York Public Service Commission on Aug. 11 approved compliance filings for five major wind and solar farms in upstate New York. The move allows 517 megawatts worth of renewable energy projects to move forward. These actions are necessary for the projects to begin construction or become operational. In a separate press release, the…...
The California Energy Commission on Aug. 10 adopted a report establishing an offshore wind planning goal of 25 gigawatts by 2045. The report sets an interim planning goal range of 2 to 5 gigawatts by 2030, which could result in sufficient electricity to power 3.75 million initially and 25 million homes by mid-century. The commission…...
The U.S. Energy Department on Aug. 9 released a request for information on a $675 million critical materials research, development, demonstration, and commercialization program. The program, funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aims to advance domestic production and sourcing of critical materials to mitigate vulnerabilities in the domestic supply chain. Several clean…...
Russian pipeline gas exports to the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) dropped by nearly 40 percent during the first seven months of 2022 compared to the same period last year, according to an Aug. 9 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration based on data from Refinitiv Eikon. The key driver of…...
The Department of the Interior on Aug. 8 announced that the California-based 457-megawatt Palen photovoltaic solar project has reached its full capacity operation. In 2018, the Bureau of Land Management approved EDF Renewable Energy Inc.’s submission to construct the solar photovoltaic project and a 230-kilovolt generation interconnection transmission line. In December 2020, the first phase…...
In 2020, seven U.S. states experienced the largest declines in their annual energy production in the last six decades, according to an Aug. 8 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This is due to the decrease in economic activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among all the states in the U.S., Wyoming experienced a…...
