The U.S. offshore wind industry is picking up pace as eastern states are pushing aggressive wind energy procurement goals. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut recently contracted for offshore wind capacity totaling 1.4 gigawatts. New York and New Jersey are making progress towards project solicitations.
NRG Community Solar LLC lodged a protest over the lower-than-expected credits Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. and Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. said that they will award for power from community solar projects, with the developer arguing that the reduced rates jeopardize the viability of its renewable facilities. NRG said that it was recently…
The New York Department of Public Service called on members of the state utility commission to revise rates to more accurately and efficiently compensate distributed energy generation, in a move that staff said could help drive an additional 1,000 megawatts of new community distributed generation. The staff recommends options that would allow developers and customers…
New Jersey has enacted legislation expanding the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 50 percent by 2030 and phasing out the solar renewable energy certificate (SREC) program by 2021 to establish a new or modified framework to support solar development. The move addresses an impending oversupply of SRECs, providing a near-term boost to keep the solar industry growth while the state crafts a long-term plan.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 20 authorized a subsidiary of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to acquire a 49-percent stake in Cedar Point Wind LLC and Silver State Solar Power North LLC from Enbridge Holdings (Power) LLC. Cedar Point owns a 252-megawatt wind farm in Colorado, while Silver State owns a 52-megawatt…
The Delaware Public Service Commission on July 17 approved the second tranche of Delmarva Power & Light Company’s request for proposal to buy renewable energy credits, or RECs, from wind generation facilities of up to 80-megawatt capacity beginning in 2019-2020 for a 10-15 year term. The RFP is a result of a merger between Exelon…
Growing large-scale deployments of energy storage systems, driven by declining costs and evolving technology, has opened an opportunity for these systems to compete with traditional natural gas peaker plants. Standalone storage makes for a resource-agnostic solution that would enable utilities to charge up as required using the available energy mix. As improvements in technology allow battery systems to provide power for longer periods, utilities will benefit as they must manage a growing share of renewables while meeting peak demand.
Hawaiian Electric Company Inc., Hawaii Electric Light Company Inc., and Maui Electric Company Limited filed an integrated grid planning report that takes a new approach to advance the island’s clean energy goals, according to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission’s July 12 press release. The report proposes to combine “historically separate planning processes” for generation, transmission,…
Kansas electric utilities have enough capacity to meet the goal of 20 percent renewables by 2020 under the state’s voluntary renewable energy program, according to a July 11 report from the Kansas Corporation Commission staff. The staff said that compliance filings show that reporting utilities have surplus renewable energy credits to meet the 2020 goal…
