Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on March 16 announced the selection of 21 large-scale solar, wind, and energy storage projects totaling 1,278 megawatts in the state’s latest annual solicitation for large-scale renewable energy capacity. The awards, which represent $1 billion in state investment, include projects that offered bids 23 percent lower than those received three years…...
The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment on March 13 granted a permit, allowing Canisteo Wind Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Invenergy LLC, to construct a 290.7-megawatt wind generating facility in Steuben County. The project is expected to generate up to $60 million in local property tax revenues over 20…...
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems on March 10 announced a contract with Utah’s Intermountain Power Agency for the first advanced class gas turbines designed to facilitate the transition of a power plant in central Utah from coal, to natural gas and ultimately to renewable hydrogen fuel. The transition will begin in 2025, with a fuel mix…...
Indiana lawmakers approved legislation on March 10 that requires utilities to provide at least three years advance notice to the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission before retiring a legacy generation resource. A public utility may not retire otherwise transfer the ownership of a reliable capacity resource before May 2021 without receiving regulatory approval. The measure comes…...
Democratic Governor Kate Brown signed an executive order on March 10, setting a goal for the state to achieve 45 percent emissions reductions by 2035 and 80 percent by 2050, relative to 1990 levels. The order, which comes after the legislature failed to pass a cap-and-trade bill for the second year in a row, directs…...
The final version of Virginia’s Clean Economy Act cleared the state’s House of Delegates and Senate on March 7, and now awaits Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s signature. The legislation codifies the 2050 clean energy goal that Governor Northam laid out in an executive order issued last September. The bill calls for more wind and solar…...
Democratic Governor Phil Murphy on Feb. 28 announced the state’s offshore wind procurement schedule, which calls for the next 1.2-gigawatt solicitation to be opened by September, with an award made by the second quarter of 2021. The plan calls for four more rounds in 2022, 2024, 2026 and 2028 to achieve the state’s 7.5-gigawatt offshore…
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. expects more than 82,400 megawatts of resource capacity to be available to meet the projected peak demand of 76,696 megawatts for the upcoming summer season from June through September, according to a March 5 announcement. The preliminary summer assessment anticipates record electric use this summer, with grid operations…
Democratic Governor Michelle Grisham signed a suite of bills on March 3 including legislation that reinstates the solar tax incentive that expired in 2016, helping the state move toward its goal achieving 50 percent renewable energy 2030. A second bill provides that transmission line projects qualify for industrial revenue bonds available through cities and municipalities,…...
The Michigan Public Service Commission authorized rate increases totaling $417.5 million in five electric and natural gas rate cases last year, $245.5 million less than what the utilities requested, according to the agency’s annual report issued on March 2. The increases were driven largely by investments needed to replace aging infrastructure to improve safety and…
The Florida Power & Light Company received approval to launch the nation’s largest community solar program called SolarTogether, according to a March 3 news release. Under the program, the utility will install 1,490 megawatts of solar at 20 new facilities across its service territory by mid-2021. The initiative is projected to yield long-term savings of…
Senators Lisa Murkowski, a Republican representing Alaska, and Joe Manchin, a Democrat representing West Virginia, unveiled a bipartisan legislative package on Feb. 27 that compiles more than 50 energy-related measures reported by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year. The comprehensive bill supports innovative energy technologies covering a range of topics including energy efficiency,…