Today’s topics include the impact of section 201 tariffs on module supply and prices. Will they go up? We’ll also talk about developing the next generation solar workforce based on a new report about energy jobs in the U.S.

A new LBNL report offers concrete suggestions about what investments today will be most beneficial in tomorrow’s renewable energy future.

This week Autogrid announced that it entered into a partnership with Swell Energy to provide software for managing Swell’s growing fleet of distributed energy resources (DER).

This week, EVgo, a provider of public electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging stations in the U.S., said it was accelerating the pace at which it is constructing fast chargers and will add hundreds of EVgo fast chargers in California before the end of 2018.

According to the Microgrid Market Growth Potential - Industry Size Outlook Report 2024, the microgrid market is expected to reach $19 billion by 2024, nearly five times the original valuation of this business space in 2016.

Excitement over storing electricity, and expectations for new market rules in the U.S. promise great changes in energy. Instead of hype and speculation, this blog offers a preview of those market changes. For those who are waiting for FERC Order 841 to sort things out, ISO-New England has published something you might want to see.

As part of its acquisition of Maximum Solar, Ameresco said, it will further develop in-house services to operate and maintain solar facilities. Maximum Solar currently manages about 150 MW of solar throughout the northeastern U.S.

In early December, I put out a call to the online energy professionals community to find participants for the world’s first Fantasy Energy League. Perhaps I saw the pending end of the 2018 fantasy football season and I wanted something to fill the coming void, or maybe I was just curious to see who else wanted to approach energy projections from a gamified lens. Either way, I put out my energy-industry bat signal for the Fantasy Energy League only to see my email inbox and my Twitter feed blow up.

Gravity Renewables has acquired the 10.5-MW Dahowa Hydroelectric Project, located on the Batten Kill River in Greenwich, Washington County, N.Y.

Commercial property owners with existing energy storage systems, or owners considering implementing an energy storage system, may be able to benefit from a recent order by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) allowing utility companies to pay customers who agree to rely upon their energy storage systems and dispatch the energy during peak events.

Fossil fuels, long regarded for their high-energy return on investment, are not as efficient as once thought. In fact, their final yields are not much better than those of renewable options, according to a new study.

On Tuesday, July 23 at the HydroVision International keynote, Vice President Marla Barnes asked the audience to close their eyes and envision their next vacation. “Are you sitting on a beach? Are you packing your family into the car for a wild adventure? What do you see,” she asked.

GE Renewable Energy announced at HydroVision that it has signed two hydropower contracts in the U.S. one for FirstLight’s Northfield Mountain project and one for PG&E’s Caribou One hydropower station.

Last week, Corvias announced that it had entered the final phase of its geothermal installation and energy upgrades effort at the U.S. Army’s Fort Polk in West-Central Louisiana, a milestone that once complete will not only modernize the aging infrastructure but save the Army significant money and benefit military families.

A new report from Navigant Research released this week says that revenue from device and data management technologies could grow from approximately $14.8 billion in 2018 to more than $22.1 billion in 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6%.

ENGIE Storage has announced it will supply and operate a 19 MW/38 MWh portfolio of six energy storage sites that will contribute to the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target Program and participate in ISO-New England wholesale markets.

San Diego-based biotechnology company, Organovo Holdings (Organovo), has announced a tie up with a Melbourne research institute to help develop regenerative medicine in Australia.

Attending the Ocean Energy Europe event in Paris recently the considerable presence of developers and manufacturers signalled a long-term transformation for the sector, which - for tidal stream in particular - is now emerging as a technological reality.

HydroEvent.com, the one-stop location for all things related to the world’s largest hydro event, is up and running for HydroVision International 2016. The conference and events are scheduled for July 26-29 in Minneapolis, Minn. at the Minneapolis Convention Center. 

According to the Fish Passage Center website, adult fall chinook counted at Bonneville Dam were 212,618 as of Sept. 3, the second highest on record since counting began in 1938.

Lignum Vitae North America LLC will donate bearings to any of the 20 teams advancing to the next phase in the Wave Energy Prize Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Program.  

As the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) of Zambia and Zimbabwe seeks to secure funding for the 2,400-MW Batoka Gorge hydroelectric facility, the region is experiencing rolling blackouts based on reduced inflow to existing hydroelectric generating facilities. 

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has signed Flemish wave energy developer Laminaria to test its marine hydrokinetic (MHK) energy device at EMEC’s grid-connected wave test site at Billia Croo, off the west coast of Orkney, Scotland.
 

Marine hydrokinetics (MHK) company BioPower Systems (BPS) reports it deployed its 250 kW bioWAVE pilot demonstration unit, Dec. 16, in the Southern Ocean off the southeastern coast of Australia near Port Fairy, Victoria.
 

Capping a busy February for the European Marine Energy Centre is an announcement that tidal turbine manufacturer Tocardo has signed a 20-year deal for testing at EMEC's array in Orkney.

Less than two weeks after 175 nations signed the pivotal Paris Agreement on climate change, a question lingers: What happens now?

A report released this month by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) indicates hydropower development in India can play a crucial role in the country’s sustainable energy security if sites for new installed capacity -- among other things -- are accessible, stable and affordable.
 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has signed a memorandum agreement with the Southeastern Power Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority and Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, Inc., to perform a variety of work at Corps hydropower projects.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has approved a supreme decree to carry out final design studies for the 3,251-MW El Chepete and 425-MW El Bala hydro projects in La Paz department.

The U.S. Department of Energy released the long-awaited Hydropower Vision report -- alongside $9.8 million in funding for hydroelectric power -- earlier today at HydroVision International 2016 in Minneapolis.

The U.S. Department of Energy released the long-awaited Hydropower Vision report -- alongside $9.8 million in funding for hydroelectric power -- earlier today at HydroVision International 2016 in Minneapolis.

Brazil's Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources, Ibama, has decided not to award an environmental license for the Sao Luiz do Tapajos hydroelectric plant, effectively ending development of the controversial 8,000 MW project.

Brazil's Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources, Ibama, has decided not to award an environmental license for the Sao Luiz do Tapajos hydroelectric plant, effectively ending development of the controversial 8,000 MW project.

Zambia and Zimbabwe have appointed the African Development Bank (AfDB) as lead financial adviser for the construction of the 2,400-MW Batoka Gorge hydropower project, according to Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) Chief Executive Officer, Munyaradzi Munodawafa.
 

In a portion of her statement delivered yesterday to the European Union, United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May said, “I hereby notify the European Council in accordance with Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union of the United Kingdom's intention to withdraw from the European Union.”
 

New research shows that small run-of-river (ROR) hydropower projects can provide just as much baseload stability as reservoir-based hydropower plants while being highly responsive to real-time grid and market changes. This means that as the U.S. seeks to expand renewable energy sources without compromising reliability, one option is more flexible (and profitable) hydropower that doesn’t involve dams.

The partners will work together to develop projects in Spain, the Middle East and South Africa. The projects could add several gigawatt hours of storage capacity by 2022.

Oriden – a play on the English word “origin” and the Japanese word “denki” meaning ‘electricity’ – is the start of a new type of power generation organization. 

After announcing nearly a gigawatt of new clean-energy projects in February, APS is now seeking proposals to build two of them in different parts of the state. The first request for proposals (RFP) seeks partners to add batteries to existing APS solar plants in rural Arizona, storing their power for use after the panels stop producing each day. A second partner is being sought to develop a large (100-MW) solar plant paired with an equal amount of storage, to bring more clean energy to customers after dark. Both of these projects will provide APS customers with more solar after sunset, serving their evening energy needs with an even cleaner resource mix.

Genex Power Limited has secured all environmental approvals required to develop the 250-MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project (K2-Hydro).

This weekend at its “Earth Day Every Day Fair,” Green Mountain Power announced an energy vision to have a 100 percent carbon free energy supply by 2025 and 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. The utility said the move is among the most aggressive carbon targets for a utility of GMP’s size in the country.

Through a strategic partnership, Ford will develop an all-new, next-generation battery electric vehicle for Ford's growing EV portfolio using Rivian's skateboard platform

Solar energy is now providing the electricity for an entire village in Togo of 4000 people, powering streetlights, homes, schools and shops.

Climate-conscious Vermont utility, Green Mountain Power, is partnering with Tesla Inc. as it aspires to install battery systems in every home it serves.

Vermont joined the ranks of other New England states that provide incentives for electric vehicles with Gov. Phil Scott’s signature on June 14 on a yearly transportation bill.

Nigerian distributed utility company, Arnergy, announced it has raised $9 Million in a Series A round of funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures with participation from the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund), EDFI ElectriFI and All On.

Given the diverse benefits that microgrids provide – reductions in energy costs, business risk, and carbon emissions, and increases in resiliency and power reliability – one wonders why discussion of microgrids has only started to take off recently.

Commercial property owners with existing energy storage systems, or owners considering implementing an energy storage system, may be able to benefit from a recent order by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) allowing utility companies to pay customers who agree to rely upon their energy storage systems and dispatch the energy during peak events.

According to a review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data just released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), within the past month, the agency has dramatically revised its three-year forecast for changes in the U.S. electrical generating capacity mix. Sharp declines are foreseen for fossil fuels and nuclear power while accompanied by even stronger growth in renewable energy (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) than earlier projected.

Fossil fuels, long regarded for their high-energy return on investment, are not as efficient as once thought. In fact, their final yields are not much better than those of renewable options, according to a new study.