Dominion executives said in an interview this week that battery storage has the potential to improve the resiliency of the electrical grid

California, long a progressive leader on renewable energy and climate change mitigation, has neglected a key market segment for renewable energy: the “community-scale,” or “wholesale distributed generation” (DG), market. This market segment is defined as projects below 20 megawatts that connect to the distribution grid and export power to the grid for sale.

Dustin Yellin, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist whose intricate 3D photomontages adorn the likes of New York’s Lincoln Center, wants to draw your gaze to climate change. Not in a subtle way, either. He plans to stand an oil supertanker on its end in the ground—a structure soaring 1,000 feet into the air.

The four proposed central Virginia lithium-ion projects will cost about $33 million to build and offer 5-years’ worth of test data, according to Dominion.

This week, San José’s Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) which is called San José Clean Energy (SJCE) and EDP Renewables SA (EDPR), through its fully owned subsidiary EDP Renewables North America LLC (EDPR NA), signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for 100 MW of new solar energy capacity and 10 MW of battery storage at the Sonrisa Solar Park in Fresno County, California. The project is anticipated to be operational in 2022.

The Trump administration cast the fate of the nation’s first major offshore wind farm into doubt by extending an environmental review for the $2.8 billion Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts.

According to Vattenfall, the project will help provide less pronounced energy peaks and an overall more efficient use of energy infrastructure

U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt has unveiled changes to the implementing regulations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that Interior says is “designed to increase transparency and effectiveness and bring the administration of the Act into the 21st century.”

It may be time to start building power plants in Texas again.

The electric utility industry has been buffeted by two recent trends that threaten to upend the profitability, and in some cases the future viability of, those companies that are slow to adapt to a new, rapidly changing landscape. Specifically, in the past decade, the industry has had to grapple with both waning demand and the growth of distributed energy generation.

When two U.K. power plants shut down almost simultaneously in London’s first major blackout for a decade, it triggered a storm of questions about how to avoid another failure.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), on behalf of the Australian government, has announced up to $40 million in funding towards the deployment of a pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project in South Australia.

The financial benefits of buying and selling locally produced energy from rooftop solar, wind turbines and batteries within communities have been revealed in a test case run by energy tech firm LO3 Energy.

Freyr AS, a startup planning to build one of Europe’s first battery gigafactories in Norway, has a bigger vision for the region: a “Nordic Battery Belt.”

Walmart Inc. sued Tesla Inc., claiming it failed to live up to industry standards in the installation of solar panels on top of hundreds of stores, resulting in multiple fires across the U.S.

Ireland is set to add 5.8 GW of non-hydro renewable power capacity over the next decade to reach a total 9.6 GW by 2030.

Lekela announced that it has reached financial close on its first wind project in Egypt, West Bakr Wind. Construction will begin shortly, delivering 250 MW of clean, reliable power at a highly competitive price.

Duke Energy Renewables, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, announced that nine solar projects developed with SolAmerica Energy totaling 14.1 megawatts (MW) have begun commercial operations across central Georgia under Georgia Power’s Renewable Energy Development Initiative. These projects bring Duke Energy Renewables, operating through its REC Solar business unit, to 27.4 MW of solar projects in Georgia.

After a 23-year wind farm construction hiatus, work on a 2nd Cherokee County wind farm has begun. Developed by San Diego based EDF Renewables, the 200-megawatt (MW) Glaciers Edge Wind Project north of Marcus is scheduled to be on line by the end of 2019.

With its original commissioning dating back to 2008, NextEra’s 150-megawatt (MW) Endeavor Wind Energy Center I & II projects in Osceola County are undergoing a prudent re-powering process. Blattner Energy construction crews moved into the Osceola County wind farm area this spring and started work. Blatter Energy is an Avon, Minnesota based heavy construction contractor.

In a statement, SolarEdge Technologies announced that the company's founder and co-chairman, Guy Sella has passed away.

This week Aman, Jordan-based Philadelphia Solar announced that the 8.2-MW solar PV project that it installed at the Abdali Medical Center in Jordan has entered commercial operation.

Last week, the Hawaiian Electric Companies began Hawai‘i’s largest procurement effort for renewable energy resources to end the use of coal and reduce reliance on imported oil for power generation, moving the state closer to its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

Brazil has included four hydropower plants among the projects that will receive support as part of the country's investment partnerships program, called Programa de Parcerias de Investimentos or PPI. 

One evening last year, David Burek noticed charred wood and a burning smell in his attic, near his young sons’ bedroom. He climbed a ladder and saw a melted connector wire from the solar panels installed on the roof of his North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, home. Firefighters rushed over and discovered that flames had burned through the shingles, the roof and a support beam. Luckily, a recent rain had doused it.

The Uruguayan government agency Instituto Antarctico Uruguayo (IAU) is collaborating with ABB, Uruguayan utility company UTE and the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) to provide a second solar power installation at the IAU’s research base in the Antarctic.

Europeans can massively expand low-cost solar generation just by tapping the space over their heads.

Last week, Houston, TX Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that Sunnyside Energy, led by developer Dori Wolfe of Wolfe Energy LLC, has won a competition to be considered to repurpose a 240-acre former landfill in Sunnyside. Subject to meeting certain terms and conditions, the team will construct one of the largest urban solar farms in Texas., if not the largest.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the U.S. has issued an original operating license to Kenai Hydro LLC for its proposed 5-MW Grant Lake Hydroelectric Project in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska.

In conjunction with North America’s Smart Energy Week, LG Electronics (LG) is underscoring its role as a top player within the U.S. residential solar market at the 2019 Solar Power International Conference.

Ameren Missouri, a unit of Ameren Corp., filed plans with the Missouri Public Service Commission to build three solar + storage facilities across Missouri

It will be used to supplement electricity from the grid, as well as cogeneration from biogas, which is already generated on-site from wastewater treatment

NorthWestern Energy has announced plans to upgrade its 8-MW Madison Powerhouse with the installation of four new turbine-generator units.

Minnesota’s largest utility wants to change how the state calculates its trailblazing “value of solar” rate as it faces a potential spike in payments to community solar operators.

A utility worker at the Delta 6 wind park in Brazil has been injured following yet another collapse of a General Electric (GE) turbine, bringing the total number of turbines to have failed in the America’s to five in 2019.

The Clean Energy Regulator of Australia has approved enough capacity to guarantee that the large-scale Renewable Energy Target of 33,000 GWh of additional renewable energy will be met in 2020.

France’s Neoen SA has outlined plans to build a giant renewables complex in South Australia, including battery storage with up to nine times more capacity than the Tesla Inc. design at its nearby Hornsdale plant, which is billed as the world’s largest lithium-ion battery.

Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc. announces that the 290-MW Nam Ngiep 1 hydropower plant has begun commercial operations.

The world’s largest battery could soon be storing solar energy deep in the heart of Texas oil country.

This week, Canadian Solar said that it has won three solar power contracts with Alberta’s Ministry of Infrastructure, for a total of 94 megawatts (MWp) of solar power system in southeast Alberta, with an average contracted PPA price of 48.05 Canadian dollars [US 36.27] per MWh. When in operation in 2021, these solar plants will provide 55 percent of the electricity needs for Alberta provincial government.

California-based solar developer Sunpin Solar said that Direct Energy Business, a subsidiary of Centrica PLC, signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the full output of the recently completed 96.75-MW DC / 74.8-MW AC ColGreen North Shore Power Plant.

This week LONGi announced that it would be supplying modules to what it says is the largest “bifacial+tracker” power generation project in the United States. The 224-MW project will be built in Mitchell County, Georgia and is expected to be complete this year.

As renewable energy proliferates, major players like Hitachi, ABB and GE are seeing value in combining grid and generation business units.

An onsite solar PV system in now operational at the most advanced cement factory in Cambodia.

While solar roads have been criticized as impractical and inefficient, a Georgia foundation says they will continue to be part of its research lab for greener highways.

The Lithuanian Business Support Agency (LSBA) has granted €235,000 (US$267,500) to support development of an experimental floating solar photovoltaic power plant at the existing 900-MW Kruonis pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in Lithuania.

The Trump administration imposed a tariff on steel imports last year to get companies to buy more American metal. In some ways, the duty has the U.S. solar business doing the exact opposite.

This week JinkoSolar held an opening ceremony at its new manufacturing facility in Jacksonville, Florida. The facility made headlines when it was announced due to the fact that the Chinese company decided to set up manufacturing in the U.S. in response to solar tariffs that are put on solar cells and modules imported from China. To date, Jinko is the only Chinese-owned solar manufacturer to set up a facility in the U.S.

Two large-scale solar farms are set to make Warrington Borough Council the first local authority in the UK to produce all its own electricity from clean energy.

Reaching the remote Havasupai community of Supai, Arizona is not a journey for the faint of heart. Surrounded entirely by the Grand Canyon, this remote Native American reservation is either an eight-mile hike or mule trek from the closest road, or a helicopter ride to the bottom.