Energize Weekly, August 21, 2019 Portugal’s first photovoltaic (PV) solar auction has led to a record low-cost contract of $16.54 a megawatt-hour (MWh), narrowly besting the previous record, a recent Brazilian power purchase agreement (PPA) for $16.95 a MWh. “With the levelized cost of utility-scale PV in Southern Europe now…
Energize Weekly, August 21, 2019 Xcel Energy has received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to turn its Renewable Connect pilot into a full-time program and merge it with another of the company’s renewable programs, Windsource. Xcel plans to add 180 megawatts (MW) of wind generation and 50 MW…
Energize Weekly, August 14, 2019 The U.S. wind industry hit a record for construction and project development in the second quarter of 2019 with nearly 42,000 megawatts (MW) of projects being built or in advance development, according to an American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) market report. The 20,908 MW of…
Energize Weekly, August 14, 2019 The annual pace of residential energy storage in Europe is set to double in the next six years with total of 6.6 gigawatts of capacity on the continent by 2024 – a fivefold increase from 2018, according to a Wood Mackenzie analysis. Annual deployments are…
Energize Weekly, August 7, 2019 Corporate solar acquisitions had a near-record-breaking year in 2018 led by Apple and Amazon, according to industry trade group Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). In all, 1,144 megawatts (MW) were installed, the second highest year after 2017. The figure includes projects owned by companies and…
Energize Weekly, July 31, 2019 Global solar photovoltaic (PV) installations are set to reach a record 114.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2019, up nearly 18 percent from 2018, according to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The Chinese PV market, the world’s biggest, is slowing down as the government makes changes to its…
Energize Weekly, July 31, 2019 After more than two years of sometimes acrimonious negotiations, fights before a state utilities commission and lawsuits, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has agreed to terms allowing one of its rural Colorado cooperatives to leave next year. Four days after filing the agreement with…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 Two American Electric Power (AEP) subsidiaries are seeking state regulatory approvals to purchase nearly 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of wind power under development in Oklahoma at a cost of $2 billion. The subsidiaries – Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) and Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO)…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 Zurich-based ABB is paying $470 million to unload its solar inverter business to Italian solar inverter maker Fimer Spa, as price pressures dog the market. ABB said it will take an after-tax nonoperational charge of $470 million with about 75 percent going to Fimer as…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 In a sign of the shifting fortunes in the utility industry, on the same day came news of the largest coal-fired plant closure in nearly a decade and the largest U.S. offshore wind contracts ever. On July 18, American Electric Power (AEP) agreed to close…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 Natural gas, despite growing concerns about its role creating greenhouse gases, continues to provide “quick wins” for carbon emissions reductions and clean air improvements, according to a study by the International Energy Agency (IEA). In the United States, for example, there has been a 70…
Energize Weekly, July 17, 2019 Chinese renewable energy investment dropped 39 percent in the first half of 2019 to $28.8 billion when compared with the same period in 2018, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The 2019 six-month figure was the lowest since 2013 and is the result of…
Energize Weekly, July 17, 2019 Global power mergers and acquisitions (M&A) reached $158 billion in 2018, making it the second most active in the last five years, according to GlobalData, a London-based data and analytics company. The number of deals was down a little more than 4 percent to 622…
Energize Weekly, July 17, 2019 New wind energy projects worldwide are forecast to average 71 gigawatts (GW) a year from 2019 to 2023 and 76 GW a year from 2024 to 2028, according to market report by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The report also upgraded wind energy additions by…
Energize Weekly, July 10, 2019 The natural gas industry is making $1.3 trillion in infrastructure investments to create a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market but those capital expenditures may be at risk from competitive renewable energy prices and the prospect of climate regulations, according to Global Energy Monitor. The…
Energize Weekly, July 10, 2019 Utilities are moving to close coal-fired power plants and add more renewable generation, but the large role played by new gas-fired power plants is drawing fire from environmental groups, arguing that no more fossil fuel-based units should be built. In the last two weeks the…
Energize Weekly, July 3, 2019 After a record first quarter for photovoltaic (PV) solar installations in the U.S., the market is poised to install 13 gigawatts (GW) of PV in 2019 – a 25 percent increase over 2018, according to energy consultant Wood Mackenzie. In the first quarter of 2019,…
Energize Weekly, July 3, 2019 Renewable electricity generation surpassed coal-fired generation for the first time in April, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). Renewable generation accounted for 23 percent of electricity generation in April compared to 20 percent for coal. “This outcome reflects both seasonal factors as well…
Energize Weekly, July 3, 2019 Rural electric cooperatives, which get much of their power from coal-fired power plants and are among the leading emitters of greenhouse gases, are hampered in shifting to clean energy by coal-related debt, according to a study by the Center for Rural Affairs. The study by…
Energize Weekly, July 3, 2019 The cost of transforming the U.S. electric grid to totally renewable energy in the next 10 to 20 years would be $4.5 trillion given current technology, according to a study by energy-and-industry consultant Wood Mackenzie. At a time of competing climate plans among Democratic presidential…
Energize Weekly, June 26, 2019 A bill passed by the New York state legislature sets the goal of boosting renewable power, including poorer communities in the transition to clean energy and getting the state to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 for all economic activity. The legislation, passed on June 20,…
Energize Weekly, June 19, 2019 Some of the most robust state solar energy plans are in states such as Massachusetts and New Jersey, but the most robust solar resource is, perhaps not surprisingly, the Southwest based on performance analysis by the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). In the analysis of…
Energize Weekly, June 19, 2019 A multipronged, draft energy plan aimed at getting New Jersey to 100 percent clean energy by 2050 was unveiled June 10 by the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU). The plan looks to address transportation, energy consumption by buildings, grid modernization, as well as a…
Energize Weekly, June 19, 2019 Wind generation, which has been the dominate form of renewable energy for corporate clean energy in power purchase agreements, is running “neck and neck” with solar in 2019, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). Globally, companies had signed deals for 2.8 gigawatts (GW) of…
Energize Weekly, June 12, 2019 Massachusetts energy officials have proposed doubling the state’s offshore wind capacity by adding another 1,600 megawatts (MW) by 2030. The state has already awarded one 800-MW offshore project and is set to select another 800-MW project in the fall. After an economic analysis and a…
Energize Weekly, June 12, 2019 U.S. energy storage installations hit a quarterly record in the first three months of 2019 with 148.8 megawatts (MW) of new capacity, according to a market report by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Energy Storage Association (ESA). The first quarter of 2019 installations…
Energize Weekly, June 12, 2019 Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MPHS) and Magnum Development announced a plan at the end of May to develop the world’s biggest clean energy storage facility – 1,000 megawatts – using a range of technologies and salt caverns in Utah. The aim is to provide energy…
Energize Weekly, June 12, 2019 While the deployment of carbon-free electricity generation advanced in 2018, many key technologies are lagging in the pace needed to reach international goals, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). “The world is currently not on track to meet the main energy-related components of the…
Energize Weekly, June 5, 2019 Global wind-turbine orders were up 7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, an 875-megawatt (MW) increase—breaking the record set in the first quarter of 2018, according to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The Wood Mackenzie market report found that strong orders from China and the Americas…
Energize Weekly, June 5, 2019 The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has rejected a multi-million dollar offer by Guzman Energy to buy three of Tri-State’s coal-fired plants, close them down and supply the association with electricity from a generation mix heavily tilted toward renewables. Guzman, a Miami-based energy contractor and…
Energize Weekly, June 5, 2019 Global costs for new renewable energy fell in 2018 for eight major types of electric generation, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Costs between 2017 and 2018 dropped from as much as 26 percent for concentrating solar power (CSP) to 1 percent for…
Energize Weekly, May 29, 2019 Projects across the country are set to tap into the potential hydropower of dams not currently generating electricity with 32 dams in 12 states slated to add a total of 330 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). There…
Energize Weekly, May 29, 2019 After a three-year slide, global energy investment stabilized in 2018 at just more than $1.8 trillion dollars—as spending on oil, natural gas and coal increased, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. Investments in renewable generation and energy efficiency, however, stalled in 2018, according to the…
Energize Weekly, May 29, 2019 Xcel Energy reached a settlement with a group of clean energy and labor organizations to close two Minnesota coal-fired power plants and clear the way for it to buy a natural gas-fired plant. Under the agreement signed May 20, Xcel will shutter the 511-megawatt (MW)…
Energize Weekly, May 22, 2019 Photovoltaic (PV) solar installation in the U.S. hit two million in 2019, according to data from the market analysis consultant Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). It took nearly 40 years to reach the one-million-installation mark in 2016 and…
Energize Weekly, May 22, 2019 The site of a former Massachusetts coal-fired power plant is slated to be turned into a $650 million relay for electricity produced offshore, according to energy developer Anbaric. The Anbaric Renewable Energy Center, built on the site of the old Brayton Point power plant in…
Energize Weekly, May 22, 2019 Wind farm projects are forecast to swell in 2019 as developers look to get their projects in the pipeline before federal tax credits vanish, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA is projecting that wind projects will double over 2017 to 12.7…
Energize Weekly, May 15, 2019 The nearly two-decade, year-on-year growth in global renewable energy generating capacity stalled in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The 180 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity—in wind, photovoltaic (PV) solar, hydro, bioenergy and other renewable sources—added in 2018 was about the same as…
Energize Weekly, May 15, 2019 Summer electricity generation in 2019 is forecast to be down 2 percent from last summer to 1,168 million megawatt-hours (MWh) with a sharp drop in how much of that power is provided by coal-fired plants. The energy mix for the summer highlights the ongoing shift…
Energize Weekly, May 8, 2019 Renewable energy generation in April and May will put more electricity on the gird than coal-fired power plants, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). It is the first time on record that renewable power sources—hydro, biomass, wind, solar and geothermal—have surpassed coal-fired generation,…
Energize Weekly, May 8, 2019 The Texas Renewable Energy Co-op (TREC) has received wholesale electricity bids for less than 3 cents a kilowatt-hour on 12-year contracts for its public non-profit participants, such as municipal and state agencies. The bidding process was managed by the Texas Energy Aggregation (TEA), which was…
Energize Weekly, May 8, 2019 MidAmerican Energy hit a one-day record for wind generation in April, producing enough electricity to serve 100 percent of its retail customers’ needs with renewable energy. The Des Moines-based utility—which serves 783,000 electric customers in Iowa, South Dakota and Illinois—generated 11,500 megawatt-hours (MWh) on April…
Energize Weekly, May 1, 2019 Massachusetts’s first offshore in project, two 400-megawatt (MW) installations in an area south of Martha’s Vineyard, has been given a green light by state regulators. The project by Vineyard Wind, which will sell its electricity to four distribution utilities, was approved by the Massachusetts Department…
Energize Weekly, May 1, 2019 The battle over coal-fired power plants and renewable energy is moving west, according to analyses by BTU Analytics, a Lakewood, Colo.-based energy consultant. About 81 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity has been closed at 696 units at 360 plants since 2008. In the early years, most…
Energize Weekly, May 1, 2019 Small wind turbines—at homes, farms and businesses—have increasingly been plugging into the grid and getting paid for the electricity they put on the wires—with the fastest growth in the Northeast. Net metering, which enables homeowners and commercial customers to be credited for electricity they put…
Energize Weekly, May 1, 2019 A push for clean electricity is sweeping western states with a burst of activity last week as Washington and Nevada adopted new standards and Colorado moved closer to approving a 100 percent net-zero-carbon target for 2050. California last September set a net-zero-carbon target by 2045.…
Energize Weekly, April 24, 2019 A total of 5,944 megawatts (MW) of wind turbines were installed in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2018, the third highest quarter on record, bringing total installed capacity for the year to 96,488 MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). A…
Energize Weekly, April 24, 2019 Vermont’s largest utility, Green Mountain Power, has set a goal of reaching 100 percent carbon-free generation by 2025 and 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. Green Mountain, which serves 264,000 customers or about 40 percent of the state, is already 90 percent carbon-free, getting the…
Energize Weekly, April 17, 2019 American cities are continuing to be a beacon for solar generation as the number of large municipalities with more than 50 megawatts (MW) installed has tripled to 23, while 45 cities have doubled their photovoltaic (PV) solar capacity. Those were among the findings in the…
Energize Weekly, April 17, 2019 The global energy storage market posted a record 120 percent year-on-year growth, with 6 gigawatt-hours (GWh) installed. The future looks strong with capacity growing thirteenfold by 2024, according to a Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables study. “From 2013 to 2018, we saw fledgling market growth”…
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