Today’s topics include predictions about what will happen with the U.S. solar trade case – will there be tariffs? If there are tariffs, how will they affect the solar market? Caution: distributors and system integrators. We’ll also look at supply chain…
Tag: Utility Scale
Brazil Vows to End Amazonian Mega-Dam Construction; Moves Toward Wind and Solar Energy
After years of criticism, the government of Brazil announced in January that it will end the era of building big hydropower dams in the Amazon. In an article in the O Globo newspaper, Paulo Pedrosa, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Ener…
On China Solar: Top Three Issues Facing the World’s Largest PV Market
According to the most recent data, China produced 170,000 tons of multicrystalline silicon during the first three quarters of 2017, a year-over-year increase of 17 percent. The country produced 62 GW of silicon chips during the same period, up 44 perce…
Multi-Billion Dollar Plan to Re-Power Puerto Rico Includes DERs, Renewables
If Hurricane Sandy, during which millions of New Yorkers lost power and damage to the electric grid was substantial, was the spark that ignited New York’s “Reforming the Energy Vision, aka REV” then perhaps Hurricane Maria will be the spark that ignite…
The View from Washington On Energy Regulations
And interview with Emily Fisher, Vice President, Law, and Corporate Secretary at Edison Electric Institute about the view from Washington following a Thursday, December 7 Plenary discussion at POWER-GEN International. Fisher describes the two diff…
3@3 on Solar PV: POWER-GEN, Energy Imbalance Market, Solar Trade Case
Today’s topics include highlights from POWER-GEN, the largest show for the power generation industry, the energy imbalance market, Azeb Asnake, the solar trade case and more.
GE’s 12,000 Job Cuts Highlight Uneasy Shift to Renewable Energy
After spending years building up its gas-power business, General Electric Co. is trying to figure out how to keep pace in a world that’s no longer all that interested in fossil fuels.
China Three Gorges Starts World’s Biggest Floating Solar Project
China Three Gorges New Energy Co. started building the 150-megawatt project in July and part of the plant has connected to the grid, according to a Dec. 10 statement. The project features panels fixed to floats on the surface of a lake that formed afte…
Trump Will Have to Wait Another Month for a Plan to Rescue Coal
The Trump administration, which was looking to have a plan in place this week to bail out America’s coal country, will instead have to wait until the new year.
Kevin McIntyre, sworn in Thursday as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a…
Clean Energy Leaders Fear Brutal Impact on Renewable Growth As US Tax Reform Takes Shape
In the early morning hours of Dec 2, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate passed their version of a tax reform bill. Unlike the version of the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate bill makes no changes to the Investment Tax Credit (ITC)…
As Mexican Solar Auction Prices Scrape Bottom, Will Quality be Threatened?
The latest round of solar auctions in Mexico yielded an unheard-of average price of US $20.57 per MW, including a $17.70 per MW bid by Enel, a coup for the government. However, as developers and EPCs scramble to under-bid one another in the current mar…
As Mexican Solar Auction Prices Scrape Bottom, Will Quality be Threatened?
The latest round of solar auctions in Mexico yielded an unheard-of average price of US $20.57 per MW, including a $17.70 per MW bid by Enel, a coup for the government. However, as developers and EPCs scramble to under-bid one another in the current mar…
3@3 on Solar PV: China’s Solar Market, POWER-GEN, Tesla
China on Pace for Record Solar Capacity as Forecasts Jump
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, is poised to install a record amount of solar-power capacity this year, prompting researchers to boost forecasts as much as 80 percent.
About 54 gigawatts will be put in place this year, Bloomberg New Ene…
Proposed Tax Reform Bill Has ‘Disastrous Implications’ for Renewable Energy
Last week, both houses of the U.S. congress passed versions of a tax reform bill. As readers might recall, tax reform was one of the platforms on which Trump ran for president and getting a major tax reform bill passed would be a big win for him. Each …
3@3 on Solar PV: Pricing, Grid Defection, Disaster Relief
Today’s topics include PV module pricing and how the trade case is already impacting prices despite that fact that nothing has been made official yet. As Paula says, “no news is bad news.”
Egypt Draws $1.8B To Develop 1.4 Gigawatts of Solar Capacity
Egypt’s fledgling solar industry attracted $1.8 billion of investment, largely from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp.
The EBRD is backing 16 photovoltaic projects, and the IFC is financing 13 in the sunny North African nation with a combined capacity of 1.4 gigawatts. They are writing loans for $380 million and $203 million, respectively, and have mobilized the rest from co-investors.
Tesla and Vestas Partner in $160 Million Australian Project
A novel $160 million renewable energy project combining wind, solar and storage technologies reached financial close.
Do Solar Owners Love Solar the Way Gun Owners Love Guns?
There has been talk for years about the need for the industry to mobilize rooftop solar owners into one group that together would represent one large voice in favor of solar-friendly local, state and federal policy. With more than 1,000,0000 installations in the U.S., that voice would certainly be loud and strong.
A loud, centralized voice couldn’t be more important in U.S. politics right now, where the Trump administration is eying tariffs, policies and rules that could crush the solar industry. One such initiative is the recent DOE directive that is looking to re-write the rules around compensation for power plants, a move that would pay solar and wind facilities less than coal or nuclear generation for the energy they produce.
3@3 on Solar PV: The Solar Vortex, Renewables, and Puerto Rico
Today’s topics include an examination of how two large and looming events in the U.S. power industry could seriously undermine the growth of renewables. Plus, how the industry is mobilizing to offer new hope to hurricane-damaged islands.