In a major clean energy benchmark, wind, solar, and hydro exceeded 100% of demand on California’s main grid for 69 of the past 75 days.

California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

In a major clean energy benchmark, wind, solar, and hydro exceeded 100% of demand on California’s main grid for 69 of the past 75 days.

May 21 update: Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering Mark Z. Jacobson continues to track California’s renewables performance – and it’s still exciting. In an update today on Twitter (X), Jacobson reports that California has now exceeded 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 45 days straight, and 69 out of 75:

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Source: electrek

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CAISO expects its resources will be able to meet forecasted demand plus an 18.5% reserve margin for all summer months

CAISO board approves $6.1B transmission plan, with focus on access to clean energy

The California Independent System Operator’s board on Thursday approved a $6.1 billion, 10-year transmission plan that includes projects to deliver offshore wind to customers.

Transmission projects to access clean energy resources total about $4.6 billion and are all in Pacific Gas & Electric’s service territory. Reliability-driven projects total about $1.5 billion.

Two offshore wind-related transmission projects in Northern California — costing an estimated $2.7 billion and $1.4 billion — will be open to competitive bidding. CAISO expects the projects, which include 500-kV transmission lines, will be start operating in the 2034-35 timeframe.

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Source: Utility Dive

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The US DOE unveiled a $71 million investment today, with $16 million allocated from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

US Department of Energy invests $71M in solar energy manufacturing projects

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In line with President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) unveiled a $71 million investment today, with $16 million allocated from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This investment aims to bolster research, development, and demonstration projects across the U.S. solar energy supply chain, addressing critical gaps in domestic manufacturing capacity.

Selected projects will focus on enhancing various aspects of the solar supply chain, including equipment, silicon ingots and wafers, and both silicon and thin-film solar cell manufacturing. Additionally, efforts will be made to explore new markets for solar technologies, such as dual-use photovoltaic applications, which encompass building-integrated PV and agrivoltaics.

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Source: Solar Quarter

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Swiss researchers have developed a solar energy method using synthetic quartz to achieve temperatures above 1,000°C for industrial processes

Smelting steel without fossil fuels: Solar power shatters the 1,000°C barrier for industrial heating

Instead of burning fossil fuels to reach the temperatures needed to smelt steel and cook cement, scientists in Switzerland want to use heat from the sun. The proof-of-concept study uses synthetic quartz to trap solar energy at temperatures over 1,000°C (1,832°F), demonstrating the method’s potential role in providing clean energy for carbon-intensive industries. A paper on the research was published on May 15 in the journal Device.

The Need for Decarbonization

“To tackle climate change, we need to decarbonize energy in general,” says corresponding author Emiliano Casati of ETH Zurich, Switzerland. “People tend to only think about electricity as energy, but in fact, about half of the energy is used in the form of heat.”

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Source: Sci Tech Daily

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Solar energy installation will decarbonize the city’s wastewater treatment plant and meet all its power needs

City of Arvin, California & Veolia North America break ground on innovative solar energy installation

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The City of Arvin, California and Veolia North America broke ground today on a new solar energy installation that will meet all the power needs of the city’s wastewater treatment plant and eliminate its greenhouse gas emissions from power generation. Since energy can account for as much as 30% of water treatment costs, this project provides an economic and environmental benefit.

Veolia has operated and maintained the City of Arvin’s wastewater treatment plant for more than a decade. Last year the city and Veolia began discussions about using renewable energy to reduce the cost and improve the reliability of the plant’s operation as part of Veolia’s GreenUp strategy, which aims to position Veolia as a driver of technological innovations. The project will generate one megawatt of electricity, or enough to power about 205 homes. The project is financed through a combination of low interest municipal financing and the Federal Inflation Reduction Act.

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Source: Clean Technica

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In March alone, solar accounted for 99.7% of capacity added, marking the seventh month in a row in which it provided more new US electrical generating capacity than any other energy source.

Solar was almost 100% of new electrical capacity added in the US in March

In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through March 31, 2024), FERC says 52 “units” of solar provided 2,833 MW of new domestic generating capacity in March or 99.72% of the total. The balance consisted of 3 MW each of new biomass and oil capacity plus 1 MW each of new hydropower and natural gas capacity.

For the first quarter of this year, solar accounted for 86.79% (or 6,497-MW) of new generating capacity brought online while wind contributed another 12.40% (928-MW). Natural gas trailed with only 49 MW (0.65%) accompanied by 5 MW of oil, 3 MW of biomass, 3 MW of “other,” and 1 MW of hydropower.

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Source: Solar Power World

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The Israeli authorities have proposed a plan to deploy 250 MW of floating solar & agrivoltaics through 4 PV plants in the Negev Desert.

Israel to deploy 250 MW of floating solar, agrivoltaics

The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure said in a recent statement that the authorities have given initial approval for four solar energy plants in the southern part of the country. The program, which will supply at least 250 MW of energy, will now be submitted for comments from various regional committees.

The projects will be constructed in the Arava region of the Negev Desert, between the Ramon Airport and the Timna copper mine, on a total area spanning 4.09 km2. The first plant will include floating PV panels installed over purified waste reservoirs, as well as a ground-mounted PV and storage solutions.

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Source: PV Magazine

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State regulators slashed solar programs that school districts rely on to cut energy bills and finance sustainability projects. A new bill could fix that.

California bill would undo rules making it hard for schools to go solar

California regulators’ hostility to rooftop solar may have hit its political limit, at least when it comes to the impact on public schools.

In the past few months, a host of bills seeking to reverse or amend California’s regulatory push against rooftop solar have faltered in the state Capitol. The exception, so far, is Senate Bill 1374. The bill would amend the November California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) decision that prevents schools, farms, apartment buildings, and other types of customers from using the solar power they generate to offset their power purchases from Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric, the state’s three major utilities.

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Source: Canary Media

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Artificial Intelligence is helping solar-plus-storage projects provide power even when the sun isn’t shining.

How Amazon is harnessing solar energy, batteries, and AI to help decarbonize the grid

Assembled in neat rows across a westward stretch of the Mojave Desert in Southern California, solar panels at the Baldy Mesa solar farm are turning ample sunlight into carbon-free energy and sending it into the grid.

As it does every day, the sun eventually stops shining, along with the power being produced. At this solar-plus-storage farm, that doesn’t mean the energy stops flowing. Beginning this May, a football field-sized battery energy storage system (BESS) next to the solar panels will send electricity gathered during the day back to the grid, ensuring carbon-free energy is available even at night.

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Source: amazon

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Space-based solar panels are lighter and multi-junction that extracts more energy in the same amount of exposed surface area.

Space, the new frontier of photovoltaics

This isn’t science fiction: producing photovoltaic energy directly in space and then beaming it down for use on Earth is the focus of the European Space Agency’s SOLARIS project, which we’re also involved in. The first major goal: to place a one-megawatt power plant in orbit by 2030. The results of the project will also be useful for “terrestrial” photovoltaic applications.

Space-based solar power has been around for more than 60 years: in fact, in 1958, the U.S. satellite Vanguard 1 was the first spacecraft to use a sub-one-watt power panel to operate a radio transmitter. The satellite stopped working a few years later, but it’s still in orbit: not only did it pave the way for the use of solar energy in space, it’s also the oldest human-made object orbiting the Earth. In the meantime, technology has advanced: today the International Space Station is equipped with more than 400 square meters of panels, which provide it with more than 240,000 times the energy of that first small installation on Vanguard 1.

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Source: Enel Green Power

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