Tag Archive for: cleanenergy

Solarcycle has announced plans to invest $62M into growing its solar panel recycling capacity in Polk County, GA to 10 million units yearly.

Solar panel recycler to invest $62M in verticalized Georgia facility

The clock is quickly running down on climate-related sustainability goals. And as corporations race against time to accelerate circular processes and transition to green energy, solar panel recycling firm Solarcycle is expanding its services to meet growing demand.

The Arizona-based company has announced plans to invest $62 million into growing its solar panel recycling capacity in Polk County, Ga. to 10 million units per year, according to the state’s Governor, Brian Kemp.

The facility will be located across the street from Solarcycle’s previously announced 1.1-million-square-foot solar glass factory, creating an additional 640 jobs on top of the 617 already needed to staff that location. According to Kemp, the glass factory will use recycled materials from the recycling facility to create five to six gigawatts worth of new solar glass each year, making Solarcycle one of the first and only manufacturers of specialized glass for crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaics in the nation.

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Source: Sourcing Journal

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Californians overwhelmingly agree that more solar is good for the state’s economy and will save California families money.

Californians overwhelmingly agree that everyone benefits when more people go solar

Nearly 9 in 10 Californians believe solar customers should be fairly compensated for the power they sell back to the grid, and 85% say the state should be doing more to encourage solar adoption, according to new polling released today by Global Strategy Group (GSG), North Star, and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

This broad consensus follows a series of decisions by state regulators that have hurt California’s solar industry, including a significant and rapid cut to compensation rates that solar customers receive for the unused power they sell back to the grid.

Californians overwhelmingly agree that more solar is good for the state’s economy and will save California families money. According to the poll, 84% of voters say that everyone benefits when more people go solar, and 79% don’t trust their utility to be honest about what is causing higher prices.

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Source: SEIA

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Biden announces $7.3B for rural electrification, funding 16 cooperatives in 23 states to expand clean energy, the largest since the 1930s.

Clean energy and electrification gets $7.3 billion boost from Biden

US President Joe Biden has announced the biggest government funding move for rural electrification since the 1930s. $7.3 billion will go to 16 electric cooperatives in 23 states to build and expand clean energy, Biden said Monday.

The funds, which will come from the Inflation Reduction Act and are being awarded by the Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program, are meant to provide reliable electricity and create jobs in clean energy.

Biden introduced the investment initiative at a stop in Westby, Wisconsin, where he said about $580 million will go to the Dairyland Power Cooperative to develop solar and wind power as well as energy storage. Biden said the nonprofit co-ops were specifically targeted because, “They don’t have the same resources that private utility companies have to modernize their energy infrastructure. And for decades, they couldn’t access tax credits to make clean energy more affordable.”

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Source: CNET

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The sites fight climate change and can help with another global crisis: the collapse of nature. But so far, efforts to nurture wildlife habitat have been spotty.

Solar farms have a superpower beyond clean energy

It’s not your average solar farm.

The glassy panels stand in a meadow. Wildflowers sway in the breeze, bursts of purple, pink, yellow, orange and white among native grasses. A monarch butterfly flits from one blossom to the next. Dragonflies zip, bees hum and goldfinches trill.

As solar projects unfurl across the United States, sites like this one in Ramsey, Minn., stand out because they offer a way to fight climate change while also tackling another ecological crisis: a global biodiversity collapse, driven in large part by habitat loss.

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Source: The New York Times

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Jobs in the U.S. clean energy industry in 2023 grew at more than double the rate of the country's overall jobs

US clean energy jobs growth rate double that of overall jobs, report says

Jobs in the U.S. clean energy industry in 2023 grew at more than double the rate of the country’s overall jobs, and unionization in clean energy surpassed for the first time the rate in the wider energy industry, the Energy Department said on Wednesday.

Employment in clean energy businesses – including wind, solar, nuclear and battery storage – rose by 142,000 jobs, or 4.2% last year, up from a rise of 3.9% in 2022, the U.S. Energy and Employment Report said. The rate was above the overall U.S. job growth rate of 2% in 2023. Overall energy jobs rose 250,000, with 56% being in clean energy.

Unionization rates in clean energy hit 12.4%, more than the 11% in the overall energy business, it said. That was driven by growth in construction and utility industries and after legislation passed in 2022 including the bipartisan CHIPS Act and President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the department said.

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Source: MSN

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California lawmakers unveiled measures to streamline renewable energy projects and reduce monthly electric bills.

California lawmakers plan to give out $500M in electric bill refunds, streamline clean energy

California lawmakers unveiled a series of measures Wednesday meant to streamline renewable energy development and lower the cost of monthly electric bills, as this year’s legislative session reached the pinnacle of a frenzied final week.

One could put about $30 in the pockets of California’s roughly 17 million customers of investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

After months of negotiations and pledges from leaders to prioritize the issue, seven bills were released on the last day possible. Gov. Gavin Newsom encountered significant challenges in recent weeks to his proposals to lower energy bills and thwart gas price spikes.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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CA’s new centralized procurement strategy will solicit 1GW of multiday storage & 1GW of 12hr-plus storage for deployment between 2031 & 2037.

California targets up to 2 GW of long-duration storage as part of 10.6 GW clean energy procurement

Dive Insight:

The forthcoming solicitations are part of a centralized procurement strategy authorized in a law passed by the California legislature earlier this year. The California Department of Water Resources will lead the procurement through its Statewide Energy Office, which focuses on “emerging and existing technologies that need scaling to lower costs,” the CPUC said.

The CPUC advised DWR to conduct a series of solicitations and evaluate bids for quality, cost, and risk, subject to a CPUC review.

Having one agency lead the procurement “will streamline the acquisition of advanced energy resources, potentially lowering future costs for ratepayers and accelerating the development timeline for clean energy technologies,” the CPUC said.

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Source: Utility Dive

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Top Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Google, Walmart, and Starbucks are partnering with community solar developers.

Major US corporations embracing community solar

Community solar has recently taken off, surpassing 7 GW of installed capacity in the United States. Research firm Wood Mackenzie said it expects community solar installed capacity to essentially double in five years.

Community solar typically involves a customer subscribing to a portion of an off-site solar project’s generating capacity, receiving credits on their utility bills for the electricity produced by the facility. The CCSA noted that household names such as Microsoft, Google, Walmart, Starbucks, Rivian, Wendy’s, and T-Mobile are just a few of the Fortune 500 companies that have signed agreements with community solar developers.

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Source: PV Magazine

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California aims for carbon-neutral energy by 2045, requiring increased clean energy production and storage capacity.

CA plans to transform old oil town into world’s first geologic solar energy storage site

California has a stated goal of making its energy production carbon neutral by 2045 — but in order to accomplish that goal, it will need to ramp up both its clean energy production and its clean energy storage capacity.

Now, efforts to turn an oil field into a geological thermal energy storage facility could be a big step in the right direction, YaleEnvironment360 reported.

Kern County has long relied on its oil fields for jobs. Now, with dirty, polluting energy sources like oil going out of fashion, the county is looking to turn toward clean energy production and storage instead.

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Source: TCD

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Since the introduction of NEM 3.0, a significant uptick in interest in battery add-ons among residential solar customers has been observed.

California solar installers get well-acquainted with batteries in NEM 3.0 era

California is regularly seen as a leader in clean energy, and no area of the country has more solar or energy storage deployments. Remarkably though, the attachment of batteries to residential solar installations has been low — until recently, only 10% of home solar systems in California also had batteries. New net-metering rules in the state are dramatically changing the solar + storage landscape though, and solar installers are keeping busy with the new normal.

In 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission enacted an overhaul of the state’s net-metering program. Since April 15, 2023, any new solar installation feeding energy onto the grid is now compensated for that power through a net-billing tariff. This new structure, known as NEM 3.0, significantly reduces the compensation for behind-the-meter solar systems — by as much as 75%, when compared to systems operating under the NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0 structures.

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Source: Solar Power World

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