Maine’s renewable energy landscape is poised for big changes. Legislation passed into law in June establishes greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and an ambitious renewable portfolio standard. In this interview, Dylan Voorhees, climate and clean energy director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, explains what the new laws mean for the state, and what brought about the shift in policy.
Los Angeles has been sitting on a contract for record-cheap solar power for more than a month — and city officials declined to approve it because of concerns raised by the city-run utility’s labor union, which is still fuming over Mayor Eric Garcetti’s decision to shut down three gas-fired power plants.
Soleil Lofts, an under-construction luxury apartment complex in the Utah city of Herriman, announced that it will host the largest renewable energy setup of its kind. The 600-unit complex will feature five megawatts of solar panels. Each unit will also host a Sonnen EcoLinx battery to store the energy, combining together to offer 12.6 megawatt-hours of storage.
With the opening of a solar facility in North Carolina built by solar developer SunEnergy1, the Cincinnati regional bank's pact to acquire its renewable energy credits is up and running. The solar facility is expected to generate clean power that is more than or equal to the amount Fifth Third uses in a year: 202,000 megawatt-hours – enough to power 25,000 homes.
Texas offers an instructive case study for the growth of renewable energy. Most of the state’s electricity is delivered through the deregulated Electric Reliability Council of Texas market. The state has long since surpassed its mandated renewable portfolio standard, so market dynamics dictate the ongoing pace of renewables growth. Nonetheless, Texas is by far the country’s largest wind power generator and is slated to see major growth in solar capacity as well.
Regulatory changes to the Securities Act in 2016 enabled crowdinvesting, an idea that can usher in a new era of inclusive project finance, ripe to transform the clean energy industry. We need to envision a democratized clean energy future, with renewable energy and climate solution projects originated and owned by the communities that use them.
“Specific countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain stand out in the maps as they host the highest economic potential that translates to more options for advantageous investments,” stated the paper, adding, electricity retail prices of 0.30-0.169 Euros/kWh meant rooftop solar could offer electricity savings of 49% in Germany, 44% in Spain, 42% in Italy and 23% in France.
Tesla will now rent solar systems to customers in six states for $50 a month, in a scheme to boost residential solar deployments after it logged its lowest quarterly installations ever in Q2.
Some 344 Chinese cities were found to have solar systems producing energy at lower prices than the grid, without any subsidies, according to the research published in the journal Nature Energy.
