The Pope, big oil and bankers are talking carbon taxes
Pope Francis held a closed door meeting at the Academy of Sciences with the CEOs of oil firms and investment firms to address climate change, with a group committing to support an “economically meaningful” carbon price.
Bifacial beats Trump’s tariffs
Federal trade authorities have ruled that bifacial solar modules are no longer subject to the Section 201 ruling, which currently apply a 25% tariff to most solar modules imported to the United States.
New York’s winter solar duck curve is on the way
A site origination exercise and load analysis by Cornell University suggests 9 GW of solar will reduce peak demand in New York by nearly 10%. However it also found solar needs better capacity valuations to make for a stronger market, and will drive a winter time duck curve during a season of lower electric demand.
Designing for and monetizing curtailed solar power
Research by NREL and First Solar has produced highly accurate, real-time estimates of available aggregate peak power that a curtailed solar power plant can deliver to support the broader needs of the grid.
California is learning to trust 100% residential solar power
California utility PG&E has tested levels of residential solar power up to 100% penetration, and how to mitigate the effects of voltage and thermal overload via smart inverters and traditional transformer and circuit upgrades — with smart inverters shown to allow for up to 100% penetration at cost-effective pricing.
California just made more clean energy than it needed
The state grid operator has shown that for most of the period between 1:50 PM and 3:05 PM on Sunday, more carbon emission-free electricity than users demanded was generated in its region.
California’s solar power record setting season is here
The state grid operator reported breaking 11 GW of instantaneous power from large scale solar on Saturday at 1.50pm. Just 20 minutes earlier, the CAISO grid was exporting a record 1.5 GW of electricity, and last Wednesday it hit 93% clean electricity for a moment.
Solar investment mostly up on venture capital and debt as money pours into large scale projects
Mercom Capital Group’s Q1 2019 Solar Funding & M&A report has registered $2.8 billion in venture capital, public market and debt financing, up from $2.5 billion a year ago. Large scale project financing reached a record $5.58 billion across 43 deals and there were 18 solar corporate M&A transactions.
Tesla, GAF, RGS and now Hanergy: will solar roofs finally heat up this year?
Hanergy displayed the newest rendition of its 18.7% Thin Film Flat SOLARtile in Australia last week as it gears up for the U.S. and global product launch later in 2019.
Energy storage races to investment-grade status
SUSI Partners has bought a 50% stake in Macquarie Capital’s 63 MW / 340 MWh distributed energy storage portfolio in Southern California. Included as part of this purchase is the world’s largest virtual power plant.
