Who’s afraid of Virginia solar power?
The Commonwealth’s 2018 Energy Plan includes 5 GW of utility scale wind+solar, plus 500 MW of rooftop solar power, less than 1 MW in size, over the next decade.
AlsoEnergy merges with Locus Energy
AlsoEnergy has acquired/merged with its third energy monitoring and asset management company this summer. This most recent move brings 25 GW and 190,000 projects under AlsoEnergy’s responsibility.
sPower refinances $499 million of wind and solar
The independent power producer has closed on a US$499 million, investment grade, private placement financing representing approximately 650 MW of utility-scale wind and solar power projects.
United States: Solar installation costs declined 5 to 11% in 2017, little so far in 2018
This year’s version of Berkeley Lab’s Tracking the Sun report saw residential installs fall 6% to $3.50 / W, small business fall 11% to $2.90 / W and large business fell 5% to $2.20 /W in 2017, with light changes in early 2018. However, these averages cover wide price variances in different markets.
US utility-backed fund raises $681 million for advanced energy technologies
Energy Impact Partners, who partners with 14 electric utilities, has raised US$681 million to continue investing in technologies that have a high probability of influencing the future power grid.
US triples energy storage installations
Wood Mackenzie projects that the U.S. energy storage market will reach well over US$500 million in sales this year, following on 61.8 MW / 156.5 MWh of installations during the second quarter. Residential storage has grown at 61% per quarter since Q1 2017.
US: 86% of Texas’ future capacity will comprise solar or wind, zero coal
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s pipeline of projects has ballooned to almost 80 GW. 12 GW of this is gas, while the rest is wind and solar power plants, as well as 522 MW of energy storage.
Researchers propose doubling today’s solar panel efficiency using two weird tricks
By double stacking a perovskite-silicon solar cell and using the cell in a glass-on-glass bifacial solar module, scientists model that a 30-36% efficient solar module can be attained.
$1.2 billion clean energy fund closes, targets utility scale in the US
Capital Dynamics announced the final close on its most recent clean energy fund, totaling US$1.2 billion in commitments. The company is now managing 2.3 GW of solar installations.
Study: 32% tandem cell solar still competitive at triple the price
Arizona State University researchers have determined that a 32% efficient perovskite-silicon tandem cell could produce electricity at the same price as cutting-edge 22% efficient panels in the most cost-competitive of situations
