California launches Rule-Making for clean energy electricity grid
California is leading the way to integrating solar, wind, energy storage, and electric vehicles, as distributed energy resources.
Category Archives: Energy
Apple California Flats solar farm using Tesla Megapack energy storage
Large Tesla Megapack storage array being built in California to supply power for Apple infrastructure.
Shell announces shift to renewable energy, peak oil production in 2019
Royal Dutch Shell is accelerating its drive to lower carbon emissions while delivering value for shareholders… supposedly
SunSpec aims to help Veterans transition to clean energy jobs
SunSpec, the leading organization developing standards in the Solar industry, has launched an initiative aiming to train folks for jobs in the distributed energy resource (DER) sphere. Thanks to the decreasing cost of renewable energy systems, DER’s installation is apparently still increasing. Thanks to Internet-of-Things technology, renewable energy systems are…
Mayor Pete’s work at McKinsey included major study on energy efficiency and climate change
It’s the campaign season for the 2020 USA Presidential election, and of course there are some crazy things happening. Recently an issue arose over Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s work for McKinsey and Associates, and are there any skeletons in his closet because of that. Buttigieg managed to get McKinsey to release…
Salt River Project 1GW energy storage system replaces coal plant
A couple weeks ago the Salt River Project in Arizona announced a plan to replace a 2.25 GW Coal plant, the Navajo Generating Station, with a facility involving a large solar array (250 MW) and a large battery-based energy storage system. The storage system is sized at 1 GW and…
Solar and Wind power could help Romania avoid electricity blackouts
Twice this year it is reported that Romania nearly suffered a complete electrical power outage. Grid operators in Romania say the cause is that the country is that “no investments were made in the power plants”, and that therefore electrical generation capacity is not enough. The grid operators are planning…
Huge (1 GWh) energy storage project announced for Utah using compressed air in salt caverns
Last week a massively huge energy storage project was announced in Utah. Details are scarce, but since the announcement included both Utah Governor Gary Herbert and US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, the companies involved were able to draw on some heavy firepower and maybe there is some government funding…
When DERs participate in wholesale electricity markets state and local authority is not trampled
Earlier this month a group of 22 US Senators co-authored a Letter saying the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should preserve the ability of local electricity providers to maintain control over the electricity grid. At issue is whether Distributed Energy Resources, a.k.a. DER’s, can sell electricity to the wholesale electricity market.…
Explosion at APS energy storage unit injures firefighters, casts doubt on energy storage
Friday night, April 19, an explosion at a grid-scale energy storage unit near Phoenix injured four firefighters who were investigating a report of smoke rising from the facility. The APS McMicken Energy Storage facility is operated by Fluence, a company formed by Siemens after they bought out AES Corp, the…
Pres. Trump selling Paradise to coal baron who donated money to his campaign
There are two Paradise’s that have been destroyed in the USA, one of which clearly happened during President Trump’s time in office. We’re talking about physical places, not some mystical fairy land Paradise. The first is of course Paradise California that burned to the ground in November. The second destroyed…
Orange Button data taxonomy for solar financial reporting launches with developer meeting
Today SunSpec held a developers meeting for the Orange Button data taxonomy. This is a Department of Energy project, led by the SunSpec Alliance, aiming to reduce some of the “soft costs” in solar power – specifically, the processing of financial and investment documents related to solar power systems. The…
Can Bitcoin/Blockchain technology democratize the renewable energy industry?
The Blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are catching a lot of attention, and not just because of the phenomenal rise in Bitcoin’s value this year. Because each Blockchain is a “distributed ledger” where there’s a huge degree of security, thanks to an ingenious application of cryptography, many folks think…
Dept of Energy moving forward with energy storage research projects, doubling down on renewable energy
Solar power isn’t dead in the Trump Administration. Instead, the Dept of Energy announced last week that the 2020 SunShot cost reduction goals were met, and therefore the focus of the Solar Energy Technologies Office would shift to longer-term goals such as Grid Reliability and Energy Storage. “With the impressive…
Jimmy Carter’s Crisis of Confidence speech was political disaster, but oh if we’d only stuck to his plan …
In July 1979 the USA was gripped by the second of the 1970’s fake oil crises. OPEC decided to give us a second lesson of its power to control the American populace by shutting down oil deliveries. In the midst of that “crisis”, Carter gave this speech demonstrating why he…
