Existing California solar customers may get blindsided with net metering cuts

Major residential solar installer SunPower has closed its business after standing as one of the oldest and largest distributed solar companies in the United States. Solar panel manufacturer Maxeon announced it will provide warranty support for customers with SunPower-branded modules. 

The companies became two seperate entities when they separated in August 2020, as Maxeon spun off as an independent company focused on manufacturing. Maxeon previously had a supply agreement to provide solar panels to SunPower, but that agreement was terminated in 2023. Since Q1 2024, Maxeon has not been shipping any product to SunPower. 

Support will be issued as follows, according to a note from Maxeon: 

“For support issues on your SunPower solar system, please contact your solar installer. Maxeon will work with your installer to support any applicable warranty coverage. Warranty coverage will be outlined in a new Maxeon warranty document, which will be available soon on Maxeon’s website,” said the company. 

Maxeon products are typically tied to a 40-year warranty, considerably longer than the 25-year industry standard. 

By the decade’s end, data centers in the United States are projected to account for as much as 35 GW of demand and about 9% of the country’s electricity consumption. Though these are merely forecasts, to power the 24/7, 365-day operations, utilities plan to finance dozens of GWs worth of new generation resources from clean energy to natural gas.

According to a Goldman Sachs study, natural gas could supply 60% of the expected data center demand. This significant increase in gas is reflected in many utility integrated resource plans, including Dominion Energy in Virginia, which wants to build more than 2.9 GW of new long-term gas capacity in the next 15 years as a short-term solution to load increase. Some utilities have also resorted to proposing new payment structures in addition to planned generation resources. AEP Ohio proposed a unique tariff structure that, if approved, would require new large-capacity data centers to pay for their own transmission needs, and Duke Energy is considering contract agreements for data centers that would require them to provide upfront financial contributions to construct new generation resources to help power them.

Besides natural gas, nuclear is also seen as an option to power data centers, with various developers and data companies already examining this alternative. For example, Oklo, a California-based advanced nuclear company, has committed itself to providing its clean energy solution in response to increasing demand for AI adoption and data centers. The company announced a non-binding partnership in late May with Wyoming Hyperscale, which wants to use Oklo’s microreactor design to power a state-of-the-art data center campus using 100 MW of nuclear energy. As for data-heavy companies, Amazon Web Services bought a 960 MW Cumulus data center campus in northeast Pennsylvania in early March that will be powered by the 2.5 GW Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, with the construction price for compatible small modular reactors (SMRs) rising and SMRs and microreactors still far from commercialization, this reality may not come to fruition anytime soon. Plus, if new large-scale reactors are considered, the estimated $7.6 billion cost to ratepayers of the now-operational Vogtle Units 3 and 4 – which increased residential rates by about $9 a month – might dampen the prospects of nuclear as an option as well.

Either way, new resource proposals will persist as artificial intelligence and other significant data sources enter the equation as a catalyst, partly because heavy-data users like Google are experimenting with technology like AI-infused internet browsing. For context, compared to a Google search that consumes approximately 0.3 Wh per request, a single AI-powered Google search request may even consume about 23x to 30x more than, according to worst-case scenarios and research estimates published in late 2023. It is important to note that these estimations are dependent on a number of factors staying the same, including the availability of AI-based chips and the 24/7 operations of data centers at max capacity. However, as data center efficiency grows and operation procedures change, these estimates will shift.

Moreover, while the national impact of data centers is expected to take up a significant chunk of the nation’s overall electricity consumption, the most significant ramifications will be seen on a state-to-local level, especially as growth continues to concentrate in specific pockets of the country. State by state, Virginia is far ahead in the number of current data centers. The northern part of the state is considered the nation’s most significant data center market, even the world, with 35% of the globe’s hyperscale data center share – a type of data center facility that typically supports the business activities of massive data-driven companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, just to name a few. The state legislature has responded by introducing bills this year to limit the provision of sales and use tax exemptions to only centers that demonstrate certain energy efficiency requirements, requiring localities to assess the grid impacts of proposed center sites, and disallowing utilities from recovering costs through their customers from electric grid infrastructure that mainly services the load coming from data centers.

Other state responses have been more mixed in their reaction, with Massachusetts – a state with about 50 data centers – introducing legislation courting new centers with a sales and use tax exemption, Michigan pushing forward with an extension of their existing data center tax exemption until mid-century, and New York – with almost 130 data centers – wanting to create an energy benchmarking program to account for high-energy infrastructure.

While the legislative and utility actions mentioned address the potential grid and energy impacts of data centers, they also touch on the future downstream cost issues associated with a utility’s response to the massive amount of incoming load growth and the capital recovery that customers, especially those that are low-income, will have to deal with.

Map of energy consumption from data centers in states with significant 2023 load. Data center consumption data depicts the highest-growth scenario states are projected to see in 2030 relative to total electricity consumption. Data Source: EPRI

Low-income load bearers

As utilities attack the projected data center load growth issue with additional investments and emerging technological applications, the customer is positioned to help subsidize the cost through rate increases as part of these utilities’ cost recovery processes. In the case of Duke Energy in North Carolina, the utility can recoup about 10% from new construction.

However, while wealthier households have the financial cushion to protect themselves from these rate increases, low-income customers do not, so the weight of frequent or significant bill increases bears greater financial struggle. The lack of financial security for low-income households is exemplified by one’s energy burden. In the United States, the national average energy burden, or the percentage of gross household income spent on energy bills, for low-income households is 6%, according to the Department of Energy’s Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) tool. This average is based on an estimated 51 million households that identify as low-income, which is about 42% of all households in the country.

Depending on a person’s locality and household income, the energy burden can even be higher than 30%, particularly if you live in the Southeast. Even the financial toll from trying to keep cool during the summer heat can spike a household’s energy burden, which the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) and the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate (CEPC) reported will increase by 7.9% this year. With the expected increase in utility bills in the coming years, such a high and localized energy burden rate may become more widespread and prevalent.

Low-income utility bill assistance

Since the reality of the energy burden in the country is not a new phenomenon, there are a number of financial assistance programs and approaches that the federal government, states, and investor-owned electric utilities have either implemented or are currently examining as options. For example, modeled after Maine’s “Project Fuel” program and created in response to the OPEC oil embargo in the early 1970s, the federal government established the Emergency Energy Conservation Program later in the decade to provide weatherization-focused assistance and eventually direct bill assistance for low-income households. It was one of the earliest programs of its kind. It would end up turning into what is now known as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), operating in every state, the District of Columbia, and most tribes and territories, to prevent energy-bill payment emergencies by providing payments to fuel suppliers/utilities and/or households.

Map depicting the national energy burden distribution for low-income households based on state median income; Source: U.S. Department of Energy Low-income Energy Affordability Data Tool

LIHEAP is commonly used to determine income eligibility for several other state and utility assistance programs. However, access to the federal program has been severely limited. Federal funding for fiscal year 2024 was cut by $2 billion compared to 2023, reducing the number of low-income households served by 1 million in addition to the program’s benefits. Because of the severe budget fluctuations that each state program faces due to federal decision-making, state and utility assistance programs are critical to help fill in the gap and then some.

Many additional state and utility programs exist and vary in terms of approach and scope and can take the form of an income-based discount, a percentage of income payment plan (PIPP), and an income-graduated fixed charge, among other types of payment assistance, like late payment fee and utility shut-off exemptions. Income-based discounts entail a utility or a state providing a continuous or one-time payment attributed to an income-eligible customer, either removing the mandatory fixed charge from a bill or providing a percentage reduction of the overall monthly bill according to a specific income range, among other offers.

Then, there are PIPPs, which refer to income-specific payment plans that allow certain customers to pay only a portion of their utility bill based on a percentage of their overall income. Existing PIPPs vary in terms of their price cap. Still, no program in the country inches above 10% of a household’s income, and some programs may also determine percentage payments based on the primary heat source, electric or otherwise. This payment plan is comparable to a student loan income-driven repayment plan. It can be a helpful tool to limit a low-income household’s monthly energy expenditures and allow households to dedicate a higher share of their disposable income to pay off other bills and to put food on the table, or perhaps allow a household to establish and/or grow their savings.

There is also the income-graduated fixed charge approach, which has only recently been implemented in California. This novel method of equitable ratemaking mirrors progressive taxation, in which the lower your income, the less you must pay, and is a significant departure for investor-owned utilities in the state impacted by this change, which did not impose fixed charges before this.

Part Two of this blog will look at the utility perspective on equitable ratemaking.

Justin Lindemann is a policy analyst at NC Clean Energy Technology Center.

This article originally published by NC Clean Energy Technology Center. Click here to learn about our DSIRE Insight subscriptions, custom research, and consulting offerings on various clean energy technologies for interested individuals or organizations. 

High operating costs pose a substantial barrier to electrification in high-cost regions. Whole house time-of-use rates can lower operating costs but usually not enough to accelerate adoption of heat pumps and EVs. While rebates and income tax credits provide substantial financial incentives that lower the capital and installation cost of as heat pumps for HVAC and electric vehicles (EVs), they don’t lower their operating costs.

We need a new rate design paradigm that satisfies three conditions: Makes electrification affordable, recovers the utility’s revenue requirement, and does not unleash a public outcry

Under the existing paradigm, rate design should not be technology-specific. Under the new paradigm, marginal cost pricing would only be applied at the margin for incremental consumption associated with the installation of heat pumps and EV chargers.

This approach is not without precedent. Today, a few utilities allow EVs to be charged a rate that is specific to that vehicle if they install a separate meter. Other utilities are examining the use of telematics to bill EV customers for charging their vehicles at home.

As for heat pumps, Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be able to infer the incremental load associated with electrification to which marginal cost pricing would be applied.

A case study

Consider the case of Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which serves more than 5 million customers in northern California. The average residential rate currently stands at 42 cents/kWh. Using the E-1 tiered rate as a point of reference, the price of electricity has doubled over the past seven years, far exceeding the rate of inflation. In the seven years prior to 2017, it had only grown by 23%. As a point of reference, in 2008 the rate stood at 16.4 cents/kWh. More increases are expected to occur at year end, with the average rate possibly reaching 50 cents/kWh.

One of the popular rates being used by its EV customers is EV2-A. The rate features three pricing periods. During the summer, the off-peak rate is 31 cents/kWh. If EV load is priced at the marginal cost of electricity, the price may drop to 10 cents/kWh.

A typical household whose EV load is 3,000 kWh a year would see their annual EV driving costs drop substantially from $930 to $300. This would substantially enhance the appeal of EVs to drivers who are in the market for a new car, and probably accelerate the EV adoption rate.

In the areas that lie east or south of San Francisco, or in the Central Valley, summers are hot and winters are cold. A heat pump for heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) may consume 3,500 kWh a year. If the year-round peak period price averages 55 cents/kWh, the mid-peak averages 49 cents/kWh and the off-peak price averages 31 cents/kWh, then a weighted average price of 45 cents/kWh may be used to get a ballpark estimate of the annual operating cost of a heat pump.

With the existing rate, that would amount to roughly $1,575. If a marginal price of 15 cents/kWh is used, the cost would drop to $525, making it a substantially more attractive investment for customers, and probably accelerating the adoption rate. In both cases, operating costs fall by two-thirds, as brought out in the figure below.

In some areas, electrification might run into distribution capacity constraints, requiring capacity expansion. In such cases, estimates of marginal capacity costs would be added to marginal energy costs. In addition, electrification-focused marginal cost pricing should feature time variation in energy rates to avoid creating new peaks and to facilitate load flexibility.

Society as a whole will benefit through the reduction of carbon emissions that will accompany electrification. Climate change will be mitigated. Customers who electrify will see lower bills compared to what they would be paying with gas furnaces and ICE vehicles. There will be no losers. No one will see higher bills.

Dr. Faruqui is an Economist-at-Large who has been working on energy issues since the summer of 1976, when he interned at the California Energy Commission. From 1978 to June 1979, he was a full-time analyst at the CEC. Subsequently, he worked at the Electric Power Research Institute for 11 years and then at several consulting firms, most notably Barakat & Chamblerlin, Charles River Associates, and The Brattle Group.

California has surpassed 150,000 public and shared private chargers installed statewide, including 137,648 Level 2 chargers and 14,708 fast chargers. In addition to the public network, the state estimates that more than 500,000 private home chargers are installed statewide.

Of the 48,000 chargers added to the data set since the end of last year, 24,202 new chargers were installed in the first half of 2024. The remaining 23,142 chargers were installed before 2024 and identified through new data sources, according to the California Energy Commission (CEC).

This announcement made by Governor Gavin Newsom comes weeks after California posted its second highest ever market share in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales.

“When it comes to zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, California has no peers,” said Governor Newsom. “The state is all-in on clean transportation, dedicating unprecedented investments to supercharge our transition. We’re building a bigger, better charging network – faster.”

The CEC approved more than $1 billion in funding this year for EV charging and hydrogen refueling projects for cars, trucks, and buses, including $390 million for electric school bus charging. The state is also expected to receive more than $380 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for building out chargers.

As EV drivers are aware, reliability and uptime of chargers is extremely important, and the CEC reports that it will soon have state EV charging reliability regulations that will track the publicly funded chargers. It is also collaborating with the University of California, Davis, on a field testing program that will catalog the reliability of chargers.

California has a rule, set by Governor Newsom in 2020, requiring all new car sales to be zero-emission by 2035. As a result, more than one-quarter of all new cars sold in Q2 2024 are zero-emission vehicles (ZEV), with an average of 1,300 selling daily. CEC reports that 1,996,931 total ZEVs have been sold to date and the state now boasts that over one-third of all ZEVs sold in the U.S. are sold in California.

Given a choice, most people would prefer new renewable energy projects to new fossil-fuel generation sources. This is the finding of a survey conducted by energy storage systems provider Powin.

The company included responses from 1,000 American consumers 18 years of age or older in its survey.

Among the findings: Two-thirds of respondents said they would prefer that their electricity provider build more solar projects supported by storage to meet increasing demand rather than new natural gas (38%) or coal (13%) plants.

In addition, the survey found that 48% of respondents had confidence that solar-plus-storage facilities were capable of meeting future electricity demands. Only 25% did not think so.

At the same time, the survey suggested that Americans were undereducated about their own energy requirements and future needs. Only 38% of respondents knew how much electricity their residences consumed.

“While nearly half of respondents (44%) claim their residence does not need more energy today than five years ago, the lack of knowledge around overall consumption suggests that the average consumer is not actually aware of how their usage has changed,” the report said.

The report claims that this disconnect is especially troubling because public support is going to be needed for new energy infrastructure projects going forward. Powin cites a number of factors contributing to greater electricity demand in the near future, including new data centers driven by proliferating artificial intelligence needs, electric vehicles and residential electrification.

The penetration of utility-scale energy storage, seen as a key technology for expanding intermittent sources such as solar and wind, is tied closely with state-support. The Powin report points to a number of states that are leading efforts to implement storage through targets and mandates. New York is at the top of the list with a target of 6,000 MW of grid-connected storage capacity by 2030.

Powin’s survey is designed to highlight public support for renewable energy solutions to increasing energy demand as well as the need for consumers to become more knowledgeable about future energy requirements and the potential costs involved.

“Bridging this knowledge gap is crucial for gaining public support for the necessary changes and ensuring a smooth transition to a more sustainable and reliable energy future,” the report concludes.

From ESS News

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $325 million funding opportunity with the goal to improve community-level energy resilience for vulnerable populations across Puerto Rico.

The new Programa de Comunidades Resilientes, funded by a second tranche of DOE’s Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) will provide funding for solar and battery storage installations for community healthcare facilities as well as community centers and other common areas within public housing and privately owned subsidized multi-family properties.

“Every municipality in Puerto Rico has a facility that could be eligible for an installation through the Programa de Comunidades Resilientes,” said Maria Robinson, Director of DOE’s Grid Deployment Office. “This program will be a key tool in improving community-level resilience, ensuring that emergency rooms stay powered, residents of multifamily housing can refrigerate medicine and food, and vital services remain available during outages within low- and middle-income communities.”

DOE anticipates awarding between $70 million and $140 million to fund solar and battery installations for federally qualified healthcare centers, dialysis centers, and diagnostic and treatment centers.

Between $93 million and $185 million is expected to go to solar and battery installations in multi-family housing properties, subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S, Department of Agriculture. This includes community centers and common areas within public housing or privately owned multi-family housing properties available to all residents or shared building infrastructure that depends on electricity, such as elevators.

Applications to this funding opportunity are due on October 22, 2024, at 5:00 PM EST. Potential applicants may access an online Teaming Partner List to express their interest to other applicants and explore potential partnerships.

After devastating hurricanes and decades of underinvestment in the island’s electric grid, the U.S. government introduced the $1 billion funding package called PR-ERF to support residential solar and storage projects in Puerto Rico. In July this year, DOE announced its first installations of subsidized residential solar and battery storage systems through the PR-ERF’s Programa Acceso Solar.

Puerto Rico’s distributed solar capacity reached 842 MW by April this year, while residential storage has reached 1.6 GWh. Consultancy Wood Mackenzie has projected that over the next ten years more than 90% of Puerto Rico’s solar additions will be distributed solar.

Puerto Rico’s Act 17 calls for reaching an ambitious 40% renewable generation by 2025, followed by 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050.

People on the move: Kinematics, Heimdall Power, Shiney.ai and more  Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

SolarLeaf ‘panel-level storage’ can be rolled out on commercial rooftops even easier Energy Toolbase’s energy management system and monitoring software has been configured for use with Yotta Energy’s SolarLeaf product, which provides solar energy storage without increasing the footprint of a solar array.

Microsoft signs 437.6 MW green energy deal with ReNew India’s ReNew says it has signed a 437.6 MW green attribute contract with Microsoft, supporting the US tech giant’s goal to be carbon-negative by 2030.

Grid Strategies and The Brattle Group propose “urgent” interconnection fixes The interconnection reforms proposed include a fast-track process for some projects, a “connect and manage” option, grid-enhancing technologies, advanced conductors, automating interconnection studies and speeding transmission construction.

EVLO introduces 5 MWh containerized battery energy storage system The company’s new battery energy storage system packs 5 MWh and two- to four-hour duration in a 20-foot container.

Clean energy jobs growing twice as fast as U.S. economy Jobs in the solar industry grew 5.3%, and the Department of Energy  expects this to double the share of electricity generation from clean energy sources by 2030.

One in nine U.S. K-12 students attend a school with solar panels Over 1.8 GW of solar is installed at nearly 9,000 schools across the United States, said a report from Generation180.

Schools in the United States from kindergarten through high school are adopting solar energy in significant numbers. A report from Generation180 found that one in nine students in K-12 have solar at their school.

Energy is second only to teacher salaries when it comes to cost, according to NREL, and U.S. schools spend more than $6 billion a year on the line item. Solar presents an opportunity for schools to alleviate budget pressure, often at little or no upfront cost, freeing up funds for more educational benefits.

Schools often sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) when going solar, allowing the school to buy the electricity produced by the solar installation for 10 to 25 years at a discounted rate, serving up cost savings from day one. Generation180 said about 80% of schools go for the PPA route, while about 12% opt for direct ownership via cash, loan, or bond, and 8% own the system through grants, government funds, or private donations.

Generation180 has tracked school solar data since 2014. Over the ten year span of the report, solar capacity at schools has more than quadrupled from 422 MW to 1,814 MW. Nearly 9,000 schools now have solar, and the average system size has grown about 50% from 134 kW to 202 kW.

“During the past ten years, the falling installation price made going solar an affordable option for more schools. Between 2014 and 2024, the cost to install solar dropped by 40%,” said the report from Generation180. “There has never been a better time for schools to flip the switch to clean energy.”

California has the most solar schools in the nation with 2,815, this is followed by New Jersey (696), Illinois (568), Arizona (411), and Connecticut (336). In terms of percent of schools that have adopted solar, the rooftop solar-friendly state of Hawaii leads the way with 30% of schools, followed by Connecticut (27%) and Washington D.C. (24%).

As for energy storage, which is increasingly being attached to solar projects from the residential to the utility-scale, schools have yet to adopt this technology. As of January 2024, approximately 40 schools across six states had installed battery storage with a cumulative power capacity of 7.7 MW, according to Generation180.

“Excess energy produced by the solar panels can be stored for later use,” said Generation180 on the benefits of storage. “The stored energy can be discharged to the grid when electricity rates are peaking, resulting in utility bill savings. During grid outages, energy storage can be used to power the building and keep the school operating for students or as a community shelter during natural disasters.”

Generation180 said there is much to look forward to with the buildout of solar on schools. Projects are being built via federal funding allocated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including over $3.1 billion in funding already awarded to K-12 public schools through the EPA Clean School Bus Program and Department of Energy’s Renew America’s Schools Program.

Furthermore, the first clean energy tax credit payments, enabled by Elective Pay, or direct pay, in the Inflation Reduction Act will be issued to schools in 2024. Under IRA, schools can qualify for up to a 50% tax credit when combining the base credit 30% with a domestic content bonus of 10% and an Energy Community bonus of 10%.

Montreal-headquartered EVLO Energy Storage, a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec, announced the launch of a new energy storage product called EVLO Synergy.

The product is a 20 foot containerized lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) battery energy storage system that carries 5 MWh of power and flexibly operates in two or four hour durations.

EVLO said the storage system is fully tested and integrated, minimizing onsite work when installing the battery. The product meets NFPA 69 safety standards and is UL 9540 certified.

The company said the Synergy battery can run for up to 9,125 cycles over 25 years without the need for battery replacements.

The battery emphasizes the company’s commitment to “advanced, safe, and cost-effective energy solutions that support our customers’ requirements for clean energy projects,” said Sonia St-Arnaud president and chief executive officer, EVLO.

The enclosure dimensions are 6.06 m x 2.44 m x 2.90 m (20 ft by 8 ft by 9.5 ft). Operating temperatures range from -30°C to 55 °C (-22°F to 131°F).

The storage system’s software is cloud-based and NERC CIP-ready. It enables onsite and remote supervision and control, and has utility-grade SCADA security for industrial operations.

Globally, energy storage capacity is projected to exceed 1 terawatt-hour by 2030 according to BloombergNEF. Energy storage provides electric grid services like frequency regulation, peak shaving, capacity services, renewable energy integration, and a range of other cost-effective grid stabilizing services.

EVLO will unveil EVLO SYNERGY at the renewable industry conference RE+ in Anaheim, California. Visit Booth #N89019 on September 10, 2024, at 4 p.m. for an exclusive presentation.

Keeping the electric power grid reliable and affordable has become a “critical challenge for the nation,” says a report by Grid Strategies and The Brattle Group.

Numerous challenges at various stages of the interconnection process delay the entry of new utility-scale generators, which are mostly low-cost renewables, “significantly” raising consumer costs and putting system reliability “at risk” as electricity demand rises, the report says.

Nationwide, 2600 GW of generating projects await interconnection studies, including 1100 GW of solar and 1000 GW of storage, some of which is co-located with solar.

Although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Order No. 2023 on interconnection reforms issued last year “is helpful,” the report says that additional reforms are “urgently needed.”

The report comes weeks before a FERC workshop on “Innovations and Efficiencies in Generator Interconnection,” and was commissioned by Advanced Energy United and the Solar and Storage Industries Institute.

Proposed reforms range “across many aspects” of the interconnection process.

The first of four broad reform proposals is to create an “entry fee” process in which generators with ready-to-develop projects would pay a fee to gain access to transmission capacity that is already planned or will soon become available due to generator retirements.

A second set of reforms would implement a fast-track process to utilize planned or newly available transmission capacity, enabling resources that can use such available capacity and have paid the entry fee to bypass “time-consuming” cluster study processes designed to develop transmission solutions.

A third set of reforms would optimize the interconnection study process. One measure would enable project developers to select an energy-only interconnection option known as “connect and manage.” Another would direct transmission providers to evaluate all technologies that can “rapidly expand available headroom on transmission systems,” such as grid-enhancing technologies and advanced conductors. Other measures would use automation to expedite interconnection studies, improve alignment of interconnection study processes within and across systems, and establish independent monitors for interconnection studies.

The final set of reforms would speed transmission construction, starting with improved reporting on transmission construction progress, and also industry and government collaboration to reduce supply chain bottlenecks.

 The 129-page report is titled “Unlocking America’s Energy: How to Efficiently Connect New Generation to the Grid.”

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), which shows that the energy workforce overall added over 250,000 jobs in 2023; 56% of those were in clean energy.  The clean energy sector now accounts for more than half of new energy sector jobs and is growing twice as fast the rest of the energy sector and the U.S. economy overall.

The report finds that unions are playing a huge role in the clean energy sector, with unionization rates at 12.4%, compared to the average rate in the energy sector of 11%. Unionized job growth is driven by construction and utility industries. The energy construction sector, for example, was found to have added nearly 90,000 energy jobs, growing 4.5%, almost double the economy-wide construction employment growth of 2.3%. The utilities sector saw the fastest employment growth of 5.0% in 2023, adding nearly 30,000 jobs.

Geographically, clean energy jobs showed growth in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The fastest growth (7.7%) was seen in Idaho, followed by Texas (6.0%), and New Mexico (5.9%).

Jobs in the solar industry grew 5.3%, and the DOE expects this to double the share of electricity generation from clean energy sources by 2030, as the country moves closer to the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

As the move to onshore the domestic supply chain steps up, more manufacturing jobs are becoming available.  The report found that solar and battery and other clean energy manufacturing facilities have added another 28,000 jobs in 2023. Also included here are jobs in ports for offshore wind, and warehouses to store and transport clean energy products.

“Our policies are working. We are now starting to see the job impacts of investments made through the infrastructure and inflation reduction laws – first in construction and as America builds more of these factories, we’ll see hundreds of thousands more,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The data clearly show that clean energy means jobs – good jobs, union jobs, and jobs retained – in communities across the country as we race to dominate the global clean energy economy.”

This year’s report reflects a record number of survey responses from 42,000 business nationwide. To read the full 2024 USEER National report, go to U.S. Energy & Employment Jobs Report (USEER).

From pv magazine India

ReNew, a Nasdaq-listed renewables company in India, has signed a 437.6 MW green attribute sales contract with Microsoft.

This is one of India’s largest corporate renewable agreements and part of five power purchase agreements (PPAs), totaling 2.2 GW, that ReNew signed in the three months to June 30, 2024, raising its total portfolio to 15.6 GW.

ReNew will allocate approximately $15 million from the contract to a community fund supporting environmental justice initiatives focused on women’s livelihoods, economic empowerment, energy access, rural electrification, environmental remediation, and water quality improvement.

This work will be carried out in partnership with ReNew Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm dedicated to creating sustainable communities through climate action, with a focus on women and youth.

“Microsoft has ambitious renewable energy and decarbonization goals.  This agreement with ReNew accelerates our progress towards these goals while benefiting local communities through initiatives such as rural electrification and initiatives to improve women’s livelihoods,” said Puneet Chandok, president of Microsoft India and South Asia. “We are taking a holistic approach that includes progressing our climate goals and empowering the ecosystem with the technology that is needed to build a more resilient future.”

ReNew Chairman and CEO Sumant Sinha said that this milestone is crucial in ReNew’s efforts to support global decarbonization goals for governments and businesses. He added that as a sustainability-focused organization, ReNew prioritizes the energy transition as part of its mission to create a better world.

From ESS-news.com

Solar and energy storage software company Energy Toolbase has linked up with Yotta Energy to simplify planning and deployment of the latter’s solar-panel-level energy storage product.

The SolarLeaf product offered by Texas-based solar equipment supplier Yotta provides direct-current (DC)-coupled modular storage for commercial customers.

According to Yotta, its SolarLEAF Battery (SL-1000) and 208 V and 480 V  three-phase microinverters work seamlessly together as a fully integrated energy storage system that properly integrates behind photovoltaic modules on commercial rooftops.

The system is engineered with an advanced passive thermal regulation technology, which is said to maximize the life and performance of the battery under extreme thermal conditions.

Now, Energy Toolbase has announced the configuration of its Acumen EMS energy management system product and its monitoring solution, ETB Monitor, for use with SolarLeaf systems.

The collaboration will enable modeling of storage-related savings and energy dispatch scenarios, simplifying the planning and deployment of SolarLeaf set-ups.

Continue reading at ESS-news.com

Global grid optimization technology Heimdall Power will announce the appointment of 16-year Duke Energy executive Brita Osmundsvaag Formato as president of Heimdall Power Inc., the company’s new U.S.-based subsidiary. Following her 25-year career in the oil, gas, electricity and renewables industry–including at ExxonMobil–Osmundsvaag Formato will act as a liaison to major utilities as they look to Heimdall Power to significantly increase the transmission capacity of their aging grids. She joins as pressure to do so increases ahead of FERC’s upcoming 881 legislation in 2025.

Shiney.ai, which specializes in providing AI-driven solutions specifically tailored to each business to increase saIes efforts and improve the customer journey, added two new advisors to its board: Dirk Morbitzer and Antonio C. Cintra. Morbitzer brings a wealth of experience in the renewable energy markets, scaling companies, and the technology and AI sectors, while Cintra adds his deep expertise in business strategy and global market expansion.

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP announced that Bruce Grabow and Jennifer Brough joined the law firm as partners in the Energy, Infrastructure and Project Finance industry team and the Real Estate, Energy, Land Use & Environmental practice group. They were previously at Locke Lord LLP.

Kinematics, a specialist in intelligent motion solutions, is excited to announce the appointment of Kyle Zech as the new chief operating officer (COO) as of August 2024. Zech is the longest-serving member of the executive leadership team, and in his 13 years with Kinematics has been instrumental in helping the company grow through roles in account management, sales, commercial, product management, and more. In his new role, Zech will focus on developing a strategic vision for operations, delivering innovation in the company’s supply chain and factory performance.

Canada to impose 100% tariff on Chinese EVs The tax will apply to electric and certain hybrid passenger automobiles, trucks, buses, and delivery vans as well as fuel-cell vehicles. A 25% tariff will be applied to steel and aluminum from China.

Back to school on electric buses Operator First Student committed to deploying 30,000 EV school buses by 2035.

New process to recover silver from end-of-life solar cells achieves 98% efficiency  Scientists have used hydrometallurgical and electrochemical processes to recover pure silver from solar cells. The proposed technique also utilizes a method known as electrodeposition-redox replacement, which reportedly increases the silver recovery rate.

Clearway closes $550 million financing for solar-plus-storage project in Kern County The 140 MW solar and 472 MWh storage  project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 63,000 homes.

Construction begins at Arevon 192 MW solar project in Indiana Along with a 73 MW project, the two Pike County projects represent almost $400 million in investment.

Arevon Energy announced it has begun construction on a 192 MW solar project in Pike County, Indiana. The developer, owner and operator held a groundbreaking event August 21.

Ratts 1 Solar project is located in the city of Petersburg, adding enough power for the equivalent demand of about 24,000 homes once completed. Along with the 73 MW Heirloom Solar project also developed by Arevon, the two projects represent nearly $400 million in investment in Pike County.

“This project is an important part of our overall power supply portfolio. It is an Indiana resource and will aid IMPA in achieving our mission of bringing a low cost, reliable, and environmentally responsible power supply to our 61 member communities,” said Kyle Brouillette, senior vice president, market operations and planning at Indiana Municipal Power Agency.

Construction of the projects is expected to employ 200 full-time workers. Primoris Renewable Energy is operating as the projects’ construction contractor.

“The conversion of some of our fields from growing traditional crops to also housing solar panels is an exciting opportunity for our community,” said Dr. Suzanne Blake, Ratts 1 Solar Project participating landowner.

In addition to Ratts 1 Solar and Heirloom Solar, Arevon issued announcements on a $352 million financing package to build the 228 MWdc Posey Solar Project in Indiana and announced the start of construction in May. The company said it will announce the start of construction of an additional utility-scale project in Indiana in the coming weeks

From pv magazine Global

Researchers funded by the US Navy have developed a novel coating for underwater solar cells that prevents biofouling while preserving visible light transmission. Biofouling, the attachment and growth of organisms, can reduce the optical efficiency of solar cells. These cells are used in unmanned and autonomous underwater vehicles for naval surveillance, oceanographic research, and other applications.

“The necessity of the present study is highlighted by the current lack of coating systems that are both fouling-resistant and maintain light transmittance on their own,” said the academics. “Existing coatings require regular human intervention, such as mechanical cleaning and grooming techniques, to maintain efficiency, which is a tedious and labor-intensive process. The proposed self-polishing technology has the potential to eliminate the need for mechanical grooming, offering a more efficient and less labor intensive solution.”

The novel solution uses ultra-low concentrations of nano-sized, seawater-soluble pigments, such as cuprous oxide (Cu2O) and zinc oxide (ZnO), combined with an organic biocide and a fast-polishing binder. The team explained that when these coatings are exposed to seawater, the pigment particles dissolve, creating a porous layer that allows seawater to diffuse into the coating.

“This leached layer enables the dissolved biocidal compounds to diffuse out of the coating and into seawater,” they said. “The leached layer binder matrix reacts with seawater ions and forms soluble compounds in a controlled manner. To balance this and establish a higher or lower polishing rate, self-polishing coatings use copolymers that may or may not hydrolyze in seawater. As the hydrolysis continues, the eroding polymer and dissolving pigment fronts expose fresh layers of acrylate polymer and pigments, leading to a self-polishing effect with a more or less stable leached layer thickness.”

The research team tested different binder systems for the coating, using various particle mixtures. They used silyl acrylate (SA) alone or combined with rosin (SA-R) in a 70:30 weight ratio for the binders. The particle mixtures included nano-sized cuprous oxide (NC), nano-sized zinc oxide (NZ), the organic liquid biocide SeaNine 211 (SN), micron-sized cuprous oxide (MC), and micron-sized zinc oxide (MZ).

They applied the coatings to 6 mm thick, smooth, transparent polycarbonate substrates measuring 200 mm × 100 mm. The coated panels were submerged in Hundested Harbor, Denmark, for two and a half months, with inspections and photographs taken after two, six, and 10 weeks.

“The combined action of NC, NZ, and SN in an SA-R coating provided a significant fouling resistance throughout the 12-week exposure period, attributed to the synergistic rate of dissolution effects and the rapid polishing rate of the SA-R binder,” the researchers said.

This champion coating had an NC pigment volume concentration (PVC) rate of 0.04%, NZ PVC of 0.08%, and weight percent of solvent-free coating basis (SN) of 3%.

“The same formulation exhibited a complete polish through by week 12, after which the coating started to foul, implying a high polishing rate of about 1.4 μm/day, surpassing conventional rates of 5–15 μm/month (0.15–0.5 μm/day),” the researchers said. “Further testing with the formulation was conducted by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Florida, where the coating showcased exceptional resistance to biofouling in warm (22 C to 30 C) seawater with extreme fouling conditions. Solar power generation remained close to 100% efficiency throughout a 13-week.”

he researchers said the nano-sized versions of Cu2O and ZnO are about 20 times more expensive than the conventional micron-sized versions. However, they noted that the low volume required in the developed solution keeps formulation costs relatively low.

The Technical University of Denmark researchers described their work in “Self-sustaining antifouling coating for underwater solar cells,” which was recently published in Progress in Organic Coatings.

Clearway Energy Group closed $550 million in construction financing and started construction on its Rosamond South I solar and storage project in Kern County, California.

The project is expected to become operational in 2025, and with 140 MW solar and 472 MWh in energy storage capacity, will generate enough electricity to power over 63,000 homes every year.

“Kern County has long served as a critical provider of our country’s energy,” said Brooks Friedeman, vice president of Capital Markets at Clearway. “We are pleased to invest in and help continue Kern County’s energy leadership through our Rosamond South solar and storage project, which will provide reliable and low-cost power when needed most.”

Rosamond South 1, which is referred to as Golden Fields Solar IV LLC by its off takers, is under long-term contracts with several California load-serving entities, including 15-year agreements with MCE, The University of California, Rancho Cucamonga Municipal Utility, Eastside Power Authority, and City of Moreno Valley.

The project consists of JA Solar modules, Nextracker trackers and the BESS is provided by Wartsila.

To finance the $550 million construction loan for the solar and storage projects, Clearway assembled a bank consortium consisting of Societe Generale, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited Siemens Financial Services, Commerzbank, CoBank, DNB Bank ASA, and Nord/LB.

Clearway said more than 400 union labor jobs will be created during construction, which is being led by EPC contractor McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. Labor partners included Laborers Union 220, Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, Operating Engineers Local 12, IBEW Local 428, Ironworkers Local 416 and Local 433.

The project will bring Clearway’s operating footprint in Kern County to over 1,500 MW of wind, solar, and energy storage, which together contribute over $20 million in property taxes to the county each year.

Storage provider National Storage Affiliates Trust (NSA) announced it has entered an agreement with Solar Landscape to develop over 100 MW of rooftop solar across its locations in 42 states and Puerto Rico.

The rooftop solar portfolio is among the largest of its kind in the United States, representing a commitment to covering over 8.5 million square feet of rooftops with solar panels. The projects will be installed across roughly 1,000 NSA properties.

Development of the first sites has already commenced. The projects will require no capital expenditure from NSA. Solar Landscape will develop, own, and operate the assets.

Under the agreement, the solar installations on NSA rooftops will power nearby homes and businesses via a community solar model. In addition to delivering environmental benefits and lowering energy costs, the projects will create a more efficient electric grid by generating clean energy close to where it is used.

(Read: “Major U.S. corporations embracing community solar”)

“We look forward to working with NSA to install community solar projects on their self-storage facilities,” said Solar Landscape chief executive officer and co-founder Shaun Keegan. “Community solar is a win-win-win: it reduces the carbon footprint for communities, offers clean energy at a discount for residents and creates revenue for property owners.”

Solar Landscape introduces people in historically disadvantaged communities to careers in solar. Its nationally-recognized STEP-UP (Solar Training and Education Partnerships for Underserved Populations) program partners with dozens of organizations across the country and has trained more than 2,500 individuals. Last month in Chicago, Solar Landscape and the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) provided hands-on training to community members, building on a program that launched in 2023.

It’s back to school for many of the nation’s students. Big yellow school buses are back on the roads, and an increasing number of them are electric powered.

Cincinnati-based First Student, the largest operator of school bus fleets in the U.S. and Canada, said it plans to deploy 110 new electric school buses in 10 districts this year, bringing its total to 465. The company has received more than $400 million from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program and other federal and state programs for its deployments.

Kevin Matthews, head of electrification at First Student, said school bus fleets are excellent candidates for electric vehicles because of their operating patterns and schedules. The average routes are about 80 miles a day – 40 in the morning and 40 in the afternoon – which is well within the range of current technology, he said.

“As we look at the routes we operate today across our 45,000 units, we think we could easily accomplish 75% of these with electric school buses,” Matthews told pv magazine USA.

Last week, the company unveiled six electric school buses for the Steelton-Highspire School District in Pennsylvania that will be charged with a 1.7 MW solar array on the campus that also powers every school building in the district. First Student has a plan in place to deploy 30,000 electric school buses in North America by 2035.

According to Matthews, the overwhelming majority of electric buses his company fields are new builds rather than conversions from diesel-powered vehicles. Three legacy producers of full-size school buses in North America make electric versions: Bluebird; IC Bus, a division of Navistar; and Thomas, a division of Daimler. In addition, new companies dedicated to electric technology are entering the market, notably Quebec-based Lion Electric. Matthews said the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in 2021 has motivated a lot of this investment in electric technology.

Most school districts contract out their school bus acquisition, maintenance and operations to specialized companies like First Student, which employs nearly 50,000 drivers. Matthews said when his company looks to bring electric vehicles into one of its school district operations, it evaluates 27 factors that bear on the district’s suitability. These factors include length of the routes, the operating temperatures, topography and others that might be considered traditional issues.

“But then we have to get to the cost of electricity and potential issues and logistics related to the installation of charging infrastructure,” he said. “The very first thing we do is contact the local utility. Part of the attractiveness or even the ability to do electric buses is dependent on the cooperation of a utility that has policies to help support that.”

A growing number of states are enacting policies that support the deployment of electric school buses. In New York, for example, Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced that an additional $200 million is being made available to school districts and bus operators for zero-emission school buses through the New York School Bus Incentive Program, which provides support for the purchase of electric buses, charging infrastructure, fleet electrification planning and utility coordination.

In California, school bus service provider Zum announced is deploying 75 electric vehicles to the Oakland Unified School District for the 2024 to 2025 school year, making it the first major district in the U.S. to transition to a 100% electrified student transportation system. Zum said Pacific Gas and Electric cooperated on the charging infrastructure, which involved 74 bi-directional EV chargers. The utility was able to provide 2.7 MW of load to Zum’s Oakland facility, allowing the project to be deployed one year ahead of schedule.

First Student’s Matthews said its electric school buses are proving to be very popular with all concerned, citing lower fuel and maintenance costs when compared to traditional diesel units.

“The drivers like them better,” he said. “The anecdotal evidence is growing that the students are better behaved because the bus is quieter. So, they’re not yelling just to talk. Admittedly, we do not have a peer-reviewed study on this, yet.”

Existing California solar customers may get blindsided with net metering cuts  Customers that have invested in solar under NEM 1.0 and 2.0 may be forced into a regulatory scheme that would threaten their return on investment, based on guidance from the California Public Advocates office.

Meyer Burger cancels U.S. solar cell plant, announces restructuring Colorado Springs solar cell plant halted as Swiss-German PV manufacturer announces company restructuring plans. Planned capacity expansion at Arizona module production plant also put on hold. Existing cell production site in Thalheim, Germany, to remain part of Meyer Burger operations.

Major U.S. corporations embracing community solar The Coalition for Community Solar Access (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.

Automating solar PV perovskite material discovery U.S. researchers have applied robotics and automation to perovskite material discovery for use in tandem perovskite solar cell technologies. The robotic platform is multifunctional, able to mix precursors, perform spin coating, annealing and characterization of the optoelectronic thin films.

U.S. power grid adds 4.2 GW of battery storage in H1 Battery storage accounted for the second-largest share of newly operating generating capacity in the United States in the first half of 2024. If all planned additions come online, this year could see a record amount of battery storage capacity added to the grid, totaling 15 GW.

Sungrow to deliver 1 GWh of battery storage for Spearmint’s Texas projects U.S. battery storage developer and operator Spearmint is looking to expand it battery storage fleet in Texas, after commissioning its first project in the state earlier this year.

A state entity, the California Public Advocates Office (PAO), released a report suggesting that residents who have invested in rooftop solar should be force-shifted onto a regulatory scheme that would greatly diminish the value of their investments. 

The PAO released a fact sheet claiming that rooftop solar net metering will create an $8.6 billion cost for non-solar customers in the state, and that this number is increasing. As a result, it has advised that net energy metering (NEM) 1.0 and 2.0 customers are forced to shift to the far less advantageous NEM 3.0 rate structure.

The issue at hand is justified based on the “cost shift” problem, a claim backed by utilities that electric bill payers that do not have rooftop solar are subsidizing their solar-installed neighbors. By paying solar customers a retail rate for electricity exported to the grid from a rooftop solar array, utilities say they are incurring a cost that must be paid in the form of raised electric rates.

The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) released a factsheet in response to PAO, debunking PAO’s assumptions about the cost shift. Specifically, it rejects that self-generation of electricity poses a cost to utilities, rejects the assumption that grid infrastructure costs are fixed, and challenges the foundation of the Avoided Cost Calculator, which is used to set the rate for solar exports. More details can be found here.

“For years, the State of California has encouraged people to invest in rooftop solar for the benefit of all. As a result, two million consumers have invested $40 billion to collectively build 12 gas power plants-worth of clean energy. If California goes back on its word, it would not only anger millions of people, it would undermine the solar market going forward as well,” said CALSSA.

The PAO is an agency designed to be a voice for California residents, interacting with the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on energy related regulatory issues. It has historically repeatedly released guidance that dovetails with the demands of the state’s three multi-billion-dollar private electric utilities. 

“This cost burden – commonly referred to as a cost shift – to non-rooftop solar customers of Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric has risen from $3.4 billion annually in 2021 to $8.5 billion annually by the end of 2024, and it will continue to grow in coming years,” said PAO.

This was the central argument that led to the passage of NEM 3.0, a regulatory structure which transitioned the state from paying lucrative retail rates for solar grid exports to “avoided cost” rates that are roughly 80% lower. The change led to a nosedive in installations in the state, dropping it out of the number one spot for installations for the first time in over a decade.

California has since suffered numerous solar installer bankruptcies and lost tens of thousands of jobs. Solar advocates have argued that while a full retail rate could not be paid forever, the move to NEM 3.0 was too steep of a cut. It’s an issue so contentious that ongoing litigation has brought the issue of NEM 3.0 to California Supreme Court.

For solar owners, PAO suggested the shift from NEM 1.0 and 2.0 to 3.0, also known as net billing tariff (NBT), would occur upon the sale of a home, or after 10 years of interconnection. Most homeowners signed a net metering agreement along with their 25 year loan or lease with the expectation that their agreement would span the life of the solar array. However, net metering agreements do not have any legally binding requirement to grandfather in existing customers for their system’s life.

The PAO also suggested that NEM 2.0 customers have their compensation rates frozen to the time in which they signed the agreement. Rather than being paid a retail rate that increases with the ever-rising electric utility rates, it would remain fixed, cutting down on the benefit of solar.

Silver linings?

However, NEM 3.0, while a shot to the hamstring for the solar industry, has come with some benefits. More than half of solar installations are now opting to include battery energy storage, up from 20% or less in 2023. This may provide critical for California’s clean energy transition, as the intermittent cycles of generation of solar do not match up directly with when power is being used.

This mismatch can be best described with a chart known as the “duck curve,” which shows the daily imbalance the California grid struggles with. Battery energy storage allows this duck curve to be smoothed out, delivering power when demand reaches a high point. This helps grid managers avoid building out inefficient natural gas “peaker” plants to serve those high-demand hours.

Vincent Ambrose, chief commercial officer, FranklinWH told pv magazine USA about the many ways batteries can help solar evolve and continue to serve California residents’ power demands.

“You can think of PV like a knife, it cuts one way, does one thing, and does it efficiently. It produces electricity,” said Ambrose. “When you take a look at an energy management system with a battery, now you’ve got a Swiss Army Knife. It serves all kinds of functions, whole-home backup, peak shaving, load management, even grid-interactive services.”

While batteries offer customers at home a lot more flexibility, those that were sold a solar array with no battery during NEM 1.0 and 2.0 may find themselves in a financially precarious position on their investment should the PAO’s suggestion become reality.

Large corporation Nestlé announced it has invested in a 326 MW solar project owned and developed by Enel North America.

The project, called Stampede, is planned to be installed on 2,600 acres in Hopkins County, Texas. The solar facility also includes plans for an 86 MW battery energy storage system.

Nestlé will purchase 100% of the renewable electricity attributes generated by the project’s energy production, estimated to be an average of over 522,000 MWh per year for 15 years. The annual carbon emission reduction is expected to be an estimated 279,000 metric tons of CO2, equivalent to the emissions of removing about 66,000 cars from the road per year.

“Our investment in Stampede brings us within striking distance of meeting our ambition to source 100% renewable electricity at all our manufacturing sites by 2025,” said Kate Short, chief procurement officer, Nestlé North America. “Building on our previous solar investments, Stampede helps further reduce carbon emissions in our operations and expands the availability of renewable energy—the project adds enough solar electricity to the U.S. grid to power the equivalent of approximately 49,000 households each year.”

The 326 MW Stampede project is the company’s third large scale solar project investment in the U.S., adding to 2023 investment in solar project Ganado and its 2020 investment in solar project Taygete I.

From ESS News

Sungrow USA Corporation, an arm of the Chinese inverter and energy storage heavyweight, has entered into an agreement with Miami-headquartered battery storage developer and operator Spearmint to deploy more than 1 GWh of energy storage capacity at projects in Texas through 2025.

The agreement between Spearmint and Sungrow follows their collaboration on Spearmint’s inaugural project, the 150 MW/300 MWh Revolution battery energy storage project in Crane, 30 miles south of Odessa in West Texas. Commissioned in early January, Revolution utilizes Sungrow’s PowerTitan Series storage system and includes 134 battery containers holding 6,432 battery modules.

Spearmint has not specified which projects will be covered the by the new supply deal. Presently, the company has more than 20 projects, totaling over 10 GWh of capacity, under development in more than 10 states across four US regions.

“Spearmint’s latest projects will leverage Sungrow’s integrated platform and allow us to quickly deploy new storage capacity to meet the growing need for the reliable, low-cost energy that powers the Texas economy while creating new jobs and additional tax revenue for local communities,” said Peter Rood, Chief Development Officer of Spearmint.

The developer opted again for Sungrow’s latest liquid-cooled PowerTitan 2.0. Spearmint said the system includes an easily scalable design and enhanced fire suppression features and can maintain top performance in harsh environments – including high-humidity areas, dusty deserts, or high elevations – while reducing auxiliary power consumption.

The GWh-scale supply deals in the energy storage space are becoming a norm. Earlier this year, Sungrow landed a massive 7.8 GWh deal with Saudi Arabia’s investment group Algihaz Holding to deliver its PowerTitan technology across three projects.

Only a couple of days later, Tesla announced a nearly two times bigger order from developer Intersect Power. The deal amounted to 15.3 GWh, equating to around 165% of the total battery energy storage systems deployed in Q2 2024, which saw the highest quarterly deployment in the company’s history to date.

The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) has approved the Scioto Ridge Solar Project, a 110 MWac solar power facility coupled with 20 MW of energy storage. The project is located in the Lynn, McDonald, and Taylor Creek townships in Hardin County.

The project will occupy 822 acres of land within parcels totaling 2,029 acres. The facility will be built within the footprint of the existing Scioto Ridge Wind Farm, allowing project owner RWE Clean Energy LLC (RWE) to reuse existing infrastructure, such as the substation. A 40-year land lease agreement has been signed for the project.

Source: RWE – OPSB Agricultural Land Map

The OPSB approved the facility after the developers agreed to 45 conditions designed to “minimize and mitigate potential impacts” during construction and facility operations. These conditions include agricultural-style perimeter fencing; setbacks of 150 feet from roadways, 50 feet from non-participating property boundaries, 300 feet from non-participating homes, and 541 feet from wind turbines, as well as a decommissioning bond.

The 541-foot setback from the wind turbines is intended to mitigate the risk of turbine blades, which reach just over 500 feet in height, damaging solar hardware in the event of an unscheduled disassembly. The project managers submitted a total decommissioning cost estimate of $5,114,463 for the solar facility and an additional $457,958 to decommission the battery energy storage system (BESS).

The full project documentation is available on the OPSB website.

Because the facility will use existing electrical infrastructure, substation upgrade costs are estimated at only $2.7 million, provided the energy storage and solar facility are constructed and activated simultaneously.

Key tasks include installing a new 345 kV circuit breaker, extending one span of the 345 kV transmission line, installing new revenue metering gear, and connecting a fiber line directly to the Gunn Road Substation.

RWE projects the facility will generate $990,000 annually in local revenue, totaling just under $40 million over its 40-year lifetime, based on a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) of $9,000 per megawatt. The Kenton Community School District will receive approximately $330,000 annually, and the Ben Logan Community School District will receive approximately $123,000 annually.

No hardware has been officially purchased for the solar power project, but various engineering drawings have specified components. It is anticipated that RWE will install an 80-hour lithium iron phosphate model LG 0.25CP JH4 DC-Link Solution battery, or a similar product. The current design includes 263,800 JA Solar AM72D30-545W modules, totaling 143 MWdc of capacity. The project is required to use solar panels that pass the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) testing, regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure they are not hazardous to people or the environment.

The specified inverters are Sungrow 4400UD units, which measure approximately 19.9 feet wide by 9.5 feet tall and 8 feet deep. Nextracker NX Horizon and NX Horizon XTR trackers are currently specified.

The facility is projected to generate 243,244 MWh of electricity annually, resulting in an estimated 24.5% capacity factor.

Community solar has recently taken off, surpassing 7 GW of installed capacity in the U.S. and analyst firm, Wood Mackenzie, 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 Coalition for Community Solar Access (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.

Corporations are signing onto community solar for several reasons, the first of which is that they are looking to meet their clean energy and sustainability goals. Distributed energy projects, like community solar, are smaller projects that are located on the distribution side of the energy grid and are generally up and running much faster than utility-scale projects. Furthermore, many community solar projects have an environmental justice component, often bringing lower-cost energy to low-income residents and supporting this cause support corporations’ ESG goals.

While the companies can invest in many types of clean energy projects and receive renewable energy certificates (RECs) that help them meet sustainability goals, yet companies increasingly want to give back to their communities beyond just buying clean energy.

For example, Microsoft and Pivot Energy announced a five-year partnership to develop up to 500 MW of community-scale solar projects, which will produce more than 1 billion kWh of electricity annually, starting in 2025. The agreement is Pivot’s largest REC agreement to date. It also marks Microsoft’s first major distributed generation portfolio investment. Microsoft will purchase RECs generated by the projects for a 20-year term.

Microsoft, which has over 200 data centers worldwide, reports that it has a goal of covering 100% of those energy needs with renewable energy production by 2025, plans to be carbon negative by 2030 and says that by 2050 it will “remove our historical emissions since our founding in 1975.” In its 2022 Solar Means Business report, the Solar Energy Industries Association ranked Microsoft fifth on the list of corporate buyers of solar energy, joining Meta, Apple, Amazon and Walmart as leaders.

“An economy fueled by clean, distributed energy can do more than provide power at low cost; it drives growth and success in communities across the nation. This [collaboration] helps to build more inclusive, local economic growth across 100 communities while addressing the sustainability needs and opportunities within those communities,” said Adrian Anderson, GM, Renewables, Carbon Free Energy, CDR, Microsoft in its announcement with Pivot Energy.

Walmart also recently announced a partnership with Pivot Energy to invest in 19 solar projects in development across the U.S., including 15 community solar projects. The tax equity investment will support the construction, operation, and maintenance of solar projects in Illinois, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware, and California.

The investment from Walmart will facilitate 72 MW of community solar projects, 41 MW of which are located in Colorado and designed to serve low- and moderate-income homes. The community solar projects are expected to be completed in 2024 and 2025, serving an estimated 7,000 households and creating an estimated $6 million in annual savings for subscribers to the projects.

In March Walmart also extended and expanded upon its 2021 agreement with Nexamp, to create 26 community solar projects across six states that will produce enough electricity to support community solar subscriptions for  about 13,000 residential households in the U.S. annually and enable approximately $8 million in annual bill savings.

In June, Ampion announced that Wendy’s will source between 30% and 100% of its energy from solar without the need to install solar panels onsite. Wendy’s plans to increase the number of restaurants enrolled in Ampion’s community solar program as additional solar generation capacity comes online and more franchise restaurants enroll in the program.

Last year, Wendy’s set near-term science-based targets to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 47%, and Scope 3 emissions from franchisees by 47% per restaurant by 2030, from a 2019 baseline.Through Ampion, Wendy’s locations have enrolled approximately 27.5 million kWh in community solar or the equivalent electricity needed for 2,200 homes for one year. Each kilowatt hour will be accounted for, tracked, and assigned ownership to a specific restaurant location via RECs through the Ampion+ product.

“We are excited about the opportunity this partnership provides our Company and franchise restaurant operators by making it easier and more accessible to source clean energy while ultimately realizing cost savings,” said Steven Derwoed, vice president, global design & construction at Wendy’s. “We are advancing progress toward our emissions reduction goals through community solar participation and RECs. It’s a win-win for the Company and our franchisees.”

In July, Starbucks and Nexamp agreed to 40 MW of community solar projects in Illinois in which Starbucks will receive a portion of the renewable energy credits, with the remaining capacity of each project being allocated to over 1,100 residents and small businesses throughout the area. Rivian and Pivot also recently agreed to partner on community solar projects in Illinois, in which each MWac purchased also includes a $5,000 donation to locally sited community development organizations.

“Community solar gives companies, both large and small, the versatility to structure their participation in innovative ways to meet their business needs,” said Jeff Cramer, CEO of the CCSA. “While mom and pop stores are an important contingent of community solar subscribers, we’re now seeing some of the world’s largest corporations invest in community solar and other distributed generation projects — driving local clean energy and enabling much needed bill savings to communities most in need. The buy-in to community solar is now vast and varied, coming from the Department of Energy, Fortune 500 companies, and state legislatures across the country.”

Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia have policies in place that permit third-party, competitive community solar development, while multiple states are advancing legislation to enable new programs.

From pv magazine ESS News

Battery storage was the second-largest contributor of utility-scale electric generating capacity in the United States during the first half of 2024, accounting for 4.2 GW.

According to the US Energy Information Administration’s “Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory,” developers and power plant owners added 20.2 GW of cumulative utility-scale electric generating capacity in the first six months of the year, up by 3.6 GW (21%) from the same period in 2023.

Solar accounted for the lion’s share of new additions, totaling 12 GW or 59%. In 2023, solar also dominated new additions to the grid. It was followed by battery storage, which made up 21% of the new capacity on the grid this year.

Battery additions were concentrated in four states: California (37% of the U.S. total), Texas (24%), Arizona (19%), and Nevada (13%). The 380 MW of battery storage capacity in Nevada at the Gemini plant and the 300 MW Eleven Mile Solar Center in Arizona were the two largest projects that came online in the first half of 2024.

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From pv magazine Global

University of California San Diego researchers have developed an automated material discovery and testing platform for tandem perovskite solar cell technologies. The robotic platform is multifunctional, able to mix precursors, perform spin coating, annealing and characterization of the optoelectronic thin films.

Focused initially on perovskite technology, it is called Perovskite Automated Spin Coat Assembly Line (PASCAL). It is suitable for composition engineering to improve the durability of perovskite absorbers for tandem solar cell applications, and screening triple-cation, triple-halide compositions.

“In our view, having a robot perform repetitive tasks is resource efficient, freeing up well-trained researchers for the higher-level tasks of hypothesis generation and testing,” David P. Fenning, corresponding author of the research, told pv magazine. “It also reduces noise in experimental data, increasing statistical power in experiments.”

The novel platform reportedly enables a rate of up to 430 sample depositions or measurements per day. “PASCAL automates fabrication of thin films by the standard spin coat procedures employed in manual processes, albeit with precision, control, and record keeping surpassing that of human operators,” stated the researchers.

PASCAL enables extensive compositional screening and a capacity to analyze 58 “unique compositions” within the complex realm of triple-halide, triple-cation compositions. It also supports coating reproducibility as demonstrated in the work by the team.

“With this screening dataset, we leverage machine learning to develop a durable composition that displays nearly zero photoluminescence peak shifts under both 85 C and approximately 4-sun photo exposure,” said the academics.

The composition was then made into single-junction prototype devices. In the characterization line are cameras, LED, and laser excitation sources, a halogen lamp, and a spectrometer. It can generate a standard dataset of darkfield, brightfield, photoluminescence, and transmittance data, stored for each sample.

The complete system is controlled from a single computer using a customized Python library.

Looking at the results, the research asserted the efficacy of PASCAL specifically for automation of solution-processed optoelectronic thin film research.  The approach, the hardware, and data are “evidence that automated platforms are an opportunity to accelerate the identification and discovery of novel thin film materials.” The accessibility of low-cost robotics and open-source communities for automation was an enabler, noted Fenning.

The platform was presented in the study “PASCAL: the perovskite automated spin coat assembly line accelerates composition screening in triple-halide perovskite alloys,” published in Digital Discovery.

Feedback from industry and the research community has been positive. “We have heard a lot of encouragement and excitement from early career to very senior researchers both in industry and academia. I think our most significant input to them might be that it’s not as hard or expensive as it might have once been, given the advances in robotics and open-source platforms available,” said Fenning,

Looking ahead, Fenning said, “Operational stability is the name of the game for perovskites. We are working on studies connecting durability to chemical and process variations using the low-noise experimental foundation provided by PASCAL.”

He added that the PASCAL platform is supporting research for “scale up of perovskite processing” at a new research center led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). It is called Accelerated Co-Design of Durable, Reproducible, and Efficient Perovskite Tandems, dubbed ADDEPT, a national center that includes university research teams from the University of California San Diego, Princeton, and MIT, as well as industrial partners, CubicPV and Verde Technologies.

From pv magazine Global

Meyer Burger has canceled plans to open a 2 GW solar cell manufacturing facility in the United States. In a statement, the Swiss-German PV manufacturer said construction of the plant at Colorado Springs is no longer financially viable.

The board of directors has also instructed company management to draw up a comprehensive restructuring and cost-cutting program for the business. A planned 0.7 GW expansion of Meyer Burger’s 1.4 GW module production plant in Goodyear, Arizona, has also been put on hold.  

The decision means Meyer Burger’s existing cell production site in Thalheim, Germany, will continue to form the backbone of the company’s solar cell supply, according to the manufacturer – a reversal on previous plans. Meyer Burger said cells produced at Thalheim represent the most economical option in the current market conditions. 

The manufacturer had sought a debt financing package backed by the monetization of tax credits available through the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Regulations in the United States allow an additional 10% bonus investment tax for U.S. solar projects. Announcing the Colorado production facility in July 2023, Meyer Burger said it planned to monetize up to $1.4 billion in tax credits from the start of production in 2024 until the end of 2032.

In the restructuring announcement, it said it will continue to seek debt financing on a reduced scale by monetizing the tax credits available to its US module production facility. It added its financing requirements will be “significantly lower” due to halting the Colorado Springs plant.  

In addition to announcing a “comprehensive” restructuring and cost-cutting program, Meyer Burger has postponed publication of its half-year financial result, previously announced for Sept. 16, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2024. The company said it could potentially postpone to an even later date, subject to regulatory approval.

Personnel changes are also expected at board level. Mark Kerekes has stepped down from the board of directors, with the company stating that its realignment will require a “new composition” of the board of directors.  

“We would like to thank Mark Kerekes for his very constructive cooperation and significant contributions during his membership of the board of directors,” said Franz Richter, chairman of the board of directors of Meyer Burger. 

Nevados trackers to qualify as domestic content in 2025 Nevados reports that now taking orders for its domestic content All Terrain Trackers that it says will fully comply with both Treasury’s new elective safe harbor and pre-existing direct cost requirements, helping developers qualify for a 10% domestic content tax credit, which is in addition to the 30% base investment tax credit.

Novel blockchain-based virtual utility for P2P PV trading Researchers from Canada’s Western University have developed an open-source, blockchain-based virtual utility for peer-to-peer (P2P) solar trading, using smart contracts to save up to $1,600 (US dollars) for 10 homes in simulated scenarios.

Global polysilicon prices stable amid steady fundamentals In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

TMEIC announces 9 GW utility-scale solar inverter factory in Texas The Japan-headquartered manufacturer plans a 144,000 square foot U.S. facility.

In case you missed it: Five big solar stories in the news this week  pv magazine USA spotlights news of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.

12 GW of utility-scale solar deployed in first half of 2024, doubling 2023 

The Energy Information Administration reports that 20.2 GW of electricity generation capacity was deployed in the U.S. in the first half of 2024, with solar energy leading and energy storage also seeing significant deployments. Fossil fuel retirements exceeded new fossil constructions more than tenfold.

Google invests in 800 MW solar project in Illinois

The Double Black Diamond Solar project may be the largest solar installation east of the Mississippi when complete in 2025.

U.S. module manufacturers seek “critical” retroactive tariffs

Led by First Solar and Hanwha Q Cells, U.S. solar module manufacturers have filed allegations with the Commerce Department, citing “critical circumstances” and suggesting increased module imports due to their previous lawsuit filings.

Most states with renewables targets are meeting them

Nearly all states with a renewable portfolio standard have met or nearly met their current standard. Four states have yet to meet their solar carve-out requirements.

We must onshore the supply chain

With the introduction of the American Tax Dollars for American Solar Manufacturing Act earlier this month, senators are trying to close this work-around and put American manufacturing back on a level playing field.

TMEIC Corporation Americas announced it will relocate its headquarters to Houston, Texas in March 2025. The headquarters move will coincide with the establishment of a new 144,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Brookshire, Texas.

TMEIC will manufacture utility-scale solar inverters at the facility. The company said the site is large enough to scale up to an annual production capacity of 9 GW of inverters and will scale based on demand.

The company has over 50 GW of its product installed and operational worldwide, with 28 GW installed in North America alone.

TMEIC is moving its headquarters from Roanoke, Virginia to Texas for the site expansion. TMEIC will maintain its office in Roanoke, Virginia, remaining devoted to designing, developing, and engineering advanced automation systems, large AC motors, and variable frequency drive systems for various industrial sectors worldwide.

The new Texas facility expansion is expected to create up to 300 local full-time jobs.

The Brookshire, Texas facility is scheduled to commence operations in October 2024. The facility will be situated near TMEIC’s existing uninterruptible power supply and medium voltage drive manufacturing plant in Katy, Texas. 

“This strategic expansion underscores TMEIC’s dedication to the renewable energy industry, advancing clean energy technology, maintaining strong client relationships, and competing on a global basis while proudly manufacturing in the United States,” said Manmeet S. Bhatia, president and chief executive officer, TMEIC Corporation Americas.

TMEIC manufactures centralized PV inverters ranging from 600 V to 1500 V.

TMEIC joins a small but growing number of solar inverter makers who are manufacturing in the U.S., thus filling what has long been a void in the U.S. solar supply chain.

Nevados announced that its all-terrain solar solar trackers will qualify for domestic content with delivery by Q2 2025.

Nevados is known for its All Terrain Tracker, a single-axis tracker that is designed to fit undulating terrain by integrating the driveline and articulating capability into the same components. Last November the company announced a manufacturing partnership with Priefert Manufacturing, an East Texas family-owned business that has long supplied the ranch and rodeo markets.

Priefert has begun manufacturing torque tubes, structural fasteners, controllers, and rails from American-made steel at its 23-acre factory and expects to expand as a result.

“Nevados was already working on a domestic supply chain before the inflation Reduction Act. We had set the groundwork before the IRA was released,” said Scott Troy, vice president of operations & global supply chain at Nevados. “Our partnership with Priefert has allowed more reliable production, shorter shipping times, and a lower overall carbon footprint for our customers.”

Domestic content enables developers to qualify for the 10% additional tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act. According to guidance released in May by the U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, to receive the bonus, all manufacturing processes for steel and iron components and 40% of manufactured products must take place in the United States..

Nevados reports that its domestic content trackers will fully comply with both Treasury’s new elective safe harbor and pre-existing direct cost requirements, helping developers qualify for a 10% domestic content tax credit, which is in addition to the 30% base investment tax credit.

“We’ve found partners who believe in the same things that we do. We have helped our customers get the details they need to file,” said Yezin Taha, CEO and founder of Nevados. “As a result we’re proud to be able to launch an American-made solar tracker so early, and we have an industry-leading product.”

By the close of 2024, Nevados reports that it will have shipped enough trackers to supply more than a gigawatt of solar generating capacity in the U.S., of 1.3 GW total contracted with client partners such as Ampliform, Cupertino Electric Inc., BlueWave, Cogent Renewables, CS Energy, Cupertino Electric, Inc., D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), Energix Renewables, Nexamp, Primoris Services Corporation, and SOLV Energy.

The company plans to begin taking orders for domestic content trackers in Q4 2024 and to ship them by Q2 2025. For developers not seeking domestic content incentives, Nevados will continue to offer non-domestic supplies.

Terrasmart trackers now with hail stow feature Terrasmart reports that the hail mitigation system uses cloud-based monitoring to automatically trigger optimum stow position to protect solar assets without requiring operator intervention.

Report shows U.S. states and utilities easing into EVs The number and scope of electric vehicle regulations and charging incentives are increasing.

Utilities plan hydrogen power projects that crowd out renewables Several utilities have proposed hydrogen-capable generating units in their resource plans, a research center reports. But hydrogen projects face hurdles such that they “may not work” and conflict with renewables, another research group says.

The impact of semi-transparent solar modules on agrivoltaics yield Researchers have conducted a field study across two growing seasons, growing different kinds of vegetables under three types of modules with 40%, 5%, and 0% transparency. Their work is the first replicated research experiment that evaluates module transparency in an irrigated vegetable field setting.

New research finds solar module anti-reflective coatings may reduce LCOE by over 2% Researchers in Morocco have examined the effects of an anti-reflective coating on solar panel performance under desert conditions and have found that it enhanced both the annual performance ratio and the energy yield by 2% and 5.5%, respectively. They have also found it to be durable and able to withstand dry cleaning methods under accelerated testing.

Canadian Solar drops 15% post Q2 earnings report The solar company logged $1.64 billion in revenue, down from $2.36 billion in the previous year’s Q2.

Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ), a global provider of solar modules, energy storage, and other clean energy components and solutions, announced its Q2 2024 earnings

The company posted $1.64 billion in revenues, roughly coming in line with Wall Street expectations. However, revenues are down from $2.36 billion in Q2 2023, and the company’s share price declin.ed about 15% in the trading session following the earnings report.

Canadian Solar attributed the decline in revenues to sharply falling global solar module prices.

Total module shipments recognized as revenues in the second quarter of 2024 were 8.2 GW, up 30% quarter-over-quarter and remained consistent year-over-year. Of the total, 135 MW were shipped to the company’s own utility-scale solar power projects.

“Today, we have reached an optimal scale—large enough to maintain a highly competitive cost structure yet lean enough to adapt swiftly to changes in industry dynamics,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and chief executive officer, Canadian Solar.

Shares fell as Canadian Solar forecast third quarter revenues of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion, significantly lower than Wall Street expectations of $2.22 billion. The company now guides $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion for full year revenues, falling short of analyst estimates of $7.66 billion.

The company recorded 17.2% gross margin, in line with guidance of 16% to 18%. Its e-STORAGE order backlog grew to $2.6 billion, backed by a record 66 GWh of pipeline, as of June 30, 2024.

Its solar project development arm Recurrent Energy expanded its total development pipeline to 27 GW of solar and 63 GWh of battery energy storage, as of June 30, 2024. The company also achieved initial closing of BlackRock’s investment in Recurrent Energy, representing the majority of the planned $500 million capital infusion. During the quarter, the company also announced a $200 million private placement of secured convertible notes with PAG.

“In our module business, we continue to apply a disciplined approach to operations, from strategic capacity investments to stringent order management. At the same time, we are positioning ourselves for sustainable medium- and long-term growth through our energy storage business, e-STORAGE, and global project development platform, Recurrent Energy,” said Qu.

The company said Recurrent Energy will continue to increase leverage in the near-term to support its transition to a partial independent power producer (IPP) model. As of June 30, 2024, Recurrent Energy’s total solar project development pipeline was 27.4 GW, including 1.7 GW under construction, 4.8 GW of backlog, and 20.9 GW of projects in advanced and early-stage pipelines.

“While we continue to navigate challenging market conditions, our focus remains on sustainable, profitable growth. We are beginning to see signs of market rationalization, as module pricing and input costs reach record lows. In line with our commitment to strategic future planning, we are adjusting certain capacity investments to ensure a resilient financial profile. We anticipate stabilization in the second half of the year,” said Qu.

The NC Clean Energy Technology Center has reported that “increasingly,” utilities are proposing “unspecified ‘clean dispatchable’” generation in their resource plans, with “the most common example” being hydrogen-capable gas combustion units.

The center also reported that U.S. utilities that have recently filed integrated resource plans expect to add 92 GW of solar, 50 GW of wind, and 42 GW of methane gas units. The center did not publicly evaluate whether the amounts of solar and wind for those utilities, over the 15 to 20 years typically covered by a resource plan, could be seen as good news or a disappointment.

As for “clean dispatchable” capacity, the report lists several utilities proposing such projects: Evergy in Kansas and Missouri, Ameren Missouri, PacifiCorp, and Xcel Energy in the Upper Midwest.

One timeline for reaching 100% hydrogen power has been announced by developers of a pioneering project in Utah that is projected to use 30% hydrogen by volume mixed with 70% methane by 2025, and to reach 100% hydrogen by 2045.

Yet a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) says “it takes a lot of hydrogen” by volume to cut carbon dioxide emissions. That’s because hydrogen has a lower energy density than methane.

A hydrogen concentration of 50% by volume yields only a 24% emissions reduction, according to calculations by SS&A Power Consultancy cited by IEEFA, and a concentration of 93% is needed to reduce emissions by 80%.

The same calculations show that until 77% hydrogen by volume is reached, “hydrogen-capable” generating units will be powered primarily with methane.

Unknown costs

The IEEFA report documents proposals for “hydrogen-ready” projects from utilities and merchant developers in 18 states.

While the costs of wind, solar and storage are known today, the report says the ultimate cost of any “hydrogen-capable” gas project will not be known for years.

Hydrogen-related power projects, the report says, “require significant additional investments that will be extremely costly for ratepayers, may not actually work and will conflict with readily available and cheaper renewable options.”

The report sees “three key hurdles” that will “slow and perhaps entirely halt the widespread use of hydrogen as a replacement for methane” in turbine generators: inadequate hydrogen supply, a lack of pipeline infrastructure to transport hydrogen, and a lack of capacity to safely store hydrogen.

The pioneering Utah project has addressed those hurdles by co-locating green hydrogen production, hydrogen storage in salt domes, and gas combustion turbines.

The IEEFA report said state regulators should require utilities to compare the costs of hydrogen projects with costs of zero-carbon resources including renewables, battery storage, efficiency and virtual power plants.

Blending high levels of green hydrogen into methane, the report says, that “would consume vast amounts of renewable energy that would be better used directly to replace existing fossil fuel generation.”

Green hydrogen’s role

The policy consultancy Energy Innovation found last year that production of green hydrogen for industrial use can be profitable in much of the US, but did not evaluate hydrogen’s use for electricity production.

Current industrial uses of hydrogen include production of ammonia, largely for fertilizer, and oil refining. Ammonia could also be used as a fuel for shipping. The Green Hydrogen Coalition says that green hydrogen could also decarbonize the production of steel and cement.

The public version of the NC Clean Energy Technology Center’s report is titled “50 States of Power Decarbonization: Q2 2024 Quarterly Report Executive Summary.” The full report is available free to state policymakers and regulators, and to others for a fee.

The IEEFA report is titled “Hydrogen: Not a solution for gas-fired turbines.”

A report on state government- and utility-driven initiatives affecting electric vehicles (including hybrids) shows the majority of such efforts continue to focus on rebates and incentives for consumers and commercial fleet operators to acquire them. However, regulations and actions to modify electricity rates relating to EVs and develop charging infrastructure are also moving forward.

The Q2 2024 edition of “50 States of Electric Vehicles” published by the NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) at North Carolina State University said a total of 561 EV actions were taken during the timeline of the report. In 2024, as of early August, 29 states have enacted legislation related to transportation electrification. Massachusetts, New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan and Hawaii were the most active in this regard, the report said.While the report shows that governments continue to invest heavily in creating markets and incentives for growing EV numbers, certain trends are showing the effects of these vehicles in the real world. For example, more states are imposing additional registration fees for electric vehicle owners, with most U.S. states now having such fees in effect. Also, a growing number of states are opting to adopt per-kWh fees for electric vehicle charging.

The publicly available executive summary of the $500 report did not identify a cause for these actions; however, it’s no secret that states imposes such charges in order to recoup gas taxes lost from non-hybrid EVs bypassing gas pumps.

The report also shows the growing footprint of EVs on the nation’s electricity grids. Utilities are developing charging programs to manage the EV charging load. The report cites NV Energy’s proposed charging programs as part of its latest transportation electrification plan as well as Xcel Energy’s request for a new active managed charging program in New Mexico. Actions of other utilities proposing to offer EV owners incentives to divert charging to during off-peak hours.

More importantly, a growing number of utilities are filing expansive transportation electrification plans on a routine schedule, the report said, with several states now requiring this.

“As the adoption of electric vehicles continues to grow, so too does the EV focused utility offerings, with an increased focus on active managed charging programs,” Emily Apadula, policy analyst at NCCETC, said in a statement. “These programs allow the utility to directly control a customer’s charging load in order to remotely optimize charging times and reduce stress on the grid.”

Scientists from Colorado State University have conducted field research on vegetable crop growth located below PV modules with varying transparency. The vegetables are grown under thin film, semi-transparent cadmium telluride (St-CdTe) modules with a transparency of 40%, bifacial monocrystalline silicon (BF-Si) modules with a transparency of 5%, and opaque polycrystalline silicon (O-Si) modules with a transparency of 0%.

“Semi-transparent PV (STPV) module technology has emerged as a potential solution to mitigate the negative effects of dense shade in cropping systems while maintaining a high module density,” said the academics. “To our knowledge, this is the first replicated research experiment that evaluates module transparency types in an irrigated vegetable field setting.”

The experiment was conducted over two growing seasons, 2020 and 2021. The study site was located in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, in a field designated for research. Overall, the growth of six vegetables was tested: jalapeño pepper, bell pepper, lettuce, summer squash, Tasmanian chocolate tomatoes, and red racer tomatoes.

“There were three planted rows across the entire site – north, middle, and south,” explained the group. “Lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes were planted in two offset sub-rows in 0.9 m beds covered with black plastic mulch in the north and south rows. Squash was exclusively planted in the middle row both years with 1.2 m spacing on center.”

As for the PV modules, the scientists used three of each type. They were installed in a set position of 35 degrees facing south, with the bottom edge of the modules 1,220 mm above the ground and the back at a height of 2,360 mm. The ST-CdTe modules had a rated output of 57 W, the BF-Si had 360 W, and the O-Si had 325 W.

“Each of the 12 crop subplots, including both PV arrays and control plots, spanned a width of 4.3 m, with a 4.3 m spacing between adjacent subplots,” the researchers said. “Due to the single pole mount configuration, the shadow cast from the modules moved throughout the day. With this, the crops received direct sun early and late in the day, with maximum shade during the peak hours of the day and immediately under the modules.”

Per the results, the summer squash under all three module types displayed significantly lower yields than the control plot, regardless of the module transparency type. While in the control plot, under full sun conditions, the squash yielded 5.1 kg per plant, it grew 3.2 kg in the BF-Si scenario, 3.2 kg in the O-Si scenario, and 4.1 kg in the ST- CdTe scenario.

The other vegetables had equal or higher average yields to the control under the 40% transparent ST-CdTe treatment but with no statistically significant differences. The jalapeño peppers yielded 155 g per plant in full sun, 161 g in the BF-Si, 155 g in the O-Si, and 162 g in the ST- CdTe, while the bell pepper yielded 295 g per plant in full sun, 294 g in the BF-Si, 278 g in the O-Si, and 346 g in the ST- CdTe.

The lettuce weight per head was 105 g in full sun, 126 g in the BF-Si, 111 g in the O-Si, and 129 g in the ST- CdTe. The Tasmanian chocolate tomatoes had an average of 926 g per plant in full sun, 1,060 g in the BFSi, 1,069 g in the O-Si, and 1,278 g in the ST- CdTe. Lastly, the red racer tomatoes had 867 g per plant in full sun, 733 g in the BF-Si, 903 g in the O-Si, and 962 g in the ST- CdTe.

“The optimization of the agri-PV array with semi-transparent PV modules could increase agricultural production while maintaining the added protection of an energized canopy in traditional APV systems,” the researchers concluded. “More research is needed to better understand the economic tradeoffs between increased module transparency compared to vegetable crop production, while also considering the increased energy yield from module bifaciality.”

Their findings were presented in “Vegetable Crop Growth Under Photovoltaic (PV) Modules of Varying Transparencies,” published in Heliyon.

Terrasmart announced the release of a new hail stow feature for its single-axis tracker,TerraTrak.

The risk of damage to solar plants from hail storms has increased with the frequency of extreme weather evens. Over the past five years, hail damage has caused more than 50% of total insured project losses, said hail risk expert VDE. Though infrequent, these events can produce record losses. In 2022, hail losses exceeded $300 million in Texas alone. Forty-year financial exposure models from engineering firm VDE Americas suggest that hail events could result in up to $13 million in damage at 0° tilt, compared to only $620,000 at 60°.

Terrasmart’s new hail stow capability mitigates that risk with its PeakYield, cloud-based tracker control and monitoring software platform. Terrasmart reports that the hail mitigation system automatically triggers optimum stow position to protect solar assets without requiring operator intervention.

Available for both 1P and 2P trackers, the hail stow solution adds to Terrasmart’s racking portfolio. The portfolio offers both ground screw and driven piles, designed to perform in the most extreme terrain and weather conditions.

“Project de-risking has, and continues to be, our most significant contribution to the solar industry,” says Terrasmart president Ed McKiernan. “Our new hail stow feature adds to our existing array of foundation and racking products that bring unique reliability to unreliable sites.”

Terrasmart outlines the following advantages of its hail stow feature:

• Automatic stow feature puts trackers into safe position without requiring operator intervention, reducing potential lapses from human factors
• High-tilt stow angle accounts for both wind and hail conditions, eliminating contradicting positions and ensuring a safe tracker position (+/- 50° for 1P and +/- 60° for 2P)
• Real-time, cloud-based weather forecast triggers activate based on industry-leading data from Accuweather
• Auto-stow feature activates 60 minutes before a weather event but timing can be customized to meet owner requirements
• Stow function does not require installing additional hardware or calibration over time

“Our motto at Terrasmart is to stow early and stow often,” says Ashton Vandermark, Terrasmart’s software solutions lead. “We are adamant about automatically triggering hail protection to avoid instances where manual intervention has not occurred during storms. We are excited about this latest addition to PeakYield’s cloud-based functionality and machine-learning intelligence to protect assets.”

Terrasmart, owned by Gibraltar Industries, has more than 25 GWs of solar deployed across 6,000 PV systems.

Terrasmart’s software team will be at RE+ in Anaheim September 10 to 12 in booth #D30011 to give live demos of PeakYield as well as discuss hail stow and other TerraTrak features.

People on the move: Mayfield Renewables, First Solar, Meteomatics Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Net metering hangs in the balance in New Hampshire A group of interested parties, including the state’s utilities and the Granite State Hydropower Association, agreed on a settlement that calls for the rate to stay the same for two years.

Northvolt closes Cuberg’s ops, shifts lithium-metal battery R&D to Sweden Three years after acquiring U.S.-based Cuberg, Swedish battery maker Northvolt has decided to shut down the California unit and move future lithium-metal battery R&D to Sweden.

PV module cooling tech based on single-channel containing nanofluids Scientists in Mexico have conceived a new solar module cooling tech that can reportedly improve PV power generation by up to 2%. The system uses nanofluids embedded in an aluminum single-channel attached to the back of the panel.

GM signs agreement to match assembly plant power demand with solar The automaker entered a 15-year, 180 MW solar power purchase agreement (PPA).

While the PUC will ultimately rule on net metering, a group of interested parties—including the state’s utilities and the Granite State Hydropower Association—agreed on a settlement that calls for the rate to stay the same for two years.

The settlement also calls for the electric utilities to file a NEM time-of-use rate two years from the approval of what they’re calling NEM 2.1. In response to claims that NEM shifts costs to non-solar ratepayers, the settlement calls for the utilities to impose application fees for net metered projects to reduce the administrative costs borne by non-net-metering customers. Fees suggested range from $200 to $1,000 per project.

The state’s leading clean energy advocacy group, Clean Energy NH, has sent a rallying cry in support of the settlement. Executive director, Sam Evans-Brown told pv magazine USA that he’s hopeful that the commissioners won’t cut the current compensation rate, but he said “we have seen with this commission that they are hostile to certain types of utility programs. This was most evident in their order in the Energy Efficiency docket from 2020, which was overturned unanimously on a bipartisan basis by New Hampshire lawmakers.”

Much evidence has been entered into the record for Docket 22-060, yet Evans-Brown said in the past, the order in the previous docket was not based on any evidence that was entered into the record, so Clean Energy NH is afraid that history may repeat itself.

The history of net metering in New Hampshire goes back to 1998 when NEM, a policy that provides credit to rate payers on utility bills for the amount of solar energy sent to the grid, was first enacted in New Hampshire. At the time it supported both solar generation as well as small-scale hydropower and it provided net credits at the retail rate which was 17 cents per kWh.

In 2017 NH’s NEM was cut to around 14.7 cents per kWh for small (<100 kW) systems and 10 cents per kWh for large projects compared to between 13 and 25 cents per kWh in Maine, and about 16 cents per kWh in Vermont.

Source: Clean Energy NH

While the net metering rate has been low in NH, the cost of electricity is high. New Hampshire currently has the 8^th highest electricity rate in the country, averaging 23.1 cents per kWh.

Furthermore, while solar would ease this cost burden for many ratepayers, the state is not known as a solar energy powerhouse. The state currently gets 1.94% of its electricity from solar, compared to neighboring Massachusetts that gets 23.75% of its electricity from the sun. NH and is ranked 41^st in the nation according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. That rank is expected to drop to 45^th over the next five years.

If the NH PUC chooses to reduce or eliminate net metering in New Hampshire, solar in the state may be affected. pv magazine USA spoke with Dan Weeks, vice president at ReVision Energy, New Hampshire’s largest solar installer. Weeks said that net metering has been “the critical foundation for thousands of families, plus housing authorities, nonprofits, businesses, and towns to go solar and get at least a portion of the value that they provide to the grid back in net metering credits.”

Weeks noted that right now net metering in NH is good through 2040, which is only 15 years away. With 20 years being the “minimum accepted duration for investing in projects,” he said ReVision is hoping the PUC leaves net metering in tact and extends the duration.

“We think that’s a very modest task,” said Weeks. “And the fact that all of the regulated utilities, as well as the consumer advocates, plus industry and environmentalists are in alignment should make it an easy decision for the PUC commissioners. But we’re also reading the signals showing that they could go in a very drastic direction, and that concerns us very much.”

California’s current solar conundrum is an example of what could happen to New Hampshire’s solar market. The updated net metering rule that was implemented in April 2023, called NEM 3.0, cut compensation for exported rooftop solar generation by roughly 80%. Since then interconnection queues show an 80% drop in installation applications. The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) reported that nearly 17,000 rooftop solar jobs, about 22% of the workforce, were lost this year as a result. Solar Insure, which backs many installation companies in the state, told pv magazine USA that its data shows 75% of solar installers are now in the “high risk” category following CPUC’s decision to implement NEM 3.0, with SunPower being the most notable bankruptcy among many.

Comments on the potential rate change can be emailed to ClerksOffice@puc.nh.gov. Clean Energy NH advises that comments be sent by August 30, 2024.

General Motors (GM) announced it has entered a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA), signing on to purchase electricity generated by a 180 MW solar project.

The agreement with solar developer NorthStar Clean Energy will enable GM to power three of its assembly plants with clean energy. The project in Newport, Arkansas, will support the electricity needs of GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly and Lansing Grand River Assembly in Michigan, and the Wentzville Assembly site in Missouri.

The Newport Solar project is expected to generate enough electricity to power over 30,000 homes per year.

“By expanding our renewable electricity portfolio, we are taking a major step forward in reducing our carbon footprint and advancing our broader sustainability goals,” said Rob Threlkeld, GM director of global energy strategy. “This facility not only supports our renewable electricity strategy, but also demonstrates our dedication to a sustainable future for all.”

The project won’t directly power GM plants, but rather will provide GM with renewable energy certificates (REC) that help the company achieve its state environmental, social, and governance goals. Such REC contracts are often facilitated by Southeast U.S. states, where the grid has some of the worst carbon pollution in the nation.

While RECs help attract investment and development in these regions, critics have warned that they are misleading in the purported environmental benefits. Projects often sell electricity and RECs as two separate assets.

GM now has sourcing agreements with 17 renewable energy projects across 11 states. BloombergNEF lists GM as the automotive industry’s largest buyer of renewable power capacity.

D.R. Horton, among the largest new home builders in the United States, announced it has selected Streetleaf as a national vendor. 

In the agreement, Streetleaf will provide its solar-powered streetlamps to D.R. Horton for its new construction communities. 

Streetleaf’s latest streetlamp includes a 21% efficiency solar panel, 220W high-efficiency LED lights, and an NiMH battery. The resilient structure can withstand temperatures up to 158 degrees F and winds of 160 mph. It an be installed at heights 15 to 25 feet and is available in black or white.

“Any housing project being developed without solar-powered streetlights is a missed opportunity for the future of that community,” stated Liam Ryan, chief executive officer of Streetleaf. “The demand for sustainable living solutions is growing exponentially and our streetlights are attracting the attention of potential homebuyers.” 

D.R. Horton already installs smart home technology in every home it builds. Now the company is incorporating smart neighborhood solutions, including solar-powered streetlights from Streetleaf. 

“Sustainable infrastructure is highly attractive to homeowners, and the added peace of mind that comes with knowing the lights are designed to remain operational even during many extreme weather events like hurricanes is equally important,” said Brad Conlon, senior vice president, business development, D.R. Horton. 

Over 7,300 Streetleaf streetlights have already been installed in more than 100 projects across the U.S. This has led to an estimated 2.6 million pounds of CO2 savings compared to traditional streetlights, said the company. 

Mayfield Renewables announced that Jacob Betcher has been appointed as its new chief executive officer (CEO), effective immediately. Betcher is an accomplished engineering professional and proven business leader having been an engineering manager at Generac Power Systems and COO at Apricity.

First Solar announced that Brian Willis is the new manager, corporate communications & external relations. Will was previously director of communications at Pioneer Public Affairs and at Zero Emission Transportation Association.

Meteomatics, the weather intelligence and technology company , is expanding work with U.S. energy companies and investors with the appointments of Durjoy Mazumdar as North America’s head of sales and Chris Hyde as senior sales manager for North America. Mazumdar and Hyde will lead Meteomatics’ continued expansion into the U.S. energy market, as it equips companies and investors with hyperlocal weather intelligence to predict energy demand and consumption in real-time.

ThinkLabs AI, Inc., a startup focused on developing technology to help enhance electric grid planning and operations through a combination of intelligent automation and AI, announced the appointment of five new senior team members:

As the chief technology officer at Thinklabs AI, Neal Vali drives the company’s overall technology strategy and vision. Prior to Thinklabs AI, Neal was the Head of Data and ML Engineering at GE Vernova, where he played a pivotal role in redefining Grid Orchestration using cloud-native solutions.

Gang Zheng, director of research and development at ThinkLabs, worked as the director of autonomous grid orchestration and senior manager of WAMS at GE. There, he led a software development and delivery team across the U.S. and Canada, focusing on product development, project delivery, and user support. His team successfully delivered key projects such as real-time distribution system state estimation, distribution model validation, and an oscillation source location system for power grids.

Chaitanya Baone, head of product at ThinkLabs brings over 12 years of experience in power and energy management products across T&D grid planning and operations, microgrids, EV smart charging and energy storage optimization. Baone has a proven track record of driving growth through innovation and has held leadership roles in R&D, engineering and product management organizations across GE, Eaton, Rivian and Itron.

Surendranath (Suren) Vallabhajosyula is the head of machine learning & data engineering at ThinkLabs. In this role, he is responsible for defining and building the company’s machine learning platform, overseeing application design, architecture, security practices, and infrastructure for multi-cloud data and machine learning applications. Before joining ThinkLabs, Suren served as the senior director of architecture and data platforms at Toyota Financial Services (TFS). There, he spearheaded the development of a secure, scalable, multi-tenant global data platform to support various data and machine learning initiatives.

Before becoming the Head of Finance at ThinkLabs AI, Vimali Pathmanathan, CPA, CA worked for GE Vernova and Opus One Solutions (acquired by GE Vernova in 2022) for seven years. She held key roles as controller and director of finance, playing a pivotal role in financing and acquisition activities.

From pv magazine ESS News

Middle-market infrastructure investment firm Nova Infrastructure announced it has completed its purchase of UGE International, a solar and energy storage developer and operator.

The acquisition includes Nova purchasing approximately 70% of UGE’s shares. The company is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange.

UGE is a solar operator and developer of rooftop and ground mount commercial, industrial and community solar energy solutions. Founded in 2010, UGE develops, builds, finances, owns and operates solar and battery storage projects in New York, New Jersey, Maine, California, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Massachusetts.

The company has delivered over 500 MW of projects and currently has a portfolio of more than 12 operating and 81 advanced backlog projects in 11 states. UGE is a community solar and battery storage platform with a vertically integrated business model and a diversified project portfolio.

“Nova committed acquisition capital as well as growth capital to support the expansion of the UGE platform and installed MW,” shared Allison Kingsley, co-founder and partner at Nova.

NOVA was advised in this transaction by Blank Rome LLP and Bennett Jones LLP, and UGE was advised by Mintz LLP and CP LLP.

California advances flexible demand that can absorb renewable power  With flexible demand appliance standards for pool controls set to take effect in California next year, the state is now developing standards for electric storage water heaters, to be followed by standards for five more types of appliances.

PV systems can now support grid as fossil fuels decline A new report by the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaics  Power Systems Programme (IEA-PVPS) says that existing PV systems have the technical capabilities to provide various frequency-related grid services.

Google invests in 800 MW solar project in Illinois The Double Black Diamond Solar project may be the largest solar installation east of the Mississippi when complete in 2025.

The Hydrogen Stream: U.S. companies, institutions present hydrogen plans As the hydrogen project in Appalachia moves on, American Airlines confirms its commitment to hydrogen aircrafts. Meanwhile, a Scottish distillery might soon run on hydrogen for whisky production.

Startup Enteligent secures $6 million to scale solar EV charging The company offers a DC-to-DC electric bidirectional electric vehicle charger that allows EVs to charge directly from solar panels without the need to convert to AC.

Natron Energy announces $1.4 billion sodium ion battery factory in North Carolina The company will open a 24 GW annual production facility, creating over 1,000 jobs.

Enteligent, a startup offering solar-powered DC-to-DC chargers for electric vehicles, announced it has raised $6 million in capital from investors to scale commercialization of its products.

The recent funds bring Enteligent’s capital raise to $19 million since 2021. The funding round was led by Taronga Ventures, a global technology investor in real estate and infrastructure.

Funds will primarily be used to scale commercialization of the company’s DC-based solar optimization solutions. This includes the company’s signature technology, the TLCEV DC-to-DC bidirectional electric vehicle charger. Enteligent said its product is the first EV charger to be powered directly by DC-source electricity.

The startup has already secured orders for its technology. The company is supplying its long-dwell-time 25kW DC-to-DC EV charger to a large logistics company to power its newly electrified delivery fleet.

Enteligent said that traditional fleet charging infrastructure uses AC Level 2 chargers that require significant engineering planning, long permitting wait times, and high costs. Furthermore, AC charging relies on the vehicle’s onboard AC/DC converter to charge its DC battery, which wastes 10% to 20% of the energy through conversion losses and is often limited to charge rates of 9.6 kW or less.

The company said its direct DC product leans on the inherent efficiency and reliability of DC technology. It avoids the energy conversion losses and equipment costs associated with converting solar energy from DC to AC and back again, which reduces overall expenses and makes clean energy more effective and affordable.

Entligent also manufactures solar rapid shutdown devices, module level power electronics, and other solar balance of systems components.

“Enteligent’s technology sets a new standard in maximizing solar energy efficiency,” said Jonathan Hannam, managing partner at Taronga Ventures. “Their holistic approach to solar power optimization offers practical solutions with real-world applications that meet the needs of global real asset owners and operators. Together, we can significantly advance decarbonization efforts for real assets.”

Natron Energy, manufacturer of sodium-ion battery energy storage systems, announced it will open a $1.4 billion factory in North Carolina.

The manufacturing facility is a planned 24 GW annual production capacity site in Edgecombe County. Once operational, the factory will increase Natron Energy’s production capacity by a factor of 40.

Natron’s batteries are the only UL-listed sodium-ion batteries on the market today, said the company. The batteries are expected to serve a wide range of use cases, including industrial power space, including data centers, mobility, EV fast charging, microgrids, and telecom, among others.

Natron Energy said its battery chemistry presents zero strain during charging and discharge, 10x faster cycling than traditional lithium-ion batteries, and 50,000+ cycle life, and are made without any lithium, cobalt, nickel, or other difficult-to-obtain minerals.

The company said its patented “Prussian blue electrodes” store and transfer sodium-ions faster and with lower internal resistance than any other commercial battery on the market today. 

The project is expected to create 1,000 full-time jobs in the area. The facility is nearly 1.2 million square feet, located on a 437 acre plot in Kingsboro. The factory is expected to be supported by over $50 million in grants from North Carolina.

“After evaluating over 70 sites across 9 states, we found that North Carolina, with its leadership in the clean energy revolution, would make the perfect home for this project. We are proud to partner with the state on this ambitious project to deliver high-quality jobs to the community while advancing the electrification of our economy,” said Colin Wessells, founder and co-chief executive officer, Natron Energy.

The factory is facilitated in part by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee. Over the course of the 12-year term of the grant, the project is estimated to grow the state’s economy by $3.4 billion.

Natron and the state also anticipate additional support being provided for the project through the first use of the North Carolina Megasite Readiness Program, a new state grant program open to local governments and designed to provide funds to help prepare or upgrade qualifying industrial sites to the competitive level required in today’s economic development marketplace. The state expects Edgecombe County will apply for a $30 million grant from the fund.

“We’re proud to be leading the charge in the advancement of a domestic battery supply chain, and we’re grateful for the partnership of local and state officials here in North Carolina,” said Wendell Brooks, co-chief executive officer, Natron Energy.