“Net-zero” goals proliferate, but speed, integrity of commitments varies greatly. The country’s top emitting utilities are on decarbonization pathways that are too slow to meet the climate goals set forth by President-Elect Joseph Biden.
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Renewables surpass coal in U.S. power generation throughout the month of April 2020 — IEEFA
In a first for any month, renewables generated more electricity than coal on every day in April, new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows.
Cheaper Battery Is Unveiled as a Step to a Carbon-Free Grid — New York Times
On Wednesday, an energy company headed by the California billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong announced that it had developed a rechargeable battery operating on zinc and air that can store power at far less than the cost of lithium-ion batteries. … “It could change and create completely new economies using purely the power of the sun, wind and air,” Dr. Soon-Shiong…said.
How Zinc Batteries Could Change Energy Storage — New York Times
Making the batteries rechargeable and lowering their cost are seen as important advances in enabling the electric grid to depend on power from renewable sources.
Reverse Power Flow: How Solar+Batteries Shift Electric Grid Decision Making from Utilities to Consumers – ILSR
For 100 years, most decisions about the U.S. electric grid have been made at the top by electric utilities, public regulators, and grid operators. That era has ended.
How Elon Musk’s big Tesla battery is changing Australia’s power landscape — Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The world’s biggest lithium-ion battery — built by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company Tesla last year — has survived its first summer in South Australia’s mid-north. And according to a new report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), it’s outperforming coal and gas generators on some key measures.
California energy interests set to square off over Puente natural gas plant — Utility Dive
A battle is brewing in southern California between a utility planning to build a new natural gas plant and clean energy advocates who say solar and storage facilities could provide the power for cheaper.
Dutch Utility Bets Its Future on an Unusual Strategy: Selling Less Power — New York Times
When Eneco, a major Dutch utility, tested a promising energy monitor in several dozen homes, things could not have gone much worse. The company making the devices failed to deliver enough of them, and some of those provided did not work. But when Eneco sent workers to recover the monitors, something strange happened — a tenth of customers refused to open their doors. “They wanted to keep it,” said Tako in ’t Veld, a former Eneco executive who now leads the “smart energy” unit at Quby, the company that makes the energy meter.
Is the future finally here for utility-scale solar-plus-storage? — Utility Dive
America’s energy storage market just had its biggest first quarter in history, and is growing exponentially … Utilities across America are starting to learn storage through pilot projects, and as they install batteries, they realize operational benefits as well as economic benefits from avoided costs across their systems. Once these benefits become apparent, they want to add more storage and create a beneficial cycle of positive outcomes.
APS Buys Energy Storage From AES for Less Than Half the Cost of a Transmission Upgrade — GreenTech Media
Utility Arizona Public Service has contracted for a new grid-scale battery — not to demonstrate the technology, but because it’s a lot cheaper than the conventional alternative.