PPA prices jump 9.6% in Q3 as growing demand hits supply chain, transmission roadblocks: LevelTen

While the Inflation Reduction Act has spurred greater excitement about renewable energy, it has yet to slow a 34% year-over-year increase in power purchase agreement prices, according to LevelTen Energy.

By Emma Penrod • Oct. 18, 2022

How solar installers can leverage the IRA to boost business

The Inflation Reduction Act is set to spur a major wave of home electrification across the country. But, achieving this depends on the expansion of renewable energy like solar and battery storage.

Oct. 17, 2022

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Sustainability

Companies are pursuing increasingly ambitous sustainability goals around clean energy, but integrating rising amounts of renewables, minimizing environmental impacts, and achieving carbon reduction targets can be challenging.

By Utility Dive staff

New offshore wind best-practice guidance could speed project approvals, boost worker safety

The guidance will help provide greater transparency, consistency and certainty to the offshore wind energy industry’s regulatory process, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

By Ethan Howland • Oct. 13, 2022

Connecticut energy and environment chief outlines updated clean energy plan on path to zero emissions

Filling unmet portions of previous solicitations with solar, developing transmission for offshore wind and adding energy storage and anaerobic digesters are the focus of the updated plan.

By Ethan Howland • Oct. 13, 2022

CAISO calls for near-term power procurement, even with possible Diablo Canyon extension

The California Public Utilities Commission is considering requiring utilities and others to line up near-term power supplies to make up for project delays in earlier procurements.

By Ethan Howland • Oct. 11, 2022

GM takes on Tesla, others; launches unit focused on energy storage, solar and vehicle-to-grid charging

General Motors hopes the new services will spur EV adoption while improving grid resiliency, it said as part of a broader business announcement Tuesday.

By Dan Zukowski • Oct. 11, 2022

Duke Energy proposes green tariff for South Carolina customers seeking 24/7 renewables

Company leaders say the tariff, which could become a template for actions in other states, was prompted by a growing number of corporate customers who said they needed access to renewable energy 24/7.

By Emma Penrod • Oct. 10, 2022

GE begins restructuring its onshore wind unit to adjust for ‘market realities’

GE confirmed that it has begun to “streamline” its onshore wind operations after reports of hundreds of layoffs and falling revenues.

By Emma Penrod • Oct. 10, 2022

How an unlikely trio helped secure billions for rural electric cooperatives

As rural communities watch wind and solar farms begin to dot their landscape, many want to ensure rural America can own, not just host, the clean energy transition, the authors write.

By Duane Highley, Ramón Cruz and Erik Hatlestad • Oct. 10, 2022

EPA launches initiative to speed review of new chemicals for electric vehicle, clean energy sectors

The effort covers mixed metal oxides, which are a key component in lithium-ion batteries and can also be used in solar cells, wind turbines and other clean energy applications.

By Larry Pearl • Oct. 7, 2022

Washington to launch carbon cap-and-trade program in January, with tie to California program possible

“This new program will help us decarbonize our economy, improve air quality, and put Washington at the forefront of the fast-growing global era of clean energy,” Gov. Jay Inslee said.

By Elizabeth McCarthy • Oct. 6, 2022

Duke Energy ups 10-year capital spending plan to $145B to modernize grid, move to zero-carbon generation

The capital investment plan puts it on track to meet or exceed its decarbonization goals, Duke says, but environmentalists remain critical of the company’s pace of change.

By Emma Penrod • Oct. 5, 2022

97% of smart meters fail to provide promised customer benefits. Can $3B in new funding change that?

Interoperability standards can deliver “non-discriminatory access” to real-time data from new smart meters to fulfill promises of customer savings and other system benefits, energy managers say.

By Herman K. Trabish • Oct. 5, 2022

NextEra, PGE open US’ first wind-solar-battery project as Inflation Reduction Act ups storage options

“This is exactly the kind of development that we hoped would go forward under the Inflation Reduction Act,” said Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO at the American Council on Renewable Energy.

By Katie Pyzyk • Oct. 5, 2022

Exelon’s vice president of IT talks sustainability, cloud and the war for talent

Oracle Cloud and utility tech is helping Exelon lower costs and be more efficient and sustainable

By Rodger Smith, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Energy and Water • Oct. 3, 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act upends hydrogen economics with opportunities, pitfalls

Regulators and policymakers must resist the temptation to overcommit to hydrogen for end uses where electrification will ultimately win out, the authors write.

By Dan Esposito and Hadley Tallackson • Sept. 30, 2022

A renewed wave of excitement for the energy transition seen at RE+

Last month’s conference in Anaheim, California, drew over 20,000 attendees and talk of industrywide transformation in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act.

By Emma Penrod • Sept. 29, 2022

As more solar panels enter the US waste stream, producer responsibility standards emerge

A  recent Northeast Recycling Council webinar covered how manufacturing and standards must converge to handle this growing material stream.

By Megan Quinn • Sept. 29, 2022

‘It’s a good time to be a banker’: RE+ panel reports massive growth in corporate investment in renewables

Both the amount of capital flowing to the renewable energy space and the number and variety of investors interested in deals have greatly increased over the past year, panelists said.

By Emma Penrod • Sept. 29, 2022

Utilities may need to rethink their company structure to achieve climate goals, Xcel executive says

Growing quantities of distributed resources require closer coordination between utilities’ generation and transmission planning teams, said Alice Jackson, senior vice president of system strategy and chief planning officer at Xcel Energy.

By Emma Penrod • Sept. 28, 2022

Will the Inflation Reduction Act spur clean energy manufacturing in the US? Tax experts say yes.

Compounding value built into the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits likely has the power to “change behavior” at U.S. companies, tax professionals said on a panel at the RE+ conference.

By Emma Penrod • Sept. 27, 2022

Growing scale, Inflation Reduction Act subsidies could push green hydrogen prices negative: RE+ panel

“You woke up one morning and your world has changed,” one panelist said of the Inflation Reduction Act during a session focused on hydrogen at the RE+ conference in Anaheim, California.

By Emma Penrod • Sept. 27, 2022

‘Deploy, deploy, deploy:’ renewable sector energized but anxious about Inflation Reduction Act funding

Passing the Inflation Reduction Act was a seminal moment for the industry, clean energy advocates said during an RE+ panel, but it doesn’t mean the work is complete.

By Emma Penrod • Sept. 26, 2022

Is the Inflation Reduction Act the end of the wholesale clean attribute market?

The IRA may reduce any real or perceived tension between wholesale markets and state policies and the need for other mechanisms to harmonize wholesale markets and state policies, the authors write.

By Sarah Ladin & Burçin Ünel • Sept. 23, 2022

California needs to move on from net metering, advocates, industry and utility leaders say

Although helpful to jump-start the solar industry, net metering has begun to interfere with the state’s broader climate goals, panelists agreed at the RE+ conference in Anaheim.

By Emma Penrod • Sept. 22, 2022