World4Solar held a launch event at its warehouse in Miami, Florida to introduce HelioWing, a pre-constructed solar canopy structure.

The HelioWing is available in two base models, HelioWing 5 with 7.38 kWp and the HelioWing 7 with 9.84 kWp. The HelioWing 7 roof is made of 24 Aptos 400 W bifacial solar panels. The company uses Sol-Ark 12kW hybrid 2-phase inverters for its canopy.

The canopy design can be customized with features like storage capacity or a carport with a built-in EV charger. The modular energy systems come preassembled and preconfigured. The unit comes equipped with motion sensor LED light strips.

HelioWing 7 measures 22.7 feet by 22.4 feet by 13.10 feet and has a 500 square foot gap-free solar roof.

World4Solar noted that the canopy should take about six hours to install, when set up by a certified installer on a prepared foundation. The HelioWing can be used grid-tied or off-grid. To operate off-grid, or to store electricity for later use, battery packs are available ranging from 8.3 to 24.9 kWh.

Two available Level 2 chargers per unit work with all electric vehicles and add 25 miles average of range per hour of charging.

HelioWing is waterproof rated and has an average 20-year life span. The system comes with a 10-year warranty. The main structure is listed at MSRP $37,180, while the modules are priced at $5,044 and the inverters $6,825. A Tesla level 2 EV charger is priced at $1,625 while the battery system can range from about $7,500 to over $18,000 depending on products selected. The company also offers what it calls a “hurricane-hardened” canopy.

Florida Governor Desantis has signed new legislation that removes the state’s goals of developing plans to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2050. Their law also bans all offshore wind within one mile of the coast. Last week, they even banned using the term “climate change” in government documents.

The state is currently under stress by insurance agencies pulling out of covering homeowners due to an increase in intensity and damage from hurricanes driven by climate change.

On Twitter, DeSantis wrote:

We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.

Newly signed legislation, CS/CS/HB 1645, has repealed renewable energy targets set by the Agricultural Commissioner in 2022. These statewide renewable energy goals required utilities to generate 40% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030, increasing to 63% by 2035 and 82% by 2040, with a goal to reach 100% renewable energy ten years later.

Data from pv magazine USA’s 50 States of Solar indicates that over the twelve months leading up to and including February, Florida generated 6.88% of its electricity from solar power. In February alone, utility-scale solar power contributed 7.46% to the state’s electricity, marking a significant increase due to numerous solar projects that came online in January.

Small-scale solar contributed 1.88% to Florida’s total electricity in February, bringing the cumulative contribution from solar to 9.33% for that month. While the legislation bans wind, Florida does not utilize wind power, either onshore or offshore. The state’s wind resources are not considered financially viable, according to charts made available by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Additionally, CS/CS/HB 1645 allows power companies to construct methane pipelines up to 100 miles long without needing a certification, an increase from the previous 15-mile limit.

In response to hurricane threats, previous legislation aimed to develop solar energy technologies to supply electricity to critical areas when the main infrastructure fails. However, the new law has stricken the word “solar” from the legislation.

The new law also mandates state research into advanced nuclear technologies.

Interestingly, in 2022 the Florida Governor surprised many across the nation when he vetoed a bill that would have initiated the reduction of net metering for residential and commercial behind the meter solar power.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, Florida will deploy 15,592 MW of solar over the next 5 years, which would rank it third in the United States.

According to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, the U.S. has officially exceeded five million solar installations, marking a milestone that comes just eight years after the U.S. reached one million installations in 2016.

To put the rapid growth of the U.S. solar industry in perspective, the first solar installation was connected to the grid in 1973, and in just 41 years there are now more than five million grid-connected installs.

The rise in U.S. solar has not always been as meteoric as it is today, as over half of all U.S. solar installations have come online in just the past four years and over 25% have come online since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in 2022.

“Solar is scaling by the millions because it consistently delivers on its promise to lower electricity costs, boost community resilience, and create economic opportunities,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Today 7% of homes in America have solar, and this number will grow to over 15% of U.S. homes by 2030. Solar is quickly becoming the dominant source of electricity on the grid, allowing communities to breathe cleaner air and lead healthier lives.”

SEIA forecasts that solar installations in the U.S. will double to 10 million by 2030 and triple to 15 million by 2034.

The residential sector accounts for 97% of all solar installations in the U.S., with a total of 36 GW installed by the end of 2023. While just 7% of homes in the U.S. currently have solar, that number is expected to grow to more than double to over 15% by 2030.

State policy making a difference

California leads the nation with 2 million solar installations, but the state’s residential market was harmed when  the California Public Utilities Commission’  NEM 3.0 policy change cut payments for exported solar energy by about 75%.

Several other states are seeing rapid growth. Illinois was an emerging market with only 2,500 solar installations in 2017, and today it is a shining example of where solar policy promotes clean energy growth. Illinois is home to more than 87,000 solar installations or about 27 GW and 65 GW more is expected to come online in the next five years according to the SEIA.

Strong policies, such as the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), are behind the growth in Illinois. Its RPS requires 25% of energy comes from renewable sources by 2025. The state also has the Illinois Shines program with incentives that makes solar more affordable for all. And Illinois has targets to have 40% of its energy come from renewable sources by 2030 and is aiming for 100% by 2050.

Florida is another market experiencing substantial growth, increasing from 22,000 installations in 2017 to 235,000 installations today. In a surprising move that buoyed rooftop solar in the state, the governor vetoed a bill that would have dropped net metering credits to near zero. The bill was founded on the same cost shift rhetoric used in California’s move to NEM 3.0, which has not fared well for rooftop solar.

“Florida is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the country with new businesses popping up all across the state,” said Hopper. This veto signals that Florida’s energy economy is open for business, and that the rights of state residents should be placed ahead of monopoly utility interests.”

While the number of installations throughout the U.S. is impressive, the difference solar is making in the nation’s capacity is testament to the fact that solar is making a difference. For the first time, solar accounted for over half of new electricity generation capacity added 2023 and, by 2050, solar is expected to be the largest source of generating capacity on the U.S. grid.

The 5 million solar installations are making a serious cut to carbon emissions. SEIA estimates that the installations displace 198 million metric tons of CO2 every year. This reduction is the equivalent to 22 billion gallons of gas, or enough gas to travel to the sun and back nearly 3,000 times in a traditional ICE vehicle.  Overall, SEIA calculates that the current solar capacity in the U.S. offsets the emissions of 12 million Americans, which is greater than the population of New York City and Los Angeles combined.

Florida-based rooftop solar, energy storage,and energy efficiency provider Sunergy Renewables completed a business combination with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) with ESGEN Acquisition Corp.

Following the combination, the new entity has joined the NASDAQ stock exchange as Zeo Energy Corp. The company begins trading on March 14, 2024 under ticker symbols “ZEO” and “ZEOWW.” Chief Executive Officer Tim Bridgewater rang the closing bell for the stock exchange on March 13.

“This merger with ESGEN enables us to accelerate our growth strategy, partner with industry players, and serve more customers seeking renewable energy solutions to meet their power and energy storage needs,” said Bridgewater.

The transaction results in gross proceeds of about $18 million to Zeo. The funds are expected to support Zeo’s operations and growth strategy and cover costs from the business combination.

Sunergy has been in business since 2005. It holds licenses to install air conditioning units, roofs, and back-up generators, along with solar and home energy storage.

For the first nine months of 2023, the company delivered net revenues of $86.7 million, up 31% year-over-year, while gross profits increased 30% to $17.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the first nine months of 2023 increased 12% to $9.9 million, while solar installations increased about 35% year-over-year.

The company state plans to expand to Ohio, Illinois and Virginia in 2024.

“We’re confident that Tim and the Sunergy team are the ideal partner, and that the combined company will be attractively positioned in the secular shift towards a distributed, decarbonized economy,” said Andrejka Bernatova, chief executive officer, ESGEN.

Large area organic PV module achieves world record efficiency of 14.5%  The module has a size of 143 mm x 143 mm and an active area of 204.11 cm². The result was certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).

Weather records tumble across U.S. as Atlantic pressure keeps eastern skies clear  In a new weekly update for <b>pv magazine</b>, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that persistent high pressure in the upper atmosphere led to irradiance as high as 30% above normal, and new records for solar generation and temperature in North America in mid-February.

GameChange validates 40-year maintenance-free design of Genius Tracker drive system At an outdoor site in Massachusetts, GameChange Solar trackers worked overtime in a test to determine how the drive system can be expected to function for 40 years.

Polysilicon prices further decouple, adverse factors thwart contract negotiations In a new weekly update for <b>pv magazine</b>, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.

Solar simulator for perovskite-silicon tandem PV cells, modules A new measurement and solar simulator instrument designed for perovskite-silicon tandem cells and encapsulated mini-modules is the latest product from a collaboration between Canadian solar simulator supplier G2V Optics and U.S.-based measurement instrumentation company Sinton Instruments.

Charged by the IRA, U.S. expected to outpace Europe in lithium-ion battery cells Global manufacturing of lithium-ion battery cells are expected to triple between 2022 and 2025, according to a report from Clean Energy Associates.

U.S. solar industry week in review pv magazine USA spotlights news stories of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.

In 2023, every segment of solar in the United States saw year-over-year growth in installations. Cumulative solar capacity stood at 177 GW by the end of the year, and utility-scale solar alone added 22.5 GW, a record year.

Solar has been on an upswing across the nation, with more than half the states with 1 GW of total installed solar capacity.

The industry has been lifted in part by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a largest-ever spending package for climate and energy. The legislation contains numerous provisions to support the U.S. solar industry, among other clean energy technologies, including a long-term extension of the federal investment tax credit, significant domestic manufacturing incentives, labor standards, energy production tax credits and more.

Since passage of the IRA, over $240 billion has been invested in clean energy manufacturing and infrastructure projects, according to a White House report. This includes over $86 billion invested in nearly 300 new solar, wind, and battery energy storage projects.

Tracking this growth, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released rankings for the top five states in terms of solar deployment across sectors.

Ohio ranked fifth in solar deployment, increasing its installation totals year-over-year by 1,230%, with 1.3 GW installed. The state has 3 GW across 20 projects in the pipeline for development.

Colorado ranked within the top five for the first time since 2010, with 1.6 GW installed. This is nearly ten times the total installed in 2022.

Florida maintained its spot as number three in solar deployment for the fifth year straight, adding a record 3.2 GW in 2023. Over 50,000 residents installed rooftop solar on their homes last year, and nearly half of Florida’s 220,000 residential solar arrays were installed in the last two years.

California ranked second, adding 6.2 GW of new solar. However, California Public Utilities Commission have significantly damaged California’s rooftop solar sector. In total, the state’s solar market is expected to decline 36% across all market segments in 2024, said SEIA.

Texas has moved to the front for solar installations, adding 6.5 GW in 2023. The 15 GW added since 2021 was more than the entire solar cumulative total installed in the United States in 2019.

“From 2024-2034, Texas will lead the nation with nearly 100 GW of new solar capacity additions, outpacing the next closest state by a two-to-one margin,” said SEIA.

The 18^th edition of the EnergySage Intel: Solar & Storage Marketplace Report looks at pricing trends, equipment preferences, financing terms, consumer interest and more.

EnergySage, an online comparison-shopping marketplace for solar, provides solar quotes from local, vetted solar companies in 41 states and Washington DC. The marketplace report is compiled by assessing those quotes submitted by solar companies to shoppers throughout 2023, comparing the first half of the year to trends over the second half of the year.

A key finding is that despite inflation and increased financing fees, solar prices dropped for the first time since 2021, falling by 3.5% to $2.80 per watt. The report finds that the median price of $2.80 W in H2 2023 is in line with solar pricing from mid-2020, and  4.5% higher than the low point from summer 2021.

Recent price drops were offset by larger fees charged for lower interest rate loans. The most frequently quoted solar loan was a 25-year loan with a 3.99% interest rate. But the report found that the average fee on the most quoted loan product reached 47% of the cash project cost in the second half of the year.

Storage

Consumer interest in battery energy storage is up, with 61% of solar quotes on EnergySage including a battery in the second half of 2023—an increase of ten percentage points over the first half of 2023.

Quoted storage prices also dropped for the first time since EnergySage started tracking them in 2020, falling by 6.4% in the second half of the year. Previously the median price for batteries quoted on EnergySage increased during every six-month period, but that changed in second half of 2023. This drop in prices is driven by a 19% decrease in quoted storage prices in California, where the attachment rate has been 45% since NEM 3.0 went into effect. The report finds that in the first six months of 2023, Calif. had the lowest level of storage interest of any state on EnergySage.

The change in California’s net metering policy came after the original NEM helped the state become the leading rooftop solar market, achieving Governor Schwarzenegger’s million solar roofs initiative, and under NEM the state has since reached two million solar roofs. The Calif. residential solar market came to a screeching halt after the NEM 3.0 rulemaking decision lowered compensation for exported solar production by about 75%, thus making batteries an essential component of a residential solar project. Assemblymember Laura Friedman recently  introduced a bill calling for the CPUC to re-evaluate net metering.

As storage installations increased over the last three years, the specific batteries quoted and installed through EnergySage have evolved rapidly, yet a few brand choices remain on top. Enphase and Tesla are the most quoted, while FranklinWH jumped from 1% of quotes in H2 2022 to 11% of quotes in H2 2023.

Enphase Energy recently launched the new Enphase Energy System with the IQ Battery 5P, and the company reports that its system is optimized to support the new NEM 3.0 rules by enabling self-consumption and exporting energy at the appropriate times to create maximum value.

Tesla launched its latest battery, the Powerwall 3, last September. The FranklinWH integrated battery and control system was launched in 2022.

The drop in pricing is driven by Tesla and FranklinWH. These two brands were included in one-third of quotes and were priced similarly to each other at around $1,100/kWh-stored. Only one battery brand, LG Energy Solution, was included in more than 1% of quotes and priced below $1,000/kWh-stored on average in the second half of the year.

Seven out of 10 solar shoppers requested battery quotes on EnergySage throughout 2023. For the most part, very little separated the three drivers in the second half of 2023: main
financial savings, maximizing self-consumption, and backup power each accounted for more than 30% of consumer interest in storage.

The NEM 3.0 factor is evident in the Marketplace analysis of California shoppers because it wasn’t until H2 2023 when interest in energy storage spiked. In fact, prior to that Californians had the lowest interest in backup because of the favorable net metering rates. After rates were slashed by NEM 3.0, the state saw the fifth-highest storage interest rate in the country with four out of five EnergySage shoppers requesting storage quotes.

Pricing by state

EnergySage looked at Marketplace quotes for the second half of 2023 for the 10 states with the most cumulative solar electric capacity installed through the third quarter of 2023 based on data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.

According to SEIA the top five solar states are: California, Florida, Texas, Colorado, and Nevada. All of the top five, with the exception of Colorado,  had median quoted prices below the national median price. In California half the  quotes on EnergySage were priced below $2.75 W in the second half of the year (up from 20% in H1), driven by companies trying to improve solar economics when NEM 3.0 became policy.

Energy Toolbase, a provider of solar and storage software, announced it has added a solar production monitoring software product to its lineup. The company also provides project analysis, customer proposal generation, and smart energy management systems.

The new product, called ETB Monitor, is a platform designed to arm professionals and asset managers with economic and solar energy management. It is designed to help asset owners maximize their project’s value.

ETB Monitor is available both as a standalone product or as part of the company’s existing software suite called ETB Developer, which focuses on solar and storage proposal analysis. The new software enables users to seamlessly transition from the development stage all the way to the monitoring stage, said the company.

Energy Toolbase’s software is backed by a utility rates database, electric bill calculation engine, and an account management support staff.

The ETB Monitor provides visualizations of a solar site’s expected generation, calculated using the system characteristics and micro-climate satellite weather data. Users can track actual production and compare it to the expected baseline, enabling asset owners to identify potential issues, improve system performance, and reduce operational costs.

“With this innovative platform, energy professionals can track the economics of their solar energy systems in real-time and make informed decisions about their operations, ultimately leading to increased profitability and growth,” said John Gurski, founder and president, Energy Toolbase.

McCarthy begins construction on over 1 GW of solar projects in U.S. Southwest Targeting Inflation Reduction Act compliance, the company hired 200 new registered apprentices to complete the projects.

Solar Ready Vets trains veterans for solar and storage careers IREC has recently secured additional funding to build on the work that has been ongoing since 2014.

U.S. Geological Survey and Berkeley Labs release updated solar project database  All solar projects greater than 1 MW that are tracked by the EIA have been location-verified by image and latitude and longitude and put into an easier-to-move-around map.

Merging DER platforms into single virtual power plant solution Swell Energy and Shifted Energy’s combined solution comprises what the companies say is a turnkey virtual power plant that will provide utilities with forecasts of energy demand and generation across the board.

BESS thermal events: What to know and what to expect Recent thermal events have demonstrated that to benefit from these systems, we need to ensure that there is a greater understanding of potential issues that should be considered with BESS installations. 

Maxeon solar cells cleared of forced labor allegations after review The analyst behind the “Over Exposed” report, examining the likelihood of forced labor in the supply chain of the solar module manufacturer, has revised their stance on Maxeon Solar. Detailed documentation and ongoing dialogue with the company prompted the re-evaluation.

Kentucky regulators approve plan for 900% increase in renewable energy Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities will install 877 MW of solar, 500 MWh of energy storage, and will retire several fossil fuel plants.

Planned 77-home Florida community to include $4.2 million microgrid Each new home will be outfitted with 8 kW of solar and every two homes will be connected with a 43 kWh battery.

Plug Power shares fall on North America hydrogen concerns The hydrogen company, Plug Power, issued a warning about its 2023 financial performance due to supply challenges in North America.

A Florida new home subdivision inked a $4.2 million deal with Tampa-based Block Energy to install 77 solar arrays linked together in a community microgrid. The Lakeland, Florida community will be called Myrtlebrook.

Microgrids, which connect solar, energy storage, and smart appliances, come with a bouquet of benefits like localized backup power and resilience, insulation from volatile utility rates, and a more efficient use of energy by connecting what would otherwise be stranded assets.

Microgrid communities can operate separately from the utility’s electric grid, operating even when power outages occur. This is particularly appealing for Florida communities, which are no strangers to the impacts of hurricanes and power outages.

“This microgrid project is disruptive, it’s new and it’s everything emerging technology stands for,” Mike Dammer, manager, emergent technologies at Lakeland Electric. “We are going into the new.”

Each home will be outfitted with an 8 kW solar array integrated on a membrane section of the new homes’ roofs. Every two homes will be linked by a 43 kWh battery. The solar and energy storage devices will together form a microgrid that Block Energy calls the “BlockLoop.”

The planned community is designed to be 77% self-sufficient, though Block Energy is optimistic the system can outperform expectations. It has a similar 37-home microgrid community in Wimauma, Florida that has achieved 93% independence, only drawing 7% of its electric load from utility Tampa Electric company.

“The caveat there is that that 23% will never be on peak — it will always be off peak,” said Dammer.

Purchasing power off-peak only is a win-win for the utility and the microgrid community, as it keeps prices low for customers, and enables the utility to avoid using natural gas-fired peaker plants for additional peak reserve power.

Block Energy plans to break ground on the pilot community in 2024, with home developer Highland Homes beginning housing construction in 2025. The new homes community is expected to be complete in late 2025 or early 2026.

The utility, Lakeland Electric, will be owner-operator of the solar and storage assets, will seek federal tax incentives for the project, which are expected to save $1.1 million in costs.

Microgrids and solar-battery aggregations are shown to have huge benefits for resource efficiency. A study by the University of Otago found that the collective use of batteries had dramatic effects on both energy load smoothing and peak demand shaving, meaning the flexible use of energy reduces the amount of infrastructure buildout to support demand. Aggregation of smart storage led to a reduction in per-house battery requirements by 50% for load-smoothing needs and by 90% for peak shaving.

“This is a way of saying to our customers, ‘We are invested in your future to make sure we can limit outages.’ This is a system that is designed to be built with and for the community. It is part of the community. It is not an add on. It is not a retrofit. This community is a solar community,” said Dammer.

Duke Energy to build country’s first end-to-end 100% green hydrogen system in Florida The facility will be located at the utility’s DeBary solar plant, which has a 74.5 MW capacity.

How the IRA is changing the U.S. solar manufacturing landscape  At the pv magazine RoundtablesUS 2023, a group of four experts answer questions including how realistic it is to reduce our dependence on Chinese imports, what the challenges are for manufacturers in setting up shop in the U.S., how we fill in anticipated gaps in the U.S. supply chain, and more.

Sunlight Financial files bankruptcy, acquired by industry consortium  Sunlight Financial, whose stock price has plummeted amid accumulating more than $500 million in underwater loans, has been acquired by a consortium led by Greenbacker Capital Management, Sunstone Credit, IGS Ventures.

Solar-equipped residential neighborhoods springing up across the U.S. SunPower signs deals with four home building companies to bring sustainable homes to communities in eight states.

54,500 GW-miles of within-region transmission needed for a clean grid, says DOE Within-region transmission must increase 64% by 2035 to enable a clean grid, says the U.S. Department of Energy. The study will support DOE’s potential designation of National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors.

Nextracker announces split from majority holder, raises 2024 earnings outlook Majority holder Flex plans to spin off its remaining interests in Nextracker. Plus, the company raised its earnings guidance for 2024.

Builders are responding to new demand for energy efficient, clean energy homes with their own battery system for backup in the event of power outages. In California in particular, the demand is driven by California’s 2020 Solar Mandate that requires all newly built homes to install solar photovoltaic systems.

Four home construction firms– Beazer Homes, CC Homes, Meritage Homes and Toll Brothers—have contracted with SunPower to install Equinox solar systems on nearly 1,000 homes in eight states.

The SunPower Equinox system, which has been sold since 2016, features all SunPower-made products from the panels to the microinverters to the racking system to the monitoring hardware and software.

“Forward-thinking builders who incorporate a renewable infrastructure from day one can reduce the cost of homeownership, provide a shield against rising energy bills and positively address climate change,” said Matt Brost, vice president of New Homes sales for SunPower.

Meritage Homes began installing SunPower systems on California homes but will soon begin including solar as a standard feature on single-family homes and townhomes across the greater Denver area.

Toll Brothers, Inc. expanded its national agreement with SunPower to include not only California, but now Nevada, New York and Massachusetts.

Beazer Homes plans to add SunPower solar to 125 homes across Maryland and Delaware including the Chase Oaks development in Lewes, Delaware and all future homes built at Holly Farms in Parkville, Maryland. SunPower reports that all the homes in these communities will be certified by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a DOE Zero Energy Ready Home. Beazer Homes has committed to ensuring that by the end of 2025 every home they build will meet the requirements of the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home program.

For a home to achieve DOE Zero Energy Ready Home status it must meet rigorous efficiency and performance requirements including generating enough energy to offset the home’s use. Most types of new homes in the U.S. are eligible to participate in the program, and the homes are verified by a qualified third-party as part of the certification process.

“Our collaboration with SunPower Solar will provide additional energy cost savings and bring Beazer homeowners one step closer to realizing net zero energy usage,” says Chance Hall, division president for Beazer Homes in Maryland.

CC Homes is now offering SunPower’s solar systems to all homeowners in their communities in South Florida. The collaboration is expected to retrofit hundreds of households within CC Homes’ communities with SunPower’s solar panels, along with equipping new construction with solar.

Also read about an all-electric, solar-equipped community in Vermont here.

Duke Energy is set to break ground on the country’s first demonstration project with an end-to-end system to produce, store and combust entirely green hydrogen.

The facility will be located at the utility’s DeBary solar plant in Volusia County, Florida, which currently has a 74.5 MW capacity.

Once completed, the clean energy from this facility will be routed to two 1 MW electrolyzer systems, which will split water into oxygen and green hydrogen. The hydrogen will then be transferred to reinforced containers, where it will be stored until needed. When electricity demand is especially high, the green hydrogen will be passed through a combustion turbine to convert it into power. 

The combustion turbine will be upgraded with technology from GE Vernova to run on either a blend of natural gas and hydrogen, or up to 100% hydrogen – the first turbine in the country that can get to such a high hydrogen percentage. The demonstration project will begin construction later this year and is expected to be fully operational sometime in 2024. 

Green hydrogen can play a key role in ensuring the reliability of a highly-renewable electric grid, since it serves as a “dispatchable” energy source that is available on demand. Unlike solar and wind power, it is not dependent on the time of day or weather. Moreover, using solar energy to create green hydrogen can optimize the solar plants, according to Duke Energy. 

“Relying on intermittent energy sources without available dispatchable energy sources would put our future electric system at risk of having insufficient energy to serve customer demand,” the utility said. 

Duke Energy is aiming to reduce its carbon emissions from electricity generation by 50% by 2030, and achieve net-zero emissions by the middle of the century. As part of this, it is looking to decrease its use of coal to less than 5% of total generation by 2030, and phase out the fossil fuel entirely by 2035. 

The utility anticipates that hydrogen could play a major role in its clean energy future, said Regis Repko, Duke Energy’s senior vice president of generation and transmission strategy.

“Hydrogen has significant potential for decarbonization across all sectors of the U.S. economy. It is a clean energy also capable of long-duration storage, which would help Duke Energy ensure grid reliability as we continue adding more renewable energy sources to our system,” Repko said. 

While adding hydrogen facilities can help optimize solar plants, some industry players say that driving down solar’s levelized cost of energy – below $20 a megawatt hour – can also spur the adoption of solar for green hydrogen production. 

In fact, producing green hydrogen itself can be profitable in “wide swaths of the U.S.,” a report from policy consultancy Energy Innovation found – regions where the cost of electricity from new wind and solar averages less than $25 per MWh. And as the capital costs of electrolyzers decline, green hydrogen projects are likely to become economic in more areas. 

The Black Farmer’s Collaborative (the Collaborative) is working with the U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers to scale the implementation of clean energy technology, intended to increase income and provide opportunities to build generational wealth.

The first is building solar panels on Cetta Barnhart’s demonstration farm in Monticello, a city in Jefferson County. Otherwise known as agrivoltaics, her PV system will benefit crops by increasing their resistance to extreme weather, thus growing the farm’s crop yield. 

The second project will take place 25 miles east of Tampa in a town called Bealsville, where solar panels will be installed on churches and commercial buildings in and around the area. 

Agrivoltaic system

Barnhart, the Collaborative, and NREL agrivoltaics researchers worked together to design six possible systems to support her farm’s crops. Models of the panels helped stakeholders gauge installation costs, energy output, and crop production.

“We chose to do it on a demo farm run by a woman who is respected and known in the community,” said Velma Deleveaux, the Collaborative member and managing partner of the business consulting firm Veaux Solutions. 

Barnhart’s 14.5-acre farm provides fresh foods to families in Northern Florida that they can pick up or deliver. She hopes her new system becomes a model for other farmers in the area who can scale their business with higher, more favorable crop yields while saving on water and electricity costs. 

“That’s the real gist of what this team is looking for. How can we bring change into our community that’s long-lasting and impactful to Black farmers?” Barnhart said.

In Bealsville, NREL researchers worked with local stakeholders and community members to develop a guide for installing solar panels on churches and other commercial-scale buildings across the state. 

They had to consider what type of PV system would work best on which building; understand installation regulations and figure out how to secure solar contractors while planning for maintenance and decommissioning services – as well as looking at funding resources. 

The Biden Administration’s Justice40 benefit plan and the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund could supply support as each provides capital for clean energy and clean air investments in Black Brown Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Bealsville was founded by formerly enslaved people in 1865, and it’s been home to Black farmers increasingly affected by pollution and climate change since.  

If funded and scaled, projects like these provide educational and employment opportunities aligned with President Biden’s Build Back Better Plan. Bealsville community members are working towards partnering with correctional facilities to train former inmates in building installing and maintaining solar panels. 

Perry Blackmon III, a community activist, sustainable cattle farmer, and member of the Collaborative Selma, AL., said agrivoltaics farms like Barnhart’s could be a school trip destination for K–12 students to learn about solar energy.

“Inspiring a generation of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals,” added Charis Consulting Group President CEO and member of the Collaborative Saundra Johnson Austin. 

For the Bealsville and Monticello communities, establishing trust with NREL before partnering with the laboratory was critical to the success of the farming and rooftop solar panel effort.

The Collaborative spent almost two years specifying Bealsville’s energy needs, gathering support, and building a relationship with NREL researchers before applying for assistance through the Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Expert Match program. An initiative that helps communities find project-specific technical assistance to meet their sustainability goals. Including the perspectives of various invested community members like farmers local and state leaders educators and consultants was also important and will continue to be essential to effectively scaling solar domestically. 

Even with good intentions, the historical legacy of manipulation subjugation and discrimination when researchers businesses or organizations enter BIPOC communities is well-documented. A recent example is Vision Solar’s active license despite numerous racial linguistic and disability discrimination lawsuits from customers. So trust between everyone involved in building an equitable and clean energy future is mandatory. 

Solar-plus-storage evaluated for resilience at seven Florida community health centers  Solar-plus-storage systems at any of the nation’s 14,000 community health centers can keep them running through power outages, and preserve medications requiring refrigeration. A Florida study evaluated the systems’ health care value and the financial return.

EPA announces two grant opportunities for clean tech projects  Two Notices of Funding Opportunities total $20 billion and aim to mobilize private capital into clean tech projects to create jobs and lower energy costs.

Lincoln Park’s first community solar program  Low-income and minority communities are often most affected by extreme and damaging weather storms, as well as to indoor air pollution and higher energy costs. However, one community in Minnesota is actively working to change that.

First half 2023 total solar corporate funding increased 54% year-over-year  According to Mercom’s Solar Funding report almost 25.5 GW of solar projects were acquired in the first half of the year, totaling $18.5 billion.

First Solar inks 5 GW supply deal with Energix The thin film solar module provider is now booking orders to 2030.

Massachusetts greenlights 800 MWh battery energy storage facilities The Commonwealth overruled the decisions of its own siting boards and one town’s moratoria on all solar and storage projects, paving the way for the imminent construction of two significant energy storage facilities.

Bifacial perovskites show 93% backside efficiency The National Renewable Energy Laboratory demonstrated highly bifacial perovskite cells with a front side efficiency of 23%.

Solar-plus-storage evaluated for resilience at seven Florida community health centers  Solar-plus-storage systems at any of the nation’s 14,000 community health centers can keep them running through power outages, and preserve medications requiring refrigeration. A Florida study evaluated the systems’ health care value and the financial return.

The Florida Association of Community Health Centers (FACHC) is reaching out to its member health centers in Florida to improve resilience to power outages.

Health centers’ options for backup power systems include solar-plus-storage, not just generators, “which is what most of our health centers have,” said Gianna Van Winkle, on a webinar. Van Winkle is the association’s director of emergency management programs and lead author of the association report “Supporting Access to Health Care: Resilient Emergency Power for Florida Community Health Centers.”

The association surveyed its members about power outages and any backup systems the centers currently use, and then facilitated screening studies for solar-plus-storage installations at seven Florida health centers. American Microgrid Solutions, a firm that designs and develops microgrids, prepared the screening studies. Results are shown in the table below from the FACHC report.

Marriele Mango, project director at the nonprofit Clean Energy Group and the report’s co-author, acknowledged that solar+storage systems often “don’t pay for themselves,” given modest annual utility savings, as shown in the table.

Andrew MacCalla, health resiliency advisor at the humanitarian organization Direct Relief, said that the financial return on investment for solar-plus-storage systems at health centers may be adequate to justify the systems in California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, New England and the Northeast, which have higher costs for electricity. Direct Relief installed clean energy microgrids at about 20 health centers in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria using donated funds, MacCalla said.

In areas with low costs for electricity, evaluating the health benefits may be more important in making the investment case. Possible benefits include providing uninterrupted refrigeration for medications and vaccines that require refrigeration, and providing ongoing care for patients who may otherwise need to drive to a distant hospital for care. Florida health centers reported an average financial cost of $41,000 per day from not having emergency power, counting expenses such as loss of medication and vaccines, canceled appointments, and staff-related expenses, said the FACHC report.

Solar-plus-storage screening studies are planned for eight more Florida health centers. All health center sites that move forward with solar-plus-storage through the FACHC project will have a hybrid system consisting of solar, storage and a fossil-fuel generator. Some already have a generator, and others will add one. Direct Relief has committed to funding installation of up to 15 systems in Florida.

Regarding health centers’ interest in integrating solar-plus-storage with existing generators, Van Winkle said that “some health centers have pretty good experience with the generators that they have. Then again, after Hurricane Ian, I heard of a number of health centers that had their generator damaged by debris, or flooded, or having some type of overheating or mechanical failure, or a gas leak. So I think we’re all realistic knowing that they can fail. But until you experience something like that firsthand, you might not have the motivation to seek out something new.”

As a possible funding source for solar-plus-storage, health centers nationwide are eligible to apply for mitigation funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), says the FACHC report, explaining that mitigation funding is a form of non-emergency disaster assistance.

MacCalla said the National Association of Community Health Centers is “very involved” in educating health centers about the value of resilient emergency power, and providing case studies “to show which of their colleagues are doing it and why health centers should try to do this.”

About 14,000 Federally Qualified Health Centers across the United States provide medical care in areas where economic, geographic, or cultural barriers limit health care access.

Installing a clean energy microgrid at all 14,000 community health centers nationwide would require an investment of $3 billion to $5 billion, MacCalla said, implying an average cost between $215,000 and $360,000 per system.

U.S. Customs solar exclusions may be “de facto ban on Chinese polysilicon”  Solar modules made of Tongwei and Astronergy polysilicon, including Longi modules, have been excluded from entry to the market by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

People on the move: GridTech, Heliogen, Vote Solar and more  Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Ericsson solar-plus-storage microgrid to power Texas 5G station  The mobile networking company is using six bifacial 400 W solar panels assembled with three lithium-ion battery packs on a company rooftop in Plano, Texas.

Turning EV charging centers into islanding solar microgrids  An electric bus charging station on Martha’s Vineyard is using microgrid controllers to turn solar-plus-storage EV charging centers into microgrids that provide power when the grid goes down.

Florida municipal solar project expands to 600 MW  Over 1.8 million solar panels will be installed in the project, which has completed its first 150 MW phase.

DOE awards $90 million for adoption of latest building energy efficiency codes  The grants will result in more energy-efficient buildings, a key element of a least-cost strategy for 100% renewables.

Indiana utility activates first 465 MW solar projects  The projects are part of NIPSCO’s 2.4 GW clean energy fleet replacing a coal generation portfolio to be retired in the coming years.

The largest municipal electric utility owned solar asset just got much larger, as Origis Energy announced it will expand a 150 MW project to 600 MW. Aptly named the Florida Municipal Solar Project, the facility will become large enough to serve the equivalent of about 120,000 Florida homes.

In conjunction with the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) and 20 municipal electric utilities, developer Origis Energy will deliver the projects.

Two projects, Taylor Creek Solar in Orange County and Harmony Solar in Osceloa County, are operational and combine for 150 MW. The municipalities’ solar exposure will be quadrupled over the course of two subsequent project phases.

Phase two will entail two more solar facilities, Rice Creek Solar in Putnam County and Whistling Duck Solar in Levy County. The former will be completed this year and the latter is slated for commercial operations in 2024. Together the two will double the project capacity, adding another 150 MW.

Phase three will entail another doubling of total capacity, adding another 300 MW and bringing the total to 600 MW, making it among of the largest groupings of solar projects in the United States and the largest municipal project. This phase will add four additional sites across Columbia, Levy, and Bradford counties, reaching activation throughout 2025 and 2026.

Upon completion of the projects, over 1.8 million solar panels across eight facilities will be providing low-cost, clean electricity to municipal customers across Florida.

“By partnering with our municipal electric utilities members and Origis Energy, we are able to take advantage of a great opportunity to increase the volume of our low-cost, reliable solar generation at a time when solar costs have been escalating,” said Jacob Williams, general manager and chief executive officer of FMPA. “Expanding the Florida Municipal Solar Project will also enable us to serve several new communities that haven’t had access to solar before.”

A total of 20 Florida municipal electric utilities will purchase power from the project: Beaches Energy Services (Jacksonville Beach), Bushnell, Clewiston, Fort Meade, Fort Pierce Utilities Authority, Green Cove Springs, Havana, Homestead, JEA (Jacksonville), Keys Energy Services (Key West), Kissimmee Utility Authority, Lake Worth Beach, Leesburg, Mount Dora, New Smyrna Beach, Newberry, Ocala, Orlando Utilities Commission, Starke, and Winter Park.

These cities are member-owners of FMPA along with 13 other municipal utilities. The 33 members of FMPA serve more than 4.2 million Floridians and employ more than 4,700 people.

Headquartered in Miami, Origis Energy is a leading U.S. player in renewables development, financing, engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) and operations, maintenance and asset management. The company has developed 170 projects worldwide totaling more than 5 GW to date of developed solar, energy storage and clean hydrogen capacity.

Origis has been active in procuring solar modules and financing to support its large book of projects, including multi-year supply deals with Boviet Solar, Maxeon, and First Solar.

SolarEdge unveils bidirectional EV charger  SolarEdge’s new bidirectional DC-coupled electric-vehicle (EV) charger enables vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid applications and can seamlessly integrate with its home energy systems. It is scheduled for release in the second half of 2024.

Solar-plus-storage microgrids minimize power shutoffs during wildfires  A study conducted by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that microgrids with solar-plus-storage systems can keep the average levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and annual public safety power shutoffs below 30 cents per kWh and 2 to 3% of annual energy demand, respectively.

Virtual power plants roll out across the U.S.  Virtual power plants (VPPs) coordinate distributed resources and demand for a more resilient, cost-effective energy transition. And they are gaining traction in the United States.

With 18 GW solar, Southeast U.S. nears U.S. average solar generation  Florida and utility Florida Power & Light lead the way for solar, while other states and utilities bypass low-cost solar and storage, favoring gas peaker units and small modular reactors and risking higher customer bills, said experts from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Solar permitting reform at a turning point  Sluggish permitting continues to dog the solar market, despite the $369 billion boost from the Inflation Reduction Act. However, calls for reform could be gaining traction.

The seven-state Southeast region now has 18 GW of operating solar, providing 4.4% of generation, and is projected to reach almost 40 GW of solar by 2026. Three states in the region are projected to reach solar generation of 9% to 13% by 2026.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) presented the data in its “Solar in the Southeast” report and an associated webinar.

The Southeast is almost level with the 4.7% solar generation for the U.S. as a whole, as reported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Utility-scale solar in the Southeast, both historic and forecasted, is shown in blue on the chart below, and dominates distributed solar, shown in yellow.

The seven-state region covered by the report consists of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia  and Florida.

Florida leads

Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina are projected to reach solar generation of 13%, 10% and 9% by 2026, respectively. The growth trends and forecasts for all states are shown in the image below.

Florida’s sharp solar growth trend reflects the “Real Zero” plan of Florida utility FPL and its parent company NextEra Energy, said SACE Executive Director Stephen Smith on the webinar. FPL has “put on the table” 93 GW of solar by 2045, Smith said, representing “the most ambitious commitment to solar of any utility in our region, and we think in the country.” That plan “has completely changed what everybody thinks is possible, and I think it is going to become the norm” for solar.

The region’s best market for distributed solar is also Florida, because the state still has net metering, said SACE Solar Program Director Bryan Jacob on the webinar. Other Southeastern states do not have net metering, or at least not “true” net metering, he said. Duke Energy is instituting netting for solar customers within time of use periods, he noted, while Alabama Power “charges a penalty” to customers with solar.

“Net metering is the right policy mechanism to drive distributed solar in its infancy,” Jacob said. Countering a “cost shift” argument that says distributed solar increases costs for non-solar customers, Jacob said that won’t become an issue until “we get around 10%” solar generation, referencing a Berkeley Lab study.

Jacob said federal policies under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) had “turbocharged” the Southeast’s solar progress, as some utilities have already reflected the IRA’s tax credits for renewables in their resource plans, and others would do the same. Jacob said the IRA’s New ERA program, which provides the equivalent of renewable tax credits to nonprofit rural electric co-operatives, “could be the most transformational program for rural America since the Rural Electrification Act in 1936.”

Not keeping pace

Still, some Southeastern states “are not keeping pace,” said Jacob, pointing to Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

Smith explained that several Southeast utilities are not yet considering solar “as a workhorse resource.” When solar is combined with storage, “the numbers are absolutely in the money for solar going forward,” he said. “This is where planning is so important,” he said, noting that some utilities are planning to build peaking gas plants and use “assumptions around that,” or are pursuing small modular reactors. Once early investments are made in such technologies, “it’s really hard to claw some of those decisions back,” he said.

“They’re making the wrong bets,” Smith said. “We saw it with [Georgia’s nuclear plant] Vogtle, we’re going to see it again with TVA and their small modular reactors,” and with utilities that “are still building gas plants, even though we know we’ve got to move away from fossil gas. And until those utilities have that shift in leadership thinking, and properly plan, they’re going to continue to miss the mark, and customers are ultimately going to suffer.”

Jacob said customers would suffer “because the utility commissions tend to let the utilities get rate recovery for their mistakes. They’re basically making those big bets with other people’s money.”

Smith challenged the “inappropriate” planning process of Tennessee’s federal utility TVA, saying that TVA does not follow the standard practice for integrated resource plans (IRPs) of allowing outside parties to challenge planning assumptions and submit expert testimony. Instead, TVA is “self-selecting a very narrow group of players” to participate, he said, and “most of the folks that serve on the IRP review group for TVA are not technically able to deal with the detail associated with the planning assumptions.”

Looking ahead

SACE Research Director Maggie Shober said on the webinar that in the coming year Duke Energy will file its first IRPs for North Carolina and South Carolina to be aligned with the utility’s carbon plan. Shober added that transmission planning initiatives, which could enable interconnection of more solar to the grid, are being conducted by Duke Energy’s North Carolina utility, by the North Carolina Transmission Planning Collaborative, and by the Southeast Regional Transmission Planning initiative.

SACE included data on more than 400 Southeastern utilities in an appendix to its report.

NASA and SpaceX launch two roll-out solar arrays to International Space Station Two new IROSA arrays will expand the energy production capacity of a microgravity complex on the space station.

Caltech researchers beam solar from space Caltech’s space solar program began in 2011 when philanthropist Donald Bren donated more than $100 million in support of the project. In the first demonstration of solar energy beamed to earth, his vision is becoming reality.

FEMA funds $97 million Puerto Rico microgrid with 15 MW solar, 12 MWh storage  The microgrid project is a rare example of the allocation of disaster relief funds for rebuilding Puerto Rico’s grid with solar and storage.

BLM to hold public meetings for 300 MW Bonanza Solar facility EDF Renewables’ solar-plus-storage project has the ability to interconnect with NV Energy’s 350-mile high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line, Greenlink West.

RFP alert: LaGuardia airport seeks seven distributed solar projects The New York Port Authority issued a request for projects that can include rooftop solar, carports, and/or floating PV, as well as energy storage.

Redflow to build 20 MWh redox-flow battery in California  Redflow, an Australian redox-flow battery manufacturer, will build one of the world’s largest zinc-based battery energy storage systems in the United States, after signing a multi-million-dollar deal with the California Energy Commission.

Southern Florida college to fill gap for more certified solar workers  St. Petersburg College recently partnered with the University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), the first solar energy apprenticeship program registered with the U.S. Department of Labor.

SolarEdge introduces commercial and industrial EV charging platform The software manages solar-attached charging EVs for sites that require dynamic load management for multiple on-site vehicles.

New performance guarantee for photovoltaic power plants from Raicoon Based on an AI-supported platform, the Austrian company promises automated operation of photovoltaic systems in which all errors are detected and error alarms are excluded. Munich Re secures the guarantee.

Across emerging solar markets including the southeast states of Florida and Georgia, developers and turnkey service providers are struggling to meet the demand of having enough qualified technicians and solar installers for rooftop solar and distributed generation projects.

St. Petersburg College (SPC) is working to fill the gap for more certified solar workers in the Tampa Bay, Florida region. The Gulf Coast college recently partnered with the University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), the first solar energy apprenticeship program registered with the U.S. Department of Labor.

“SPC’s goal has been to strengthen the workforce through the use of apprenticeships, which include structured on-the-job training and related technical instruction,” said Jennifer Bodnar, apprenticeship coordinator at SPC.

Future apprentices in the Florida training program must already be employed by a solar company that is an approved member of the apprenticeship solar consortium before participating in the program. While working, apprentices will take courses, fully paid for by their employer, to prepare them for certification in the solar installation market.

Interested employers seeking to participate in the SPC program can click here to apply or receive more information, while interested applicants can click here for more information.

“I think this will be the most comprehensive program in the state. It includes curriculum that other programs don’t have, like thermal and plumbing, and it covers both commercial and residential solar,” Bodnar said.

In 2022 SPC received grant funding to help employers defray costs as part of the Expansion of Registered Apprenticeship Programs (ERAP).

“With the grant, SPC is able to offer funds to offset some of the expenses to employers, as well as explore additional funding resources,” Bodnar said. “As a state college, we have access to a wide network, to help reduce employer costs.”

“The Solar Energy Technician Apprenticeship program addresses the future needs in Florida’s workforce,” said Colleen Kettles, director of workforce and business development, FSEC. “I am very grateful that St. Petersburg College has stepped up and is working with us on the training.”

The apprenticeship requirement of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 requires that any U.S. taxpayer who employs four or more people must also employ at least one qualified apprentice. And, depending on when construction begins on a project, a certain journeyman to apprenticeship ratio must be met. Prevailing wage requirements states that the taxpayer (developer) must pay any laborer, mechanic, contractor or subcontractor at the prevailing rates for the location in which the construction takes place, as determined by the Secretary of Labor. The prevailing wage rate requirements provides correction and penalty mechanisms for a taxpayer’s failure to comply.

To meet apprenticeship requirements, developers must ensure that for construction beginning this year, at least 10% of labor is performed by qualified apprentices. This steps up to 12.5% for construction that began after December 31, 2022, and before January 1, 2024. And then bumps up again to 15% for construction that begins after December 31, 2023.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), with 11,761 workers, Florida’s solar market employed the second highest amount of workers of any U.S. state after California’s 75,712 solar workers, as of data through December 31, 2022.

U.S. solar deployment to grow 40% this year, remains lowest-cost option U.S. solar deployment is set for takeoff over the next two years, with the full effect from the Inflation Reduction Act being noticed by 2025, said the International Energy Agency.

Nickel-zinc battery systems paired with hydrogen, EV charging  ZincFive is supplying its battery systems into a hydrogen fueling microgrid and a pilot DC fast charging station project of Advanced Power & Energy in Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Solar modules removed from Target facility in California meet sustainable end of life  An outdated solar installation was decommissioned and recycled in a partnership between Solarcycle, PowerFlex, and Decom Solar.

Additional guidance released for energy communities IRA tax credits  The Treasury, Department of Energy and Internal Revenue Service provide details on the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit program that makes available $10 billion in tax credits for energy communities.

Open source data can unlock the power of microgrids  A report from the Linux Foundation examines how open source shared data can increase access, improve standardization, and improve efficiencies.

Optimus Energy eyes commercial solar, EV charging expansion in Georgia  The Florida-based developer sees Georgia Power’s service territory as its target market for new commercial and industrial solar projects and EV charging systems.

Optimus Energy Solutions, a Mount Dora, Florida-based commercial, industrial and residential solar installer, sees market expansion opportunities in its neighboring state of Georgia as a new opportunity for securing new commercial PV projects and deploy EV charging stations.

Ben Pauluhn, chief executive officer and founder of Optimus Energy, told pv magazine USA that the developer sees Georgia as its strongest market for new commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects and EV charging systems, where it is an installer of ChargePoint AC and DC fast charging systems. For now, though, the Floridian solar installer said he does not see a need to set up a second office in the Peach State.

At a current installation rate of about 2 MW per year of C&I projects (two-thirds of its revenue) and some residential projects (one-third of revenue), Pauluhn said Optimus aspires to deploy 3 MW to 5 MW of solar installations per year across both segments over the coming years. Additional projects in its home state and new projects within Georgia Power service territory could bring more business in for the developer as it expects to grow from its current 11 employee base into a larger organization.

Pauluhn founded the company in 2018 and in its first five years has doubled its installation rate each consecutive year as the company procures projects from Jacksonville, Fla., down to Tampa and the southern portion of the Sunshine State.

With favorable net metering framework across the state, Pauluhn said Optimus averages three residential installations per week and over the last year has deployed 2 MW per year of C&I market projects.

As a licensed American Solar Energy Society installer, Optimus’ residential contracts are performed by about half of its staff, which primarily services the central Florida region, while about half of its work in the region is sub-contracted out to local contractors, he said.

In the commercial market, Optimus installed projects for the hospitality, automotive dealership, consumer goods and various other markets across the Florida peninsula.

For energy storage, Pauluhn said Florida residents previously had a mismatched perception of how much battery storage is needed at homes to drive down electricity costs when Floridians typically require continuous use of air conditioning systems, creating a huge load drain on the electric grid.

“Air conditioner usage pushes for much larger solar systems, especially because gas service is not that prevalent in Florida, so almost all power consumed in the home is electric,” Pauluhn said.  The mismatch on air conditioner sizing to batteries is evident as battery sizes are needed to be upsized to start up multiple large loads like compressors and wells used in HVAC or home solutions, he said.

Nowadays, Optimus is deploying about 10% of rooftop residential projects with an attached storage system using Enphase, SolarEdge or DuraCell Power Center battery systems, while the company regularly uses REC Solar panels for residential PV installations and JinkoSolar panels for C&I projects, he said. The company also uses SolarEdge microinverters and Ironridge racking systems, he added.

In EV charging, the company has deployed a single-digit attachment rate worth of charging stations to primarily residential customers across Florida. Optimus is an exclusive ChargePoint installer of Level 2 AC charging and DC fast charging products for the growing Southeast EV market.

In its first five years, Optimus has secured sizable C&I contracts around its home state. Just last month, the installer secured a 1.51 MW commercial project for Legacy Vacation Resorts, a resort hotel operator, to deploy 200 kW to 760 kW rooftop PV systems across four hotel properties in central Florida.

After the Legacy projects, Pauluhn said Optimus has another two C&I projects in the works for Q3 2023, which would add another 1 MW of installations to the company’s development schedule for the year, rounding out the year at more than 2.5 MW.

Asked about the Inflation Reduction Act and domestic content sourcing, Pauluhn said the regional solar developer aspires to source as much components as possible in the coming years from local resources and U.S.-made systems. For Legacy, Optimus is procuring 3,700 domestically-assembled JinkoSolar 410 W modules, which are being distributed straight from the supplier’s Jacksonville, Fla., facility to instate project sites, providing an easy procurement for the developer, Pauluhn said.

Climate First Bank, a regional FDIC-insured community banking group, is a financial partner of the company and has securitized financing of the company’s Legacy resort portfolio. Pauluhn said the bank, which finances Southeastern clean energy developers and corporations with sustainability goals, is also a commercial bank lender to the small business.

Asked about Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, Pauluhn said since the governor took office in 2019, he has taken a pro-rooftop solar and small business-friendly stance. On April 27, 2022, DeSantis vetoed state legislation, HB-741, which would have ended net metering in Florida as proposed by its various utilities.

To date, Optimus Energy has been self-funded by management and sees itself as an employee-run company, Pauluhn said.

In Central Florida, ESA Solar this week announced completion of a first 1.2 MW phase of a 3.6 MW ground-mounted solar project for a cannabis grower utilizing indoor growing facilities.  The three-phase solar farm project is part of ESA’s ongoing expansion efforts to provide pathways to decarbonization for companies and communities in new markets and regions, including recreational cannabis.

The solar farm uses Q Cells Q-Peak Duo XL bifacial double glass solar modules mounted to Terrasmart Glide racking hardware, a design built to provide maximum efficiency and stability, an ESA Solar spokesman told pv magazine USA. The array’s panels are strung together using 62.5 kW Sunny TriPower Core 1 inverters from SMA Solar, he added.

A 2022 report from the United Nations’ Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated climate control measures represent more than 80% of the carbon footprint of indoor cannabis production. On-site solar systems can reduce costs for growing operations, as electricity can add up to 30% to 50% of the cost of cannabis production.

Cannabis production represents over 1% of U.S. electricity demand, said the National Conference of State Legislatures, presenting a large opportunity for renewable energy adoption.

According to the State of the Cannabis Cultivation Industry report of 2021, 54% of growers solely operate indoor facilities, while upwards of 80% operating an indoor facility in addition to a greenhouse or outdoor facility. Related to energy consumption, 150 kWh is used annually per square foot in an indoor grow facility. This equates to less than 750,000 kWh of annual energy use for small facilities and over 5 million kWh for large growers.

Various recreational cannabis market growers have turned to on-site solar and energy storage systems to offset their energy consumption in addition to using energy efficient LED lighting systems designed to operate at daily intervals when power is less expensive on the grid. Such practices have in turn saved an additional 50% or more on energy consumption.

ESA’s three-phased solar farm will be used to support all the electricity needs on-site for the Floridian greenhouse cannabis grower. The solar farm project will help cut electricity costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create a more reliable source of electricity, and promote clean energy across the central Florida region, the developer said.

“We are happy to already be wrapping up phase one of this new solar farm project near our home base of Central Florida,” said Justin Vandenbroeck, executive vice president of ESA Solar. “Working alongside local agricultural leaders to promote sustainable energy practices is how we help them meet their growing energy needs. This project will power a cannabis facility, one of the fastest growing sources of new electricity consumption, rivaling data centers and EVs.”

The second phase of the solar farm is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, opening a path for more on-site solar for cannabis facilities in the coming years, the developer said.

Founded in 2017, ESA is a Maitland, Fla.-based commercial, community and utility scale solar developer which has developed projects in more than 10 states. Collectively its team has developed over 3 GW of projects over their career.

Elsewhere in the U.S., Santa Barbara, California-based Canndescent boasts more than 100,000 square feet of indoor cultivation space and produces close to 17 tons of cannabis per year. In 2019, the grower installed a 282.5 kW solar system at its facility in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. The grower’s solar system offsets 25% to 35% of the company’s electricity consumption, depending on the time of year, senior director of compliance Andrew Mochulsky told pv magazine in April 2023.

According to Wood Mackenzie, the U.S. energy storage market installed a record 4.8 GW in 2022, with installations expected to surpass 75 GW by 2027 based on the standalone investment tax credit (ITC) and onshoring manufacturing efforts from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021.

To meet this growing demand, Tualatin, Oregon-based Powin, a modular energy storage systems distributor, has selected Jabil as its manufacturing partner to produce Powin’s Stack750 Centipede energy storage systems. Beginning in Q4 2023, Jabil will produce an initial annual capacity of 2 GWh, with plans to ramp up to 4 GWh per year of the lithium-ion battery systems.

The partnership is designed to address Powin’s expanding U.S. customer and project base based on increased demand for energy storage projects. Previously, Powin sourced battery components for its modular systems from China and Southeast Asia, Danny Lu, senior vice president, Powin, told pv magazine USA.

Jabil will leverage its power engineering, global manufacturing footprint, and supply chain experience to accelerate the production of American-made Powin’s Stack750 systems.

Powin selected Jabil due to a combination of the company’s high-level assembly techniques, deep energy storage prowess, and commitment to environmental health, social equity and sustainable practices.

“Jabil’s flexible business model enables Powin to scale quickly and efficiently to meet high industry growth,” said Stuart Bolland, chief operating officer, Powin. “Our collaboration with Jabil not only reflects our pledge to safety and operational excellence, but more importantly our commitment to building a domestic energy storage supply chain.”

The collaboration will not only reduce supply chain risk by increasing capacity to directly serve the U.S. market, but it also reportedly supports Powin’s customers in meeting the domestic content requirements that are currently being set by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Stack750 storage system is a 750 kWh DC lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that is rated to provide two to four hours of battery discharge over a cycle life of 7,300 cycles. The battery system’s calendar life is 20 years and the battery’s tested round-trip efficiency is 93% to 95%, with the four-hour discharge battery providing the higher efficiency. The storage system requires half the time to procure and deploy, and uses 30% less space onsite, while reducing lifecycle costs compared to atypical modular storage systems.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) and EVE Energy have been Powin’s suppliers of the LFP battery cells.

Jabil, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, manufactures energy storage system (ESS) products using its high-level assembly (HLA), power engineering and global manufacturing operations. Jabil’s energy storage experience includes lithium-ion-based uninterruptible power systems (UPS) and air-conditioned cabinet assemblies for DC battery racks and modules. The company has produced storage systems from at least eight countries, including the U.S., Mexico and Brazil.

Powin’s systems have been deployed in close to 1.4 GWh of standalone storage and renewable energy paired storage projects in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and Israel, according to its project website. The company has over 6 GWh of systems in operation and advanced development, and an additional 11 GWh of projects under contract.

Besides partnering with Jabil in the U.S., Powin signed a January 2022 agreement with Celistica, a Mexico-based contract supplier, for the “nearshoring” fabrication of additional Powin Centipede systems. That partnership addressed near-term demand for the modular storage systems in North America. Mass production of the Centipede storage system took place in mid-2022.

Powin is exhibiting at Booth #4015 at the CleanPower Conference & Exhibition 2023, a national power and renewable energy industry conference taking place from May 23 to 25 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

Ontario, Canada-based Polar Racking announced it will add two facilities to manufacture solar mounts in the United States. One factory will be located in Michigan, the other in Florida.

A spokesperson for the company told pv magazine USA that it is building up to over 1 GW of tracker and fixed-tilt capacity by mid 2024, with the ability to scale up from there. The company said each site will add 10 jobs, with job opportunity growth as demand increases.

The Michigan facility is currently operational, and the Florida plant is expected to reach commercial production by the end of summer 2023, said the spokesperson.

“Our new U.S. facilities mitigate shipping lead time risks for our customers and gives us additional control over the entire supply chain,” said Pals Saddyappan, director of supply chain and global manufacturing, Polar Racking.

The company currently has a pipeline of 3.4 GW of solar mounting and racking across North America and the Carribean.

Made-in-USA solar components, including racking, trackers, and mounts, are in-demand across the nation, as the Inflation Reduction Act includes a 10% tax credit adder for renewable energy projects that include a certain threshold of domestic content. The Treasury Department recently released guidance on the content requirements, which contain complexities and are actively being evaluated by the industry. The subject of domestic content requirements was a hot topic at the RE+ Southeast renewable energy conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

“The expansion of Polar Racking’s manufacturing operations is in response to our customers’ needs to meet the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) domestic content requirements,” said Vishal Lala, managing director of Polar Racking. “Polar Racking supports the government’s initiative to re-shore the PV supply chain to create local jobs and bolster the local economy.”

Tracker for all terrains

This March, Polar Racking was tapped by OYA Renewables to supply its solar mounts for community solar projects in New York, the nation’s largest community solar market. Polar will supply its terrain-following Axsus series single-axis tracker for the construction of the Camillus Site 1 (6.61 MW), Camillus Site 2 (6.64 MW) and Vernon Site 1 (5.93 MW) community solar projects.

The company’s Axsus Sol-X tracker was developed in collaboration with leading automotive manufacturers to meet the challenge of installing solar on uneven terrain. As of April, Polar Racking has installed 200 MW of the product, with up to 400 MW expected to enter construction in 2023.

By applying automotive manufacturing best practices for a modular, on-site factory process, Polar Racking has increased assembly efficiencies, said Lala.

The Sol-X tracker features independent tables that can hold 6 to 24 modules per table for a total of up to 180 modules per row that are all controlled by a single motor. The table purlin design and flexible drive shaft allow it to follow the undulations of the terrain. Additionally, the Sol-X is can connect directly to various types of foundations, such as ground screws, helical piles, driven piles, and concrete ballasts for landfills. Its purlin table design also allows for greater pile and assembly tolerances that the company says allows for a much simpler and quicker installation.

Federal agents raid JinkoSolar factory in Florida U.S. Homeland Security officers executed a search warrant on a solar panel manufacturing facility in Jacksonville.

Silicon Ranch plans to appeal ruling in 100 MW solar property damage case U.S. District Court Judge Clay D. Land issued a May 5 order ruling that Nashville-based Silicon Ranch and IEA are liable for more than $135 million in damages due to sediment erosion and lack of soil control.

Apex adds 195 MW of solar and 400 MWh of energy storage in Texas  A 195 MW and 200 MWh solar-plus-storage project and the standalone Great Kiskadee storage project (200 MWh) will provide energy arbitrage and ancillary grid services to the ERCOT market, critical for maintaining grid reliability.

Canadian Solar subsidiary plans 100 MW solar project on tribal lands  Aspen Solar formed an agreement with the Lower Nicola Indian Band to build a solar-plus-storage facility on 827 acres in British Columbia.

U.S. solar installers list Qcells, Enphase as top brands  An industry survey led by SolarReviews and NABCEP found two-thirds of solar installers expect high electricity prices to drive demand.

Scientists warn of heat-induced failure risks in HJT glass-backsheet PV modules  University of New South Wales researchers have identified four failure modes caused by damp heat in heterojunction solar panels with a glass-back sheet configuration. The failures could result in power losses ranging from 5% to 50%.

Senate votes to resume solar tariffs, threatening clean energy supply  The United States Senate voted to overturn President Biden’s two-year pause on tariffing solar goods shipped from four Southeast Asian nations responsible for 80% of solar supply. Biden is expected to veto the resolution.

California utilities commission sued for gouging rooftop solar payments  Three leading environmental groups have filed a petition to the California Court of Appeals to review the state’s solar net energy metering cuts.

New Hampshire utility offers dynamic rates for distributed storage exports An owner of an 8.6 kW PV system and eligible battery system could earn up to $1700 per year in credits under a New Hampshire utility’s dynamic rate program. Certain standalone storage systems, electric vehicles, and EV chargers are also eligible.

Stanley Black & Decker 100% renewable energy powered in Kentucky A 4.3 MW solar project will power the company’s on-site production facility, with excess going to the state.

RFP alert: Tribal solar accelerator seeks projects  An accelerator fund for tribal authorities that includes 65 tribes and over 120 tribal individuals will award grants of up to $200,000 for solar projects situated on tribal authority land, and $50,000 grants per year for tribal energy plan proposals.

Solar Earnings Recap: SunPower, Sunrun and SolarEdge  pv magazine USA’s recap of notable upstream solar, integrated solar, finance and rooftop installers that reported quarterly or fiscal year earnings over the last week.

Average silver price expected to drop 2% to $21.30 per ounce this year  The U.S. Silver Institute’s “World Silver Survey 2022” report shows that the price of the metal will fall slightly this year despite increasing demand from the PV industry.

Florida resort owner deploys 1.51 MW of solar arrays Optimus Energy installed four solar arrays at resorts located in Kissimmee (760 kW), Lake Buena Vista (147 kW), Clearwater (205 kW) and Palm Coast, Fla. (402 kW).

Legacy Vacation Resorts, an Orlando, Florida-based resort property owner, will take advantage of its home state’s namesake of abundant sun after activating four rooftop and ground-mounted solar systems in central Florida. The arrays are expected to produce over 2 million kWh per year.

Optimus Energy Solutions, a Mount Dora, Florida-based solar, storage and EV charging installer, deployed the four solar arrays located in Kissimmee (760 kW), Lake Buena Vista (147 kW), Clearwater (205 kW) and Palm Coast (402 kW).

Ben Pauluhn, president of Optimus Energy, told pv magazine USA that the majority of modules were installed on vacation property rooftops, while about 35 kW of the portfolio was installed on the ground adjacent to the buildings.

The Florida resort installations utilized 3,700 domestically-assembled JinkoSolar 410 W modules, single- and three-phased SolarEdge inverters, and Ironridge racking hardware, Pauluhn said. Greentech Renewables provided distribution solutions for the projects’ assembly, he added.

Each solar installation is located on a separate utility grid territory in Florida, while each installation qualifies for full net metering under current Florida law, Pauluhn said.

Climate First Bank, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based community lender, has committed project financing to the resort property solar portfolio. Formed in 2020, the bank has funded solar photovoltaic, energy retrofits and energy transition infrastructure, according to its website.

“As a certified B Corp, Legacy Vacation Resorts strives to not only operate a profitable business, but to use our power to create positive social and environmental change in the world,” said Alex Smith, chief operating officer, Legacy Vacation. “Investing in solar energy in partnership with Optimus Energy Solutions provides an extremely effective way to positively impact our environment and generate a financial return for the company.”

Legacy Vacation operates eight properties in Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Jersey. The company said in its 2022 annual report to stakeholders that since 2018, its operations have achieved an 8% reduction of its carbon footprint, conducted a sustainability audit and planned on-site solar projects.

With the 1.51 MW of on-site solar projects, Legacy Vacation will generate 40% of its electricity from renewable energy. The company has a goal of becoming net zero with all of its properties using renewable energy by 2030. According to its 2022 report, the company anticipates generating the remainder of its clean energy from utility-purchased energy, offsite projects and community solar projects.

Legacy Vacation has EV charging stations at each of its property locations and is evaluating on-site energy storage as well, Pauluhn said.

The resort owner’s Brigantine, N.J. facility purchases annual renewable energy certificates (REC) to offset its carbon footprint, said the annual benefits report. Besides onsite solar and RECs, Legacy Vacation is partnered with nonprofit We Are Neutral to fund energy efficiency upgrades in low-income Florida communities, plant native trees, practice urban agriculture and capture landfill methane gas.

Sunergy Renewables, a New Port Richey, Florida-based residential solar and energy efficiency installer, announced plans to go public at $475 million enterprise value.

The company announced its intent to combine with ESGEN Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, in a transaction that would result in the combined company becoming a publicly listed company on the Nasdaq exchange.

For 2022, Sunergy installed more than 2,400 solar systems, generated $123 million of revenue and $11 million in earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation, amortization, or EBITDA, a common financial performance and corporate valuation metric. The Florida company provides rooftop solar installations as well as battery storage systems and energy efficiency solutions which include insulation and roofing systems in various states such as Florida, Texas and Arkansas.

Sunergy sells residential solar systems through a proprietary sales approach that maximizes lead generation and conversion processes. The company uses a custom software platform to augment sales and uses a customer relationship management system to track key performance indicators across the sales cycle. The installer is a SunPower elite dealer and certified Tesla Powerwall energy storage systems installer.

“We believe this combination represents a transformative step on our path to grow as a vertically integrated company,” said Tim Bridgewater, chief executive officer and co-founder of Sunergy.  “The proceeds from the transaction will help Sunergy scale more rapidly to meet the current demand we are seeing from our customers who desire to reduce high energy bills and contribute to a sustainable future.”

“Our primary objective at ESGEN is to partner with sound, scalable and profitable companies we believe will fundamentally disrupt the current energy landscape and take advantage of markets experiencing generational growth,” said Andrejka Bernatova, chief executive officer of ESGEN. “We want to simultaneously accelerate a shift to a low-carbon future.”

ESGEN is a SPAC investment platform formed by Energy Spectrum Capital, a Dallas-based energy private equity firm with $4.5 billion of invested commitments. The SPAC is managed by the firm’s Energy Spectrum Partners VIII fund affiliate, which is also invested in Nightpeak Energy, an Oakland, Calif.-based energy storage platform managed by former Recurrent Energy executives.

Financial overview

Sunergy’s go-public transaction is being funded with proceeds of $65 million in cash, underpinned by $10 million of common stock private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing commitment from Energy Spectrum Partners, valued at $10 per share.

The company said the transaction proceeds will fund operations and growth opportunities, with the SPAC transaction expected to close during Q4 2023.

Cohen & Company Capital Markets, a boutique investment banking business of JVB Financial, a New York debt investment firm, advised ESGEN on the SPAC combination, while Kirkland & Ellis was the sponsor’s legal advisor.

Eversheds Sutherland and Ellenoff Grossman & Schole are counsel to Sunergy.

SPAC market burst

According to an S&P Global Market Intelligence report, SPAC merger activity involving clean energy companies has largely collapsed since Q1 2021. The energy transition was a key beneficiary to the SPAC trend, with numerous electric vehicle, EV charging infrastructure and energy storage companies to go public over a short timeframe through early 2021.

The SPAC market collapsed amid tightening investor scrutiny tied to regulatory loopholes closed from previous allowances for target companies to go public with overstated financial projections, with numerous companies involved in SPAC mergers now seeing dwindling stock performance, the report notes.

Through Q1 2021, the most active quarter, SPAC IPO’s across all sectors peaked at 311 deals valued at $99.7 billion in aggregate transaction values, while subsequent quarters saw an average of about 73 SPAC deals and $12.4 billion average quarterly transaction values, according to S&P Global.

Tigo Energy, a provider of solar inverter, electronics and energy storage products, revealed plans in December 2022 to go public through a SPAC merger with Roth CH Acquisition IV Company (ROCG), a platform managed by Roth Capital Partners and Craig-Hallum Capital Group. That deal is valued at $600 million pre-money equity valuation and expected to close by June 30, 2023.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, among the largest restaurant chains in the U.S., announced a new design for its stores that features all-electric appliances and on-site solar. The restaurant’s operations would also be supported through the purchase of renewable energy credits generated by solar and wind assets. 

The company recently opened restaurants with these new features in Gloucester, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida, with a third “Responsible Restaurant” opening in Castle Rock, Colorado. The locations will help Chipotle test its progress towards climate targets, which are in alignment with the Science Based Targets initiative that targets direct and indirect emissions reductions of 50% lower than 2019 baseline by 2030. 

The Newport Beach, Calif.-based restaurant chain will make use of rooftop solar, all-electric cooking equipment, a smaller electric cookline and improved exhaust goods, energy management systems, biodegradable cups, cactus leather chairs, artwork made of recycled rice husks, and EV charging stations at select locations. 

Chipotle said it plans to have more than 100 of its new locations in 2024 serving up burritos and bowls using all-electric appliances powered by renewable energy. The company will continue to iteratively improve the design as pilot restaurants’ progress is studied. 

Additionally, Chipotle is invested in climate change combatting activities like exploring greater use of low carbon fuels and adoption of renewable resources in logistics, and investing in projects to drive emission reductions in beef and dairy production. The company said it is also exploring and developing strategies to support greater adoption of regenerative agriculture practices among supply chain partners and developing plans for additional vegetarian and vegan menu offerings.  

Chipotle also targets increasing the amount of local produce purchased in 2023 to a planned total of at least 36.4 million pounds, supporting local farming and reducing trucking miles. 

“With our aggressive development goal in North America, we hold ourselves accountable to reduce the environmental impact of our restaurants,” said Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer at Chipotle. “We are aiming to incorporate some elements of our responsible restaurant design into many of our new restaurant openings going forward.”

Corporate solar adoption is on a sharp rise in recent years. As of November 2022, U.S. corporations installed nearly 19 GW of on- and off-site solar capacity, which doubles the amount that had been installed since 2019. Recent growth is due to the expansion of off-site corporate solar procurement, which now represents 55% of all commercial solar use. Almost 70% of all off-site corporate solar has been brought online since 2019.

“From data centers to industrial freezers, the most energy-intensive business operations are turning to solar as the most reliable and affordable way to power their infrastructure,” Abigail Ross Hopper, president and chief executive officer, Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a November 2022 report.

Global consensus shows solar must grow over 7,000% by 2050 to decarbonize  Just over 1 TW is installed to date, but a global coalition of national research institutions said 75 TW or more will be needed by mid-century to meet decarbonization goals.

Invoke eminent domain, Marshall Plan for renewable energy, said JP Morgan CEO  Jamie Dimon placed the energy transition in the crosshairs in a letter to shareholders.

RFI alert: DOE seeks input on building the solar manufacturing workforce  The Solar Energy Technologies Office is interested in hearing from manufacturers, suppliers, education and training providers, community-based organizations, and workers’ rights organizations.

Indiana utility to add 425 MW of utility solar projects  AEP’s Indiana Michigan Power will purchase power output from Sculpin Solar (180 MWac) in DeKalb County, Ind., under a 30-year PPA. The utility will also acquire 100% of the equity in Lake Trout Solar (245 MWac) in Blackford County, Ind.

Transforming the grid with electric vehicles  Electric vehicles can help buffer the grid but policies and regulations are needed along with compensation mechanisms, and the use of software to modulate EV charging to meet the needs of the grid in real time.

Florida Chevy dealership activates 730 kW rooftop solar system  Consisting of more than 2,000 panels, Dimmit Chevrolet’s solar system is expected to generate more than 1 GW of electricity per year.

A central Florida, family-run Chevrolet dealership nearing 100 years in business added an electrifying accolade to its corporate milestones by adopting solar. Dimmitt Chevrolet, a Clearwater, Fla., new and used car dealership, activated a 730 kW rooftop solar array installed by ESA Solar.

Consisting of more than 2,000 panels, Dimmit Chevrolet’s solar system is expected to generate more than 1 GWh of electricity per year. The annual clean energy produced is the equivalent to 750 homes and will offset over 156 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The dealership is expected to power 100% of its operations by the on-site solar facility, and by tapping into expanded federal tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, will return all capital invested through energy savings in just under five years.

“This is a major step towards our goal of becoming a more sustainable and environmentally friendly business,” said Lawrence Dimmitt III, owner of Dimmitt Chevrolet. “As we continue to add more EV options for customers, our electricity use will continue to go up. It just makes sense to invest in clean energy.”

Auto dealers have a substantial opportunity to attract consumers as the demand for EVs increases. EV sales increased 45% from 2020 to 2021, and hybrid vehicle sales nearly doubled, according to Boston Consulting Group. By 2025, BCG estimates that EVs may account for 19% of all new U.S. car sales, and by 2035, as much as 68% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S.

Other auto dealerships to add solar to their operations include Arlington Toyota of Palatine, Ill., Parkway Auto Group of Dover, Ohio, and TC Chevy of Ashland, Ore., according to pv magazine USA.

Based in Maitland, Fla., ESA Solar works with auto dealers across the U.S. to develop tailored solar programs to maximize available tax credits and incentives, while generating an immediate return on capital. Dealers that operate in multiple states can evaluate their portfolio and quickly determine the locations with the highest return on investment by leveraging ESA’s auto dealer program, the developer said.

“The Dimmitt enterprise is an example of an entrepreneurial leader in the franchised auto dealership space that saw the opportunity to put capital to work, and hedge against increasing electric rates while reducing tax liability,” said Morgan Brawner, executive vice president of ESA. “Leveraging solar to offset 100% of annual energy needs will prove to be a competitive advantage as EV market share grows over the coming years.”

Besides selling new and used all-electric Bolt and Bolt EUV models, Dimmit’s center is equipped with more than 20 EV charging stations. According to the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, Clearwater, Fla., has about 18 active public charging station locations at parking garages, supermarkets, shopping centers and municipal locations.

Founded in 2017, ESA is a Florida-based commercial, community and utility scale solar developer which has developed projects in more than 10 states. Collectively its team has developed over 3 GW of projects over their career.

This was amended on April 10, 2023 to change the capacity to 1 GWh instead of 1 GW, and the number of homes from 750,000 to 750.

Demand for energy storage is on the rise. The increase in extreme weather and power outages also continue to contribute to growing demand for battery energy storage systems (BESS). As a result, there are many questions about sizing and optimizing BESS to provide either energy, grid ancillary services, and/or site backup and blackstart capability. Before beginning BESS design, it’s important to understand auxiliary power design, site layout, cable sizing, grounding system and site communications design.

1. Auxiliary power design

Auxiliary power is electric power that is needed for HVAC for the battery stacks as well as control and communications. This sounds deceptively simple for equipment that has no moving parts, yet it is often a moving target, as BESS vendors continue to morph their designs after an order is placed. Therefore, when it comes to auxiliary design, you must be able to answer the following questions:

• Do you want a separately metered utility service for the auxiliary power so the cooling still works if the utility trips their recloser to the BESS?  This has been a real-world problem for some sites.
• What voltages are needed – three phase 480 V and 208 V, single phase 120/240 V, or does the equipment happen to come with European-style three phase 400 V and 230 V equipment?
• What is the real design load – sum of all HVAC nameplates?
• How much margin is really in those HVAC nameplate values?
• Is there a smart controller to prevent concurrent start of all HVAC compressors?
• If high hydrogen is sensed and ventilation is triggered to go full on, are the fans staggered by a few seconds to avoid concurrent inrush currents, and does it include compressors?
• For northern located projects, is heating load the peak design issue?
• For the typically large uncertainty, should the aux transformer(s) be provided with fan kits as insurance if the loads end up being larger?
• Should the aux transformer(s) be provided with a fan rating anyway just so that they can be economically downsized?
• What about the little things like lighting and security power?

These are just a few examples of the many questions that must be answered prior to embarking on the auxiliary design. 

2. Site layout

BESS site layout can be easy or complicated, depending on the site location, the site owner’s preferences or requirements, and the BESS itself. Some of the main questions to consider for the site layout are:

• Does the BESS vendor have a minimum spacing requirement?
• Does the owner have a minimum spacing requirement?
• How much of a lip do you want on the pad the containers sit on – 6 inches; 2 feet?
• Do you want to be able to fully open both doors on back-to-back containers?
• How do you make the cable runs short and simple?

3. Realistic cable sizing

BESS systems usually involve short, high ampacity underground runs from the battery rack containers to the inverters or DC/DC converters. In order to avoid excessive cable derates and resulting in larger cables and costs for short underground runs, you will need to consider:

• Will the owner’s engineer require a design per NEC tables, or is a site-specific ampacity calculation allowable?
• Is the owner open to alternative cabling methods compared to multiple runs of conductors in large conduits?
• Has the vendor clearly identified where power and communications cables enter the enclosures?
• Does the container just take one large feed, or is it split into two separate feeds that land on dual fused disconnect switches inside the enclosure?
• What about future expansion/augmentation battery segments, and how do these get connected?

4. Grounding system design

Many BESS sites are relatively small, and substation grounding design methods don’t really apply. So you need to ask, what is the design goal? Depending on how the design is approached, a site can either end up with an expensive mesh grid or a reasonable design to connect all of the equipment, and both will be equally safe.

Additionally, are you concerned about possible Radio Frequency Interference being generated by the BESS? Some vendors require additional methods, such as six additional grounding connections per inverter. Is the BESS located at a 911 Call Center or in a remote area? Answering questions like this will help your design and installation process go as smoothly as possible.

5. Site communications design

Communications are an integral part of BESS design, as it allows for remote data monitoring and/or management, and for the BESS system to communicate with the power grid as well as connect to peripheral components. The following site communications design questions should be answered in order to properly design this aspect of a BESS:

• What items need to be connected?
• Is it a radial connection between containers like string inverters, or does it need an extra conduit run to make a communications loop?
• What sort of data monitoring is there, and how does it communicate back to the owner?
• Does the site point of interconnection control device, such as a recloser, need to be monitored/controlled as well?
• How is the required metering being accomplished, and what does it need to talk to?
• Is a utility connection required, and with what communication method?

Joe Jancauskas is a senior electrical engineer at Castillo Engineering, a design and engineering firm based in Maitland, Florida that offers full service solar and energy storage design, engineering, and consulting services to developers, EPC contractors and utility companies.

Renewable energy institutional investment has gone “from niche to mainstream”  Term Loan B funding may be a multi-trillion-dollar pool made available to renewable energy development. KeyBanc managing director Andrew Redinger shares his view of the evolving market in a white paper.

Florida multi-family solar installation uses SolShare behind-the-meter hardware  SolShare technology enables the residents in 65 of the units to subscribe to a portion of the solar energy produced on the roof, offsetting the cost of their individual electricity bills.

Renewable Properties closes financing for nearly 30 MW of community solar in two states  The California and New York portfolio is financed by Fund 8, Renewable Properties’ fourth tax equity fund partnership with Nelnet, a corporate tax equity partner that also has a solar engineering, procurement, and construction and operation and maintenance business.

U.S. needs 47,000 more GW-miles of transmission by 2035 for a cleaner grid The U.S. Department of Energy said it may designate “National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors” based partly on the final results from its national transmission needs study.

Louisiana utility seeks approval for 225 MW project construction  Entergy Louisiana selected an Iberville Parish solar facility at 175 MW and a second facility with 49 MW of total capacity, the Sterlington Solar Facility in Ouachita Parish, to add to the state’s clean energy mix.

Utility to procure U.S.-made trackers for 321 MW Texas solar project  Avangrid signed a $30 million order for Array Technologies trackers at the True North solar facility in Texas, which will include safe harbor inventory and newly purchased DuraTrack trackers by New Mexico-based Array.

Solar field robot mower receives SOLV Energy seed funds  Canada’s Swap Robotics received $7 million to scale its robotics-as-a-service offering.

SolShare’s first behind-the-meter shared solar system in the U.S. was brought online this week at an apartment complex in Orlando, Fla.

Allume Energy, RENU Communities, and ESA Solar announced the successful commissioning of a solar installation that will generate renewable electricity for the 296-unit apartment complex, Canopy Apartment Villas. The 165 kW DC rooftop solar was installed in two phases on 12 buildings.

ESA Solar designed and developed the entire project and served as installer on phase 1. Local installer Castaways completed phase 2.

The system uses the SolShare technology, which enables residents in 65 of the apartment units to subscribe to a portion of the solar energy produced on the roof, offsetting the cost of their individual electricity bills.

SolShare is hardware developed by Australian-born, California-based Allume Energy, and is designed specifically for sharing rooftop solar to apartments without requiring tenants to sign up for additional billing services or solar trading platforms. It sits behind the meter and logs the amount of solar delivered to each apartment and, over the course of each month, ensures that the connected units each receive the same amount of solar.

The solar project at Canopy is the first asset within the recently announced environmental, social, and  governance (ESG)-centric venture between Taurus Investment Holdings, LLC and Aegon Asset Management. Using RENU, Taurus’ sustainable retrofit subsidiary, the partnership will acquire multifamily assets with the goal of reducing the energy consumption and carbon output of those assets. RENU aims to deliver clean energy retrofits to existing real estate assets.

The installation at Canopy will contribute to the City of Orlando’s goal of generating net-zero energy by 2050, which was set in 2017. The Orlando Utilities Commission worked with Allume, RENU and ESA Solar to review and ensure this first-of-its-kind system for Florida met its interconnection and safety requirements.

“Because Orlando is one of the fastest growing cities in Florida, it needs to develop affordable housing solutions that also prioritize energy efficiency and sustainability,” said Morgan Brawner, ESA Solar’s vice president of business development.

By 2025, the Orlando Utilities Commission’s (OUC) solar energy capacity is projected to produce 496 MW of renewable energy, enough for 90,000 Floridian homes. The OUC has committed $420 million to increasing its solar generating capacity, which will include the opening of two, 74.5 MW solar farms in 2024, according to a December news release.

Viewing the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly update of capacity additions, it is clear that the energy transition is well underway. Nationwide, projects listed as actively under construction total over 25.4 GW in capacity. This adds to the 107.5 GW of existing solar on the U.S. grid that exists today, as reported by the EIA. 

Small-scale solar projects of 1 MW or less total an estimated 39.5 GW nationwide, while utility-scale projects above that threshold total nearly 68 GW, reports EIA. 

There are currently 366 utility-scale projects actively being built across the U.S. as of the most recent EIA data release. The average size of these projects is 69 MW. Of this total, 166 projects are listed as 50% complete or more, adding 10.2 GW of capacity. 

The largest project under construction is Gemini Solar, developed by Primergy, a Quinbrook Infrastructure company. This project will add 690 MW to the Nevada grid once complete. The next seven largest projects are all located in Texas, averaging 405 MW in capacity.  

Texas is a dominant state for utility-scale solar project construction, with 28 projects totaling 6.7 GW in capacity, with about 240 MW as an average project size. The state’s largest active project is 500 MW. 

Florida is making significant headway in the utility-scale project construction space. Just under 5 GW of capacity is currently being installed across 68 projects, averaging 73.4 MW in size. Notably, project designs are very uniform in Florida, with 65 of these projects ranging from 74 MW to 75 MW in capacity. 

California follows with 3.2 GW of projects actively under construction, with a greater emphasis on distributed projects. EIA reports 45 projects underway with an average nameplate capacity of 75 MW. The state’s largest active project is 300 MW. 

Another 1.96 GW of projects nationwide have been fully constructed and are awaiting final approvals to reach commercial operation. There are 48 projects that fall into this bucket, averaging 41 MW in capacity. Eight of these projects are 1 MW solar facilities in Minnesota, a market known for its standout performance in community solar projects of this size. 

Solar energy is now in the center stage of the U.S. plans for a decarbonized economy, representing 70% of high-probability utility-scale power capacity planned through 2025.   

Solar’s rise to the top as a key energy resource now seems inevitable, but its fate was not always sealed. The technology contributed a negligible amount of power less than ten years ago, and the EIA did not begin reporting annual net generation of PV until 2014. In that year, solar contributed 27 TWh of electricity to the U.S. grid. Seven short years later, it generated 164 TWh in 2021, multiplying generation six times over. 

This progress has been made possible by supportive industrial policy, economies of scale, improved technological efficiencies, and business innovations. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) has fallen over the years, and the benefits of solar and energy storage become more crystalized as the threats of climate change increase with the passing years. 

Looking ahead, project construction is expected to continue to accelerate. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 contains $370 billion in spending for renewable energy and climate measures and calls for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. Princeton University released a Rapid Energy Policy Evaluation and Analysis Toolkit (REPEAT) in collaboration with Dartmouth College, Evolved Energy Research, and Carbon Impact Consulting, outlining the potential impact of the law. 

The impact on the U.S. solar industry could be huge, to say the least. The Princeton report said solar deployment may accelerate from 2020 rates of 10 GW of capacity added per year to nearly five times as much by 2024, adding 49 GW of utility-scale solar each year. Solar deployment may be well over 100 GW per year by 2030, said Princeton. 

Investment in solar could reach $321 billion in 2030, nearly double the figure of $177 billion expected under current policy. The IRA would lead to nearly $3.5 trillion in cumulative capital investment in new American energy supply through the next decade, said the report.

Duke Energy reported a $531 million loss in Q4 2022 as it wrote down the value of its commercial renewable energy business currently on the auction block. The utility also announced plans to cut $300 million in expenses in 2023, partly through layoffs out of its Charlotte, N.C. headquarters.

During its Q4 2022 earnings call, chief financial officer Brian Savoy did not say how many jobs are being cut, but said the measure includes a “modest” number of staff as well as external contractors and consultants.

The investor-owned utility reported FY22 earnings per share of $3.33, considerably lower than reported EPS of $4.94 in FY21. Its reported earnings per share (EPS) is down based on the impairment on the sale of the commercial renewable energy business.

“Our path forward is clear and underpinned by the strength of our regulated businesses, a disciplined approach to cost management and a robust (five-year) $65 billion capital plan,” said Lynn Good, chief executive office of Duke. “We’re well positioned to earn solidly within our 5% to 7% growth rate through 2027.”

In November 2022, Duke Energy launched an auction for its commercial renewable energy platform, which is expected to close in the second half of 2023. Good said the utility is “on track to exit both the utility scale and the distributed energy businesses” this year.

Duke’s five-year capital plan of $65 billion is focused on energy transition investments, which Savoy said was considerable increase over previous multi-year budgets, while its current budget removes almost $3 billion of capital it would have invested in the utility solar and distributed generation business. In other words, the utility is increasing its regulated business spending by $5 billion, for which Duke says will result in a 7.1% earnings-based CAGR growth rate through 2027.

Savoy defended the company’s book value of the commercial renewables portfolio platform at $3 billion, despite the utility writing down a $1.3 billion impairment charge since the sale process launched in Q3 2022.  This led analysts to deduce the renewables platform will see proceeds of less than $1.7 billion.

Duke’s Q4 2022 results was marred by severe weather from winter storms hitting the southeast region, which forced its primary utility business Duke Energy Carolinas to issue a curtailment and power conservation notice during the Christmas week. Earlier in the month, up to 45,000 residents were in the dark in Moore County, N.C., due to a reported shooting incident at two sub-stations that were under investigation by the FBI, regional and local law enforcement.

Duke Energy initiated a sale process for its commercial renewables business, which includes a 3.5 GW wind and solar portfolio, in September 2022. In November the company said the value for the renewables business could exceed a book value of $4 billion. Media outlets including Infralogic reported the utility is being advised by Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo Securities for the review of its renewables platform.

Duke’s common shares traded at $97.55 per share today, up 4.65% from $93.22 per share on Nov. 2, when it reported Q3 2022 earnings. The utility has a $75.1 billion market capitalization and provides electric services to 8.2 million customers in six states, and gas services to 1.6 million customers in five states.

The utility has a 2030 goal of achieving net zero natural gas fleet emissions and a 50% reduction in gas emissions from its electric business, with full net zero emissions by 2050. The company continues to invest in grid enhancements including energy storage, hydrogen and advanced nuclear technologies.

Last week, the utility completed construction on a 2 MW solar and 4.4 MWh storage project in Hot Springs, N.C., an Appalachian town with population of just 500.  The microgrid uses lithium batteries from Wärtsilä Energy and provides grid reliability services to the electric grid, such as frequency and voltage regulation and ramping support and capacity during system peak power usage.

“Duke Energy has numerous smaller microgrids on our system, but this is our first microgrid that can power an entire small town if its main power line experiences an outage,” said Jason Handley, general manager of Duke Energy’s Distributed Energy Group.

The Solar Energy Loan Fund (SELF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing unsecured financing solutions to Florida and Southeast U.S. residents adding solar and home improvements, recently surpassed $30 million of cumulative loans.

As a green bank and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), to date SELF has provided loan products to historically underserved and underbanked low-to-moderate income (LMI) communities such as retirees, working class families, veterans, disabled homeowners and those with poor credit background.

SELF has issued more than 3,000 green home loans, which average about $10,000 per loan but can range up to $50,000, for rooftop solar, high efficiency air conditioners, roofing repairs and other residential sustainable improvements.

“SELF is an implementation tool to retrofit and build new resilient, affordable housing while fostering green jobs, energy equity, resilience, and clean energy for all,” said Doug Coward, executive director of SELF. “LMI homeowners are the most susceptible population to climate change, heat waves, and severe weather, and they have participated and benefited the least from the fast-emerging clean energy economy.”

Fort Pierce, Florida-based SELF was formed in 2010 with $3 million in seed grants from the Department of Energy.  The non-profit prides itself as being the first local national green bank.  In recent years SELF expanded outside of Florida into Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama, and has partnerships with the cities of Orlando, St. Petersburg and the Atlanta (Georgia) Housing Authority.

Unlike traditional banks, SELF knocks down traditional barriers by advancing financial inclusion and filling key gaps that have historically set back LMI communities from accessing small loans for home improvements, including solar.

SELF has two dozen investors, including crowdfunding platform, KIVA.org, while 900+ contractors throughout the Southeast are able to assist customers with loan accessibility through SELF.  The non-profit has leveraged the original DOE grant by a 13:1 margin and provided financial assistance to more than 9,000 people.

Maria Duanne Andrade, chief financial officer of SELF, created the agency’s inclusive underwriting process based on the homeowner’s ability to repay the loan balance, rather than a credit score-based rating system.  Its credit system enabled the launch of its flagship Green Home Loan program for LMI homeowners with less than 2% default rates.

“Green banks have the power to unlock economic, environmental, and social benefits, especially in underserved communities,” said Andrade. “Financial systems are overly reliant on credit scores, and traditional underwriting methods leave too many people behind.”

SELF-originated loans are primarily funded by either crowd-funding or a mix of local banks, impact funds and faith-based institutions such as churches.

SELF loan financial terms:

• Renewable Energy Projects: 8 to 9.5% APR with 5 to 10-year loan term
• Energy Efficiency Projects: 8 to 9.5% APR with 3 to 5-year term
• KIVA crowdfunded loans: 5% fixed interest with 3 to 5-year terms

 Residential projects eligible for financing include:

• Weatherization and insulation
• Replacement of inefficient air-conditioning systems
• Solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems
• Roofs, windows, doors, and hurricane shutters
• disability products and aging in place

Green Bank meets Fintech

In recent years, SELF’s Andrade has put the loan originator into adjacent markets, providing green loan products to minorities, small building landlords and developers of affordable housing buildings, as well as a septic to sewer loan product.

Meanwhile, the organization has been pivoting to keep up with the emergence of financial technology applications that provide rapid access to small loan products.  In December, SELF’s plug-and-play fintech platform received a $3 million grant from JP Morgan Chase in order to provide capital to minority and novice affordable housing developers.

According to EnergySage, other providers of secured and unsecured solar loans in Florida and the southeast region include Climate First Bank, Dividend Finance, Sungage, Sunlight Financial, Sunnova Energy, Mosaic, GreenSky Credit and EnerBank USA.

According to Wood Mackenzie, the solar loan market grew 37% from 2021 to 2022. Homeowners see the greatest monthly savings on 25-year loans, which also match a residential solar installation’s warranty period.

Interest in residential solar financing will continue to grow now that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) extended the solar investment tax credit at 30% for another 10 years.

Origis Energy announced it contracted Mitsubishi Power Americas to supply batteries for the development of three battery energy storage systems in the Southeast U.S. The projects total 150 MW / 600 MWh of capacity and will be co-located at solar facilities.

The projects will include Mitsubishi Power Emerald batteries and are planned to come online over the next two years. Origis has over 1.5 GW of operational and contracted projects in the region, and over 4 GW nationwide.

The grid-scale energy storage projects offer services like arbitrage, energy market participation, transmission and distribution deferral services, renewable capacity support, curtailment avoidance, grid frequency regulation, and voltage support.

“Storage of renewably generated power is an increasingly important grid asset,” said Kenneth Kim, vice president, engineering and strategy planning, Origis Energy. “By adding the BESS solution to these facilities, we increase the value of the asset, adding enhanced grid solutions to clean, cost-effective solar power.”

Origis Energy is headquartered in Miami, Florida. The company has 2.3 GWh of storage projects contracted or in negotiation with 13.7 GWh currently being developed. It operates in energy storage development, financing, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operations, maintenance and asset management for investors and clean energy consumers.

In May, Origis closed a bundled $375 million credit facility that included both a letter of credit and equipment financing. Origis said it will use the funds to support the its growing pipeline of solar and energy storage projects. This oversubscribed round of funding was led by CIT, a division of First Citizens Bank, along with Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Nomura, Rabobank, and Santander. Latham and Watkins represented Origis Energy in the transaction and Norton Rose Fulbright acted as lender counsel.

The trio of Southeast energy storage projects will use Mitsubishi’s energy management system and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to control charge and discharge cycles, monitor the system’s status, send alarms and alerts, and enable long-term data storage. The company has more than 2.5 GWh of utility-scale battery energy storage projects in various stages of deployment globally.

“The Emerald storage solution technology we’re delivering for Origis follows rigorous NERC CIP and IEC 62443 Security Development Lifecycle Process policy and processes aligned to industry best practices,” said Alejandro Schnakofsky, vice president of global strategy, energy storage solutions, Mitsubishi Power Americas.

“It is imperative in everything we do to protect energy systems and operators with the strongest level of cybersecurity possible,” said Schankofsky.

In July, module supplier Boviet Solar announced it entered large solar module supply deal with Origis Energy, providing its 550 W PERC monocrystalline bifacial double-glass PV modules for use in utility-scale solar projects across the United States. More than 700 MW of solar modules were contracted as part of the order, with delivery slated for 2023. The shipment includes Vega Series 550 W panels.

The universe of novel lamppost and sidewalk-mounted solar PV solutions appears to be dominated by more busts than success stories. However, one Canadian company that recently deployed a 323-foot stretch of solar on a sidewalk on a Tampa, Florida street corner hopes to buck the trend of ineffective grid intermittency solutions.

Hurricane Ian knocked out the power to more than 295,000 residents as utility TECO Energy began to restore power on September 29. With that effort came scores of fallen trees and debris on streets and restoring traffic signals.

Since then, the City of Tampa’s Smart Mobility group has been piloting a sidewalk-mounted PV system that has produced enough energy to power about 75% of a traffic intersection’s power in the event of an outage, meaning TECO Energy will have to provide the remaining power by battery or another generator source.

In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times this week, the city’s smart mobility manager Brandon Campbell says the city has been tinkering with solar powered traffic light solutions since 2017’s Hurricane Irma dealt just as steady a blow on the city as Ian.

Compared to 35 generators on hand to power traffic lights during outages, the city’s mobility group said at least 71 traffic signals were still in the dark in the 176 square mile city just across from Tampa Bay.

After more than a half-dozen tests in Daxing, China and around the Vancouver, British Columbia suburbs, Solar Earth Technologies Ltd. demonstrated the ability to provide 3.2 kW to 6.1 kW of peak power, though the Tampa pilot falls on the lower end of that range.

For the cost of $45,000, Solar Earth’s sidewalk PV system in Tampa stretches about 323 feet at the intersection of East Cass and North Jefferson Street, in the city’s downtown district.

The city deployed 84 Solar Earth (42W) modules along the downtown stretch and the pilot test found the system provided 3.2 kW of peak back-up power with projected 10-year savings of about $5,000.

Solar Earth’s reported benefits:

• Functional intersection during hurricanes and flooding
• Secure power interface and theft, vandalism resistance
• Excess power continually generated and back into local grid
• Generates return on investment and reduces fossil fuel dependence of power generators
• Minimal O&M and cleaning required

Solar Earth uses a monocrystalline half-cell construction with a single cell measuring at about 22.4 inches square with 3 x 3 celled panels weighing 7.3 pounds, with cells providing 12W of power per square foot of surface area.

The company’s proprietary anti-skid surface has a 30-day water submersion rating and 12-hour oil submersion rating, with a maximum 11,000 pounds static load and 25 mph speed rating, with systems operating safely in ambient temperatures of -4 degrees (F) to 122 degrees (F).

Cells are encased in an IP-68 waterproof connector and UL-rated junction box connected to 10 American Wire Gauge (AWG) wiring whose open circuit voltage is 12.2V and maximum power voltage is 4 amps.

In construction solutions, Solar Earth’s PV solutions are best placed in asphalt and solid surfaces using direct mounted adhesives or clamps, or a molded base foundation using paver or polymer adhesives, creating a low-profile mounted solar strip.

In September, Solar Earth partnered with BASF to co-develop Paving Integrated Photovoltaic (PIPV) panels, which can be installed on new or existing roads and other surfaces.

Solar Earth has deployed more than 12 projects, with installations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa and China. The company has more than 50 projects in development.

The company was formed in July 2015 by a group of scientists, engineers and roadway experts, and in July 2022 was acquired by Nexii Building Solutions Inc, a designer and manufacturer of low-carbon buildings and sustainable city solutions.

Hover Energy, a Dallas-based wind power technology company, will begin commercial scale production in January 2023 of its residential and commercial 36 kW wind-powered microgrid that includes solar and energy storage. Production will take place the company’s facility in Memphis, Tennessee.

The company’s Hover Array System is a rooftop-mounted microgrid combining wind, solar and energy storage with the company’s Integrated Energy Management System (IEMS) software platform. The IEMS system integrates energy generated by both wind (alternating current) and solar (direct current) into a unified 480 volt, 3-phase direct drive power system to provide back-up power to building owners and residential customers.

Hover’s consumer wind turbine is mounted along the windward-facing edges of the rooftop, able to generate continuous power during the day. The company said it produces a multiple of power per square foot that is considerably more than a comparably sized rooftop solar system. The wind technology uses an “aerodynamic design that uses the building as a sail” to deliver commercial scale power.

The company’s complementary on-site solar panels are meanwhile mounted on the rooftop center, away from the shadow of the turbine’s parapet, generating sufficient solar power during a majority of the daily peak afternoon hours.

Initial testing of the Hover Array System shows that the 36 kW system can offset 100% of a building’s power consumption in the majority of cases, although as with any microgrid system, daily time of use is the only setback to providing continuous power around the clock.

“Hover spent nearly 8 years in R&D, followed by two years of rigorous testing at our installation site,” said Chris Griffin, Hover’s president and CEO.  “We know of no other wind technology that has survived two hurricanes (i.e. Ian) and is still functioning properly.”

The company is partnered with RealTime Group since 2021 and Jabil since 2017 to test the array system and for the supply of components used in the Hover Array System, respectively. Hover installed its first array system on Jabil’s Strategic Development building in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2021.

The company holds 22 issued or allowed patents to its wind-powered microgrid technology out of 32 U.S. and international patents, and to date has installed microgrids in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean markets.

Formed in 2015, Hover has been funded by its management and $710,000 in debt financing it raised in April 2019. Prior to Hover, Chris Griffin was CEO of formed Regenedyne, also a wind turbine start-up, and before that spent 15 years in corporate finance at various Wall Street firms.

High electricity rates push homeowners to consider solar Rising electric rates, grid instability, environmental concerns and decreased solar costs are all reasons for homeowners to go solar, according to a study by Rocket Solar.

Landfill solar project to cover 63% of South Portland’s municipal electricity needs  The brownfield-sited project will bring the city’s municipal electricity to 80% sourced from solar.

50 states of solar incentives: Florida  Aptly nicknamed the Sunshine State, Florida is a leading market for PV deployment. However, it lags other states in terms of policy support.

South Carolina electric co-op pursues batteries and other alternatives to a proposed gas unit  Utility-scale batteries are being pursued by many utilities, the generation and transmission co-op utility said in explaining its decision, while aggregated distributed resources “can be counted on as predictable generation capacity.”

Solar-plus-storage kept the lights on in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona  Sunnova SunSafe  solar + storage systems generated a total of nearly 2 GWh of energy total with 3.4 million hours of aggregate back-up power, or an average of 128 hours of power generated per household.

Florida has done well to establish itself as a large market for solar PV. The industry employed nearly 12,000 people in 2021 in the state, and it is home to 378 solar companies, the majority of which are installers and developers. In 2021, the state achieved 41% year-over-year growth in added rooftop solar capacity and surpassed 1 GW of cumulative installed rooftop solar.

Through Q2 2022, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) reports it has a cumulative 9.5 GW of capacity installed to date. This is enough electricity to power 1.1 million Florida homes.

However, for a state of over 21 million people, and one rich in sunlight, Florida could make even more strides in solar deployment with supportive policies. Currently, it has no established renewable portfolio standard and does not allow third-party power purchase agreements. These are two policies that have successfully driven solar buildout in other states.

Despite these policy shortcomings, Florida is expected to deploy significant amounts of solar at the utility-scale. SEIA projects it may install as much as 11 GW of solar over the next five years.

Incentives

Perhaps the most important policy for residential solar installations is net metering. The process allows homeowners to sell excess solar production back to the grid in exchange for bill credits. The two major utilities, Duke and FPL, both offer net metering programs.

Typically, when you add value to your home, it is reflected in your property tax assessment. But in Florida, as in many other states, residential solar installations are property tax exempt.

Solar is also sales tax exempt in Florida, as established by the CHP Sales Tax Exemption, reflecting a 6% savings.

Florida installations are also eligible for the federal solar Investment Tax Credit. The credit was recently extended under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 at 30% for the next decade. The tax credit applies to both solar and energy storage either combined or as standalone technologies.

Homeowners interested in learning about solar installers in their area can visit Solar Reviews for customer testimonial. The website also provides a calculator for estimating system size and expected bill savings.

Policy battles

Over the last year, a policy war was waged in Florida, under which environmentalists and rooftop solar supporters worked to block a bill that was set to phase down the value of net metering credits to near-zero. Following months of advocacy and political pressure, Governor Ron DeSantis bucked expectations and vetoed House Bill 741.

Had the bill been signed by Gov. DeSantis, starting in 2023, payments to solar customers would have regressed from a retail rate to the “avoided cost” to the utility, a minute fraction of the current retail rate. The phase out was set to slash payment rates to solar customers by 50% in four years and would drop further still to the avoided cost rate by 2029. The bill would have also allowed for fixed charges to grid connected solar customers starting in 2026, with no limit on the fixed charges outlined in the bill text.

The bill was founded on “cost shift” rhetoric, claiming that those using their own energy are raising the cost of service to those who don’t, usually in an economically disproportionate fashion. However, only about 90,000 of the 8.5 million electric customers in Florida are topped with solar. The utility argues that this 1% of Floridians are creating significant costs for the other 99%. Studies completed by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab found that 40 of the 43 states and Washington D.C. with net metering programs have a negligible cost increase attributed to solar.

In his veto, DeSantis described House Bill 741 as a burden itself, one that would “contribute to the financial crunch that our citizens are experiencing.”

SEIA president Abigail Ross Hopper celebrated the outcome. “Florida is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the country with new businesses popping up all across the state. This veto signals that Florida’s energy economy is open for business, and that the rights of state residents should be placed ahead of monopoly utility interests,” she said.

Notable project

This summer, Duke Energy Florida announced it completed construction of the Fort Green Renewable Energy Center, a 74.9 MW facility that will serve the utility’s Clean Energy Connection plan, which allows Duke customers to opt-in to sourcing a designated amount of capacity from the project on their monthly bill. The installation is the first in a 750 MW solar deployment plan by Duke.

The facility was built on about 500 acres of land, consisting of 265,000 panels mounted on a fixed-tilt racking system. At peak energy production, it is expected to produce enough power for roughly 23,000 homes.

Residents and small/medium businesses may join its new Clean Energy Connection “community” solar program. Applicants will be randomly selected to become subscribers to solar energy produced by the utility’s PV.

Under the program, customers can subscribe to kilowatt blocks of power, which are charged at $8.35/kW. The utility said a customer with an average usage of 1,000kWh a month could subscribe to about 5kW to cover their energy needs.

The bill credit rate tied to the solar production of a customer’s kW “block” will be $0.04/kWh for the first 36 months of the program, and then starting with the 37th month of continuous enrollment, the bill credit rate increases by 1.5% each year. This bill credit amount varies each month with the actual solar energy produced, meaning customer savings is tied to the successful production of the utility-owned solar facility.

Community solar offers an option to be connected with a carbon-free energy source for those who do not have a suitable roof space for PV. Generally, community solar projects are smaller than utility-scale plants, and are attached at the local distribution level, rather than to large-scale high voltage transmission infrastructure. This program, the Clean Energy Connection, supports the development and construction of Duke Energy Florida-owned solar, said the utility.

“Bringing cleaner resources onto the grid is important to our customers and our company,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida president. “By subscribing to the Clean Energy Connection program and supporting solar sites like this one, our customers are joining a community that is helping drive Florida to a cleaner energy future.”

Up next

The solar tour last stopped in Georgia. Next, we will work our way west across the nation, starting first with 50 states of solar incentives Kentucky edition.

OMCO Solar is a factory-direct manufacturer of solar trackers and fixed-tilt mounts for the community and utility-scale markets. Its experience is built on decades of steel manufacturing, founded as OMCO Holdings in 1955. To date, the solar business has delivered over 9.5 GW of mounting structures worldwide.

OMCO’s manufacturing footprint spans coast-to-coast, delivering American-made solar structures built from 100% US steel to developers nationwide. Considering the Inflation Reduction Act’s domestic content requirements for projects to take in the full value of solar Investment Tax Credits, OMCO may be well positioned to grow rapidly.

The company recently announced it completed a 650 MW utility-scale portfolio in Florida with engineering, procurement, and construction firm Moss. OMCO also recently invested $5 million in expanding its manufacturing capabilities, bringing total investment in equipment and tooling to $75 million.

Ryan Kennedy, editor, pv magazine USA was joined by Eric Goodwin, director of business development at OMCO Solar at RE+ Anaheim for an interview. Watch below:

Grid operator MISO is making progress on renewables interconnection, says trade group leader  The Midwestern transmission operator MISO is moving to increase transmission and otherwise facilitate interconnection, said a regional trade group leader, yet she also recommended further improvements by MISO and neighboring grid operators.

RWE to acquire Con Edison’s clean energy business  The transaction is valued at $6.8 billion. The combined portfolio almost doubles RWE’s operating assets in the United States to 7.2 GW, making it the fourth largest renewable energy company and the second largest U.S. solar operator.

8minute Solar Energy changes name, expands its vision  As Avantus, the company looks to deploy its proprietary power plant technologies and digitally connected delivery systems at the gigawatt scale.

New Jersey considers regional clean energy market in PJM footprint, to speed renewables  New Jersey would grant clean energy credits to solar and wind project owners and require the state’s utilities to buy them to meet clean energy targets, under a proposal by New Jersey regulatory staff. Other states could join in the proposed market.

A 100% solar community in Florida suffered no power losses from Hurricane Ian  Just 12 miles from Fort Meyers, Babcock Ranch was built with climate resiliency in mind.

Solar FlexRack trackers supplied for 42 MW Illinois community solar portfolio  The company leveraged its experience in cold weather projects to support the clean energy deployment.

Hurricane Ian was a near-category five storm when it made landfall in the Naples/Fort Meyers area of Florida’s gulf coast. Babcock Ranch, a community just 12 miles from Fort Meyers, found itself directly in the path of the storm, suffering heavy rainfalls and flooding, uprooted trees and destroyed structures from high winds. 

The storm brought record-breaking storm surges and sustained winds above 100 mph. Over 2.6 million Florida customers were left without power. 

Despite the widespread destruction, Babcock Ranch, a planned community of over 2,000 homes, retained powered throughout the entire storm, reports CNN. It is often a given conclusion that power will be lost during extreme weather events, but Babcock Ranch has a model that bucks the centralized natural gas-burning energy model that serves much of the Sunshine State. The community is 100% powered by solar. 

A 75 MW solar facility powers the planned community, with 700,000 panels delivering clean energy to its residents. It is connected by a small distribution system of wires buried beneath the ground, thereby avoiding outages from downed wires. The ranch also designed streets as floodways, planted native species to control flooding, and exceeded robust Florida building codes when it was planned and built in 2018. 

Many residents also installed their own rooftop solar panels and batteries for increased resiliency and extended backup power. Electric vehicles are driven by many of its residents, and sustainability and climate resilience are core to Babcock Ranch’s identity. 

“We have proof of the case now because [the hurricane] came right over us,” Nancy Chorpenning, a 68-year-old Babcock Ranch resident, told CNN. “We have water, electricity, internet — and we may be the only people in Southwest Florida who are that fortunate.” 

The Babcock Neighborhood School was designated by the state as an official shelter area. These designated shelters typically are equipped with a mandated gas generator, but this was not the case for Babcock. Instead, the solar array kept the shelter powered continuously throughout the storm. 

“It’s a great case study to show that it can be done right, if you build in the right place and do it the right way,” said Lisa Hall, a spokesperson for the founder of Babcock Ranch. “Throughout all this, there’s just so many people saying, ‘it worked, that this was the vision, this is the reason we moved here,’” Hall told CNN.

The American Red Cross is accepting donations for victims of Hurricane Ian, bringing critical supplies and support to survivors.

A 2018 PBS video of the inception of Babcock Ranch can be viewed below:

Powering EV charging stations with agrivoltaics  Oregon researchers find that placing agrivoltaic installations along highways to power EV charging stations can reduce both carbon emissions and range anxiety.

Hybridizing floating solar with hydropower  Scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have said that the combination of floating solar with hydropower could reduce PV curtailment.

Modeling, inverters, and weather – oh my!  The 2022 Solar Risk Assessment focuses on inverter failures and rosy risk projections, which are the leading causes of economic loss for utility scale solar facilities.

LG to source lithium from US producer  From materials to production, agreement between Compass Minerals and LGES creates US supply chain to meet high demand for EV batteries.

Major Southeast utilities will reach only 9% solar by 2030, group projects Five major Southeastern utilities will not reach zero-carbon generation until 2071 or later, an environmental group projects.

Florida added more than 40,000 rooftop solar systems in 2021  The state achieved 41% year-over-year growth in added capacity, and surpassed 1 GW of cumulative installed rooftop solar.

Energy output is over 100 times the input needed to manufacture solar panels  According to a third-party study, the projected output over the 40-year warranty period of Maxeon solar panels exceeds the energy demand of manufacturing them by over 100-fold. Plus, more details from the Maxeon-SunPower 2021 sustainability report.

Thin film solar may have carbon intensity advantage over silicon Thin-film cadmium telluride panels may have a $0.02 to $0.04 per watt carbon cost advantage over traditional polysilicon, said the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in an analysis of embodied carbon, embodied energy, and energy payback.