With more than 300,000 buildings and 600,000 vehicles, the U.S. Government is the nation’s largest energy consumer. As a part of the Federal Sustainability Plan that directs the Government to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the Government is quickly ramping up use of solar energy at military bases, five of which will soon be drawing electricity from two solar installations in South Carolina.

In a partnership with Duke Energy valued at an estimated $248 million, the Department of Defense (DOD) will be the exclusive purchaser of all output generated by two new solar facilities. The five military installations across North Carolina and South Carolina to benefit from the clean energy include Fort Liberty, USMC-Camp Lejeune, USMC-Cherry Point, USAF Seymour Johnson and USAF Shaw.

“DoD is leading by example on climate change in ways that will spur new clean electricity production, create good-paying jobs, increase our resilience to climate change, and enhance our national security,” said Andrew Mayock, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Duke Energy estimates that it will provide 135 MW and approximately 4.8 million MW-hours of renewable energy in both states over a 15-year delivery period. According to the DoD, these installations will achieve 75% of their 2030 carbon-free energy requirement. Fort Liberty, for example, will reduce its emissions from electricity by 27% compared to 2022, with cost savings possible by 2040. The two solar facilities, which are expected to become operational in 2026, will be developed, owned and operated by energyRe, according to Duke.

“This project is a great opportunity to assist our military departments and our warfighters in their decarbonization goals and is paramount to reaching our initial goals of Executive Order 14057, Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability. DLA Energy is committed to supporting the administration’s clean energy initiatives and helping the military services and whole-of-government partners achieve their climate change goals,” said United States Air Force Col. Jennifer Neris, director of carbon pollution-free electricity for the Defense Logistics Agency.

Duke Energy reports that it currently owns, operates and purchases more than 5,100 MW of solar power on its energy grid in the Carolinas or enough to power nearly 1 million homes annually. North Carolina currently ranks No. 5 in the nation for overall solar power. With a portfolio of nuclear, hydro and renewable energy, the utility says more than half of its energy mix in North Carolina is carbon-free.

The DoD said in a statement that it will continue to seek partnership opportunities that enable the agency and other Federal partners to achieve President Biden’s carbon-free energy goals and build a robust, clean, and domestically based electricity supply chain by 2030.

“Our partnerships with utility companies are essential to delivering energy resilience for the Army,” said Rachel Jacobson, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment. “These partnerships are helping us put microgrids with carbon-free energy generation and storage on our installations. And our continuing collaboration with Duke Energy allows the Army to contribute to a more reliable commercial grid that strengthens the resilience of the defense communities where our soldiers, military families, and civilians live. I am proud of these partnerships and look forward to expanding them so that our installations always have access to the electricity we need to defend the nation.”

Voltaic Systems unveils battery monitoring system for off-grid PV applications The U.S.-based PV system provider for infrastructure and industrial equipment without grid access has launched a battery health monitoring software module for its flagship Core Solar Power Systems product line.

Groups sue FEMA and HUD to focus energy funds on distributed solar and storage Two federal agencies that provide billions of dollars for energy-related projects should fund renewable energy, a number of groups have argued in two lawsuits and two rulemaking petitions.

Climate change to drive value of rooftop solar University of Michigan researchers have found that the value of rooftop solar will increase by between 5% and 15% by the mid-century across a range of U.S. cities under moderate climate change, and by up to 20% by the end of the century.

50 states of grid modernization North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center’s recent report looks at how states are doing with legislative and regulatory action related to shoring up the power grid.

Sunnova earnings dip, unrestricted cash grows as it mends balance sheet Sunnova Energy International, a residential solar, storage, and adaptive services company, announced declining revenues and an increased focus on cash generation in its Q1 2024 earnings report.

From pv magazine global

Energy management company Schneider Electric announced a new Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for microgrids. It is available in two enclosure sizes and has different storage and discharge configurations.

“Comprised of a battery system, battery management system, power conversion system, and controller, BESS has been tested and validated to work as an integral component of Schneider Electric’s standardized microgrid system, EcoStruxure Microgrid Flex,” the company said in a statement. “It is fully integrated into the software suite, which includes EcoStruxure Microgrid Operation and EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor.”

The BESS 7 foot long enclosure has a power of 60 kW or 90 kW and maximum storage of 246 kWh, with a discharge configuration of two or four hours. It weighs 3.6 metric tons, and it is AC and DC coupled. On the other hand, the BESS 20 foot long enclosure has a power of 250 kW, 375 kW, or 500 kW, and maximum storage of 1,720 kWh, with a discharge configuration of two or four hours. It weighs 25 metric tons, and it is AC coupled only.

“The BESS is a fully self-contained solution built upon a flexible, scalable, and highly-efficient architecture delivering flexibility, helping to minimize energy costs and maximize renewable energy,” the company added. “As part of a microgrid system, the BESS leverages onsite generation sources to optimize the entire system, delivering energy and cost savings while maximizing usage of renewables.”

Both enclosures use lithium-ion iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which have a rated calendar life of 15 to 20 years and more than 6,000 cycles. The BESS’s operating temperature ranges from -4 F to 122 F, and Schneider Electric offers a three-year warranty.

BoxPower announced it was awarded close to $3 million in grant funds from the California Energy Commission (CEC) through the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program’s Realizing Accelerated Manufacturing and Production for Clean Energy Technologies (RAMP).

The company said it plans to use the grant funding to ramp up production of the SolarContainer, BoxPower’s turnkey microgrid product.

Selected from a competitive field of 50 proposals, the CEC selected BoxPower’s project for its potential to help advance California’s clean energy goals.

BoxPower said it plans to use the funds to advance its SolarContainer to the low-rate initial production stage, bringing the clean energy solution closer to widespread implementation. The company reports that the project aims to reduce production time, standardize modular subsystems, and increase manufacturing capacity.

“Increasing wildfires, increasing energy costs, and increasing energy needs demand we act quickly to reimagine the future of the California grid,” said Anderson Barkow, co-founder and chief financial officer of BoxPower. “With the CEC’s support, we are ready to scale our operations and deliver this essential technology to more communities, helping ratepayers and utilities alike meet their resiliency and sustainability goals without driving energy prices up.”

SolarContainer is a fully integrated, rapidly deployable microgrid that combines solar energy production with battery storage, along with advanced control systems. This container solution addresses three critical challenges that California faces right now: reducing wildfire risk, enhancing electric reliability, and expanding the capacity for electric vehicle charging in rural areas.

The SolarContainer is designed for use by utilities during wildfires. For example, Pacific Gas and Electric commissioned its first SolarContainer and uses it as a remote grid that replaces overhead distribution powerlines that once served customers in a high fire-threat district area in Briceburg, located in the Sierra Nevada foothills outside Yosemite National Park.

The Briceburg SolarContainer system provides a total PV capacity of 36.5 kW, as well as a 27.2kW/ 68.4/kWh lithium ferro phosphate storage system. Almost 90% of the energy produced will be generated by renewable sources, with the remainder from two integrated propane generators. A fire suppression system will protect the hardware and facility. It is being used as a permanent energy supply that replaces poles and wires.

A solar and energy storage microgrid project has begun construction in Corning, California, where the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians held a groundbreaking event for the project.

A microgrid can operate separately from the larger utility grid, making it resilient to adverse extreme weather events, rolling blackouts, and other grid conditions. Once complete, the microgrid will add 5 MW of solar capacity along with 15 MWh of long duration energy storage with an 18-hour duration.

“We are grateful to partner with the CEC and host this grant for this renewable energy project,” said Paskenta Tribal Chairman Andrew “Dru” Alejandre. “Our people have always cared for the land as it has cared for us. We continue to understand our responsibilities as people and will continue to adapt to modern ways for many generations. We are responsible for preserving our environment for future generations. This project will allow us to provide sustainable energy and most importantly increasing energy sovereignty.”

The project was funded in part by a $32 million grant from the California Energy Commission. Funds came from the Governor Newsom administration supported Long-Duration Energy Storage Program, which invests up to $330 million into non-lithium long duration energy storage technologies to be deployed across the state.

“California is showing the world how to fight the climate crisis while creating good jobs and more resilient communities,” said Governor Newsom. “We’re building more projects like these to secure a clean and reliable energy future that benefits all our communities.”

California has aggressively pursued adding energy storage to the grid as more intermittent renewable energy generation sources like solar and wind come online. The state’s deployed storage capacity has increased 757% in four years, storing enough electricity to power 6.6 million homes for up to four hours.

The state has made considerable progress towards its clean energy goals. Nearly 60% of its electricity comes from emissions-free sources, making progress towards the goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. California has built over 35 GW of clean energy capacity statewide.

Read more pv magazine USA coverage of microgrids.

The fate of the solar industry hinges on better data gathering and predictions  Advancements in remote measurement can help solar companies to bypass inefficient and error-prone site visits to measure and record roof dimensions, azimuth, pitch, and localized shading at a given site in a more consistent and repeatable manner.

in 2017, when back-to-back hurricanes destroyed around 80% of Puerto Rico’s electric grid and resulted in thousands of lives lost, Puerto Rico passed Act 17, a policy to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that Puerto Rico has 40GW of solar potential. NREL modeled pathways to the targets set by Puerto Rico’s Act 17: 20% renewable generation by 2022, 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040, and 100% by 2050.

NREL reported that Puerto Rico has 20 GW of utility-scale solar potential, mostly along the coasts, and 20 GW of distributed solar potential. Just 10 GW of solar could meet Puerto Rico’s needs, as estimated by Solar + Energy Storage Association (SESA) president PJ Wilson.

The potential pathways forward in the Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study, or PR100, concluded that Puerto Rico can reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050, but there is much work to be done. The researchers created a roadmap outlining near- and long-term actions necessary to move forward toward a renewable and resilient future.

“Over the past year, I’ve visited communities across Puerto Rico, listening to residents’ vision for what a cleaner and more resilient energy future could look like. Now, PR100 is ready to help make them bring those visions to life,” said Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy.

The report identifies three scenarios.

Scenario 1 is defined as the economic adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) based primarily on bill savings and value of backup power for building owners and Scenario 3 as the maximum deployment of DERs on all suitable rooftops. Scenario 2 lies in between, extending DER adoption to very low-income households (0%–30% of area median income) and those in remote areas who otherwise would not have bought systems. There are also variations to these scenarios, especially when it comes to utility-scale land use, as agricultural land is highly valued in Puerto Rico. There are also variations around electrical load because it’s hard to project that out to 2050.

The report defines implementation actions, which are highly detailed in the PR 100 Final Report, but which are summarized into five actions, with more detail provided in the graphic below:

• Immediate actions to build a more robust electricity system and lay the foundation for high levels of renewable energy
• Near-term actions to achieve 40% renewable energy while moving toward industry accepted system performance and increasing resilience
• Mid-term actions to achieve 60% renewable energy to gain operating experience and be adaptive in system design
• Long–term actions on the road to 100% renewable energy where effective deployment and operation of the complex system is achieved
• Recurring actions to continually maintain and improve the system and associated planning processes.

The immediate actions are expected to increase system capacity by about 40% (of renewables) by making urgent repairs to the grid. Part of this step is to also incentivize customers to use batteries in a grid-interactive fashion. The Battery Emergency Demand Response Program piloted by the power company, LUMA, is an example of the start of such an effort.

As resilience is the goal of shoring up the grid and adding renewables, the report emphasizes that best practices must be implemented to ensure that the renewables operate effectively. One suggestion is to operate rooftop PV systems as microgrids, to set up virtual power plants, and to add sensing equipment across the distribution and transmission system to help identify problem areas before outages occur.

The report further identifies ongoing, recurring actions that include involving stakeholders as well as building out a workforce to support the renewable energy systems. An estimated 25,000 jobs will be required for the transition to 100% renewables in Puerto Rico, so support for the development and expansion of job training is imperative.

In summary, the report notes that with the completion of the study, it is now in the hands of those who can implement the findings. The full report can be found here.

New hybrid energy technology combines Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Microgrid Solution and the design-build services offered by Mainspring’s Linear Generator. The result is a fuel-flexible solution for commercial and industrial customers looking to decarbonize.

A microgrid is a self-contained electrical network that generates electricity on site by a fuel source such as solar and stored for when it is needed most. The microgrid can be connected to the power grid or can decentralize and “island” when needed. The ability to decentralize power ensures that critical facilities, such as data centers or healthcare facilities, have electricity to power critical operations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They can also be used in remote areas where energy access is limited or nonexistent to provide much-needed resources.

As part of Schneider Electric’s cybersecure solution architecture, EcoStruxure Microgrid Operations is a dedicated, packaged microgrid controller solution. The hardware and software solution offers streamlined operator experience, advanced distributed energy resource management, advanced grid management, and more, according to Schneider Electric.

The Mainspring Linear Generator was launched commercially in 2020 and the company reports it is installed today in multiple regions of the U.S., running operations for Fortune 500 companies.

These generators use a low-temperature reaction of fuel and air to create electricity, continuously. When used in conjunction with solar modules, the generators can ensure optimal use of the sun’s energy at all times. The Mainspring generator also lets customers switch among multiple fuel options, including renewable options such as biofuels, green ammonia and green hydrogen.

 “We designed the fuel-flexible Linear Generator so that as clean fuels become increasingly available and cost-effective, organizations of all kinds can capitalize on them without having to replace or retrofit equipment,” said Shannon Miller, Mainspring CEO and founder.

The Viejas Microgrid Project, which is already under construction, will provide the Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Indians a 15 MW solar plant along with a 38 MWh long-duration battery energy storage system (BESS). The solar-plus-storage microgrid will be located near San Diego, California.

The 15 MW of solar modules from JA Solar are being installed by Indian Energy LLC on parking structures on the Tribal land and will supply electricity to the non-lithium, vanadium-flow BESS as well as to the local grid. Invinity Energy and Eos provided the BESS.

The Viejas Band will purchase electricity through a subsidiary in a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) to help operate gaming, hospitality and retail businesses. When complete, the project will allow the Tribe to benefit from a lower levelized cost of energy, allowing additional resources to be redirected toward investments by the Tribe in infrastructure maintenance, operation of the fire department, Tribal culture and educational programs, and other Tribal member services.

“This solar microgrid project will enable us to create a reliable and sustainable source of clean energy for our gaming, hospitality, and retail operations going forward. In turn, the associated non-lithium battery system supports the environmental protection and cultural stewardship of our ancestral land, thereby ensuring the vibrant future of our children,” said John Christman, chairman, Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.

This is the first project to be offered a conditional commitment of $72.8 million through the Tribal Energy Financing Program, which was provided new and expanded loan authority the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The partial loan guarantee will help build the microgrid, which will help the Band’s economy by lowering the cost of energy as well as bringing job opportunities. While the LPO demonstrates its commitment to financing the project, the project must reach critical milestones, and certain technical, legal, and financial conditions must be met before the LPO enters into definitive financing documents and guarantees the loan.

The project is expected to create 250 construction jobs and eight permanent operations jobs, including prioritizing Tribal-, minority-, and veteran-owned contractors. In addition, LPO works with all borrowers to create good-paying jobs with strong labor standards during construction, operations, and throughout the life of the loan and to adhere to a strong Community Benefits Plan.

The project also supports the Justice40 Initiative, which has a goal that 40% of overall benefits of certain federal investments, including LPO financing, go to DOE-identified disadvantaged communities (DACs), which includes the Viejas Tribal Lands.

The borrower, IE VEM Managing Member LLC, is a Tribal energy development organization (TEDO) ultimately owned by the project developer Indian Energy LLC, and two federally recognized Tribal Nations. The two Tribal Nations will receive revenue streams from the project through their ownership stakes in the project.

The Tribal Energy Financing Program supports Tribal investment in energy-related projects by providing loan guarantees to federally recognized Tribes, including Alaska Native villages or regional or village corporations, or a TEDO that is wholly or substantially owned by a federally recognized Indian Tribe or Alaska Native Corporation. The program was authorized in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and first funded by Congress in 2017. The IRA, which was passed in 2022, increased the program’s available loan authority from $2 billion to $20 billion, and changes from both IRA and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 made permanent the ability for applicants to apply for direct loans from U.S. Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank through the program.

In addition to the commitment from the LPO, the project received a $31 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to deploy the BESS.

The Viejas Band is one of 12 bands of the Kumeyaay Indian Nation which resides on a 1,600-acre reservation in the Viejas Valley, near the town of Alpine in San Diego County. The Band is recognized as a sovereign government by the United States.

Indian Energy operates a multi-year development pipeline that consists of 4 GW of solar and wind projects, and 6 GWh of energy storage projects.

This article was amended to revise the amount of the loan commitment, per LPO.

What happens to the IRA under a new administration?  Norton Rose Fulbright conducted a live podcast with tax and legal experts who discussed what could be on the chopping block in the massive Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022.

DOE announces $9.5 million award for Iowa’s first microgrid project  The Montezuma project with a 3 MW solar installation and a battery energy storage system is expected to lower energy costs for residents by as much as 18% and to reduce transmission costs for the utility by 34%.

Primergy secures $588 million for 408 MW solar project in Texas Microsoft entered a power purchase agreement for 100% of the plant’s production.

Solar profits drying up The Invesco Solar exchange-traded fund (ETF) under-performed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stock indexes in January 2024. Jesse Pichel, a managing director at Roth Capital Partners, attributes this to logistics and apparent cashflow problems for some solar companies.

Iowa State researchers and utility Montezuma Municipal Light & Power submitted a proposal to the Department of Energy (DOE) that called for a federal investment of roughly $9.5 million and a cost-share of $2.4 million from both University and Montezuma sources.

The project to be built in Montezuma would include a 3 MW solar installation with a battery energy storage system as well as two electric vehicle charging stations. The plan for the microgrid is to replace aging substations, load monitoring and control systems. The utility expects that the microgrid will lower energy costs for residents by as much as 18%. It is also expected to reduce transmission costs for the utility by 34% and reduce its energy purchases.

Montezuma, population 1,400 is a manufacturing and farming community and, according to Anne Kimber, director of the Electric Power Research Center and a co-leader of the project, “people depend on it for city and county services, schools, health care, shopping, and employment”.  She noted that during a major wind storm in 2020, the town used diesel generators to keep the power on. The microgrid solution, however, will be a clean energy solution.

Kimber said the design of this project design being replicated by other communities. There’s also an educational and training aspect as the Research Center will use a digital twin of the microgrid that will be tested with partners that include schools and an area Tribal Nation. The hope is to “build an energy workforce that can design, build and operate other resilient systems like this,” Kimber said.

“This project will make the entire town of Montezuma the very first utility-scale microgrid in Iowa with the best reliability and resilience,” said Zhaoyu Wang, project leader and a Northrop Grumman associate professor at Iowa State. “The Montezuma microgrid will revolutionize and modernize the Montezuma Municipal Light and Power system by integrating smart grid technologies. It will be a model for other rural utilities.”

The $9.5 million from the DOE is part of the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas program managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. The program recently announced total funding of more than $366 million for 17 projects across 20 states and 30 Tribal Nations and communities.

This funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is intended to support community-driven energy projects, such as microgrids for community health centers, which strengthen energy security and delivers economic opportunities in rural and remote regions.

A residential customer of Duke Energy who wants to put solar on their roof, or a commercial customer that wants to electrify its fleet of vehicles, may get a faster response from the utility now that it can complete power flow calculations much more quickly.

Amazon Web Services has worked with Duke Energy to develop a custom solution that speeds the power flow simulations, said Nate Hill, head of energy policy for Amazon Web Services. “That’s not even an artificial intelligence product,” it’s “just a solution” that AWS “custom-built” with Duke, he said, speaking at a policy forum held by the renewable energy trade group ACORE.

The solution is designed to help Duke Energy anticipate future energy demand and identify where and how to “update” the distribution grid, said an AWS spokesperson.

Hill predicted “amazing” AI applications in the utility industry and with power grid operators, especially by “combining our forces and brainpower” with the capability of exascale computing at the Department of Energy, and “all the resources and scientists they have in their national lab network.”

AWS was in discussions with grid operator SPP in 2022 about using AI to speed interconnection studies for utility-scale solar, while a NextEra executive was bringing the idea to other grid operators at that time.

Hill added that Amazon is “bullish” on grid-enhancing technologies and similar approaches, saying they should be studied “very seriously,” but added “it’s not a panacea.”

Speaking of the work of Amazon Web Services, Hill said firms are “early in the process” of switching from on-premise data services to cloud services, “and now you layer on top of that this big transition to machine learning, AI.” He said transmission infrastructure “is going to be one of the key ingredients to allow the U.S. to be a dominant force in this big revolution that’s happening right now.” To maintain U.S. leadership, he said “there’s a role for AWS and the datacenter community” to start planning early and providing “accurate forecasts to our partners,” so they can plan ahead and “plan the right grid.”

Transmission build cycle

Jeff Dennis, deputy director for transmission development at the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office, said at the policy forum that “if we improve transmission planning, like we want to, and if we improve permitting, like we want to, we’re going to build a lot of transmission in a short amount of time. That means we’re going to need a lot of workers, we’re going to need a lot of equipment, we’re going to need a lot of supply. DOE is focused on that for sure. And I know many of you are also, but it will be a tremendous build cycle.”

Dennis also spoke about building “no regrets” transmission lines. He referenced DOE’s 2023 National Transmission Needs Study, which projected a need for 54.5 TW-miles of within-region transmission capacity and 125 GW of interregional transfer capacity by 2035, under future scenarios with moderate load but high clean energy assumptions.

Part of the transmission need, Dennis said, is “simply to relieve congestion that is costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year, especially in extreme weather events.” He said “even if we disagree on what the future looks like,” among 200 different scenarios, “we should build the high value connection options that pop out at you,” because those are “no regrets” options.

Cyberattacks and microgrids

Bill Murray, senior vice president of corporate affairs for Dominion Energy, spoke on the same panel and drew a reaction from the audience when he said the utility fields 3 billion cyberattack attempts per month.

“We have robust cyber defenses,” he said, thanking the utility’s federal, state and private sector partners. “But part of it is also looking at the absolute critical parts of your system.” Saying that “all customers are critical; don’t get me wrong” he added that “microgridding is an opportunity that we’re starting to look at more and more.”

This article was amended on March 11, 2024 to state that the power flow calculations performed using the new solution relate to Duke Energy’s distribution feeders, not to its transmission system.

First Solar plans to double manufacturing capacity by 2026 The U.S.-based solar panel manufacturer issued strong 2024 revenue expectations in its Q4 earnings report.

The importance of community solar in all-of-the-above renewable energy strategy Recent studies show the many benefits of community solar, and to keep it on an upward trajectory, the Coalition for Community Solar Access encourages growth in third-party programs.

People on the move: Sunnova, Soltec, REC Solar and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Solar at “twice the natural capacity factor of the sun” Eland Solar 2 and Skeleton Creek are two high-capacity factor renewable power plants moving through development.

U.S. solar up 52% in 2023 as nation deploys 35.3 GW of capacity Bloomberg NEF says U.S. clean energy generation grew by 0.9%, with wind and hydro generation falling and solar generation growing 15.4%.

Affordable Wire Management introduces two utility-scale hardware products The company introduced an assisted tensioning kit for messenger cables and a beam rod that can attach to a variety of pile types.

Energy Vault begins building first-of-its-kind green hydrogen storage project The 293 MWh green hydrogen and battery storage facility is being built in utility Pacific Gas & Electric’s service territory in Northern California.

Meyer Burger to shut down plant in Germany and pivot to the U.S. Swiss solar panel maker Meyer Burger will seek shareholder approval for a rights issue of as much as $284 million to finance the completion of its U.S. manufacturing facilities in Colorado and Arizona.

DOE announces $366 million for energy projects in rural and remote communities  The funding will support solar, energy storage and other clean energy deployment across 20 states and 30 tribal nations.

NREL finds 100% renewable scenario improves LA air quality and health NREL modeled that LA and surround counties could save over $4 billion from improved health outcomes. The most significant reductions in emissions resulted from electrification and infrastructural changes to the non-power sector, such as transportation and buildings.

Hope at the end of solar supply turbulence Growing demand for solar products is colliding with the hesitant shipment strategies of manufacturers, according to pvXchange’s Martin Schachinger.

All floating PV technologies at a glance An international research team has produced a comprehensive overview of more than 300 works of published literature on floating PV, spanning 2013 to 2022. The scientists laid out the benefits and challenges of the technology and pointed to gaps that should be filled with future studies.

Massachusetts lawmakers urged to adopt “million solar roofs” equivalent In California, Governor Schwarzenegger’s million solar roofs initiative spurred the nation’s largest small-scale solar market. Environment America created a petition to support a 10 GW buildout of solar in Massachusetts to preserve its forests and other lands.

Anza expands back-end visibility for solar module procurement The platform has added granular insights into technical, commercial, supply-chain, and risk-related aspects of equipment procurement.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $366 million for 17 projects across 20 states and 30 tribal nations and communities, to build resilience and energy security in rural and remote areas across the country.

This funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is intended to support community-driven energy projects, such as microgrids for community health centers, which strengthen energy security and delivers economic opportunities in rural and remote regions.

Rural and remote communities face a unique set of energy challenges and often have higher electric bills, unreliable energy supplies and some have no access to electricity at all. For example, 21% of Navajo Nation homes and 35% of Hopi Indian Tribe homes remain unelectrified, according to a 2022 report by DOE’s Office of Indian Energy. Low-income residents consistently face an energy burden three times higher than other households, according to the DOE.

The projects are part of DOE’s Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) program, which is managed by the DOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED).  The selected projects cover a range of clean energy technologies, from solar, battery storage systems and microgrids to hydropower, heat pumps, biomass, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Of the 17 funded projects, 12 are solar and 11 of those include energy storage. At least 12 projects will support tribal communities, such as the Navajo and Hopi Nations, who plan to install solar and battery energy storage systems to provide electricity for 300 homes. Another project expects its proposed tribal clean energy projects to save every Taos Pueblo household in its service area an estimated $700 per year by transitioning to clean energy.

Examples of projects selected for award negotiation include:

• The Solar + Storage Microgrids for Rural Community Health Centers Project: (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee): The CHARGE Partnership plans to build energy resilience in Community Health Centers to improve access to reliable health care in low-income, rural communities across eight states in the southeast. The clean, resilient energy systems developed through this project will benefit up to 175 health center sites, ensuring energy reliability and continuity of care during emergencies and power outages. DOE estimates that participating health centers could save up to $45 million in energy costs, avoid millions in losses due to closures, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and create a scalable, replicable model for remote health care providers, strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities.
• Resilience and Prosperity in Rural Northern Wisconsin (24 sites across Red Cliff Band Tribal Lands and Bayfield County, Wisconsin): This project seeks to increase regional energy reliability with the deployment of 23 microgrid systems. Wisconsin’s Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy (OSCE) will promote local workforce development. OSCE also aims to deploy solar power, battery storage, smart controls to enable islanding, and electric vehicle charging stations.
• Energizing Rural Hopi and Navajo with Solar Powered Battery-Based Systems (Navajo and Hopi communities in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah): This project plans to install 2.5 kW off-grid solar and battery storage systems to electrify 300 tribal homes, enhancing energy resilience and increasing electrification rates within the community. The project lead, Native Renewables Inc., is committed to an Indigenous-led workforce and has developed a program to increase the number of tribal solar-installation professionals. They will also host training and education for participating households on solar electric energy systems and best practices to ensure the longevity of battery storage systems. his electrification project will fulfill essential household power needs.

Learn more about the 17 projects selected for award negotiation here.

Residents of Puerto Rico can apply, starting February 22, for the Department of Energy (DOE) Programa Acceso Solar (Solar Access Program). 

The program intends to provide up to 30,000 low-income households with low cost solar and storage installations to residents who own and occupy a single-family home in an eligible neighborhood and qualify using Energy.gov’s eligibility map and questionnaire. The DOE determines neighborhood eligibility by assessing whether it has a high percentage of low-income residents and experiences long and frequent power cuts. While the systems that will be deployed under the Solar Access Program will reportedly have no up-front costs to the households that receive them, the households will have small contributions to the long-term maintenance of the systems, a cost that the Grid Deployment Office expects will be offset by energy bill reductions.

Qualified applicants must then collect all the required documentation and contact a local solar ambassador to guide them through the application process.  

Energy.gov states that qualified applicants must demonstrate they are low-income through enrollment in a government assistance program, including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. 

Having a household resident dependent on an electricity or battery-powered medical device because of a medical condition or disability also may qualify a resident. 

The Solar Access Program is funded by the Puerto Rican Energy Resilience Fund. The $1 billion grant is managed by the DOE’s Grid Deployment Office (GDO), the Federal Energy Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It was started after President Biden visited Puerto Rico following Hurricane Fiona in October 2022. He committed to allocating federal resources toward improving Puerto Rico’s electric grid through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was signed into law two months later and included $1 billion to establish the PR-ERF. 

Energy.gov states that the fund has been developed in consultation with Puerto Rican entities and communities to reduce the energy burden of the territory’s most vulnerable residents as the region continues to increase its energy resilience. According to the DOE’s Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) Tool, the average energy burden for low-income households across the U.S. is 8.6% (three times) higher than for non-low-income households, estimated to be 3%.

The Solar Access Program is the consumer-facing application phase of the first round of funding of the PR-ERF. Last summer, the GDO published a funding opportunity announcement for up to $450 million toward residential solar and storage installations and developing consumer protection and education resources. Eligible applicants included private industry, educational institutions, state and local government entities, nonprofits, and energy cooperatives. In November 2023, three solar businesses, seven nonprofits and five cooperatives began negotiations to receive up to $440 million toward solar and storage installations and developing education, training and consumer protection programs about them.  

The PR-ERF is part of Puerto Rico’s effort to achieve 100% renewable electricity generation by 2050 and 40% by 2025. The region currently has 680 MW of distributed solar, according to a study by the DOE. Puerto Rico also has 1.6 GWh of residential-sited batteries and an additional 4,500 rooftop solar arrays being added every month. Each includes a 100% battery attachment rate. 

Nextracker makes its mark in distributed energy generation Nextracker inked agreements with channel partners trained to resell the company’s flagship NX Horizon solar tracker to help scale DG sales to the commercial and industrial segment.

Battery storage plus hydrogen can enable a reliable, cheap clean energy transition  A Stanford University report found that transitioning to clean energy could enable many countries to reduce annual energy cost by around 61%. 

RFP alert: DOE to provide $1.2 billion for transmission buildout The RFP will use capacity contracts to commit DOE to purchase up to 50% of the maximum capacity of a transmission line.

Super Bowl to be hosted in first 100% renewable energy NFL stadium The Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas sources 10 MW of off-site solar, as well as wind, geothermal and hydroelectric power, among other sustainability measures.

Utah bill proposes rooftop solar net metering rate protection In the wake of net metering cuts leading to an industrywide implosion in California, Utah regulators are proposing a law that would increase compensation for exporting rooftop solar generation.

Yaskawa Solectria Solar to exhibit U.S.-made utility-scale inverters In partnership with solar panel manufacturer First Solar, the company developed the inverters to reduce degradation rates.

People on the move: GlidePath Power Solutions, Onyx Renewable Partners, and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Nextracker, known for its solar technology tracker solutions used in large utility-scale solar projects, announced 600 projects delivered in its distributed generation (DG) portfolio. The company also announced the signing of two new agreements in the DG space.

The agreements are with channel partners RP Construction Services and Vergo who are trained to resell the company’s flagship NX Horizon solar tracker to help scale Nextracker’s DG sales to the commercial and industrial segment.

“Distributed generation technology plays a key role in solving energy grid infrastructure challenges to meet rising global demand for clean energy,” said Dan Shugar, Nextracker founder and CEO.“ We are appreciative to be working with leading channel partners, RPCS and Vergo. Together we are supporting DG customers with design, inventory, logistics, construction management, commissioning, and service support.”

DG resources with ground mount solar tracker systems are typically up to 30 MW each in capacity. When paired with batteries they can form microgrids that are connected to the distribution grid but can also disconnect to form its own system when needed.

An example of such a tracker-based microgrid is California National Guard’s Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB) in Los Alamitos, which provides critical support during events such as wildfires and earthquakes. The installation includes 31 MW of solar, 40 MWh of battery energy storage and 3 MW of backup generators. During every day operation, the power generated goes to the grid. But when the grid is down, the microgrid can disconnect from the grid and “island,” so that the electricity generated by the microgrid serves the training base’s operations.

Nextracker reports that its NX Horizon’s smart solar trackers are well-suited for both utility-scale and DG solar projects and that it has 90 GW of smart solar trackers operational or under fulfillment around the world. The NX Horizon platform allows EPCs to conform to sites with irregular and rolling terrain layouts, the company says.

“The combination of Nextracker’s technology performance advantages, proven total project cost savings, and ability to be deployed just about anywhere including challenging project sites on tight schedules is a big win for us and our DG customers,” said Eb Russell, CEO RPCS.

In January, Nextracker completed its spin-off from Flex, becoming its own entity. Founded in 2013, Nextracker was acquired in 2015 by Flex for $330 million, and it has become a leader in the U.S. solar tracker market with its integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and distributed generation solar power plants around the world.

The company achieved a record third quarter 2023, with quarterly revenue reaching $710 million, but 38% year-over-year. It raised its guidance for fiscal year 2024 to between $2.425 billion and $2.475 billion, up from previous estimate of $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion.

Solar corporate funding rises 42% globally in 2023 Over $34.3 billion was raised over 160 deals, said a report from Mercom Capital.

Off-grid solar EV charging system designed for quick installation  PairTree features bifacial solar panels available in 4.6 kW and 5 kW units combined with a 42.4 kWh capacity storage system and one or two AC level 2 EV chargers.

Alaskan tribal communities form independent power producers for renewables projects Alaskan tribal communities are improving the payback on renewables projects by forming independent power producers, thus gaining access to a state subsidy.

Recurrent Energy secures $160 million for Louisiana solar project Microsoft will be the sole offtaker of energy produced by the 98 MW Bayou Galion Solar project, supporting its goal to be carbon negative by 2030.

Summit Ridge plans 26 community solar installations in Illinois Each of the installations within the 82 MW portfolio will average 3MW and most will include pollinator habitat.

Enphase Q4 revenues drop 35% in U.S. and 70% in Europe Reduced demand and reduced shipments due to high unsold inventory at distributors cratered the company’s revenues in its Q4 2023 report.

People on the move: Edge Zero, Dynamic Energy, Ecobat and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Chaberton Energy sees community solar installations skyrocket The community solar specialist reached 100 solar energy installations under contract in less than four years, and it plans to double its growth in the next two years.

Bipartisan Senators request increased tariffs on solar imports from China In attempt to support U.S. manufacturing competition with lower-cost imported solar components, the Senators requested the president invoke Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to enforce tariffs.

Updated Enphase IQ8 microinverters are shipping in North America Enphase reports that both the IQ8HC and IQ8X are designed to pair with a full range of solar modules up to 540 W.

Sharp unveils 580 W TOPCon solar panel with 22.45% efficiency Sharp’s new IEC61215- and IEC61730-certified solar panels have an operating temperature coefficient of -0.30% per C and a bifaciality factor of over 80%.

FEMA to help communities build back with grants for solar panels and heat pumps The funds are allocated to help communities boost climate disaster resilience with net-zero technologies.

Enphase Energy, Inc. has started shipping its new IQ8 Microinverters, IQ8HC and IQ8X in North America. With peak output AC power of 384 W, the new microinverters are designed to pair with a full range of solar modules up to 540 W.

IQ8HC Microinverters can manage a continuous DC current of 14 amperes, supporting higher powered solar modules through increased energy harvesting. The IQ8X Microinverters are available in the U.S. and support solar modules with higher output DC voltage and cell counts, such as 96-cells, 80 half-cut cells and 88 half-cut cells.

The new IQ8 Microinverters build on the previous models’ ability to keep the power running during a grid blackout. The device is designed to react to real-time usage in the home and adjust accordingly. The system will feed as much electricity as it has access to based upon sunlight available and solar power capacity, and it, reportedly, will adjust on the fly. When the house is using more energy than provided by the solar setup, the Enphase system is designed to shut down and to instantly restart when the excess load is removed.

The company offers a 25-year warranty for all IQ8 Microinverters activated in the United States and Canada, and a 12-year warranty for products activated in Mexico.

“Enphase is staying ahead of the industry by developing products that can handle the ever-increasing power density of new solar modules,” said Tom Chentnik, owner of Independent Green Technologies of Texas, an installer of Enphase products.

Enphase Energy Systems in North America reports that the IQ8 Microinverters can also be paired with IQ Batteries for an all-in-one solution. The IQ Combiners consolidate interconnection equipment into a single enclosure and provide a pre-wired solution that includes an IQ Gateway, cell modem, current transformers (CTs), and more.

Enphase has shipped approximately 72 million microinverters, and more than 3.8 million Enphase-based systems have been deployed in over 145 countries. However, in October pv magazine USA reported that Enphase had had a difficult year, with its performance struggling in-line with other residential solar market leaders, which have seen high interest rates, regulatory changes like California’s NEM 3.0, and stabilizing energy prices make a significant dent in rooftop solar installations.

Enphase attributed its pullback in sell-through in California to NEM 3.0. However, at the time, management said it is confident that solar-plus-battery systems will have a payback period under NEM 3.0 that approaches NEM 2.0 levels, and that sales should normalized in “a few more quarters.”

Plug Power launches largest U.S. liquid green hydrogen plant in Georgia The move comes as interest in green hydrogen grows as a tool to decarbonize specific industries, including heavy-duty transportation, heavy manufacturing and aviation.

Bayer installs 4.4 MW of solar as part of sustainability commitment  Two solar projects, one developed by Enel North America and the other by DSD Renewables, align with Bayer’s sustainability commitments to reach carbon neutrality by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.

Agriculturally integrated solar takes flight Mindful land management in solar power development can enhance nearby land productivity, potentially garnering broader local approval, as emerging research underscores the financial and ecological benefits for neighboring agricultural operations.

Sandia National Laboratories design grid-resiliency algorithm The software includes various tools to isolate downed or damaged lines, automate energy production and consumption regulation and troubleshoot unintentional loops.

Radiative cooling tech for vertical solar panels Developed by a U.S.-Saudi research group, the novel technique employs two 45-degree inclined mirrors on the two sides of a PV module.

Venture capital funding in energy storage increases 59% year over year Mercom Capital reported the U.S. invested $9.2 billion of venture capital in energy storage in 2023.

ADT security exits rooftop solar business The home security provider posted losses of $89 million in its solar business over the first nine months of 2023.

A group of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are studying ways to increase grid resilience to extreme weather storms and hackers. Their idea is to build a self-healing grid through various algorithms coded into grid relays. These detectors would quickly restore power for critical infrastructure, including hospitals, grocery stores, assisted living facilities, and water treatment plants, before operators can implement repairs or provide direction on moving forward. 

Researchers at Sandia imagine these grid relays embedded in microgrids of renewable energy supplies and their local energy storage systems. The Sandia project is focused on ensuring these small islands of power around critical infrastructure can automatically heal themselves and connect to share electricity, powering as many users as possible. 

Sandia researchers plan to build this resilience by ensuring microgrids can automate functions like balancing energy production with consumption and reconfiguring if part of the system is impaired. The algorithm must also prevent microgrids from forming an unintentional loop in the circuit. All while leveraging device-specific local measurements to avoid the costs of having to depend on power inverters that currently offer the high-speed communications necessary. 

When it comes to automating energy production and consumption regulation, the Sandia-led team developed an algorithm based on the process inverters designed to power microgrids use when overloaded. However, instead of stopping to regulate the voltage of the power supply during surcharge, the new system uses the decrease in voltage to signal relays to disconnect power to less vital customers like those in individual homes. 

Regarding reconfiguration, the automated process is based on computer-aided design software. The proposed algorithms of three small interconnected microgrids were able to isolate issues, including tree-downed lines or a damaged power plant, and then restore electricity to essential infrastructure. 

Researchers state that the current grid is not designed to be stable when operated in a loop, as much of North America’s original infrastructure is compatible with single power lines with a one-way power flow to customers. As the development of microgrids and rooftop solar increases, so does the opportunity for the grid to assemble into an unstable loop. For now, researchers are exploring how local measurements can clarify which sides of a line are already connected, thus forming a loop if the switch were closed.  

Researchers have developed a morse-code-like method to troubleshoot unintentional loops. It allows an overloaded line relay to modulate voltage by opening and closing in a particular pattern. The tool also provides relays for lower-priority customers to detect the pattern and disconnect themselves from the line until it isn’t overloaded. Researchers state the method doesn’t need a separate communication system, which adds a level of protection against cyberattacks as it uses the actual power line to transmit a signal. 

As researchers streamline each method’s performance, they hope to collaborate with line and load relay manufacturers to test how the algorithms fare when integrated into their products. Preliminary demos would occur in a hardware-in-the-loop testbed, then at test facilities like Sandia’s Distributed Energy Technologies Laboratory.  

From pv magazine 12/23-01/24

Water, power, and shelter. Whether earthquakes, extreme weather, or sudden refugee crises occur, all three are crucial when disaster strikes. Solar is playing an increasing role in providing all three for first responders.

While a mature technology, solar is a relative newcomer to emergency response. PV’s technological advances and affordable price mean non-profits and private companies are taking solar to places in desperate need of power.

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico causing destruction and almost 3,000 deaths. Energy infrastructure was wrecked and more than 90% of the island’s residents lost power. US-based non-profit Empowered by Light was one of the first groups on the ground.

Founded in 2011, Empowered by Light began as a charity providing solar to remote schools in Zambia. It has completed more than 80 solar and energy storage projects in nine countries. Developmental work still makes up the core of the non-profit’s activity but executive director and co-founder Moira Hanes told pv magazine that when Hurricane Maria hit, Empowered by Light had the chance to show how quickly solar can be deployed.

“We’re not normally an emergency response disaster relief organization,” she said. “But after the hurricane, we immediately went out to the island. We started putting solar energy [with] storage on fire stations so that they could continue to operate, or be operating again because a lot of them had been on these generators which had broken down. They couldn’t even receive 911 calls or effectively dispatch their personnel.”

Why solar?

Reliability was a main benefit of solar on Puerto Rico, Hanes said. Not only were some diesel backup generators failing, it was occurring at the worst possible time regarding replacement parts.

“Diesel generators break down and you can’t get the part in a timely manner because your supply chain and supply routes have been constrained because of the disaster,” said Hanes, “PV is reliable and renewable and it’s not polluting.”

Empowered by Light has installed solar arrays on 11 Puerto Rican fire stations, in partnership with other charitable groups and businesses. The charity has also provided PV support to communities on Maui, Hawaii, following the outbreak of wildfires on the U.S. island in early August 2023. In Maui, innovative approaches to disaster PV included the use of what Hanes described as “powerfield buckets,” made up of rows of solar modules connected to donated Tesla Powerwall batteries.

“That was immediately deployed to power the aid distribution site,” said Hanes. “It’s powering refrigeration, lighting. They’re cooking three meals a day there.”

Empowered by Light is not a manufacturer or installer. The charity works with local PV companies where possible, ensuring relief efforts provide new opportunities for a community’s solar industry.

“We will use a local [engineering, procurement and construction company] that is as close to that community as possible,” said Hanes. “That way, we’re helping build local capacity. We have advisers, our engineers can weigh in on the design but we’re trying to make certain everything is done on as local a level as possible. We’re also trying to procure hardware in the country, wherever possible. So you’re not shipping modules from the US, for example, to Africa, which is cost prohibitive.”

Cost is the other factor that comes up when discussing PV in a disaster context. A can of diesel is a lot cheaper than a PV module and cash is a precious resource in communities facing the cost of rebuilding. Empowered by Light has a diverse group of backers providing financial assistance. OpenSolar in particular has made a significant contribution to Empowered by Light, with the solar design software company pledging to donate 1% of its annual revenue to the charity’s projects.

Duck curve financing

Footprint Project is another charity supporting solar relief efforts on Maui. The organization has partnered with Empowered by Light in the past and the pair expect to collaborate on longer-term solar projects on the island.

When it comes to disaster funding, Footprint Project operations director and co-founder Will Heegaard said he would like to see greater investment ahead of time – although that can be a challenge for relief organizations. Much as with solar generation and grid capacity, there is a gap between the peak funding period for disaster relief and demand for finance. Most donations come in the wake of a disaster. The money is obviously welcome but a cash injection in the weeks and months before incidents occur could arguably go further. That way, more resources and infrastructure would be in place to react.

“We need to solve the duck curve of disaster financing,” said Heegaard. “If we’re going to be successful in expanding adoption of renewable technologies in disaster affected communities, we need the industry to pony up and invest in our work ahead of time. Otherwise, we will not be as successful as we could be.”

The resources deployed can vary at Footprint Project. Jamie Swezey, the organization’s program director, described his employer as technology agnostic.

Broadly, the non-profit seeks to replace the 2 kW to 10 kW diesel generator. Its microgrids, therefore, operate in and around that range. That can mean a 2 kW or smaller set-up handy for charging cell phones in a crisis or a converted shipping container fitted with 10 kW to 20 kW solar arrays and 100 kW of battery storage. Footprint Project’s biggest microgrid to date, with a capacity of around 80 kW, can be found in Napili Park, on Maui.

Those PV installations don’t just supply power for relief work, they improve quality of life for first responders, according to Footprint Project. Swezey said that the non-profit has considered finding a way to record decibel levels, as one of the most frequent benefits cited by first responders when PV is installed is the reduction in noise level.

Sound isn’t the only thing that can make diesel generators a pain. First responders working around generators often complain of headaches, which Heegaard described as a symptom of low-grade carbon monoxide poisoning. Things can get much worse depending on where and how fossil fuel generators are used.

“After Hurricane Laura hit the gulf [of Mexico], more people died from carbon monoxide poisoning from running their gas generators in their garage, to power their house, than died from the hurricane itself,” said Heegaard. “It’s a huge health risk for a number of reasons.”

Business case

Using solar in disaster response is more than a charitable endeavor. At Michigan-based start-up Sesame Solar, the potential to use mobile “nanogrids” in a crisis serves as the foundation of a business – one that’s been steadily expanding. Founded in 2017, the nanogrid manufacturer has picked up a diverse range of clients with an interest in disaster response.

US communications giant Comcast has used Sesame Solar nanogrids in the aftermath of hurricanes in both Louisiana and Florida. The U.S. Air Force makes use of the company’s nanogrids as a mobile medical base and for command and security. In Santa Barbara County, California, the local government has invested in Sesame Solar nanogrids that are towed to locations using all-electric Ford-150 trucks.

Now with financial backing from institutional investors such as Morgan Stanley, VSC Ventures, PAX Momentum, and Belle Capital, as well as endorsements from the likes of President Bill Clinton’s non-profit Clinton Foundation and “Time” magazine, Sesame Solar is well positioned to make the shift to a global business, as co-founder and chief executive officer Lauren Flanagan explained.

“We’re already international,” she said. “I would like to be global through our partnerships. We have a subsidiary in India already but we still make everything in the United States. But it’s a global set of problems with a global marketplace.”

At Sesame Solar, the focus has been on creating a turnkey solution that requires no installation and is simple to use. Flanagan said the company’s trailer-mounted nanogrids can be operated with a small amount of training. Once up and running, she said, Sesame Solar offers a continuous energy loop that allows for consistent power, from 5 kW to 20 kW, depending on system specification. The trailer which houses the nanogrid also provides shelter from the elements.

Consistency is key. The intermittent nature of solar is not ideal in a disaster relief context, if left unaddressed. Sesame Solar solves this problem through a combination of battery storage and hydrogen electrolyzing capability.

It is a straightforward concept. Solar power is generated during daylight hours and can be used to power disaster response and charge the nanogrid’s battery storage. Stored power can then be deployed and any excess can be used to power hydrogen generation on board. Nanogrids fitted with a green hydrogen system for backup power include a large tank of deionized water. When the tank gets low, there is an integrated atmospheric water generator that generates distilled water, which is then deionized for use in hydrogen production. The hydrogen itself is stored as a solid, at low pressure, which means transportation does not trigger permit requirements.

“We make the deionized water we need to make the hydrogen gas we need, and you don’t do it all at once,” said Flanagan. “It’s in a sequence. You start out with full tanks of hydrogen and water and then you’re topping them up as needed because you’re not running the fuel cell full time. The whole point is that it’s a continuous green energy loop that allows for consistent, continuous power draw.”

Potable water is also on the menu, thanks to a partnership between Sesame Solar and Watergen Ltd. The Israeli company manufactures atmospheric drinking water devices that create potable water from the air.

It’s a total solution, according to Flanagan, with further scope for innovation in areas such as electric vehicle charging.

“That’s the idea,” she added. “Trying to eliminate the supply chain of having to bring hydrogen or fossil fuel or water into an emergency zone.”

From pv magazine 11-2023

pv magazine: What are the benefits of VPPs and why are you pushing them at the DOE?

Jigar Shah: There are two pieces to this. One is that we have been doing demand response and remote control, and virtual power plant-like things for over 30 years. What’s new is that many people have an app on their phone now, to control their EV [electric vehicle] charging, to control their battery system with their solar system, [and] to control their thermostat or water heater. Once you have that level of connectivity, you can actually start to shift loads every day.

How do you envisage this VPP rollout?

What I would say is that I don’t know how this is going to roll out. The appliances are going be purchased, that we all know – because people are going to have to replace old water heaters and HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] systems on a regular basis. In general, the other piece of this is that utilities need this to happen. They are adding megawatts every week of new load onto their grid and a lot of these loads just can’t be added willy-nilly – allowing people to just turn these loads on when they want to. If they did, it would have far higher costs through adding to the transmission and distribution wires. Utilities are asking for managed [EV or battery] charging and for these types of things. This is much different than 10 years ago, when they were not sure whether it was needed.

Then the question becomes, “how can you best deliver that to them?” You can have aggregators, appliance manufacturers that might decide to have a native app – clearly Tesla has that for their Powerwall services, and others that decide that they want to create an app that serves them all. This third group could have a system that controls not only their equipment but also a smart panel, a water heater and so on. We will see how all of this plays out. We are private sector-led and government enabled.

Taking the smart-home concept, systems are not always open in terms of communication protocols. What can be done to break down that barrier for people looking to provide VPPs?

The DOE has invested heavily in open architecture but in saying that, not everyone has to use it. In general, I think that all of the parties are going to be better served if everyone opts into a similar architecture so that customers can move from provider to provider seamlessly. But also, so that the appliance manufacturers and others can opt into an energy hub more seamlessly. The goal for the DOE is for there to be this open architecture but we’ll see where the marketplace takes us.

Where will the money come from to roll out these VPPs?

Today we already spend $10 billion more a year, on balance, with gas-fired peaker plants. That money is already being spent on variable supply, which we can separately decide to spend on variable demand. It is a simple shift where you are moving away from natural gas peaker plants to demand flexibility. I think that it is important to note that it’s not new money being added to the system but it is money that is being spent inefficiently in one place that we want to spend more efficiently somewhere else. Once that occurs, then you can save additionally on the build out of distribution grids.

One of the biggest cost benefits of rooftop solar is reducing the amount of transmission. Does that also apply here? Can it be distributed throughout the network?

In years past when we’ve had load growth, we have always built more power plants, more distribution, more transmission to meet that growth. That is what we did when air-conditioning came on the scene in the late 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Today, with all of this new load growth [from electrification and EVs], we are saying that we can add many gigawatts of new generating capacity closer to the load – on people’s rooftops, in the distribution circuits. That then allows us to use our transmission and distribution system more efficiently as we continue to figure out how to decarbonize and meet the [United States] president’s goals by 2035.

How is the DOE’s Loans Programs Office helping to facilitate this?

We’ve staffed our outreach and business development group with some seriously smart people. They’re helping to mentor and help people think all of this stuff through. We have a diversity of applicants from companies that are solar-plus-storage and also others that are building EV charging stations or fleets and so on. We’re helping people to understand the standards required. We want to give people a loan in order to get this decarbonization technology out into the marketplace but we also want to get paid back. We want these companies to be meeting best practice standards and ensuring they can meet the requirements of utilities and others – so they can get the payments and be able to pay us back. Ultimately, our value is to provide up to $100 billion of loan authority to this sector. We are helping them improve their business models, their standards compliance, and to deliver the quality we are seeing.

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.

Most states are doing a less than stellar job at deploying microgrids  A recent report by Think Microgrid recommends that legislators or utilities develop a microgrid roadmap to guide the coordinated efforts between utility commissions, energy offices, and stakeholders.

Aspen Power completes 49.4 MW of solar projects in Georgia  The projects will provide power to Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power.

Building not your average dream home: Finding an architect  The second in the series of building a sustainable dream home led the author on a search for the right architect and builder during which she ran into a few challenges.

U.S. East Coast hits irradiance highs as Texas, Mexico low due to weak jet stream In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that solar asset operators across North America experienced a shift in October’s solar performance, as regions that experienced higher than normal irradiance in September saw a reversal in trends.

Solar module prices dive to record low In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.

California Six Flags to install 12 MW solar carport The carport structure ranks among the largest single-site commercial renewable energy projects in California.

Think Microgrid, a coalition that serves as a unified voice for the microgrid industry, said microgrids can play a critical role in the U.S. energy picture. The organization recently completed a study of microgrid deployment in each state in its State Scorecard 2023. Unfortunately, it found that no state is performing well with microgrid deployment, and the report offers recommended pathways to improvement.

Microgrids are groups of distributed energy resources, such as solar modules on a home, connected to a battery system, that can disconnect from the grid and operate independently during a power outage. The U.S. Department of Energy has a vision that 30% to 50% of electricity generation will come from distributed resources by 2035, with microgrids playing a key role in the transition. However, getting there is not without challenges, as noted in the Think Microgrid study.

The U.S. microgrid market reached 10 GW in the third quarter of 2022, with more than 7 GW in operation and the rest in planning or construction stages, according to analysis from Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Service.

Think Microgrid gained early insight from an upcoming annual report from Wood Mackenzie, which indicates that annual growth in microgrids is expected to be close to 20%. The drivers include increasing demand for resilience, federal incentives, favorable state policies and expanding corporate commitments to environmental social good (ESG) investment goals.

Wood Mackenzie analysis finds that the most significant barrier to deploying microgrids are state laws that prohibit private or community-owned electric infrastructure across property lines. Secondarily, Wood Mackenzie identifies a lack of tariffs or other market pathways designed for multi-customer microgrids.

To assess each state, the study considered the policy and market conditions in across five critical dimensions: deployment, regulation, resilience, market access and equity. The result is that only a few states received even a B and many received a C or D.

While some states received an A for activity in specific categories, there is no state that where Think Microgrid believed an overall A is warranted, and this reflects in the policy landscape. While some states have innovated in certain categories, “barriers still inhibit advancement towards commercialization,” according to the report authors.

Deployment

No state earned the highest score; however, Hawaii, Texas, Colo. and Conn. all earned a received B grades for deployment.

Deployment scores are based on overall capacity deployed compared to electricity consumed in that state. Note that a state with high overall capacity and diverse projects deployed scores higher because it indicates a broad range of projects serving various customer and grid needs, according to report authors.

Policy

No state earned the highest score in policy; however, the same four states earned a B.

Think Microgrid looked at microgrid programs and incentives, tariffs to facilitate interconnection and services compensation between microgrids and distribution utilities, as well as reforms to regulatory processes or state law to incentivize or remove barriers to microgrid development. The report indicates that successful microgrid policies support “an ecosystem robustly incorporating private, utility ratepayer, and public sector capital”.  What they found was that most state policies including incentives, programs and tariffs support ratepayer-recovered, utility-owned projects.

Resilience

Texas achieved the rare top score for resilience, with Hawaii, Colo. and Conn. each earning a B in this category.

Think Microgrid looked at regulatory activity, legislation, and state planning activities related to electric grid resilience, as well as engaged in collaborative activities with energy regulators and energy offices.

To achieve a high score, state policy activities must include microgrids as a targeted resilience solution.

The authors noted that effective policy allows communities to tailor microgrid configurations to local resilience needs.

Grid services

For grid services, Hawaii earned the lone top score, with Texas earning a B. Colorado and Connecticut were the lowesst in this category.

The report identifies three potential market interfaces with which microgrids can engage to receive compensation for services: wholesale markets, retail tariffs and distribution-level markets. Successful retail tariffs, the authors contend, provide compensation pathways for a range of microgrid services, including: energy exports during periods of excess generation, load-shifting during peak demand periods, resiliency services, and utility distribution investment deferral or non-wires alternatives.

Equity

In the equity category, Colorado and Connecticut rose to the top. Hawaii had th next highest score, with Texas trailing behind.

Community microgrids can provide benefits to all residents, including resilience, clean air, workforce development, and economic development to vulnerable communities, so the report looked at how well the states prioritize such equity. This is accomplished by identifying and/or mapping vulnerable communities and actively seeking to stimulate investment in those areas.

The reports note that states approach equity differently, with some establishing equity laws that provide mandates, carveouts or directives for infrastructure that supports low-income, outage-vulnerable, rural, and tribal community resiliency and economic well-being. Some states offer state or regulator-approved programs that incentivize or fund projects in specific communities. And yet another approach is when state agency programs support communities with funding or technical assistance to capture federal funding for microgrids. The report authors gave high scores to states that take a coordinated approach.

The State Scorecard 2023 scores the states while also identifying practical next steps available at all levels of government and community engagement. The authors recommend that legislators or utilities develop a microgrid roadmap to guide the coordinated efforts between utility commissions, energy offices, and stakeholders. The report also sees an effective roadmap as identifying opportunities where microgrids can address grid vulnerabilities and state public policy goals, and more.

Briggs & Stratton launches new lithium iron phosphate battery packages  The battery packages include a battery, an inverter and a control system. The US manufacturer claims its storage systems have a lifespan of over 10,000 cycles and a depth of discharge of 80%.

U.S. Energy Department announces $3.5 billion to shore up electric grid  Investing in America will fund 58 projects across 44 States to grid resilience and reliability.

Ecoflow launches ‘retrofit’ residential battery with PV-coupling technology  The 5 kWh battery solution uses Ecoflow’s PV-coupling technology that reportedly ensures an easy connection to existing solar arrays. The new product features an output voltage range of 150 to 800 V.

Residential solar is getting crushed by high interest rates and regulatory changes Many installers are filing for bankruptcy and stocks have crashed 15% to 30% or more based on weak guidance.

Sustainable solar ‘net zero plus’ home built with LEGO Alexis Issaharoff has created the ‘Sustainable Solar House’ project, which generates and produces its own food, water and energy. If the project gets enough votes, LEGO will consider creating it as a kit.

DOE grant funds Iowa State University agrivolatics study A $1.8 million grant funds the research of co-locating farming and solar energy production.

White House Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator Mitch Landrieu and Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm announced $3.46 billion to fund 58 projects across 44 states to strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability across America.

As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these projects will leverage more than $8 billion in federal and private investments. The funding is managed by the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, and is intended to prepare the grid for extreme weather as well as to ensure delivery of affordable, clean electricity to all communities across the nation.

All of the projects support the Justice40 initiative, which has a goal of delivering 40% of overall benefits of federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other investments to marginalized, disadvantaged communities that are overburdened by pollution. The funding will help bring more than 35 GW of new renewable energy online, invest in 400 microgrids, and maintain and create good paying union jobs. Most of the projects (86%) contain either labor union partnerships or will involve collective bargaining agreements.

“Extreme weather events fueled by climate change will continue to strain the nation’s aging transmission systems, but President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will ensure America’s power grid can provide reliable, affordable power,” said U.S Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement represents the largest-ever direct investment in critical grid infrastructure, supporting projects that will harden systems, improve energy reliability and affordability—all while generating union jobs for highly skilled workers.”

The announcement of up to $3.46 billion in funding represents a first round of selections under the broader $10.5 billion GRIP Program, also part of the Investing in America agenda.

Spencer Pederson, senior vice president, Public Affairs National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) sees these awards as a major step in grid modernization and resilience:

This funding targets transmission grid expansion, enabling integration of renewable energy technologies like wind and solar, hardens the grid to make it more resilient against extreme weather, and will help build microgrids to serve critical facilities like hospitals and emergency facilities. All of these elements have a place in NEMA’s vision for a more electrified and connected economy and actions like these from DOE move us closer to realizing this ambition that benefits us all.

The selections announced today for award negotiations under the GRIP Program include projects in the following states:

• Georgia – The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority and the Family of Companies that supports the Georgia electric cooperatives will collaborate on a transformative project to benefit communities across the state through increased reliability and lower costs with an estimated investment of more than $507 million. The project will make a smart grid infrastructure update, through investments in battery storage, local microgrids, and grid reliability, as well as new transmission lines. With a focus on remote, hard-to-reach, and historically underinvested communities, the project will improve service reliability, decrease the frequency and duration of power outages, reduce energy bill strain on low-income households, and create more than 140 construction jobs.
• Louisiana – Two projects will focus on better positioning disadvantaged communities to withstand extreme weather. The state will launch a strategic initiative with 15 government entities, energy companies, and community and academic institutions to enhance statewide emergency response operations by deploying a network of Community Resilience Hubs powered by distributed energy resources microgrids. Under a separate project, Entergy New Orleans will enhance the local grid’s resilience to severe weather, including hardening existing transmission lines and distribution systems to reduce outage frequency and duration. It will also deploy a battery backup project that will reduce energy bills for disadvantaged communities.
• Michigan – In Detroit and its surrounding service territory, DTE Energy. will deploy adaptive networked microgrids, which have the capability to adapt to changing energy demands and supply conditions in real-time, especially after extreme weather events. The microgrids will rely on new grid sensing and fault location devices and communication tools that will enhance reliability and reduce the number and total duration of outages in the microgrid areas.
• Pennsylvania – In southeastern Pennsylvania, PECO Energy Company will increase grid reliability and resilience through substation flood mitigation, upgrading underground monitoring and control technologies, deploying battery systems for backup power, replacing aging infrastructure, and installing advanced conductors to increase grid capacity. In eastern Pennsylvania, PPL Electric Utilities Corporation will integrate distributed energy resources and enable real-time grid control to reduce outage duration and frequency, create more than 200 new jobs, and boost electric service reliability for more than 800,000 people. In Pittsburgh, Duquesne Light Company will enhance system capacity to unlock clean energy generation and meet targets established in the State’s Climate Action Plan while also mitigating customer cost increases, growing high-quality jobs and training, and boosting equitable access to clean energy.
• Oregon – Multiple projects across Oregon will connect vast amounts of clean energy to customers and create good-paying union jobs. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and Portland General Electric (PGE) will upgrade transmission capacity and connect PGE customers with the currently isolated renewable resources east of the Cascade Mountains, including those on the Warm Springs Reservation—building a bridge to up to 1,800 MW of carbon-free solar resources. PGE will also deploy an artificial intelligence-enabled, grid-edge computing platform to improve the connection of distributed energy resources, such as solar, as well as informed modeling that can predict pre-outage conditions and assist real-time decisions. PacifiCorp will update infrastructure for fire resistance and prevention in Oregon and neighboring states, reducing outages and risks, while also improving flood resilience and creating hundreds of training and employment opportunities in partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

The funding will also support several projects anchored by inter-regional collaboration that will expand transmission across multiple states. Examples include:

• Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue Transmission Study Process and Portfolio (JTIQ) (Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, and South Dakota)
• Wildfire Assessment and Resilience for Networks (WARN) (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming)

Earlier this year, DOE announced $95 million in federal funds from the program to strengthen the grids in Hawaii so that they can better withstand severe weather-related events.

The Grid Deployment Office will hold an informational webinar on October 24 at 2:30 p.m. ET. Registration is required, register here.

Selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.

If ever a reader needed an example of an electric utility’s confidence in renewable energy to provide resilient, reliable power, one could look to Vermont’s Green Mountain Power, which recently launched a first-of-its-kind initiative to have zero power outages following infrastructure upgrades through 2030.

Green Mountain Power is a 100% carbon-free generation electric utility that sources more than 78% of its generation from renewable energy. It recently launched its Zero Outages Initiative, which “will deliver an energy system by 2030 where customers stay powered up across the state while reducing costs.”

The utility said this initiative is needed urgently following a devastating year of sever climate change-driven storms. Much of the state suffered widespread damage from floods in the Summer of 2023.

The plan calls for rapid acceleration of proven energy storage programs, proactive transmission line undergrounding, and system storm-hardening.

“We all see the severe impacts from storms, we know the impact outages have on your lives, and the status quo is no longer enough,” said Mari McClure, Green Mountain Power president and chief executive officer. “We are motivated to do all we can to combat climate change and create a Vermont that is sustainable and affordable, but we must move faster.”

The initiative leverages circuit-level resiliency data, topography, and other networks to determine the appropriate resiliency approaches for each of the utility’s 300 circuits. The approach is expected to ensure all customers experience zero outages, whether in a remote area of densely populated downtown.

The regulatory filing for the Zero Outages initiative calls for an investment of $280 million over the next two years, $250 of which call for undergrounding and storm-hardening lines, and $30 million for energy storage.

Major storms have caused over $115 million in damages in the utility’s service area, $45 million of which occurred in 2023. This spending gets customers reconnected after storm damage, but does little to prevent future outages, which are expected to become more frequent due to climate change.

“Projects to reinforce the grid and integrate energy storage are more important than ever. We know that we will continue to see an increase in extreme weather events, and research shows that every dollar invested in disaster preparedness and mitigation ultimately saves several times more in avoided response and recovery costs, while also preventing health and safety impacts,” said Jeff Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Climate School.

The Zero Outages Initiative will also incorporate a variety of energy storage and microgrid approaches to boost resilience. It includes incorporating emerging technologies like vehicle-to-home storage. The initiative also includes funds to provide residential batteries to customers in remote locations, with a goal for all customers to have energy storage.

Green Mountain Power has displayed cost-effective programs in both microgrids and energy storage in the past, including home battery programs, community microgrid and Resiliency Zones, and a resilient all-electric neighborhood which is under construction now.

Vermont regulators recently agreed to GMP’s request to lift the enrollment cap on its home battery programs. There are currently 5,000 home customer batteries in the utility’s network, which also includes utility-scale batteries, controllable devices like EV chargers, and school bus batteries through vehicle-to-grid operations.

The filing for the Zero Grid Initiatives will undergo a public review process through the Vermont Public Utility Commission. If approved, the first projects would begin in mid-2024.

A microgrid project is getting underway at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, California, led by the State of California through the California Energy Commission, and joined by Faraday Microgrids and Redflow, providing zinc bromine flow batteries.

Faraday Microgrids, project developer said that the project is “groundbreaking in the advancement of the total capacity and duration of emergency power support.” Located in an area of the country that’s vulnerable to power outages, the microgrid is designed to provide resiliency to the pediatric facility.

The project received funding from Department of Energy (DOE), which announced up to $325 million for 15 projects across 17 states and one tribal nation to accelerate the development of long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies. The DOE funding supports the DOE’s Long Duration Storage Shot, which establishes a target to reduce the cost of grid-scale energy storage by 90% for systems that deliver 10+ hours of duration within the decade.

The Children’s Hospital Resilient Grid with Energy Storage (CHARGES) project is intended to enable the hospital to replace diesel generators with cleaner, more cost-effective resources, while also serving as a roadmap for other hospitals to use to build similar systems. Faraday Microgrids has been working closely with the California Energy Commission to develop and demonstrate the capabilities of renewable energy microgrids as a source of backup power in hospitals.

The CHARGES project will install a 34.4 MWh behind-the-meter, zinc bromide flow battery system from Redflow Limited. Redflow, an Australian company, produces zinc-bromine flow batteries designed to work in harsh conditions in deep cycling, LDES applications in the commercial & industrial sector. The company recently announced that  its energy storage solutions have been approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as part of the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). With SGIP approval, Redflow expects its flow batteries to be more economically attractive, as the state incentives support wider deployment across disadvantaged communities within the state.

“Our batteries are ideally suited for daily use in the Central Valley’s extreme heat, and we’re proud to provide the resources the hospital needs to ensure safe, reliable operations,” said Redflow CEO and managing director, Tim Harris. “This combination of our technology leadership, Faraday’s trusted microgrid solutions, and the funding provided by the CEC and DOE all assist in transitioning communities to a cleaner, more energy-efficient future.”

In addition to Redflow batteries, the microgrid will be paired with solar and other renewable energy resources such as fuel cells to support decarbonization and to ensure that the hospital stays up and running in the event of wildfires, earthquakes and other events that cause power outages.

Honeywell and ESS are collaborating on advancing development of iron flow battery (IFB) energy storage systems based on ESS’ patented IFB design with Honeywell’s advanced materials and energy systems expertise.

The Honeywell Company dates back to 1885 with an invention that was a precursor to today’s thermostat. Fast forward many decades, acquisitions and spinoffs later, and one of the company’s many areas of expertise is in utility-scale battery energy storage systems. In 2021 the company developed flow battery technology intended for pairing with wind and solar resources and partnered with Duke Energy to field test the long-duration energy storage (LDES) product.

ESS, founded in 2011, manufactures iron flow batteries using widely available, Earth-abundant materials. Designed for applications that require up to twelve hours of flexible energy capacity, the batteries are used in utility-scale renewable energy installations, remote solar-plus-storage microgrids, solar load-shifting and peak shaving, as well as other ancillary grid services.

At a recent ceremony at RE+ 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded ESS an Export Achievement Certificate for expanding global deployment of its American-made, innovative long-duration energy storage technology. In response to domestic and global demand, the company announced that it will boost its manufacturing capacity at its Wilsonville, Oregon facility up to 2 GWh annually. 

“The demand for long-duration energy storage represents a compelling market opportunity within the  energy transition and the combination of Honeywell and ESS technology can accelerate decarbonization for the commercial, industrial and utility sectors,” said Bryan Glover, chief growth officer, Honeywell  Performance Materials and Technology (PMT) group. “Our strategic collaboration with ESS will accelerate Honeywell’s ability to bring comprehensive solutions to our customers while working to  advance long-duration energy storage across all industries requiring expansive energy storage.”

The collaboration between Honeywell and ESS enables Honeywell to integrate ESS technology into its global offering, and ESS gains license to Honeywell’s flow battery intellectual property. Additionally, the two plan to work together on continual technology advancement, cost reduction and packaging of IFB systems.

ESS battery systems have a prescribed design life of 25 years, the battery modules, electrolyte, plumbing, and other components may well last for decades longer with proper maintenance. The battery, for example, is expected to experience zero degradation over 20,000 cycles. Read more about its duration here.

Honeywell has invested $27.5 million into ESS common stock; purchasing 16.5 million shares at $1.67 per share. Honeywell also received a warrant to purchase an additional 10.6 million shares for $20 million at $1.89 per share. Honeywell also announced its intention to purchase up to $300 million of ESS products, with $15 million prepaid.

In addition to the investment, ESS receives exclusive license of Honeywell IP related to flow batteries

“Today, we are creating superior technology in the critical long-duration energy storage industry,” said  Eric Dresselhuys, CEO of ESS. “Combining ESS’ innovative technology and deployment experience with  Honeywell’s storage and control system expertise will enable us to drive the clean energy transition and  deliver value to our customers, shareholders and communities.”

Honeywell and ESS are teaming up at a time of huge growth in long-duration energy storage. According to the Department of Energy’s ‘Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Long Duration Energy Storage’ report, the U.S. grid needs 225 to 460 GW of LDES capacity for power market application for a net zero economy by 2060.  The global LDES market is estimated to be $50 billion per year and forecast to grow significantly with a cumulative investment of up to $3 trillion by 2040, according to the LDES Council and McKinsey & Co.

As the shift to renewable energy accelerates, challenges associated with the intermittency of renewables are becoming more apparent. The solution is to embrace safe and sustainable long-duration energy storage technologies, which can address the intermittency of renewables by ensuring stored energy is available to balance fluctuations in electricity demand and supply.

“Long-duration energy storage is critical to meet local, regional and global net-zero decarbonization goals,” Julia Souder, chief executive officer of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, told pv magazine USA. “LDES complements rapid renewable growth by offering flexibility, reliability, affordability and security. This partnership allows us to work together to accelerate the various markets and contracts even faster to deploy diverse LDES technologies.”

ESS held a webcast conference call on Monday, September 25, 2023 to discuss the  partnership with Honeywell and it will be available on ESS’ Investor  Relations website.

Hoymiles introduces hybrid inverters for residential solar and storage  The inverters support 120 V/ 240 V backup power without an external transformer.

Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning unveils residential dual-fuel heat pump system  Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning developed a residential dual fuel heat pump system that combines an air source heat pump and a gas furnace. The manufacturer says the furnace is designed to ensure there is no compromise in heating performance, even when temperatures are extremely low.

Enel triples its operational utility-scale storage capacity in Texas  Enel’s five new systems have added 369 MW of utility-scale energy storage capacity to the Texas energy grid, decreasing the risk of rolling blackouts during peak consumption.

“The times of supply shortage are over,” solar giants bet big on U.S. manufacturing  Three factories announced by three major solar panel suppliers will add 15 GW of manufacturing capacity. In 2021, the U.S. had about 7 GW of module manufacturing capacity.

Redflow and Ameresco to deploy prototype microgrid at Stewart Air National Guard Base  The Department of Air Force plans to use the repowered solar microgrid with 1.2 MWh to 1.4 MWh of energy storage to provide energy resilience for critical loads on the base. The microgrid will also provide a dispatchable solar-plus-storage resource capable of peak shaving.

Redflow Limited, an Australian clean energy storage specialist, and Ameresco, a cleantech integrator, announced that Redflow signed a $2.83 million contract with the United States Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to deliver a prototype microgrid using a 1.2 to 1.4 MWh long duration energy storage (LDES) system.

Microgrids are groups of distributed energy resources, such as solar connected to a battery system, that can disconnect from the grid and operate independently during a power outage. According to recent analysis by Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Service, the U.S. microgrid market reached 10 GW in the third quarter of 2022, with more than 7 GW in operation and the rest in planning or construction stages.

The microgrid will be constructed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York. The Department of Air Force plans to use the repowered solar microgrid with 1.2 MWh to 1.4 MWh of energy storage to provide energy resilience for critical loads on the base. The microgrid will also provide a dispatchable solar-plus-storage resource capable of peak shaving.

Redflow will partner with Ameresco as its engineering subcontractor to deliver the microgrid project. The project, which aims to extend the duration of energy storage for existing installations, will repower a solar-powered microgrid currently located at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York state.

Redflow produces zinc-bromine flow batteries that are designed to work in harsh conditions in deep cycling, long-duration stationary energy storage applications in the commercial & industrial sector. The battery systems are scalable from a single battery installation through multiple grid-scale battery deployments.

This project is the result of Redflow being selected to participate in the DIU’s Extended Duration Storage for Installations program. The program is designed to match innovative LDES technologies to projects that demonstrate additional technological capability by providing energy resilience and power backup across the Department of Defense’s 450+ global bases.

“We have been working with the Defense Innovation Unit for the past year to support their energy resilience objectives across the military’s global operations, said Tim Harris, Redflow CEO and managing director. “To be selected as the solution provider is validation that Redflow’s LDES solutions hold the potential to deliver significant benefits to US Department of Defense installations worldwide.”

Ameresco is no stranger to military microgrid installations, having partnered with Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey on a $140 million infrastructure and energy resilience project. As part of the federal government’s Climate Smart Building Initiative, the energy project will include a 32 MW solar facility with a 2 MW/ 4 MWh battery energy storage system. Energy savings steps are also being taken, including the installation of 90,000 smart LED light fixture retrofits.

“This groundbreaking microgrid project at Stewart Air National Guard Base exemplifies the deployment of innovative technologies to deliver resilient, sustainable solutions at US military installations,” said Nicole Bulgarino, executive vice president, Ameresco. “Together with Redflow, we’re energized to witness how this microgrid will bolster base resilience and set new standards for clean energy advancement, inspiring a green and resilient future for US Department of Defense installations worldwide.”

The Department of Air Force is planning deployment and commissioning of this system for the second half of 2024. If successful, the solution could be rolled out across numerous U.S. Department of Defense facilities and critical infrastructure.

The military installation is expected to contribute to the Department of Defense emissions reduction goal of 25% by 2025 and will support New York state’s 70% renewable energy by 2030 goal.

Sharp unveils all-black 420 W TOPCon solar panel with 21.51% efficiency  Sharp’s new IEC61215- and IEC61730-certified solar panels have an operating temperature coefficient of -0.30% per degree Celsius, with 21.51% efficiency.

People on the move: American Battery Factory, PureSky Energy, Spearmint Energy, and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Microgrids in the spotlight on Wednesday walking tour at RE+ in Las Vegas  This series of tours guides attendees through key companies in a variety of energy sectors that are helping shape the clean energy industry. Pre-registration is required.

A terawatt of solar module capacity expected within 16 months  Clean Energy Associates projects that major Chinese manufacturers will achieve a global solar module manufacturing capacity of 1 terawatt by the end of 2024. Furthermore, this capacity is projected to hit that same mark within China’s borders by 2025.

How local is local in solar manufacturing?  With more than 50 GW of module manufacturing announcements made in the United States, annual production capacity will exceed demand by 2025, says S&P Global’s Alex Kaplan.

Longi solar modules made from OCI polysilicon clear U.S. Customs  An industry note from Roth Capital partners said the panels were released for entry to the U.S. market.

BlueWave secures $91 million in financing for five agrivoltaics projects in Massachusetts The projects, which are scheduled to come online in 2023, will be part of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program.

Tesla heralds ease of installation, manufacturing assembly as Powerwall 3 shines at RE+ Crowds have flocked to the Tesla booth at RE+, as the American battery and EV maker displayed its new hybrid battery, the Powerwall 3. The battery, which the company is guiding will be available in “summer 2024,” features an integrated inverter and should deliver lower cost energy storage to consumers by virtue of its ease of installation and manufacturing efficiency.

Tesla launches Powerwall 3 battery  Tesla has launched the Powerwall 3 battery with an energy capacity of 13.5 kW and continuous on-grid power of 11.5 kW, featuring dimensions of 110 cm x 61 cm x 19.3 cm and a weight of 130 kg.

The microgrid walking tour at RE+ 2023 will kick off at the pv magazine (booth 205) at 11:00 a.m. Sign up here to take part in the tour.

• Panasonic, booth 4125

During the booth tour, attendees will learn about the newest generation of the Evervolt Home Battery System, which supports both DC and AC coupling. This battery system is a fully integrated solution that combines a hybrid inverter, a lithium-ion battery and the new Evervolt SmartBox, an all-in-one home energy management device. Featuring a compact design, this newest generation of battery system can be installed indoors or outdoors and can be mounted to the floor or wall. In addition, attendees can see the latest Evervolt high-efficiency solar modules featuring temperature coefficient of 0.24%/ C.

• Schneider Electric, booth 5343

With a purpose to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, Schneider Electric is showcasing sustainable solutions at RE+ for both the residential and commercial market. Highlighted are Schneider Home, a dynamic home energy system controlled by a Schneider Home app, EcoStruxure Microgrid Flex, a standardized microgrid system designed to reduce project timelines, and strategic partners to meet the growing needs of the prosumer.

• SMA Solar Technology, booth 4138

PEAK 3 stands for pure power. With its compact design, the inverter offers maximum power density at minimum weight. This results in less expensive transportation and simplified installation, In combination with the project-specific DC combiner boxes, the PV array can be oversized up to 200%, SMA reports. The Data Manager powered by ennexOS completes the system and enables it t fulfill all of the grid  operator’s requirements.

• Maxeon, booth 3368

In the Maxeon booth, attendees will see Maxeon’s advanced solar panel technologies for the U.S. market, two lines of solar panels for homes, businesses and power plants. The company’s IBC solar panels come with a 40-year warranty. Maxeon’s shingled cell Performance solar panels will also be shown. These combine conventional solar cells, which are designed to deliver the quality and reliability for today’s EPCs and developers.

• Emerge Alliance, booth 3462

Emerge Alliance, along with multiple vendors, is facilitating a live demonstration of a residential microgrid on the show floor. The Emerge Alliance is a non-profit open industry association that includes commercial, government and academic member organizations that are working to develop standards leading to the rapid adoption of hybrid AC/DC microgrids in commercial/industrial and residential buildings, neighborhoods and communities.

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.

The Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA) had a vision of transitioning its fleet of buses to all electric. To assist with that transition, it partnered with the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC), a Vermont-based non-profit organization that helps companies and organizations become more energy efficient and less dependent on fossil fuels. As an island, Martha’s Vineyard (MV) gets its fossil fuels from the mainland, so by going electric, with buses charged by solar, the VTA is creating a more sustainable transportation system for the island.

The VTA purchased its first electric buses in 2018 to serve the nearly 1.3 million residents and tourists that use the MV transit system each year. A solar canopy at the charging station became operational in 2021, and the fleet has more than doubled. The next step to ensure reliability was to turn the charging station into a microgrid that could island when the grid goes down, and battery storage was added.

To manage the microgrid, the VTA turned to PXiSE Energy Solutions (pronounced ‘Pice’) for a microgrid controller to automate the integration of multiple distributed energy generation resources, including a 466kW solar array, a battery storage system and 16 bus charging stations. The microgrid controllers enable the charging centers to stay up and running for several hours in the event of a power outage, and they also they provide real-time forecasting that provides additional functions such as real-time asset control and tight ramp-rate control. The microgrid controllers ensure connectivity to virtually any device on the grid, according to PXiSE, and they aggregate power from the solar and battery systems, creating a single virtual power plant that can operate off grid.

PXiSE Energy Solutions recently announced that Rove Charging, a California-based company that designs and builds EV charging centers, will use its microgrid controller with battery storage and onsite solar. Rove’s EV charging centers are designed to host more than 40 direct current fast chargers (DCFC), an onsite market, car wash, 24/7 lounge, dog walk and restroom facilities. For Rove’s centers, the PXiSE software solution will manage the point of interconnection with the utility to a net-zero export, while also managing the facility’s generation capability

“This advanced controller will allow us to better leverage renewable energy from the California grid and Rove’s onsite solar to provide more affordable, sustainable, and reliable charging to Rove customers,” said Nathan McDonnell, chief executive officer of Rove.

Telecommunications company Ericsson turned a new page in its sustainability book after debuting the first phase of a telecom tower microgrid, which uses a 2.4 kW solar array plus 14.4 kWh battery storage at a 5G center in Plano, Texas.

An Ericsson spokeswoman told pv magazine USA that the company is using six bifacial 400 W solar panels assembled with three company-supplied lithium-ion battery packs on a corporate facility rooftop. Using ample eight to nine hours of north Texas sunlight, the site is capable of operating off-grid for up to 24 hours, she said.

The 5G site includes an ultra-lightweight mid-band Massive MIMO AIR 6419, RAN Processor 6651, which transmit high-speed wireless phone services, along with an enclosure which comprises the company’s Solar shelf 6670 paired with lithium-ion Batteries 6612, and energy management controller 6610 for hybrid energy operation.

“Ericsson’s smart site solutions for hybrid energy sources are designed to help operators control costs and increase profitability – especially in rural or remote areas or private networks, where traffic volumes are lower and power consumption needs to be especially efficient,” said Ed Gubbins, principal analyst at Global Data. “Using a variety of tools to increase energy efficiency and sustainability – including solar power, lithium-ion batteries, and advanced software features – can be helpful for improving operator profitability.”

Additional features of the telecom microgrid include load shifting, peak shaving, and demand response, which enables the site to effectively utilize batteries when electricity rates are high and recharge the batteries when electricity rates are lower. This power dynamic strategy allows for multiple daily cycles, ensuring optimal cost efficiency by taking advantage of the most favorable electricity prices.

The second phase of the Plano, Texas 5G project will involve deploying additional clean energy resources, such as hydrogen-based generators, as an alternative to on-site diesel generators. It will also explore interoperability with power grid vendors, using other local energy generation and consumption to sell back to the grid with net metering.

Network operators under the Ericsson Network Manager framework can utilize the Plano site’s policy-based Battery Saver, where the users can switch off specified radio frequencies to reduce daily energy consumption and meanwhile increasing network resiliency.

The Plano telecom microgrid has the potential to serve as a demonstration for trial radio hardware and software solutions that improve energy efficiency in conjunction with smart-site solutions. The project could be used by utility companies in areas such as grid frequency, voltage regulation, and demand response energy trading.

Ericsson debuted the Texas microgrid with a three-minute video clip overview of the facility:

In 2022, Ericsson’s Net Zero report titled “Breaking the Energy Curve” detailed plans for the expansion of distributed energy solutions such as solar and energy storage systems to offset energy costs and reduce operating expenses of high density networking operations such as in Plano, Texas.  The multinational company has set a goal of its operations becoming net zero by 2040, with the first step of reducing 50% of emissions across its network upgrading to 5G by 2030. The company’s research shows global mobile networks use 0.6% of global electricity usage.

In honor of the Summer Solstice, the day of the year with the most daily sunlight, a distributed energy start-up company is releasing a residential integrated energy management cabinet system that stores solar energy on its 5 kWh battery systems to provide up to 30 kWh of back-up power in the event of a power outage.

Lunar Energy announced the release of its first consumer hardware product, the Lunar System, a residential distributed generation cabinet that integrates rooftop solar generation, battery storage, and load control in one product suite.

The DG cabinet includes the company’s Lunar Battery, a lithium-ion battery which ranges from 10 kWh to 30 kWh capacity, configurable in 5 kWh battery block increments, and a hybrid 10 kW inverter, providing enough power to back-up home heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and common household appliances.

The residential cabinet can be connected with an on-site solar array, which the company does not provide, and uses the Lunar Bridge, an electric panel monitoring system that toggles between the grid and off-grid battery power in 30 milliseconds. During a grid outage, the Lunar Switch automatically turns off non-essential appliances like EV chargers or pool pumps to prioritize necessary appliance usage.

The company said the residential battery is 47% smaller and more compact than other comparable batteries currently on the market.

Lunar Energy said that in a high solar penetration market like California, given recent net energy metering changes taking less value away from solar output, an average home using a 20 kWh Lunar System paired with a 5 kW solar array would see a payback period for the system’s installation within seven years. Such an installed configuration could cost between $20,000 and $30,000, the company said.

Sunrun, the company’s solar installation partner, will begin taking orders over the Fall of 2023 to install Lunar Systems paired with Sunrun solar systems, the company said. Installers seeking to learn more about the Lunar System can click the link above, including how to become a licensed installer.

In February, Sunrun and Lunar Energy partnered on a nationwide virtual power plant (VPP) network. The solar installer currently has VPP operations in New England, New York, California, Arizona, and Hawaii, with plans tens of thousands of new home distributed generation systems in additional states and territories. Before partnering, Lunar Energy had deployed 35,000 Lunar Gridshare interconnected home battery systems in Japan and 1,600 across Europe.

Lunar is partnered with Sunrun and other solar installers to integrate residential PV solutions with the Lunar System. Interested customers can configure their own system on Lunar Energy’s website.

Founded in 2020, Lunar Energy is based in Mountain View, Calif., and has raised about $300 million in equity funding to date. The company’s management team includes chief executive officer Kunal Girotra and senior vice president of engineering Kevin Fine, the former head and engineering director of Tesla Energy, the solar business of the EV manufacturer.

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.

VPP pilot programs have run for years in the United States. The market is maturing as the technology competes with centralized utility scale power plants as a low-cost alternative with benefits to the grid and end-users alike.

A VPP is a virtual aggregation of small-scale, distributed energy resources (DERs) including PV, energy storage, electric vehicle chargers, and demand-responsive devices such as water heaters, thermostats, and appliances. VPP technology has shown immediate promise in replacing natural gas “peaker plants” on grids, offering additional capacity during times of peak electricity demand.

Over the last decade, the US has spent more than $120 billion on 100 GW of new generation capacity, mainly for resource adequacy. A study by Boston-based consultancy Brattle Group estimates utilities could save $35 billion by 2033 by focusing on VPPs for peaker capacity.

“By deploying grid assets more efficiently, an aggregation of distributed resources lowers the cost of power for everybody, especially VPP participants,” says Jigar Shah, the director of the US Department of Energy (DoE) Loans Programs Office.

Brattle Group’s 400 MW resource adequacy study considered a utility with 1.7 million residential customers. The power company had 5.7 GW of gross peak demand and 3.6 GW of net peak demand from solar and wind resources. Its aim was to generate half its electricity from renewables by 2030. The study found VPP peaker usage would be 40% to 60% cheaper than alternatives, including gas peakers and grid-scale batteries.

Brattle Group estimated 60 GW of VPP deployment could meet US resource adequacy needs through 2033 for $15 billion to $35 billion less than the cost of alternatives. That level of VPP deployment could also provide more than $20 billion worth of emissions and resilience benefits over the decade.

“VPPs do more than provide decarbonization and grid services – they increasingly give grid operators a large scale and utility grade alternative to new generation and system buildout, through automated efficiency, capacity support, and non-wire alternatives,” says Shah.

Project Hestia

The DoE Loan Programs Office has supported VPPs, recently proposing a $3 billion conditional loan to energy-as-a-service provider Sunnova to roll out its “Project Hestia” nationwide. The plan aims to increase solar and VPP service access for disadvantaged communities that could otherwise be unable to secure residential solar loans. Sunnova will receive indirect, partially guaranteed cash flows for loans backing customer accounts.

Eligible households must use Sunnova’s energy management system, accessible via smartphones or other electronic devices. The system will recommend demand response behavior, enabling customers to reduce energy costs while helping balance the grid during peak demand.

If issued, the DoE package would support loan origination for solar, storage, and other Sunnova adaptive home technology with VPP capability. The guarantees could drive up to $5 billion in loan originations, saving on interest and reducing the weighted average cost of capital.

“Project Hestia would make possible a historic private sector investment in disadvantaged American communities and energy infrastructure,” says Sunnova CEO William J. Berger.

Market tailwinds

Shifting US market conditions are further driving VPP adoption. The $369 billion of climate and energy spending in the Inflation Reduction Act includes many requirements for serving energy communities: disadvantaged communities crucial to an equitable energy transition. Projects in designated energy communities are eligible for an additional 10% investment tax credit, supplementing the 30% base credit for renewables projects.

Other states are beginning to follow California in trimming back or removing net energy metering (NEM), a rate mechanism instrumental in launching the US residential solar market. Older NEM rates offered customers the full retail value for every kilowatt-hour of electricity fed to the grid. California’s NEM 3.0 rate essentially kills the value of exported energy and other states will follow suit. Solar installers have warned this could prompt a market based on self-consumption from batteries, with resulting grid defection doing little to help network flexibility. VPPs, however, offer grid services including demand response, peak demand shaving, and more. Customers can be incentivized to trim energy use or export power during peak grid hours, making for a nimbler network.

Resilience

VPPs also reinforce grid resilience in zones affected by climate change-related extreme weather. Residential solar installer Sunrun has been selected to deploy a 17 MW network of solar-plus-storage VPPs in Puerto Rico.

In the wake of 2017’s Hurricane Maria, the Caribbean island’s government created a framework for DERs with 2019’s Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act.

Sunrun will enroll Puerto Rican customers this year to begin VPP operation next year. The company says customers will bank power cost savings and be compensated for offering battery storage capacity to the grid now run by US-Canadian joint venture LUMA Energy. The 10-year VPP program enables customers to opt out, Sunrun says.

“We’re solving energy insecurity on the island by switching the model so that solar energy is generated on rooftops and stored in batteries to power each home and then shared with neighbors, creating a clean, shared-energy economy,” says Sunrun CEO Mary Powell.

Recent studies have proposed using solar-plus-storage microgrids to minimize public safety concerns from power shutoffs (PSPS) during the wildfire season for communities located in  wildland-urban interfaces, such as California and much of the West Coast.

A comprehensive assessment of microgrids had not been performed to evaluate the potential to enhance resilience for up to 46 million Americans living next to forests, or a wildland-urban interface, where wildfire risk is acute. To address this research gap, a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory looked at a novel modeling framework and assessed the potential of solar and batteries for districts where power can be turned off based on wildfire warnings.

LBNL’s modeling framework consists of:

• Clustering algorithms that identify communities based on building footprint data, fire hazard severity, and renewable energy potential;
• A building simulation model to quantify the energy demand;
• An energy system optimization model to assist the microgrid.

LBNL defines a microgrid as a controllable and localized energy grid that can be disconnected from the regional grid and operate independently.

An optimization tool was introduced to model microgrids in forest-bordering regions, and subsequently, an assessment was performed focusing on seven localities in California with different climate conditions.

The study revealed 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. Californians pay about 25 cents per kWh on average for residential electricity.

“This is the first detailed, state-level study that’s looked at how clean energy microgrids can minimize outage impacts on vulnerable communities, and how much it would cost,” said Tianzhen Hong, a co-author and senior scientist at LBNL.

Additional findings include that renewable energy penetration can be kept at 60% or above of the annual energy demand while considering microgrids, which creates a more wholesome picture for solar plus battery systems to reduce the adverse impacts of wildfires and increase grid resiliency during seasonal patterns of increased wildfires.

The study notes that microgrids cannot completely eliminate the PSPS concern completely, as the LCOE and renewables curtailment  become higher when attempting to eliminate public safety power shutoff completely.

A reduction in the cost of deploying energy storage systems is essential to achieving zero public safety shutoffs altogether, and further cost declines in storage technologies is anticipated in the coming years.

The LBNL study recommends solar-plus-storage microgrids for communities situated alongside wildfire risk areas of California to enhance energy infrastructure resiliency and to protect vulnerable residents.

More than 46 million Americans living in 70,000 individual communities are at risk for wildland-urban interface fires, the study reports. Such neighborhoods are created by population growth that pushes property development into wildfire-prone regions.

While utilities implement PSPS emergency power shut-offs on red flag warnings days, modern grid infrastructure upgrades are necessary to keep up with the increases of climate change occurrences and wildfires. At least five of the 20 most destructive California wildfires have been attributed to faulty power line problems, including the 2018 Camp Fire.

The immediate cut-off of power during wildfire season causes disproportional difficulties to disadvantaged communities with limited access to internet, mobility or medical systems.

“We’re really talking about equity here,” Hong said. “The technology can be really good, but at the end of the day, if people can’t afford it then nothing happens.” Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, federal support has been directed towards the type of community energy installations the study describes.

PG&E, a California utility provider previously at fault for wildfires spreading during the 2018 Camp Fire, recently introduced microgrids to support areas in its service territory surrounded by wildfires. Such microgrids operate in standalone mode during wildfire seasons, and supply electricity for consumers without being dependent on the grid. These microgrids also enable the integration of more dispatchable renewable energy sources with minimal impact on the grid.

The study first appeared in an April issue of Applied Energy, and was co-authored by Dasun Perera from Princeton University, Bingyu Zhao from TU Wien, Zhe Wang and Kenichi Soga from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Direct pay, transferability guidance released for clean energy tax credits The Internal Revenue Service released the rules for which credits and entities qualify for various transactions related to Inflation Reduction Act tax credits.

DOE announces $13.5 million investment in solar energy workforce Twelve projects selected for training partnerships to expand solar energy workforce in underserved communities.

People on the move: Aspen Power, Solar Landscape, CubicPV and more  Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Crow Renewables founded to develop assets upon $16 billion rooftop empire Real estate developer and holding company Crow Holdings founded a renewables arm to develop solar-plus-storage assets on 500,000 square rooftops and in the approximately 25 MW utility scale space.

Solar-plus-storage microgrids to replace diesel generators in Mojave water conservation project  Scale Microgrid will outfit 25 to 30 water wells each with a 1.12 MW ground-mounted solar array paired with a 634 kW / 2.66 MWh battery system, and 380 kW low-emissions combined heat and power generation system.

Longi Solar North America launches Hi-MO 7 solar module in Canada Designed for large-scale solar projects, the bifacial hybrid passivated dual-junction cell solar module has a reported efficiency of 22.5%.

NYC grocer Krasdale Foods becomes first community solar provider in the Bronx Krasdale Foods, the operator of the CTown and Bravo supermarkets in New York City’s five boroughs, has made 1.62 MW of clean power of a 2.68 MW warehouse rooftop solar facility available to 300 low- and moderate-income residents.

Roll-out solar awning with 1000 W for RVs  Made with flexible heterojunction solar cells, the awning from Eco-dynamic comes in customizable color patterns.

SolarEdge to integrate Vaillant, Samsung heat pumps with residential PV SolarEdge is partnering with Vaillant and Samsung to integrate their heat pumps into its home ecosystem. Homeowners will be able to optimize their energy consumption by using excess PV or shifting consumption in accordance with optimal energy rates.

Solar-hydrogen racing yacht to circumnavigate the globe  A partnership between Maxeon Solar Technologies and OceansLab will result in the production of the world’s first hydrogenelectric race yacht.

Shoals files patent complaint for solar connectors and wire harnesses The company filed a patent infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Hikam America and Voltage, LLC.

Hydrogen Power: Collaborator, not competitor  While hydrogen is poised for growth, it is not poised to knock off—or even compete with—solar and wind. Instead, if done correctly, hydrogen might help drive further adoption of wind and solar.

Solar microgrids, tractors among semifinalists in sustainable electricity for Africa contest The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation announced 20 semifinalist recipients for a prize in green energy, with $20,000 in initial awards and the potential for five teams to compete for a $1 million grand prize.

Intersect’s Radian Solar among largest Texas projects at 415 MW The utility solar project in central Texas uses First Solar U.S.-made panels and is one of the top 10 largest solar projects in the country, and largest in Texas, according to EIA data.

U.S. clean hydrogen roadmap released In addition to releasing the roadmap, the Biden Administration has earmarked billions of dollars of funding for investing in the advancement of clean hydrogen, which has many uses and can play a vital role in reducing emissions from some of the most energy-intensive sectors of our economy.

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.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency is funding a $97 million microgrid project for Puerto Rico’s island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra. The project will include 15.5 MW of solar, 11.6 MWh of storage, and fossil generation in an amount that has not been finalized, FEMA said. The project will retrofit the islands’ existing 9 MW of generation that includes diesel generators, FEMA added.

The “solar backup systems” on the two islands, FEMA said, will enable medical facilities, schools and other critical service providers to function “in case the main grid fails.” The islands are located to the east of Puerto Rico’s main island.

The microgrid project is one of 21 projects across the U.S. territory that will “provide energy resilience and promote the use of renewable energy,” said Manuel Laboy Rivera, executive director of Puerto Rico’s Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resiliency.

Priorities

FEMA said it has allocated $32 billion to help Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria. Regarding the total solar and storage capacity across all FEMA-initiated projects in Puerto Rico, a spokesperson said that so far FEMA has reviewed projects under a $3 billion funding program that would include “over 10 MW” of solar capacity and “over 12MWh” of storage capacity. Those amounts include the solar and storage planned for the Vieques and Culebra microgrids.

Eight Puerto Rico organizations and the Center for Biological Diversity have filed a federal lawsuit challenging FEMA’s approval of $13 billion for the Puerto Rico utility PREPA to rebuild the territory’s grid “back to the fossil fuel status quo.” The lawsuit aims to redirect that funding, of which it says only a “small fraction” has been spent, toward “the distributed renewable energy Puerto Ricans need.”

Howard Crystal, legal director and senior attorney for the Center, said that FEMA’s “formal response” to the lawsuit is due in the next few weeks. The Center has also filed a Freedom of Information Act request backed up by a lawsuit to compel FEMA to disclose its funding for renewable and fossil generation.

Project stages

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) assisted in the preliminary design for the microgrid project for Vieques and Culebra through the use of the Microgrid Design Toolkit developed by Sandia National Laboratory, and workshops with community leaders.

The initial $10.2 million phase of the microgrid project will fund preconstruction activities, including architectural and engineering design services, a geotechnical study and an electrical load assessment.

The $86 million construction phase will include land acquisition, bidding and procurement, permitting, final design plans, environmental and historic preservation compliance, equipment, site work, construction, final testing and commissioning, project supervision, inspection, contingencies, and closeout.

The microgrids on the two islands will serve Vieques’ 8,000 residents and Culebra’s nearly 2,000 residents. The microgrids will connect to Puerto Rico’s existing transmission system with a submarine cable. The project is being funded by FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.