Planted Solar, a solar startup out of Oakland, California, received $20 million in Series A funding from the Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Khosla Ventures, as well as Department of Energy Funds to scale its terrain-following solar installation design.

The company installs its arrays like a sheet, densely packed together, rather than using typical row spacing. Instead of developing the land to be flat and uniform, the company’s solar mounts follow the terrain, tolerating up to a 27% slope. This helps reduce land development costs and allows for more energy-per-acre.

This may prove important, as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management forecasts the country will need 22 million acres for solar project deployment.

“In comparison to south-facing fixed tilt and tracker designs, a Planted array provides a comparable kWh/kWp yield when using a higher inverter loading ratio (ILR) and is substantially lower in cost of structural balance of system and installation, reduces the amount of civil work and civil risk, and requires a lot less land,” said Planted Solar.

The company said its design allows for a megawatt of solar to be installed on only two acres, less than the five acres typically required for a megawatt of solar capacity. Its simple terrain-following mount leads to a 50% reduction in balance of system costs and fewer installation hours.

“This adds up to a system with a lower build cost, higher DC system size, and similar annual kWh production,” said the company.

The terrain-following mounts are compatible with all conventional module formats and sizes, said the company.

After completing the design phase, the company uses installation robots to deploy the solar panels, which it said reduces installation time and costs. Planted Solar said its design mitigates impacts like erosion on the developed land, which is explained in a whitepaper.

“Planted’s low-impact approach to fixed-tilt solar PV foundation and table installation is novel in its automation, low impact/low disturbance, and tolerance to using existing ground conditions without grading. Furthermore, the low-area cross section of the Planted foundation legs should reduce local scour when compared to traditional pile. Installing using Planted’s methodologies will reduce disturbance and resultant hydrological and hydraulic impact to a site versus traditional installations of solar arrays,” said Planted Solar.

Planted Solar chief executive officer Eric Brown said it is rapidly “moving from pilots to portfolios.” The company announced it was selected for an 11 MW portfolio of projects in the Chicago area with Cultivate Power.

“Planted Solar gives our team a strategic tool to be stewards of the land and develop better projects with our community partners,” said Brian Matthay, co-founder and managing director of Cultivate Power. “Cultivate is focused on collaborating with landowners and communities so we can integrate solar seamlessly with the local environment and agricultural operations.”

Cowboy Solar, largest solar project in Wyoming moves forward The $1.2 billion project will be built by Enbridge, with 771 MW expected to be fully operational by 2027.

Battery energy storage tariffs tripled; domestic content rules updated Breaking down U.S. market impacts on energy storage from recent policy changes with insights from Clean Energy Associates.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) have developed a new method to make hydrogen gas from water using solar power and agricultural waste like manure or husks. The researchers said the method reduces the amount of energy needed to create hydrogen fuel by 600%. The results are published in  Cell Reports Physical Science.

The method uses a carbon-rich substance called biochar to decrease the amount of electricity needed to convert water to hydrogen. Combined with using solar power or wind to power the water-splitting process known as electrolysis.

“We are the first group to show that you can produce hydrogen utilizing biomass at a fraction of a volt,” said Singh, associate professor in the department of chemical engineering. “This is a transformative technology.”

Electrolysis represents the most expensive step in the hydrogen fuel lifecycle, representing about 80% of the cost. Recent advancements in producing hydrogen fuel have decreased the voltage required for water splitting by introducing a carbon source to the reaction. However, this process often uses coal or expensive refined chemicals and releases carbon emissions as a byproduct.

The UIC researchers modified the process to instead use biomass from common waste products as the carbon source. By mixing sulfuric acid with agricultural waste, animal waste, and sewage, they produced a slurry of biochar to be used in the reaction.

The team trialed several different inputs for biochar, including sugarcane husks, hemp waste, paper waste, and cow manure. All five inputs reduced the power needed to perform electrolysis, but the best performer, cow manure, decreased the electrical requirement by 600%, to roughly a fifth of a volt.

With reduced voltage requirements, the UIC researchers were able to produce an electrolysis reaction with one silicon solar cell generating about 15 milliamps of current at 0.5 volt, or less than the amount of power produced by a AA battery.

“It’s very efficient, with almost 35% conversion of the biochar and solar energy into hydrogen” said Rohit Chauhan, the report’s co-author. Chauhan said the utilization rate of biochar represents a world record.

The research team said this utilization for biochar represents a new revenue stream potential for farmers, or an opportunity to become self-sustainable for energy needs.

Orochem Technologies Inc. sponsored the research and has filed for patents on the biochar-hydrogen process. The UIC team plans to test the methods at a larger scale. Stanford University, Texas Tech University, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Korea University also participated in this study.

The Center for Rural Affairs (CFRA) has released an analysis, Sifting through Solar: Land-Use Concerns on Prime Farmland, which discusses the potential expansion of solar power by 2050 on Midwest farmland.

The report highlights that solar projects have generated 147,000 rural jobs and delivered substantial land lease payments to farm owners, with farm owners in Iowa receiving $73.4 million in 2022 alone.

According to the CFRA, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Futures study estimates that by 2050, 1,600 GW of solar power will be needed to fulfill 40-45% of electricity demand, with 210 to 420 GW anticipated to be installed in the Midwest. The analysis further notes that if all the projected solar capacity for the Midwest were installed solely on farmland, totaling 114.8 million acres, “it would only occupy 1.45% to 2.90%” of farmland.

Moreover, a significant portion of land is neither considered prime farmland nor currently used for agriculture at all.

Challenges

The CRFA highlights Iowa, notable not only for its extensive ethanol production but also for significant resistance to solar development. Repurposing these ethanol-producing lands for solar could theoretically power the entire U.S., including all electric vehicles and heating systems.

The analysis identifies two technical land designations, “prime farmland” and “corn suitability rating” (CSR), as potential barriers to placing solar installations. These designations could be overly restrictive under current policies.

In Minnesota, advocates contend that the classification of prime farmland, established in the 1980s to curb the spread of coal and nuclear facilities, is outdated. Unlike these facilities, solar installations do not permanently alter the land and can be decommissioned, allowing the land to return to its original farming use after lying fallow, potentially improving its condition for future agricultural use.

In Iowa, proposed legislation aimed to limit solar installations to land with a CSR value of 65 or less failed to pass. Had it passed, placing solar installations on 65% of the state’s farmland would have been illegal, and a large portion of the remaining 35% was considered less than viable for solar due to various land characteristics.

CFRA’s efforts to address land use concerns could be deployed as part of an effective comprehensive educational strategy. Stakeholders must understand the significant income potential from solar installations alongside the threats posed by local anti-solar legislation to the financial security of family farms.

Financial comparisons and community impact

Considering the attractive solar lease rates, dedicating even a small percentage of farmland to solar energy can substantially enhance a farm’s financial stability. For example, in 2023, the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reported that non-irrigated cropland cash rent averaged $269 per acre in Iowa and $259 in Illinois. High-quality farmland can command rents over $400 per acre, while the least profitable farmlands fetch as low as $58 per acre.

Contrast these figures with the typical solar lease in these states, ranging from $750 per acre for up to hundreds of acres to as much as $3,000 per acre for up to 20 acres.

Community solar programs, which tend to lease fewer acres, offer higher rates ranging from $1,200 to over $5,000 per acre depending on the state. For example, a farmer with 400 acres who converts their least productive 15 acres – representing 3.75% of their land – for a 2 MWac community solar farm could see annual earnings surge to $45,000. This amount is approximately 11.5 times the previous earnings of $3885 from these acres, based on the average cash rent of $259 per acre in Illinois.

Even at the lower end, solar leasing would at least double the cash rent of the most lucrative farmland and could provide a dramatic increase for less profitable lands. For instance, in Johnson County, Illinois, land renting at $58 per acre could see income increase 13-fold with a $750 per acre solar lease rate.

To achieve 1,600 GW of solar capacity in the U.S., just over 10 million acres would be required, of which 1.2 million to 2.5 million acres would be utilized from the Midwest’s almost 700 million acres of total land area.

With 10,300,000 acres available nationally for solar installations, projected land lease revenues available to owners would range from $7.725 billion annually to an impressive $30.9 billion, with billions in lease revenues available in the Midwest.

To further harmonize solar development with agricultural land use, several strategies can be implemented:

• Enhancing biodiversity: Planting native or perennial vegetation under panels can improve soil health and provide pollinators and wildlife. Sites managed with native vegetation have been shown to have a restorative effect on the environment.
• Integrating agrivoltaic practices: Agrivoltaic practices such as livestock grazing, crop growing, and beekeeping allow land to remain in agricultural use while simultaneously producing energy.
• Ensuring land restoration: Solar projects have a minimal impact on land quality, and the land can be restored to its original farmland state at the end of the project’s life cycle, estimated to be between 30 to 35 years.
• Implementing decommissioning plans: Once solar arrays reach the end of their life cycles, county decommissioning plans should mandate the restoration of the pre-construction environment.
• Combating disinformation Campaigns: Washington-based, fossil fuel-associated, groups such as Susan Ralston’s “Citizens for Responsible Solar’‘ focus on inciting controversy and disseminating misinformation. These groups actively work to influence local governments to impose bans and legislative limitations on solar projects.

U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian announced it has entered a deal with Pivot Energy to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) as well as subscribe to a portion of a community solar project.

The agreement includes a subscription to 10 MW of off-site community solar to support Rivian’s Illinois manufacturing capacity. Rivian will also purchase RECs generated from 50 MW of operational solar assets.

The REC impact agreement is designed to support the development of projects where emissions reductions are needed the most. The REC-tied projects are designed to be installed in locations with few solar resources.

“According to the EPA, the region of the electric grid where the solar projects will be located is 67% dirtier than the U.S. grid as a whole, meaning that the region emits two-thirds more greenhouse gases from fossil fuels than other areas,” said Pivot Energy.

The new-build REC projects are expected to generated 79,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, equivalent to powering nearly 11,000 homes annually.

The two companies will invest $5,000 per MW built in local community organizations. The donations tied to each MW constructed will go to support local community-based organizations working to reduce energy burden for low-income families, developing workforce development pathways into the solar industry for local residents and groups working at the intersection of agriculture and energy production.

“Our partnership with Pivot shows how we go one step further by investing in projects that not only deliver additional clean energy to the grid, but also drive positive benefits for communities, conservation and the climate,” said Andrew Peterman, director of advanced energy solutions, Rivian.

Rivian’s decarbonization strategy includes plans to support 2 GW of renewable energy each year to support emissions-free EV charging. This is enough to power 7 billion miles of renewable driving with its R1 truck each year.

Rivian said its manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois, aims to operate with greater than 90% carbon free energy on an hourly basis and will run on 100% renewable energy annually by 2030.

]]> https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/05/17/u-s-solar-industry-week-in-review-10/feed/ 0 104344 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/05/17/u-s-solar-exceeds-five-million-installations/ https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/05/17/u-s-solar-exceeds-five-million-installations/#respond Fri, 17 May 2024 14:15:42 +0000 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/?p=104336 Over half of all U.S. solar installations have come online since the start of 2020 and over 25% have come online since the Inflation Reduction Act became law.

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

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

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

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

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

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

State policy making a difference

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

California approves uncapped fixed charges on electricity bills The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to approve a controversial electricity rate rule called the Income-Graduated Fixed Charge, enabling utilities to assess an average $24 monthly fixed charge on residential bills.–roughly double the national average in the United States. It applies to all customers, regardless of how much electricity they consume. 

Cypress Creek Renewables constructs 208 MW / 80 MWh solar-plus-storage facility in Texas The site reached commercial operation on May 2, adding enough capacity to the grid to serve the equivalent of 41,600 homes in the Brackettville, Texas area. Over $11.5 million in tax revenues are expected to be generated for the county by the project, along with $11.7 million earmarked for the Bracket Independent School District.

Solar in Illinois is on the upswing, with 27 GW currently installed and 65 GW expected to come online in the next five years according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Illinois boasts a strong renewable portfolio standard that requires 25% of energy comes from renewable sources by 2025.

The state also has the Illinois Shines program with incentives that makes solar more affordable for all. And Illinois has targets to have 40% of its energy come from renewable sources by 2030 and is aiming for 100% by 2050.

Two recently announced solar construction projects will move the state closer to these goals.

Utility-scale with PPA

Adapture Renewables is set to begin construction this summer of two 128 MW projects in central Illinois, with commercial operation expected in early 2026.

The two new utility-scale solar energy projects will include more than 232,000 solar panels each. Adapture anticipates the projects will create more than 300 jobs during construction and over $250 million in economic impact to the local communities.

Large enough to power more than 34,250 homes, the electricity generated by the projects will be procured by an unnamed “social technology company” through an purchase purchase agreement.

Coordination of the projects will be managed and executed by Alberici in conjunction with resources from its enterprise affiliate Flintco Renewable Energy.

Community solar

Nautilus Solar Energy and TurningPoint Energy are partnering on a 29.3 MW community solar portfolio of four solar projects in Kankakee and Livingston counties.

Combined, the projects will generate enough energy to power 3,000 homes and 100 commercial businesses.

Additionally, Turning Point Energy makes charitable community investment commitments in each of its community solar project communities.

”In 2022 we made a commitment to Illinois that we would bring over half a billion of investment in the community solar market,” said Salar Naini, president of TurningPoint Energy. “This collaboration with Nautilus is the start of that commitment, with many more dollars of investment set to flow to the state in the coming years.”

For these four projects, Turning Point has designated $75,000 in planned donations to local Kankakee County and Livingston County organizations. Nautilus said it will match Turning Point’s commitment for a combined $150,000 in community investment donations on this transaction alone.

The portfolio of projects qualified under Illinois’ community solar program and is expected to be operational in 2025. Nautilus will be the long-term owner of the projects and is responsible for overseeing construction, maintenance and acquiring and managing customer subscriptions.

The projects will enable ComEd customers to save on their electric bills while supporting the expansion of renewable energy and Illinois’ ambitious clean energy goals.

Microsoft announces largest-ever corporate procurement of renewable energy The tech giant signed a power purchase agreement for 10.5 GW of renewable energy to help power its datacenters with clean energy. Cost to build is projected at more than $11.5 billion to build, according to Bloomberg NEF.

California hits energy storage milestone Batteries dominate the evening grid with 10 GW/40 GWh of capacity.

New green bank to support distributed solar and storage in the Appalachian region The Green Bank for Rural America will support community lenders in Appalachian communities to finance climate-supporting projects including distributed solar and storage. The bank and four others received a total of $6 billion in federal awards.

]]> https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/05/03/u-s-solar-industry-week-in-review-8/feed/ 0 103899 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/04/26/u-s-solar-industry-week-in-review-7/ https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/04/26/u-s-solar-industry-week-in-review-7/#respond Fri, 26 Apr 2024 21:00:56 +0000 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/?p=103651 pv magazine USA spotlights news stories of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.]]> pv magazine USA spotlights news stories of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.

Solar manufacturers want anti-dumping tariffs enforced The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, which includes First Solar, Qcells, Meyer Burger, REC Silicon, and others said the current “manufacturing renaissance” in the United States is under threat from heavily subsidized Chinese cells and modules that are alleged to be in infraction with antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) law.

SunPower to close business units, cut about 26% of workforce SunPower’s struggles reflect a market-wide retraction in residential solar, which has been battered by worsened economics from high interest rates and unfavorable policy and ratemaking changes. We did have an inkling when revenues reported last December reflected a 28% year-over-year decline, while operating expenses increased, and net income resulted in a loss of $123.9 million.

President Biden announced the ambition to upgrade 100,000 miles of transmission lines over the next five years  The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program intends to fund upgrades and modernization of the transmission and distribution system to increase reliability and resilience to prepare the grid for extreme weather as well as to ensure delivery of affordable, clean electricity to all communities across the nation.

IRS issues final guidance for clean energy tax credit transferability Under a tax credit transfer transaction, renewable energy developers and owners are essentially able to sell tax credits for cash, making financing easier for new clean energy projects. The transferability option is generally open to the entities that are not covered by the direct pay option.

NREL updates interactive chart of solar cell efficiency The highest research cell efficiency recorded in the chart is 47.6%, for a four-junction cell developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. Also included is the 33.9% world record efficiency achieved in November by Longi for a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell and the 27.09% efficiency achieved by the same company for a heterojunction back contact solar cell.

Qcells leads petition to revoke bifacial exemption The bifacial exemption may be revoked once again, this time by the Biden Administration following a petition by Qcells, which has a large manufacturing footprint in the United States. Reuters reported that, Qcells, the solar division of Korean conglomerate Hanwha, sent the formal petition to the U.S. Trade Representative on Feb. 23 requesting the exemption to be revoked.

Quoted solar prices decreased on the marketplace, falling 3.5% to $2.80  For the first time since 2021, quoted solar prices decreased on the marketplace, falling 3.5% to $2.80 per watt for quotes in the second half of 2023. The median system size over that period was 11.3 kW, leading to an average quoted system price of $31,640 (before any associated tax credits or incentives). These prices are the lowest since mid-2020.

DOE lays out roadmap to advance interconnections of renewables The report presents 35 interconnection improvement solutions developed through a DOE stakeholder engagement process, known as the Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) program.

Puerto Rico net metering law at risk  Central to Puerto Rico’s future success with residential solar is a law that extended the territory’s net metering policy for solar through 2031. Yet that law, known as Act 10-2024, has been challenged by the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) for Puerto Rico, a body created by federal law.

Important Q1 solar policies across 50 states  The Q1 2024 report by NC Clean Energy Technology Center finds that 43 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico took a total of 163 actions related to distributed solar policy and rate design. Read about what works for or against the advancement of solar energy.

California Supreme Court takes a look at NEM 3.0  The controversial rooftop solar rulemaking decision has risen to the Supreme Court of California, with the state’s highest court granting review for a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Eyes were on the sky for the 2024 solar eclipse  With an estimated 6.5 GW of solar in the path of the eclipse, load balancing, battery storage and the significance of solar energy in the U.S. was brought front and center.

Texas, now the number one state for solar, is seeing a drop in use of natural gas  The Lone Star State is seeing tangible changes to its daily electricity supply, lowering the need for natural gas peaker plants, said the Energy Information Administration.

Despite opposition, 4.95 MW agrivoltaic community solar project in Illinois moves ahead Lightstar Renewables’ Nesler Road project will grow hay along with enough solar energy to power 1,100 Illinois homes.

Renewables and storage interconnection backlog grew about 30% last year  With grid interconnection reform yet to take place, solar and energy storage wait in line for studies to be completed. The growing backlog of projects awaiting grid interconnection studies called a major bottleneck for project development, according to a recent study by Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.

Community solar provider Nexamp announced it has secured a $520 million capital raise led by Manulife Investment Management, with participation from existing investors Diamond Generating Corporation and Generate Capital.

The half-billion-dollar deal is expected to help the company expedite deployment of its national community solar project pipeline and expand on developer partnerships in new and existing markets.

Community solar is a fast-growing segment in the United States, expanding access to solar to customers that may not have a suitable roof or finances for rooftop residential solar. It is typically a subscription-based service under which a customer subscribes to a portion of an off-site solar array and receives credits on their electricity bill for the power generated by the solar asset.

Smaller than their utility-scale counterparts, community solar projects often opt for development on capped landfills, brownfield sites, highway rights-of-way, and other developed lands. This more distributed design for solar projects can help alleviate grid bottlenecks, reduce land development, and lower high-power transmission costs when compared to a centralized utility-scale design.

“This unprecedented investment reflects swelling confidence in the ability of independent renewable energy providers to reimagine outmoded infrastructure and reshape our grid,” said Zaid Ashai, chief executive officer, Nexamp.

Nexamp’s growth has been supercharged in recent years due in part to the Inflation Reduction Act, which has significant carve-outs for projects that serve low-income customers, are sited on brownfields and more. The company announced a second national headquarters in Chicago and it has stated a plan for more than $2 billion in investments in energy infrastructure in Illinois, which has among the nation’s most robust community solar markets.

Currently Nexamp serves nearly 80,000 customers with over 1.5 GW of projects either operational or in construction. The company has several gigawatts of projects in its pipeline in over 20 markets and the “combined potential to serve over one million customers in the coming years.”

In August 2023, Nexamp made the largest procurement order in U.S. history for the community solar sector by agreeing to purchase 1.5 GW of solar modules from Heliene. The modules are produced in North America, with Heliene operating factories in Ontario, Canada, Florida, and Minnesota.

“The infrastructure transition relies on the rapid deployment of proven technology solutions,” said investor Scott Jacobs, chief executive officer and co-founder Generate Capital. “Nexamp has been at the forefront of a distributed energy revolution in the United States, and we’re thrilled to expand our partnership.”

Free solar projection tool beats commercial competition  NYSolarCast, a solar projection tool developed by the state of New York to handle its growing base of solar power facilities, demonstrated equal or superior performance compared to competing commercial alternatives, according to a year-long analysis.

Illinois agrivoltaic project successfully permitted, despite local challenge  The 4.95 MW Nesler Road agrivoltaic/community solar project will be installed on 36 acres and will grow hay along with generating enough clean, renewable solar energy to power 1,100 Illinois homes each year.

Livestream shows how eclipse impacts solar power production across the U.S.  The 2024 solar eclipse will bring a few minutes of total darkness to twelve states as it cuts its path from Texas to Maine, and interest in how it will affect solar production brings to light the importance of solar energy on today’s grid.

Federal community solar program extends $31 average monthly bill savings to low-income households Residents in eligible states can save on their electricity bills by subscribing to community solar via the Clean Energy Connector software. The Department of Energy is inviting more states to join the program, which vets solar providers and integrates consumer protections.

Low-income households are now able to save on their electricity bills by signing up for a Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Health and Human Services community solar program. The Clean Energy Connector is a new software platform extending access to community solar subscriptions.

Community solar is an alternative to rooftop residential solar. Rather than placing solar panels on the roof, which may be inaccessible to renters, low-income customers, and roofs with excessive shading or obstructions, community solar connects ratepayers with off-site solar. Community solar customers typically subscribe to a portion of an off-site solar facility’s capacity and receive credit on their utility bills for the electricity generated by the solar facility.

The Clean Energy Connector was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The software is expected to enable state community solar program administrators to thoroughly vet solar asset providers that must adhere to state consumer protection laws and savings requirements to participate in the platform. The Connector extends access to Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) eligible households.

“We can’t claim to be serious about a clean energy future until it’s an option for everyone, not just those with the extra resources available to invest in technologies like solar,” said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

The initial phase of the federally run Clean Energy Connector program is offering subscriptions in Washington D.C., Illinois, and New Mexico. The Biden-Harris administration said this phase is expected to extend $15 million in annual savings to 40,000 households, which equates to about $31 in average monthly savings per household per month.

NREL reported that community solar has the technical potential to serve more than 53 million households and over 300,000 businesses in the U.S. that cannot access rooftop solar, representing nearly 1 terawatt of potential community solar capacity.

“Renewable energy is by far the cheapest form of power and now, thanks to innovative solutions developed under the Biden-Harris Administration, more households across America can access the health and savings that solar power provides,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.

The program is in pursuit of a federal target of enabling 5 million households to connect with community solar, leading to a targeted $1 billion in energy bill savings by 2025.

DOE stated intent to expand the Clean Energy Connector to additional states throughout 2024 and 2025. Additional pilot states must satisfy the following requirements:

• Active community solar programs with specific measures to ensure access for low- to moderate-income customers. The program design must enable minimum savings requirements for such customers and include specified consumer protections.
• New low-income community solar capacity coming online and are seeking subscribers within the next year.
• Secured support for the Connector from both the state community solar and state LIHEAP administering agencies. The agencies must agree to collaborate and commit staff resources to pilot the Connector.

DOE is holding a webinar on April 10 for states that meet the criteria above and are interested in joining the Connector program.

Lightstar Renewables, a Boston-based community solar developer, announced the successful permitting of a 4.95 MW agrivoltaic community solar project in Illinois.

The Nesler Road project will be installed on 36 acres and is expected to generate enough clean, renewable solar energy to power 1,100 Illinois homes each year, while cultivating hay; providing necessary nutrients to grazing livestock during winter months and drought periods, according to Lightstar Renewables.

The project’s special use permit application was submitted to Kane County in October 2023 and was unanimously approved by the County Board on March 12^th, 2024, after receiving approval by the county zoning board of appeals and county development committee.

“This project, now fully permitted, exemplifies the immense value in safeguarding family land from sprawling development. Keeping the land active in agriculture production, while ensuring energy freedom and resilience for the community, is a benchmark in American land stewardship,” expressed Cecelia Stephens, development manager at Lightstar, who spearheaded the permitting process. “Projects like this one highlight how rural communities can be catalysts for economic development while maintaining their agricultural heritage.”

Neighbors appeal

Lightstar Renewables told <b>pv magazine USA</b> that neighbors raised concerns about the impact the solar array may have on property values. A neighboring horse farm also was concerned about its viewshed and about sound, as they did not want their horses to be spooked by any potential noise from the solar site. Lightstar came back to the zoning board with a revised site plan that further distanced the solar array from the horse farm. In addition, they provided a property value study, a sound study, and a comprehensive landscaping plan that included vegetative screening and fencing along the parts of the array that border the horse farm. A property assessment expert, sound engineer and landscape architect were all present at the second zoning board meeting, and neighbors’ concerns were successfully alleviated.

The next step is for the project to be awarded capacity in the Illinois Adjustable Block The Illinois Shines program was expanded in 2021 and supports the development of on-site solar (distributed generation) as well as community solar projects. Program (also called Illinois Shines). After capacity is awarded, construction could begin as early as Q4 2024.

Because this will be an agrivoltaics installation with vegetation planted between the rows of solar modules, the developer will use a single axis tracker system that’s elevated 4 to 10 feet, depending on the tilt/tracking position. The array is designed to accommodate equipment that will be used to cultivate and harvest hay, which will be grown under the panels. Lightstar Renewables said that specific spacing and height considerations were made while engineering this project to ensure safe operation of farming equipment within the array.

The project is owned by Nesler Road Solar LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lightstar Renewables, LLC. Lightstar intends to own and operate this project for the lifetime of the project.

Lightstar Renewables is active in 15 states and currently has a 1 GW pipeline. In September the company announced it had been acquired by an affiliate of Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation.

In the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) 2024 Community Power Scorecard, Illinois is the only one state that scored an above average grade with a B, 11 earned a C average, 13 received Ds, and 26 states failed.

ILSR evaluates eighteen facets of state energy policies as they are written and assesses how those policies help or hinder local clean energy. States earn high scores by supporting locally owned distributed generation, empowering communities to pursue their own energy goals, demonstrating a plan for an equitable transition to clean energy, and holding utilities accountable for inflated costs and potential abuses of power.

The 18 policies evaluated on the questions shown below, and states can earn a maximum of 88 points. A state can earn negative points when having a policy is worse than not having a policy.

Net metering policy is one of the key policy criteria evaluated in the report. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) offers model net metering rules with two small modifications; the word  “reasonable” should be added as a qualifier for any fixed charges that will not be able to be offset by on-site power generation; the policy should require excess credits leftover when the ratepayer termi­nates service to be gifted to the state’s low-income assistance program.

A state can earn a maximum of 10 points in the net metering policy category. States that scored a 10 on net metering include Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois and Maine. Georgia and Alabama received zeros.

ILSR also evaluates state-level community solar policies. Community solar provides a way for people to benefit from solar energy who may be unable to install solar either due to financial restrictions or because they do not have a suitable rooftop for solar. ILSR looks for virtual net metering in the community solar policy, which allows many individuals to receive credit for the electricity generated by a single solar facility.

ILSR states that “a model community solar policy has no cap, has a fair compensation rate, simplifies the billing process for subscribers, meaningfully accounts for the challenge of reaching low- and moderate-income (LMI) subscribers, and rewards other beneficial development or small subscriber-friendly practices”.  The report notes that after changes were made last year, Maryland’s community solar policy is now an example of one that meets all the criteria. A state can earn 13 points for its community solar policy.

Other policies examined for the scorecard include third-party ownership, interconnection, hosting capacity analysis, community choice energy, franchise authority, gas ban preemption, renewable portfolio standards, integrated resource plan approval, and more.

With 26 states failing and just one receiving above a C indicate that much work is to be done on energy policies that by advancing shared, local decision-making authority and holding utilities accountable are fostering a clean energy future for all.

In looking at state policy, ILSR compiles data from the Center for Biological Diversity/Energy and Policy Institute, Clean Energy Works, DSIRE, Energy Justice Lab, Freeing the Grid (IREC and Vote Solar), Inside Climate News, NARUC, and SolarReviews.

As of the first half of 2023, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) reported that over 5.8 GW of community solar had been installed across the United States. There are 41 states with at least one community solar project installed and operational, with at least 19 states recognizing the benefits of shared renewables by encouraging their growth through policy and programs. 

This sector is expected to grow considerably in a short time, with Wood Mackenzie projecting that cumulative installations could reach 14 GW by 2028, more than doubling the total in less than five years. 

Community solar allows residents, small businesses, organizations, and municipalities to subscribe to a portion of a solar asset’s electricity generation to receive credit on their electricity bills for the power it generates. One of the major benefits of community solar is it opens access to customers that may not have a suitable roof or financial situation for rooftop solar. 

As consumer protection practices, Department of Energy recommends that community solar programs ensure subscribers receive about 20% savings on their electricity bills, are not assessed exit or termination fees, and that compliance mechanisms are in place to ensure the community solar assets deliver on their expected generation. 

Community solar is in a nascent stage in many states, and requires more program structuring, regulatory support, and community engagement to build out. The report points to landmark markets like New York and Illinois that can serve as models for implementing a successful community solar program. 

“Near-term growth in Wood Mackenzie’s national outlook is driven by robust pipelines in existing state markets like New York and Illinois. Longer-term, newer state markets support lasting growth as mature markets saturate. Additionally, developers will begin to benefit from the incentives within the Inflation Reduction Act as soon as this year,” said Caitlin Connelly, research analyst for Wood Mackenzie. 

Wood Mackenzie expects 7.6 GWdc of new community solar will come online in existing state markets between 2024 and 2028, and the national total of community solar installations are expected to pass 10 GW of cumulative capacity in 2026.

The report said residential customers are representing an increasingly larger share of community solar subscriptions, suggesting a shift in focus for developers and providers. Low- and middle-income (LMI) customers rose from 2% of the customer base to 10% from 2022 to 2023, with costs to subscribe these customers declining 30% year-over-year. 

“The early years of community solar served almost exclusively commercial anchor customers; however, stricter LMI requirements in state programs and the availability of LMI-focused federal incentives are beginning to reveal a more well-rounded, community-focused subscriber profile,” said Connelly. 

There is some variability in the 14 GW by 2028 forecast by Wood Mackenzie. A bull case would raise the total by 13%, while the bear case decreases the national outlook by 38%. 

The ramp-up in installations is expected to be made possible in part by federal funding. The community solar industry will begin to experience the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act as soon as this year, said Wood Mackenzie, and LMI credit adders will begin to be awarded. 

Wood Mackenzie noted that the LMI tax credit adder was in high demand, with applications totaling over eight times the allotted capacity. The industry also awaits the awards from the $7 billion Solar for All fund, which is expected to roll out in summer 2024. 

“I’m increasingly confident that we can leverage the transformational innovation of community solar products and the flexibility of programs to meet a diverse set of grid and policy goals in states across the country,” said Jeff Cramer, chief executive officer of the Coalition for Community Solar Access. “And what’s really exciting is that we’re seeing a significant uptick of residential and low-to-moderate income subscribers that will only grow exponentially as markets focus on these crucial customers.” 

On the floor at RE+ NE 2024: Concrete racking, no caulk needed, basketball, and more RE+ Northeast 2024 showcased a plethora of solar innovations and industry advancements, from concrete ballast racking systems to cutting-edge battery technology, as 3,500 industry professionals gathered in Boston despite the cold weather.

California regulators approve $1.9 billion investment plan for zero-emission vehicle infrastructure The plan is set to create the most extensive charging and hydrogen refueling network in the country.

Standard Solar acquires 84 MW community solar portfolio in Illinois Construction of the 14 projects in the portfolio is expected to begin this year.

Blue Ridge Power plans 164 MW solar tracker-based plant in Virginia Soltec to supply SF7 trackers that were introduced to the U.S. market last month, and are not only designed to adapt to terrain, but can be locally manufactured, the company reports.

Verde Technologies advances solar perovskite thin film roll-to-roll coating  A spinoff of the University of Vermont, specializing in single junction and all thin-film tandem perovskite solar technologies, demonstrated that its coating processes are transferable to existing commercial roll-to-roll manufacturing lines.

Utility-scale solar had a record year in 2023. It’s set to double in 2024 The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects nearly 63 GW of utility-scale electric capacity additions, most of which are solar and batteries.

Merida Aerospace developing perovskite PV cells for space Merida Aerospace, a U.S. aerospace company, is developing perovskite solar cells for low-Earth-orbit satellites. It says perovskite solar cells could be a more cost-effective and efficient option than traditional cells.

Solar wafer prices momentarily stable, masking turbulence of industry consolidation In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

Corporate PPAs hit record high in 2023, says BloombergNEF BloombergNEF says in a new report that corporations publicly announced 46 GW of solar and wind power purchase agreements (PPAs) in 2023, up 12% year on year. It says the increase was driven by a surge of activity in Europe.

Standard Solar, a commercial and community solar project developer, has acquired an 84 MW community solar portfolio from New Leaf Energy,  a renewable energy developer headquartered in Lowell, Mass. 

The portfolio of ground-mounted community solar facilities includes three sets of sites across Illinois. Six sites have a 47 MW capacity, four have a 12 MW capacity and another four have a 25 MW capacity. Construction is scheduled to begin this year, with some projects expected to be completed on or before December and others throughout 2025. 

Standard Solar and New Leaf Energy have collaborated on 20 other projects across three states.

In March 2023, Standard Solar acquired New Leaf Energy’s 21 MW portfolio of projects in New York and Massachusetts. The Copicut facility in Freetown, Mass., has 12 MW of solar and 22 MWh of storage. The 2.79 MW Main Street Newbury site is a ground-mounted solar array in Byfield, Mass., and the Saunders Settlement project in Sanborn, New York, features over 6 MW of solar and is expected to produce about 8,861 MWh each year. 

In November 2023, Standard Solar acquired New Leaf Energy’s 12 MW community solar portfolio in Chatham and Kilmarnock, Va. Standard Solar states its two Kilmarnock Va., projects with a combined capacity of over 7 MW will serve the energy needs of low-and-moderate income customers. 

Standard Solar’s new 84 MW portfolio is expected to significantly contribute to Illinois’ renewable energy goals, which include establishing 100% renewable electricity generation by 2050. 

Illinois Shines

The Illinois Shines program moving the state toward its clean energy targets. Launched by the Illinois Power Agency (IPA), the scheme provides financial incentives for community solar projects across six categories: small distributed generation, large distributed generation, traditional community solar, community-driven community solar, public schools, and equity-eligible contractors. Incentives are provided through the purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs), which are issued when a renewable energy source produces 1 MWh of electricity.

Illinois sets incentive amounts for each REC generated by participating solar projects each year. Incentives are paid to qualifying approved vendors, which pass savings onto customers. Approved vendors are entities that submit project applications to the Illinois Shines Program and demonstrate they will assume financial liability in the Illinois Shines contracts with utilities. 

“Amidst a year of record-breaking temperatures and rising energy costs in the state, Illinois is providing its residents a clear path to clean, affordable energy for a more sustainable future,” said Harry Benson, the director of business development at Standard Solar. 

Read more about solar in Illinois here.

The 26 community solar installations planned by Summit Ridge Energy are part of the Illinois Shines program, which is legislation passed in 2016 that supports the development of distributed generation as well as community solar projects.

The solar projects in the new portfolio will average about 3 MW and will use bifacial solar modules mounted on single-axis solar trackers. The majority of these projects will be designed with pollinator-friendly habitats.

Summit Ridge reports that Castillo Engineering will provide design and engineering services on the portfolio, with many of the projects beginning construction in Q1 2024. All 26 are expected to be completed by Q4 2024, at which point Costello and Summit Ridge Energy together will have completed over 120 projects totaling over 375 MW combined. By the end of the year, the two will collectively have a community solar portfolio of over 500 MW in Illinois.

“We chose to work with Castillo Engineering on this portfolio of projects due to their extensive community solar experience within Illinois, their Project Management Office, as well as their highly customized solutions,” said Pradeep Mohanraj, vice president of engineering at Summit Ridge Energy.

Illinois has a strong and growing solar market mainly as a result of the state’s renewable portfolio standard that requires that 25% of its energy comes from renewable sources by 2025. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the state had 2.35 GW of solar installed as of 2023 and that is expected to grow by more than 1,700% over the next five years.

Illinois is now ranked as the fourth largest U.S. state in terms of community solar operating capacity, according to the Institute on Local Self Reliance, with approximately 220 MW installed. Collectively, Summit Ridge Energy and Castillo Engineering will have a community solar portfolio of over 500 MW in Illinois by the end of 2024.

Overall, community solar capacity in the U.S. is expected to increase from about 6 GW in 2023 to 14 GW by 2028, according to Wood Mackenzie

A recently completed portfolio of seven community solar projects in Illinois and New York is expected to help approximately 5,000 low- to moderate-income (LMI) households. Additional subscribers will be public schools, a municipality, non-LMI households, and various private organizations, including two affordable housing providers, a community recreation center, religious institutions, and a housing association.

The seven projects boast a combined capacity of 14.4 MWac, estimated to avert 667,788 metric tons of CO₂ emissions or the equivalent to eliminating 748 million pounds of coal burned over the lifespan of the projects.

The six Illinois community solar projects are located in Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, Monee, Granite City, and Rockford, and will serve qualifying customers of ComEd and Ameren. The New York solar project is located in Oswego County and will serve qualifying customers of National Grid.

Reactivate, a renewable energy company, in collaboration with Walmart and U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance closed a tax equity transaction on the portfolio.

According to Reactivate, 90% of the cost savings delivered by the projects will go to LMI households who will see a minimum 20% reduction on their retail electricity costs, up to the amount of their subscription to project output. Total customer savings from the projects in this investment are projected to exceed $17 million over the lifespan of the projects.

“Projects like Reactivate’s are shining examples of how renewable energy developers can distribute the direct benefits of grid-decarbonization to historically underserved communities,” said Clark Conlisk, vice president, assistant director of project management & impact capital at U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance. “For the LMI households subscribed to the project, the money that no longer must be spent to keep on the lights and A/C is a benefit to real people and empowers them to spend or save as they choose.”

Reactivate, founded by Invenergy and Lafayette Square, specializes in developing, owning and operating renewable energy projects that improve the lives LMI households and energy transition communities across the country. The company focuses on community solar, commercial and industrial, small utility-scale, energy storage, and EV charging projects.

Walmart set a goal to bring at least 2 GW of community solar projects in service by the end of 2030, and the retailer reports that this investment is an example of its energy transformation strategy of focusing on projects that make access to clean energy affordable, reliable, and equitable.

“Serving our customers and communities is core to our purpose at Walmart and our support of this high-impact portfolio demonstrates our continued commitment to that purpose,” said Frank Palladino, vice president, renewable energy strategy at Walmart. “These projects will assist in building a stronger and cleaner grid, expand access to clean energy for underserved communities and help people save money on their utility bills.”

Maryland YMCA to cut energy costs with rooftop solar Secure Solar Futures installed a 222 kW solar array on a Maryland YMCA, which is expected to save about $100,000 on electricity bills.

California to grant $52 million for vehicle-to-grid home energy stations Smart home energy company Dcbel was awarded grant money for the deployment of EV charge-controlling devices that can respond to dynamic grid price signals.

Plus Power to construct 175 MW / 350 MWh energy storage in Maine The Cross Town project will add 175 MW of storage to New England’s grid while helping to ensure Maine meets its 2030 and 2050 decarbonization goals.

Rain insufficient for removing tree pollen from solar panels  An analysis by NREL in North Carolina reveals that various types of tree pollen can reduce solar panel efficiency by over 15%. Unlike the immediate improvements assumed to follow heavy rain, recovery of performance post-pollen season is gradual. Manual cleaning post-rain can boost performance by 5% to 11%.

EcoFlow battery generator can back up a house for up to a month  The Delta Pro Ultra, shown this week at CES 2024, works with multiple energy sources for whole-home backup, solar power storage and off-grid use.

Nautilus Solar acquires 16 community solar projects in Illinois  The community solar specialist expands its footprint into the Midwest with the acquisition of this 75.6 MW portfolio.  

Yaskawa Solectria Solar announced it will exhibit its new XGI 1500-250 series of utility-scale string inverters at the RE+ 2023 event, September 11-14 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Solectria’s full line of inverters range from 25 kW to 250kW, with string combiners and web-based monitoring for all sizes of solar arrays. The new XGI series inverters are Made in USA at its Illinois facility, made of U.S. and global components. The company said its products qualify for the domestic content bonus tax credit within the Inflation Reduction Act.

The XGI 1500-250 series was developed in collaboration with U.S. solar panel manufacturer First Solar and are optimized for the company’s solar modules. Tesla PowerPack Microgrid systems have also been tested and demonstrated for compatibility with the XGI 1500 series.

The inverters feature Silicon Carbide technology and have an electrically grounded DC input for optimal performance and longevity.

“As the largest and longest-standing U.S. Manufacturer of PV inverters for Commercial and Utility applications, Yaskawa Solectria Solar is proud to showcase our newest XGI 1500 inverter models and energy storage solutions at RE+ this year” said Mark Goodreau, general manager at Yaskawa Solectria Solar.  “We look forward to helping project developers and owners to qualify for the 10% Domestic Content Bonus Credit by designing PV systems with our U.S. manufactured inverters.”

The XGI 1500 series comes in output ratings between 175 kW and 250 kW, with 480 Vac and 600 Vac configurations. The absolute maximum input voltage is 1500 Vdc and the peak efficiency is 99%, while the CEC rated efficiency is 98.5%.

For communications and monitoring, the inverters are WiFi and Ethernet compatible and have SunSpec Modbus TCP/IP monitoring. Firmware updates can be performed remote or local.

The inverters have passed IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 standards for safety and the enclosure is polyester powder-coated aluminum that is NEMA 4X, IEC IP66 and Type 3R rated. Each unit measures 29.5 inches by 44.3 inches and 15.4 inches deep and weighs 290 lbs. The inverters come standard with a 5 year warranty with option for 10 years.

Find the products on display at RE+ Las Vegas, booth 925, Sands Level 2. Read the full spec sheet here.

Almost 200,000 job-years could be created by the 167 GW of large-scale solar, wind and storage projects awaiting interconnection studies by PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, said the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) in its report Power Up PJM.

A lack of transmission capacity due to “insufficient” transmission planning is a “root cause of the unprecedented backlog” of interconnection requests across grid operators nationwide, the report says.

Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana have the greatest number of job-years awaiting PJM action, as shown in the nearby bar chart from the report, which also shows the states fully or partly served by PJM. ACORE counted only direct and indirect construction, operation and maintenance jobs, not induced jobs due to increased economic activity in the region.

The 167 GW of pending renewables and storage projects are “eligible for PJM’s transition cycle,” the report says, referring to PJM’s plan, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to expedite interconnection studies for pending requests through early 2026, while closing its interconnection queue to new requests in the meantime.

ACORE pointed to a sharp decline in renewables projects in the PJM region reaching commercial operation, falling from 20.3% of renewable capacity entering PJM’s queue between 2011 and 2016, to 2.7% of renewable capacity entering PJM’s queue in the fifteen months starting January 1, 2017, citing data from Berkeley Lab.

The recent low success rate for renewables projects in PJM is largely due to “low spending on large-scale, high-voltage transmission” within the PJM region, said Noah Strand, an ACORE policy associate and the report’s author, on an ACORE webinar, citing a study from the nonprofit group RMI.

“It’s good to see PJM going in the right direction” said Brendan Casey, deputy director for economic analysis at the American Clean Power Association, in an apparent reference to PJM’s announced transition to cluster studies, which are more efficient than first-come, first-served studies, speaking on the webinar.

Yet he added that as the industry is currently building about 30 GW of renewables and storage capacity per year, “if we want to have a net-zero grid by 2035, we need to be building more like 90 to 100 gigawatts. And this means speeding up the interconnection processes, not just in PJM but across the country.”

The ACORE report recommended that PJM speed interconnection through transmission planning, accelerating transmission upgrades, additional staffing and automation.

ACORE also recommended that FERC require grid operators to consider grid-enhancing technologies and advanced conductors in the interconnection study process, and set “a more just framework” for allocating transmission upgrade costs associated with interconnection.

50 states solar incentives: California  California has long been the leader in solar adoption, investing over $90 billion in the technology to date.

Meyer Burger and BayWa r.e. sign 250 MW annual procurement deal  Two European energy companies, Meyer Burger and BayWa r.e., have finalized a contract for their U.S. operations in which the developer will purchase 1.25 GW of modules from the manufacturer’s Arizona facility from 2025 to 2029.

Chicago solar workforce training program honors graduates Reactivate’s inaugural cohort was trained in solar installation and design based on the criteria of NABCEP PV Associate certification.

Canadian Solar announces 5 GW Texas module factory Representing an investment of $250 million, the facility is expected to bring 1,500 jobs.

$7 billion in EPA grants to advance low-income residential and community solar  The “Solar for All” grant program is expected to begin accepting applications from states and other entities as early as this month, aiming to enable millions of families in low-income and disadvantaged communities to access solar energy.

Retrofitting solar farms with pollinators could yield up to $264 million in annual benefits for farmers  A new government research framework identifies farms using pollinator services within reach of existing solar facilities. The aim is to determine the financial benefits of these services for both farmers and solar landowners.

Cement manufacturer to generate 75% of onsite power with 25 MW solar array  Holcim plans to install solar on a 100-acre field site on the Alpena, Michigan property, which produces 2.4 million metric tons of cement per year, including the OneCem brand cement.

Reactivate, a nationwide solar training program that uses the Building Equity in Solar Training (BEST) protocol, this week honored the graduation of its first 12 program trainees in Chicago.

The milestone signifies the completion of a sixteen-week solar training program for 12 individuals from the Chicago area. The program has equipped graduates with the necessary skills and certifications for a career in solar energy and general building trades.

Reactivate’s inaugural cohort was trained in solar installation and design based on the criteria of the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) PV Associate certification. In addition the students were trained in solar technical, electrical applications, and industrial vehicle training, such as skid steer, scissor lift and forklift operations, to ensure they had transferable skills within and beyond the solar industry, Reactive spokeswoman Jeannette Torres told pv magazine USA.

Reactivate launched the Chicago program in February 2023 in partnership with GRID Alternatives, Solar Energy International, Jobs for the Future, and local workforce partners Elevate and Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County (CEDA).

The BEST program offers comprehensive training in solar energy installation and the building trades, encompassing various skills such as solar photovoltaic system installation, OSHA 30 certification, NABCEP preparation and exam, as well as essential skills development in leadership, teamwork, financial literacy, and workplace etiquette.

Reactivate graduate Shuron W. said:

You have given us an incredible opportunity that we did not take lightly. Your passion for solar has given us a whole new perspective, and we now understand that solar is the future. Regardless of the path each of us chooses in the solar industry – whether it’s becoming pro-installers, researchers, electricians, instructors, inspectors, or sales consultants – we are now equipped and prepared for the present and future that revolves around solar.

The BEST program offers paid training with materials provided, assistance with transportation and childcare, tutoring and counseling, bilingual support (English/Spanish), and guidance with job placement and apprenticeship transitioning.

The graduation keynote was delivered by Utopia Hill, chief executive officer of Reactivate, emphasizing environmental justice, inclusivity, and the future of renewable energy careers. Hill highlighted the ecological crisis and the opportunity it presents to create a more equitable and sustainable world by empowering marginalized communities.

Reactivate’s Utopia Hill said:

Graduates, this is your call to action. It’s about recognizing the impacts of pollution, climate change and environmental degradation disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. Let us be the driver of change and let your actions be the embodiment of hope. Inclusive environmentalism recognizes the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental issues and acknowledges that a just transition to a sustainable future must also be must also be a just transition for all.”

Reactivate is actively collaborating with partners to secure additional funding sources and aims to scale the BEST program nationwide. The program is calling for year-round cohorts that will empower thousands of individuals across the U.S. with the skills and opportunities for careers in the renewable energy industry.

For more information or to apply for the Reactive workforce program, click here.

Lafayette Square and Invenergy formed Reactivate in January 2022 as a community solar energy platform supporting development in underserved communities. The platform will finance, acquire, develop, and operate solar energy projects primarily serving LMI communities and areas disproportionately affected by the clean energy transition.

For drivers weighing the option of buying an electric vehicle (EV), range anxiety and battery fires have been proverbial hot topics, so to speak. Over time, consumers have also noticed that lithium-ion batteries have historically underperformed or shown to be less effective operating in freezing environments at or below zero degrees.

Current lithium-ion batteries use a liquid electrolyte. As particles and ions transfer within the liquid and as the liquid begins to freeze at sub-zero temperatures, an EV battery’s charging ability can be severely limited in cold temperatures. Various consumer studies by Kelly Blue Book and Consumer Reports found that EV driving range can be reduced by up to 25% in sub-freezing temperature conditions driving at normal highway speed.

According to a study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley National laboratories, researchers have developed a fluorine-containing electrolyte that performs well for EVs driving in sub-zero temperatures.

In conventional lithium-ion batteries, the electrolyte is a mixture of a salt (lithium hexafluorophosphate) and carbonate solvent such as ethylene carbonate. These solvents dissolve the salt to form a liquid. When freezing, the battery solvents’ cluster loses the ability to transport ions out of the cathode and pass through the electrolyte onto the anode.

Creating an antifreeze component to EV batteries, the DOE/LBNL research team investigated several fluorine-containing solvents. The team found a composition that had the lowest energy barrier for releasing lithium ions from the salt clusters at sub-zero temperature.

The team’s fluorinated electrolyte retained stable energy storage capacity for 400 charge-discharge cycles at negative 4 degrees F. Even at sub-zero temperature, the capacity was equivalent to that of a cell with a conventional carbonate-based electrolyte at room temperature, the research team found.

“Our team not only found an antifreeze electrolyte whose charging performance does not decline at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, but we also discovered, at the atomic level, what makes it so effective,” said Zhengcheng ​“John” Zhang, a senior chemist and group leader in Argonne’s Chemical Sciences and Engineering division.

This low-temperature electrolyte shows promise of working for batteries in electric vehicles, as well as in energy storage for electric grids and consumer electronics like computers and phones.

“Our research thus demonstrated how to tailor the atomic structure of electrolyte solvents to design new electrolytes for sub-zero temperatures,” said John Zhang, Argonne group leader and senior chemist of energy storage.

The antifreeze electrolyte has a bonus property. It is safer than carbonate-based electrolytes in current use, since the antifreeze battery technology will not catch fire.

Zhang said the DOE/LBNL research group is seeking to patent the antifreeze electrolyte technology now and secure an industrial partner to adapt it with one of their designs for lithium-ion battery production.

The study was initially published in Advanced Energy Materials. Additional authors include Argonne’s Dong-Joo Yoo, Qian Liu and Minkyu Kim. LBNL contributors include Orion Cohen and Kristin Persson.

The research study was funded by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is investing $26 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for eight selected projects to demonstrate how solar, wind, storage and other clean energy resources can support a reliable and efficient power grid.

The Solar and Wind Grid Services and Reliability Demonstration program will deploy clean energy technologies with a goal of learning more about technologies that support a resilient grid that automatically adjusts to changing demands.

“As threats and climate risks to America’s energy infrastructure continue to evolve, DOE is laser-focused on ensuring our power grid is strong and reliable as it incorporates a historic level of renewable resources,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.

The program is funding eight projects at 15 sites in 13 states and Puerto Rico, and will involve research teams consisting of utilities, laboratories, universities and industry. The teams will test how wind and solar plants can more reliably transmit clean energy and protect against disruptions to the network of high-voltage power lines that carry electricity from centralized generation sources. Monitoring and test controls will also be implemented that allow the grid to restore power quickly and efficiently after power outages.

The selected projects fall into two topic areas: Wind and solar grid services design, implementation, and demonstration; Protection of bulk power systems with high contribution from inverter-based resources (IBRs).

The Electric Power Research Institute was awarded $3.4 million for the Collaborative Ancillary Service Accelerator for Renewables (CASAR) project. This project will develop a multi-level control architecture for power systems that supports ancillary services to the grid, including active and reactive power event and non-event reserve services. This project will work with multiple balancing authorities and utilities to perform demonstrations of grid services at sites across Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico, and California.

GE Renewable Energy was awarded $3.5 million for the Grid-ready Wind project. The work is primarily taking place at the Great Pathfinder wind power plant in Iowa, and it includes a commercial-scale demonstration of grid services using emerging grid-forming technology in Type-III wind turbines with electricity output controlled by converters. This project is jointly funded by WETO and SETO.

Portland General Electric Company was awarded $4.5 million for a project that will develop a 300 MW wind, solar and battery storage combined power plant. The project aims to demonstrate grid services using mixed grid-forming and grid-following technologies at the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility in Oregon, North America’s first energy center to combine wind, solar, and energy storage systems in one location.

Veritone was awarded $3.9 million for the Advanced Reliability and Resiliency Operations for Wind and Solar (ARROWS) project, which aims to boost confidence in renewable power investment using Veritone’s artificial intelligence-powered distributed energy resource management system (iDERMS) technology. The AI-powered platform will be used to forecast, optimize, and control IBRs on New Mexico’s power grid in real-time.

Con Edison of New York was awarded $3 million with an awardee cost share of $1.4 million for a project that demonstrates reliable protection for an IBR-dominant grid. The project aims to improve existing grid protection strategies and enable new technologies to maintain reliable system protection in systems with a very large number of IBRs.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was awarded $2 million with a cost share of $600,000 for the Protection of Inverter-dependent Transmission Systems (PROTECT-IT) project. NREL will partner with University of Idaho, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Tesla, and the Public Service Company of New Mexico to investigate the impact of high levels of IBRs on bulk power transmission protection systems.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company was awarded $2.5 million with a cost share of $700,000 for development of a sensitivity-driven wide area protection (SWAP) coordination tool for high penetration of IBRs. The intent is to develop an analysis tool that can be incorporated in commercial platforms used by transmission utilities and system operators nationwide.

University of Illinois at Chicago was awarded $3 million with a cost share of $1.1 million for a project that uses an innovative modeling, protection, and control framework to ensure reliable operation of a bulk power system with 100% of its generation coming from IBRs, which have much different fault characteristics than traditional synchronous generators. The IBR model under development by this project will be able to perform accurate protection simulation and be easily implemented in the existing commercial simulation software. This project will demonstrate protection strategies in Illinois and Puerto Rico.

Just two months after the receivership and takeover of Silicon Valley Bank by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, now under the ownership of First Citizens Bank, SVB has reemerged as a lender to the solar development market.

The lender closed a $203 million debt financing to support construction of a 100 MW multi-state distributed generation solar portfolio of Pivot Energy, a Denver-based community, commercial and industrial solar development company.

Tax investor Foss & Company is committing an initial tax equity round in the portfolio, which comprises 35 community solar and C&I projects planned to reach commercial operation (COD) between mid-2023 and mid-2024.

Community solar subscribers in the portfolio include municipalities, healthcare facilities, food service, and retail companies, as well as 8,000 low-to-moderate income (LMI) residential households.

With community solar projects in Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Hawaii, Maryland, and California, the portfolio represents what the company said is one of the most extensive LMI solar portfolios developed to date in terms of diversity and geographic reach.

SunCentral, a community solar subscriber management and acquisition platform, will manage the community solar portfolio through operations.

The debt transaction led by SVB includes a construction loan, tax equity bridge loan, and term loan. SVB led the financing as coordinating lead arranger (CLA) and sole bookrunner.  Other lenders committed to the DG solar portfolio include J.P. Morgan, National Bank of Canada, Bank United, Cadence and Comerica. The debt facility also represents J.P. Morgan’s first debt issuance to the community solar market.

The SVB financing represents Pivot’s second debt syndication closed with the SVB-led lender group. In 2022, the developer raised $190 million in credit to finance a 90 MW community solar portfolio in New York, Illinois, Colorado, Minnesota, California, and New Jersey.

Bret Labadie, chief financial officer for Pivot Energy, told pv magazine USA that for the new financing, Pivot had been in the market since Q4 2022 and were set to close the second debt facility with Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023, but the federal takeover of the commercial bank put the financing process on hold.

“Each of the banks in this syndicate worked with Pivot and we were able to navigate the temporary uncertainty to retain the initial terms of the deal,” Labadie said.  “It’s a testament to the leadership from each of the parties that we were able to stay the course and see this loan through.”

“We are pleased to have led and structured this portfolio of solar projects across 35 sites in 7 key markets,” said Bret Turner, head of project finance, Silicon Valley Bank. “We appreciate the confidence and trust placed in the team at SVB to continue moving this asset class forward.”

When combined with the Foss tax equity contribution, the total financing package enables Pivot to construct, operate, and own the multi-year and multi-state portfolio.

“This initiative will expand access to clean, affordable energy for small businesses and low-income households, reinforcing our commitment to invest in tax equity within under-served market segments,” said Bryen Alperin, managing director at Foss & Company.

CohnReznick Capital was Pivot’s financial advisor on the transaction. Stoel Rives was counsel to the company. Milbank represented SVB while Winthrop & Weinstine represented Foss.

The financing is Pivot’s second project development portfolio to be built, owned, and operated since the company’s June 2021 acquisition by Energy Capital Partners (ECP).

Safe asset class

Silicon Valley Bank, the 16^th largest U.S. commercial bank, was shuttered on March 9, 2023 and placed into receivership by the FDIC. After parent company SVB Financial filed for bankruptcy on March 17, First Citizens Bank entered an agreement on March 27 to acquire Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, effectively resuming the corporate debt financing platform of the bank.

SVB extended $56 billion of venture capital financing to climate-technology focused companies in 2021. Several solar development executives told pv magazine USA for the April print edition of pv magazine that the bank’s demise was not expected to create widespread challenges to development clients in the community and commercial and industrial (C&I) solar market, as well as utility scale solar companies.

“The biggest threat to the pace of project development is definitely not available capital, it’s the significant and ever-increasing pushback on project siting and land use at the local level,” said Mark Richardson, chief executive officer of U.S. Light Energy, a community solar developer in upstate New York, told pv magazine USA. “We are not even close to operating at full speed, because of local opposition, not because of a lack of financing,” he said.

(Read more: “Solar and the SVB banking crisis“)

High Impact Solar Solutions, an Irvine, Calif.-based solar developer for multi-family housing communities, sees Massachusetts and Illinois as solid new markets where it is undertaking expansion efforts, John B. Wood, founder and chief executive officer, tells pv magazine USA.

Wood said High Impact is looking to participate in community solar project development for low- and-moderate income (LMI) housing communities, which is an extension of its core competency for developing rooftop solar and car canopy projects for senior center communities, LMI housing customers and other residential groups primarily in southern California.

High Impact is currently planning on submitting applications for more than 65 projects for the anticipated Q3 2023 low-and-moderate income (LMI) communities adder, Wood said, even though the developer has yet to see the application yet based on the newness of the federal Inflation Reduction Act protocol.  About 40 of the 65 projects are within California LMI communities, and the remainder are in new markets like the Northeast, Maryland and Illinois, he added.

To date, the company has utilized the resources of about 70 regional sub-contractors and engineers to install rooftop and car canopies in its first market of California, and continues to use engineering, procurement and construction contractors in new markets as well, Wood said.

The company is working with Sunrun, SunPower and Grid Alternatives on construction of current and future projects, Wood said.

High Impact has contributed projects in LMI communities that qualify for statewide incentives from California’s Multifamily Affordable Housing (MASH) and Solar for Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) programs, Wood said. These programs date back to 2008 and 2017, respectively, and provide rebates for low-income solar projects to the tune of $1.10 per watt to $2.70/W if the system generates more than half the customer’s load. Under SOMAH, the state has awarded additional $100 million of rebates annually for solar systems deployed on multi-family affordable housing buildings, which amounts to a credit of $3.20 per watt (ac) on system installations.

Wood was quick to point out that the company is grandfathered into the net energy metering or NEM 2.0 standards in California.  For another nine years the company will not be subject to changes from the state’s changing rooftop solar framework imparted by the December 2022 NEM 3.0 decision by the California Public Utilities Commission to reduce the value of solar energy exported from rooftops.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s 30% solar investment tax credit combined with 20% of added credit for designated low-income community deployments of clean energy projects creates a tailwind for the project developer, and should facilitate High Impact’s expansion efforts in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic markets, Wood said.

Case study

High Impact is working with the Retirement Housing Foundation, a Long Beach, Calif., non-profit group that owns over 200 senior center assisted living and affordable housing units across the U.S., to deploy rooftop solar arrays, the solar executive said.

In 2022, the developer installed 20 solar systems for RHF, and this year the company expects to deploy about 30 new systems for the nonprofit housing group, Wood said.

High Impact is actively engaged in state markets with active climate change and greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, where Wood said the turnkey developer saves building owners up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on energy consumption.

Project deployments range from 200 kW and smaller per rooftop array, and with multi-building customers can be deployed as much as 2 MW aggregate systems, he said.

High Impact’s development team uses its own proprietary internal review method for finding prospective project sites, but also uses Aurora’s HelioScope commercial PV software platform and Energy Toolbase for proposal generation, Wood said.

The company has identified a few hundred buildings out of its 1,000 building portfolio as candidates for Level 2 electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which Wood says the company expects to rollout this year as well.

To date High Impact has been largely self-funded, though project financing has been offset by tax equity arranged by various New York banking institutions active in the distributed energy market, Wood said.  The BQuest Foundation, a San Diego, Calif.-based nonprofit foundation formed by GoFundMe founder Andy Ballester, has recently provided development equity financing for High Impact’s LMI portfolio, he said.

Prior to forming High Impact Solar, Wood was a managing partner at One Planet Caribbean, which sold over 100 MW of Caribbean utility solar portfolio to several investors, including GCL New Energy Holdings.

On the way toward meeting its sustainability goals, home improvement retailer Lowe’s announced additional solar installations on what will be a total of 174 stores and distribution centers nationwide, including 20 sites currently in operation. Once installation is completed, the solar panels will provide approximately 90% of on-site energy usage at each store location in California, New Jersey and Illinois.

DSD Renewables, a New York-based commercial and industrial solar developer, is installing 85.3 MW of solar on top of 55 Lowe’s stores in California (42.17 MW) and 36 stores and three distribution centers in Illinois (43.13 MW). These projects are expected to generate 123.6 GWh per year of clean power.

Greenskies Clean Focus, a Connecticut-based commercial, municipal and utility-scale developer, will install rooftop systems at 52 Lowe’s retail stores and two distribution centers in California. The initial production for the combined 48 MW portfolio is projected at 76 GWh per year, providing 90% of the energy usage at each location.

Infiniti Energy, a New Jersey-based solar power developer and independent power producer, has installed solar on 20 Lowe’s stores in New Jersey to date, totalling 22.9 MW. Brought online last August, they have produced an average 11 GWh. Infiniti plans to complete installations at six additional Lowe’s stores this year.

This investment in rooftop solar continues Lowe’s recent sustainability progress, including achieving its 2025 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40%, relative to 2016 emissions levels. In addition, the installations will help Lowe’s reduce its operational emissions and reach its goal of having its operations powered with 50% renewable energy by 2030.

“At Lowe’s, we are focused on operating responsibly and reducing our impact on the environment,” said Chris Cassell, vice president of corporate sustainability at Lowe’s. “Investing in renewable energy lowers operating costs and is an important step in reducing emissions associated with our stores and distribution centers. This initial rooftop solar portfolio is one example of the collaboration we seek with partners as we work toward our long-term and interim net-zero goals.”

Soltage, a Jersey City, N.J.-based utility and distributed generation solar developer, launched the construction of three Illinois community solar projects with 7.24 MWdc of total power generation. 

Two of the projects, Bolton Freeport Solar 1 (2.58 MW) and Freeport Fairview Solar 2 (2.58 MW), are located in Commonwealth Edison service territory in northern Illinois, and the third project, Danville Michigan Solar 1 (1.81 MW), is located in Ameren’s service territory in Danville, Ill., in the eastern part of the state. 

MC Squared Energy Services is the subscription manager for the community solar platform, while the customer concentration is expected to consist of residential, local commercial businesses and municipal customers in the Freeport and Danville areas. 

“Customers who subscribe to these projects receive significant savings on their electricity bills, as well as price certainty over time as these projects will be running for many decades,” said Jon Cole, senior vice president of development, Soltage. These projects demonstrate Soltage’s commitment to build out clean energy infrastructure to serve Illinois customers. The addition of these projects brings Soltage’s community solar portfolio in the state to 11 projects, the company said. 

 The three projects, once constructed, are anticipated to provide more than 10,000 MWh of clean energy per year and operate for a minimum of 40 years. 

 A Soltage spokeswoman told pv magazine USA that the three projects are employing an agrivoltaics protocol utilizing a native pollinator species at each of the project sites. These will feature 27 varieties of low-profile and pollinator-friendly native vegetation planted across over 20 acres of land. In addition to producing clean energy, the projects will serve as a critical habitat for local flora and fauna, the company said. 

“Dual-use projects serve multiple purposes and generate many values that jump off the page when you take a second to look at them,” Dan French, executive producer of Solar Farm Summit, LLC, told pv magazine USA.  “Solar developers are starting to figure it out, and the fact that agrivoltaics is scaling so strongly in Illinois is powerful evidence that these practices can already pencil. Proper cropping may not come at scale until down the road a ways, but we know that advanced conservation with beneficial vegetation works now, and that’s why it’s booming,” French added.

The Illinois Community Solar Program was enacted in 2018 by the Future Energy Jobs Act to support the development of new distributed generation and community solar projects across Illinois. A component of the program, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, obligates the Illinois Commerce Commission to take various actions to implement new programs, initiatives, and directives to further the State’s goals of transitioning the state to 100% clean energy. 

 According to the Illinois Shines’ website, the state has 62 community solar projects in operation or advanced development across the Ameren and ComEd territories.  

 By the end of 2023, ComEd recently said it expects to double its current cumulative installation to more than 150 community solar projects installed, serving more than 36,000 customers across its more than 11,400 square mile service territory in northern Illinois. The utility recently completed its 75th community solar project, Speedway Solar, a 2.5 MW facility in Joliet, Illinois, built by Summit Ridge Energy. 

 Solar in Illinois practically did not exist until 2019, when the Illinois Shines program was introduced, creating renewable energy credits that pay residential and commercial solar asset owners based on their system’s production. The state has also a rich community solar offering under Illinois Shines and a healthy mix of residential, commercial, and community solar installations. 

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), Illinois ranks tenth in the U.S. by its robust 5.7 GW development pipeline of projects to be installed over the next five years. The state brought online 583 MW of projects in 2022, SEIA reports. 

Swift Current Energy, a Boston-based solar and wind project developer, has kicked off construction on the Double Black Diamond solar project in Illinois, an 800 MW(dc) utility solar project that is vying for the recognition of being one of the top three largest U.S. solar projects.

The project is slated for commercial operations by Fall of 2024, and when operational will be owned by the developer. First Solar is providing 1.6 million U.S.-made solar panels and Nextracker is supplying its U.S.-made tracking systems for the project.

The developer recently tapped McCarthy Building Companies as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor on the massive project. During construction, expected to last 14 months, the companies will retain 435 construction workers for the Double Black Diamond project.

The midwestern project checks off a few additional boxes for Inflation Reduction Act initiatives and rebates. The project has set apprenticeship, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring goals, which are being facilitated with local unions for carpenters, laborers, operators, electricians, and crew leads.

In partnership with local unions, McCarthy will train workers who are inexperienced in utility-scale solar construction to assist with future workforce needs and accommodate the exponential regional and national growth of the solar industry.

Once operational, Double Black Diamond will provide enough clean energy equivalent to more than 85,000 Illinois households per year.

In collaboration with Constellation Energy, the City of Chicago will be a key offtake customer. Starting in 2025, the city will partially source its large energy uses such as Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport with renewable energy from Double Black Diamond. The project is expected to bring $100 million in tax revenue to the Counties of Sangamon and Morgan counties, where the project is located.

“As one of Double Black Diamond’s largest end users, the City of Chicago is proud to support a project that will generate solar energy right here in Illinois and will be constructed according to our shared labor and equity goals,” said Angela Tovar, chief sustainability officer for Chicago’s Office of Climate and Environmental Equity.

Additional offtake customers for the large project include State Farm Insurance and PPG, a producer of paints, coatings and specialty materials. State Farm will procure about 103,000 MWh of clean energy per year from Constellation as part of the insurance company’s continued efforts to reduce environmental footprint.

Formed in 2016, Swift Current Energy is a utility-scale developer whose management team has developed a combined 10 GW of renewable energy projects over its career. In April 2021, the company was acquired in a majority stake transaction by Buckeye Partners and Nala Renewables, both of which are backed by IFM Investors, an Australian infrastructure fund manager with $68.4 billion of assets under management.

A midwestern rivalry has also emerged for the development of the largest U.S. utility solar project. Savion, a Shell Energy-backed solar and wind developer, is constructing its own 800 MW utility solar project, Oak Run Solar, located in Madison County, Ohio. If approved, construction on the project will begin this year, with commercial operations coming online in phases starting in early 2025. The solar project will also include 300 MW of Tesla energy storage systems, which is expected to have a 20-year lifespan.

“Drone in the box” for thousandths of a cent per kilowatt hour  Raptor Maps is developing a drone and software package for ongoing, on-site visual and thermal intelligence at utility-scale solar facilities.

Tracking clean energy initiatives under the Inflation Reduction Act  A new website called IRAtracker.org clarifies how the Inflation Reduction Act is taking shape and being implemented across more than a dozen federal agencies.

EnerVenue announces non-lithium battery gigafactory in Kentucky  With generous incentives from Shelby County and the state of Kentucky, EnerVenue plans to invest in a one-million square-foot facility to produce metal-hydrogen batteries.

Summit Ridge raises tax equity for 50 MW Maine and Illinois solar portfolio  The $67 million investment utilizes the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Qualified Advanced Energy Project Credit program. Once guidance for low- and moderate-income community incentives and domestic content requirements program is finalized, the developer expects to expand its partnership with the tax investor to fund additional projects in underserved and traditional energy communities.  

Oregon research highlights zinc metal battery improvements  An Oregon State University research group has developed a zinc metal anode electrolyte that raises the efficiency of zinc battery cells to nearly 100%, a breakthrough as companies scramble to find non-lithium-ion alternatives to supplement a growing U.S. energy storage market.

Ultrathin solar cells self-repair radiation damage in space  Third-party testing confirms a high level of resilience to the conditions of space in silicon-based solar cells developed by Arizona-based Solestial.

Massachusetts city offers EV adoption as employee benefit  Partnering with MoveEV to support the transition to EVs is expected to save Easthampton, Mass. about $360,000 per year on gasoline, among other benefits.

Wärtsilä battery passes UL 9540A fire certification milestone  Rigorous testing for grid-scale lithium-ion storage systems involved heating battery cells to induce thermal runaway within Wärtsilä’s storage module. Performing fire tests reveals critical information to the manufacturer, first responders and asset owners about how the battery system reacts in the unlikely event of a cell failure.

Birch Creek Energy acquires utility-scale solar developer  Washington, D.C.-based Foundation Solar is comprised of a team of solar industry veterans that have developed, acquired and managed over 6 GW of generation assets over the past two decades.

Community solar developer Summit Ridge Energy lined up its second tax equity financing commitment from Foss & Company, raising $67 million for a 50 MW community solar portfolio of 13 projects under development in Maine and Illinois.

The investment utilizes the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Qualified Advanced Energy Project Credit program. Once guidance for low- and moderate-income community incentives and domestic content requirements program is finalized, the developer expects to expand its partnership with the tax investor to fund additional projects in underserved and traditional energy communities.

The funding supports a development pipeline to provide residential and commercial subscribers with clean energy and an opportunity to support the local renewable economy.  The company has raised $122 million in tax equity commitments from Foss since partnering with the institutional investor in April 2021.

“In addition to targeting robust cash flow and economic returns for our investors, this portfolio is expected to increase access to low-cost clean energy for thousands of families and small businesses in Illinois and Maine,” said Bryen Alperin, managing director of Foss & Company. “This investment will allow us to continue building upon our current partnership with SRE, as well as advance our long-term mission of supporting a renewable energy future for all.”

Summit Ridge started construction on the 50 MW portfolio early this year and expects to achieve commercial operations in 2024. Once operational, the projects will generate clean power and energy savings for residential and commercial customers across six utility service territories. Commercial customers include small to large businesses who will remotely subscribe to the community solar projects.

At the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) Finance, Tax & Buyers Seminar on March 21, Foss & Company’s Alperin told a tax equity panel audience that with the massive IRA legislation currently being disseminated and parsed out via guidance, “there’s more projects out there right now than investors.”  With additional guidance pending on transferability, or the selling of tax credits, and other incentives under the IRA, the solar project development market is currently in a bottlenecked pattern, with developers and investors both awaiting further clarity as projects get pencilled in, but not built, Alperin said.

Transferability was the number one topic at the SEIA Finance seminar this month, with many policy advisors including Seth Hanlon of the Department of Treasury saying that federal guidance on the tax credit transfer provision could come within a matter of weeks.  This year, companies with taxable income will be allowed to transfer investment and production tax credits, along with other tax credits, for cash to unrelated parties, and the proceeds from the transfer is not treated as taxable income.

Summit Ridge was formed in 2017 by Steve Raeder and Brian Dunn after the pair helmed SunEdison’s East Coast commercial and industrial solar business and served as vice president of the Hunt Companies’ distributed solar group, respectively. The company has developed community solar and rooftop distributed generation projects in Illinois, Maryland and Maine. In Illinois, the company has 250 MW of solar projects constructed and in development.  In July, Summit Ridge raised $175 million from Apollo Funds to fund geographic growth expansion and other initiatives.

In December, Summit Ridge partnered with the 548 Enterprise, Ecademy and Power52 Foundation to launch the “Sustainability Hub” on Chicago’s West Side to train more than 10,000 residents over the next decade.  The solar apprenticeship program is a 13-week (450 hour) training program targeting veterans, formerly incarcerated citizens returning to the workforce (returning citizens), and high school-aged adults from underserved communities. Summit Ridge is committing $600,000 in seed capital over the next two years for the program’s launch. To participate or learn more about a training program, visit  www.548enterprise.com/foundation.

One of the top 100 largest car dealerships in the United States, Arlington Toyota of Palatine, Illinois, commissioned Texas installer Solar One to build a 1,734-module solar array on its 2.9-acre building. 

The rooftop solar array generated 256,930 kWh of electricity in its first five months of operation, offsetting 50% of the site’s demand. It also offset the dealership’s carbon dioxide emissions by 128 tons. 

Solar One offered the dealership an innovative financing solution with no upfront cost to make the project happen. “The up-front investment required has been a hurdle that we were finally able to overcome with this project,” said Aaron Wilson, chief executive officer, Solar One. 

The installation was built and financed by the installer, and the initial investment will be recouped once Arlington Toyota takes in incentives like Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs), rebates from the state of Illinois, and the federal investment tax credit. 

“SRECs become payable upon certain production targets being achieved, which means it is in the interests of both Solar One and Arlington Toyota that the technology we install will produce the most energy possible,” said Wilson. 

Looking to maximize production at the site, Solar One tapped its partnership with inverter and optimizer provider SolarEdge. The project called for five SolarEdge 100 kW inverters along with power optimizers attached to each pair of modules.

The optimizers increase energy production while mitigating the effects of soiling and shading. Optimizers allow for independent operation of the paired modules, meaning that installers can make the most of a roof space, installing some panels near obstructions without risking lowering production for the array system-wide. 

“SolarEdge is now an important part of our identity, and it has enabled us to offer something unique in the market,” said Wilson. 

The company’s optimizers can be remotely monitored for production information and fault detection. Solar One will be sent automatic notifications with a pinpoint location of the fault, allowing for a fast repair. The company said this will lead to reduced maintenance costs over the life of the system, contributing to a return on investment of seven years. 

“Following the success of the Arlington Toyota project, we have since funded projects for several other similar sized businesses in the U.S.,” said Wilson. “Our solution means that customers can install solar with no upfront cost and enjoy 100% of the benefits and the energy it generates.” 

“The solar installation is a tremendous asset to our business, our image, and to our electricity bill, which is now 50% reduced from what it used to be before we installed the system,” said Gary Vicari, president of Arlington Toyota.

Rural farmland in the U.S. is under attack from climate change and a suburbanizing landscape. Between 2001 and 2016, residential and commercial development consumed 11 million acres of farmland. Another 18 million acres could succumb to new developments by 2040. According to the American Farmland Trust, climate change and extreme weather events make farming and ranching more challenging, with AFT’s research showing a significant swath of rainfed agricultural land will be less likely to support current growing systems by 2040.

And if that was not enough, the U.S. is currently in the midst of an intergenerational transfer as millions of acres of farmland change hands as baby boomer farmers retire, making farmland vulnerable to development as not many children of farmers seek to take the reins on the family farmstead, said Ethan Winter, National Smart Solar Director of AFT at the first Solar Farm Summit, a U.S. agrivoltaics conference held on March 14 in Rosemont, Illinois.

Lightstar Renewables, a Boston-based community solar developer, is partnering with AFT in order to preserve rural farmland for agriculture and community solar development co-located on farmland, also known as Agrivoltaics.

Under the partnership, AFT will use its Smart Solar principles to guide Lightstar on policy, research, and farmer engagement initiatives “to accelerate agriculturally-compatible solar energy development” and promote sustainable farming and ranching practices.

Speaking with pv magazine USA at the Solar Farm Summit, Lucy Bullock-Sieger, vice president of strategy for Lightstar, said the four-year old company has developed 31 agrivoltaic projects out of a 208 MW active development portfolio consisting of community and agrivoltaic projects, while the Magnetar Financial-backed company has a multi-year portfolio of committed projects with 600 MW of total power capacity.

Under the AFT partnership, Lightstar aims to empower farmers with regenerative agricultural practices that includes co-located agrivoltaic solar projects on farmland in New York, Maryland and Illinois. Bullock-Sieger said the northeast-focused developer is talking to scores of rural farmers about the solar opportunity to bolster their cash business and supplement crop yields at a higher growth rate in the coming decades.

The agrivoltaics market is establishing a “compliance mechanism between us and farmers,” Bullock-Sieger said. “We’re not going to put a hunk of steel in the ground and run,” Bullock-Sieger joked about a prior misperception rural farmers had about solar development.

“Five years from now, we don’t want farmers asking, ‘what do we do now that a turnkey project is in the ground?’” said Bullock-Sieger. Lightstar forges a relationship with host farmers by promoting and implementing new seed varieties for crop produce, and offering other vegetation management solutions that could improve the property’s resistance to erosion or climate change factors.   

Building trust with multi-generational family farm owners is based on tax compliance regulations, Bullock-Sieger said, while farmers typically iron out a long-term plan to continue to cultivate from the land for decades to come. Farmers keen on agrivoltaics are often either near retirement age or whose children see the revenue potential from dual-use agrivoltaic applications, she said.  

Like community and utility solar projects, agrivoltaic projects assembled by Lightstar and other developers will typically take a 20-year contractual lifespan in which the developer will continue to actively maintain the facility and farmland property with the owner-operator, Bullock-Sieger said.

In upstate New York, Bullock-Sieger says Lightstar will be developing a 3.6 MW (DC) solar array by early 2024 on a 16-acre plot for DiMartino Farms, a 125-acre family-operated hay and small vegetable farm in Montgomery, N.Y., in the western Hudson Valley region. She said the Hudson Valley development involved children of the farm’s owners stepping forward to preserve the farm’s crop yield. The rural farm also stands to generate new income sources from Lightstar-grown vegetable crops, pumpkins to be seeded, as well as on-site solar arrays to lower the farm’s energy bill.

Dual-use agrivoltaic projects also provide tax revenue at the local municipality level, increase energy independence and grid security.

The AFT is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in 1980 by farmers, ranchers and conservationists Peggy Rockefeller, Patrick Noonan and William K. Reilly, to provide agricultural landowners with environmentally-sound resources, promote land conservation and utilize local solar power resources.

In August 2020, the AFT launched the “Farming Is Our Future” campaign with a goal to double the amount of permanently protected farmland and reduce current loss by 75%. At the same time the nonprofit adopted regenerative practices including Agrivoltaics at scale so that farmers capture more carbon than they emit.  Meanwhile, the AFT set out to bring 600,000 new farmers and ranchers into the market by 2040 based on the intergenerational shift away from farming culture in recent decades.

The AFT recently published a solar leasing guidebook for agricultural landowners for the Pacific Northwest market.

Brian Ross of the Great Plains Institute said the U.S. currently has 5 million acres of rural farmland whose land use is governed at the county level for solar development, presenting a large opportunity for the co-location of agrivoltaic projects over existing farm operations.

On a county wide basis, only 4% of Illinois land is currently utilized for solar development, Ross added.

Sheep grazers, bee pollinators, solar tracking hardware vendors and small to utility-scale project developers were among a diverse set of groups represented at the inaugural U.S. agrivoltaics conference this week that was located next to a gateway for U.S. travel, Chicago O’Hare International Airport. The Solar Farm Summit 2023’s choice of location, the American heartland, was a focal point of the confluence of attendees and recent policy initiatives promoting the use of projects of 10 MW or less with active agriculture processes. Some of these include sheep and cow grazing, vegetable and fruit production, and various other organic crop produce. 

The first Solar Farm Summit, which took place March 14 to 15, drew an over-capacity filled Hilton hotel, as sheep grazers sat amongst seed vendors and community solar project developers alike. On the first day of the conference, the Summit recorded 460 attendees with printed badges, while speaking with pv magazine USA, executive producer Dan French said the number was likely above 500 strong.  

Most attendees expressed a mixed zeal to disbelief that the emerging solar plus farming niche was really taking off, in the form of a conference and small trade show that is, while many attendees hailed from Corn Belt to Mid-Atlantic region universities sought to learn about the various facets of solutions from energy to seed harvesting. 

Large-scale developer Silicon Ranch, based in Nashville, showed its first mover advantage in using methods of agrivoltaic solutions over the last few years on southeast to midwestern projects which range from 50 MW to 150 MW and above. The conference appeared to draw new entrants to agrivoltaics, such as EDF Renewables and Savion, which have hired agriculture professionals over recent years to branch into the nascent agrivoltaics market.  

Utility-scale sheep 

The utility solar market’s presence at the conference showed the initiative and willingness to promote sustainable farming methods and use agrivoltaics technologies like sheep grazing in large solar development. However, a caveat emerged of the dual-use nature of agrivoltaics, which combines on-site solar arrays and producing crops or livestock underneath panel arrays. As a method of creating farm and energy production from a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) perspective, agrivoltaics is best utilized from smaller distributed generation projects like community solar projects that range from about 2 MW to 10 MW on average. 

Independent power producers and project developers on projects from 100 MW to 200 MW in power capacity will spend $750,000 to $950,000 on average per year to mow grassy fields and hilly terrain where rows of solar panels can stretch as far as the eye can see, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.   

Using solar grazing with the deployment of up to 100 sheep on a solar project site, the use of agrivoltaic solutions would reduce the utility-scale developer’s mowing needs to two mowings per years, and reduce the cost of traditional mowing services to about $200,000 from the use of ewes alone, said Loran Shallenberger, director of regenerative energy operations at Silicon Ranch. 

Shallenberger told pv magazine USA that scheduled traditional mowing is still required for utility solar projects, especially as the size of such projects continues to grow above 200 MW per project. But capital costs that can range up to $1 million on average mowing costs for a large project can be reduced by 20% or about $200,000 from the use of sheep herds or other grazing livestock, he said. 

Solar grazing in its southeast region typically involves two ewes per acre, so a sample 100 MW solar project that sits on approximately 1,000 acres would require about 2,000 ewes to provide year-round grazing services, Shallenberger said.  Silicon Ranch uses ewes on just shy of half of its U.S. solar portfolio, he added.  

Various grazers and sheep herding organizations spoke throughout the two-day conference’s sessions, with various farmers showing capacity of up to a few thousand sheep available for dispatch on a variety of regional 10 MW sized projects in the Midwest, Virginia and Pennsylvania.  

J.R. Howard, owner of sheep and livestock rancher Texas Solar Sheep and donning an over-sized bucket hat, conveyed the age-old adage of “everything is bigger in Texas,” remains true even for the nascent agrivoltaics market. A previous West Texas oilfield energy foreman, Howard now says his ranching company manages a sheep count of up to 10,000 ewes, able to be deployed across a variety of solar sites across Texas. 

In partnership with lightsource BP, Howard’s business grazes up to 2,000 ewes at a 260 MW(DC) utility solar project in Lamar County, Texas. Sheep are grazed in groups of 50 on average, while in rare cases 250 to 500 head may be deployed at one time, Howard said during a Solar Rancher’s Forum panel discussion on March 15. 

At the lightsource BP project, the sheep fleet grazes on 18 pastures across the 260 MW project year-round, with the solar panels providing shade and relief for the sheep grazing crew. The global renewable energy business partly owned by BP reduces its service costs and lowers carbon emissions from solar grazing.  

Under grazing agreements, service providers deploying sheep herds on solar sites must adhere to a 24-inch maximum vegetation height on land that is groomed by dozens of ewes, said Silicon Ranch’s Shallenberger. 

While Shallenberger and Howard agreed the use of sheep as an agrivoltaic tool for servicing large project down to rural community projects could cause a shortage of sheep over the next year, they pointed to the resilient nature of the sheep’s ecosystem, and require minimal supervision and fencing systems while grazing quadrants of large projects.  

Canines such as Border Collies are the go-to pick for solar grazing field shepherds, said Howard and Marcus Gray of Gray’s LambScaping, a regional sheep herder in Virginia. With minimal supervision required, Border Collies are typically able to direct sheep back to a paddock or central location, though occasionally Gray will attach a GPS tracking device to his dogs’ collar, if one of his shepherds is guiding a ewe in a far corner of a thousand-acre solar field and can’t be heard.  

Solar grazers said that from community projects located at Susquehanna University to utility-scale solar projects in Texas, annual insurance premiums to cover sheep herds ranges from $4,000 to $10,000 on average, said Caroline Owens from Owens Farms, a Pennsylvania herder managing a 40-head ewe count, and Lexie Hain, director of agrivoltaics and land management for Lightsource bp, a former farmer from Ithaca, N.Y. Byron Komenick, owner of the first U.S. agrivoltaic project, Jack’s Solar Garden, in Longmount, Colo., said in Boulder County his firm pays upwards of $25,000 per year to insure his grazing operation.  

The burgeoning community solar market in New York state could command an increase in sheep husbrandy and livestock promotion as a solar operations and maintenance solution, as the Empire State currently has about 80,000 sheep, Hain said.  

Agrivoltaics, the combination of farming practices with energy produced by solar photovoltaics (PV), is forecast to become a $9.3 billion marketplace by 2031, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1% in that timeframe from $3.6 billion a year ago.

According to a research note by Allied Analytics, experts believe agrivoltaics can minimize barriers to food security and the transition to clean energy. While the agrivoltaics market is still in the growth stages, it is expected to grow as the solar market continues to boom, owing to demand for clean energy and sustainability.

The agrivoltaics sub-sector market has seen progress as the industry learning curve grows around best use cases in recent years, with the global installed output of agrivoltaics rising from 5 MW in 2012 to around 2.9 GW in 2020, according to Allied Analytics.

To promote a healthy growth environment, subsidies from governing authorities will be required. The implementation of agrivoltaic solutions will require joint ventures, lease agreements, reduced loan rates and risk exposures, said the market research notes. In addition, since there is a significant reduction in crop yield, regulations regarding solar installations need to be enforced for minimizing land exploitation.

Based on climate change and increasing drought and extreme weather events, agrivoltaics offers key advantages such as zero-emission solar power coupled with food production and the protection of crops from drought and damage caused by hail or heavy rain.

To date, the world’s largest agrivoltaics installation has been built on the edge of the Gobi Desert in China, where berries are cultivated underneath solar modules, with total output of 700 MW to increase to 1 GW.

Additional drivers for agrivoltaic implementation are land scarcity and drought conditions in many regions as well as technological optimizations. The prerequisite is to interfere with agricultural use as little as possible and to cooperate closely with farmers for a broader application of agrivoltaics.

Challenges to agrivoltaic project installation include international standardization, the removal of regulatory hurdles, incentive systems, monitoring, farmer involvement, and further improvements in the economic efficiency of energy plus farming applications.

While all crops need sunlight for growth, too much can cause some plants to get stressed, especially cool-season plants such as brassicas. Plants growing under the diffused shade of PV panels are buffered from the day’s most intense rays. Shade reduces air temperature and the rate of soil water evaporation, a win-win for both plants and farm workers on hot summer days. The plants in turn give off water vapor that helps to naturally cool PV panels from below, which can increase panel efficiency.

Agrivoltaics is segmented into system design, cell type, crop, and region. By system design, the agrivoltaics market is bifurcated into fixed solar panels and dynamic. The fixed solar panel segment dominated the market share in 2021 and is projected to continue its dominance through the projection period owing to ease of handling and high-power generation.

In dynamic systems applications, agrivoltaics panels are moved or adjusted as and when required, which may be a hassle if needed to be done routinely whereas, in fixed panel systems, no such hassle is to be dealt with.

By crop, the agrivoltaics market is segmented into four categories: vegetables, fruits, crops, and others. The Crop segment dominated the agrivoltaics market growth in 2021 based on a rise in extreme weather, as solar panels shielded crops from excessive sun and dehydration. The same is expected to continue its dominance during the 2031 projection period followed by the vegetable segment.

Highlights of the agrivoltaics study:

• Fixed solar panels are projected to grow at the highest CAGR of approximately 10.5%, in terms of during the agrivoltaics market forecast period
• The monocrystalline segment dominated the agrivoltaics market share by over 51.7% in 2021
• By region, North America dominated the agrivoltaics market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period

According to Allied Analytics, major agrivoltaic market developers include BayWa, Insolight SA, JA Solar, Enel Green Power, Sunseed APV, Mirai Solar, Namaste Solar, Ombrea, Sun’Agri and Next2Sun.

The inaugural Solar Farm Summit 2023 conference is taking place this week, March 14 to 15 at the Hilton Rosemont/Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, Ill., with 460 registered attendees across 70+ companies and agencies in the solar, agriculture, government/academic and media agencies, including pv magazine USA. To register click here.

Lasers, gloves, trees, and more on the floor at RE+ Northeast  A growing solar power gathering in the New England winter filled the rooms at the Westin Seaport convention center, demonstrating a strong demand for networking and knowledge.

Where renewable energy policies are working in 2023  The 2023 Community Power Scorecard developed by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance gave failing grades to 13 states for failure to advance energy and for creating barriers to local economic development through renewable power.

Net-metered industrial solar developer receives equity investment  Austin, Texas-based Industrial Solar was formed in 2021 to install grid-scale solar projects that alleviate high demand charges levied on industrial companies across Texas using a net-metered industrial solar system.

Municipal franchise agreements could drive up to 911 TWh of renewable energy Electric franchise agreements between municipalities and utilities offer a direct pathway for cities to achieve their clean energy and decarbonization goals across 30 states, according to NREL.

Lightsource bp expands First Solar module supply plan to 8.3 GW  The developer ordered 4 GW of U.S.-made thin-film solar panels, adding to the 4.3 GW ordered in 2021.

Avangrid activates the largest solar project in Washington State  The company achieved commercial operations on the 150 MW solar facility, supplying electricity to Puget Sound Energy. Plus, Avangrid reports 2022 financial performance.

Illinois hospital network signs up for community solar  A multi-hospital network in Carbondale, Ill., signed up for long-term community solar agreements with three Nexamp projects in Illinois providing about 6.5 MW apiece.

Each year, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) tracks and scores states based on how their policies help or hinder local clean energy action. ILSR gives the states a letter grade of A, B, C, D or F based on whether its energy policies give individuals, cities and communities the choice to build clean energy wealth locally, rather than relying on utilities.

A number score is arrived at based on a compilation of data from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACORE), DSIRE, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) , PACENation, SolarReviews, and Vote Solar, as well as the data the ILSR tracks on community solar, community choice aggregation and state legislative changes.

In the 2023 Community Power Scorecard, four states excelled, 14 states and the District of Columbia saw above average scores, six were average, 14 were mediocre, and 13 states received failing grades. Progress is being made, however, as seen by the numbers in the 2022 Scorecard in which four states excelled, nine states and the District of Columbia saw above average scores, nine were average, 15 were mediocre, and 13 states received failing grades.

Achieving a top score

The four states to receive an A grade are Massachusetts, California, Illinois and New York. To achieve a top score, ILSR’s community power scorecard evaluates state policies as they are written, not on how they have been implemented. Sound policy making that will advance energy democracy requires continued advocacy, vigilance, and effort, ILSR reports. An “A” grade does not mean that the work is done. Even in high-scoring states, like Massachusetts or California, the work continues.

New policies enacted last year in several states impacted their 2023 scores. These include California, Illinois, Maryland, and New Mexico, which each changed their interconnection rules for distributed energy resources. All four states added specific considerations for battery storage, which is something the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) advocates for with its BATRIES interconnection reform package. Out of those states, only Maryland had a less-than-perfect interconnection grade, so Maryland’s Community Power Score increased by one point.

The Washington and New Hampshire legislatures each demonstrated their desire to increase solar access with community solar policies that make specific accommodations for low-income subscribers (Wash. HB1814 and N.H. SB270). California did not receive any additional points for its new community solar policy, even though the policy improves upon the state’s existing Enhanced Community Renewables program. Several other states explored, but did not implement community solar in 2022, including Arizona, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Colorado’s General Assembly passed a law on building energy codes in 2022, which sets the 2021 International Energy Conservation (IEC) code as the minimum requirement, while still allowing communities to set more stringent codes.

Net metering policies lowered the score in several states. For example, Iowa and New York both added fees to self-generating customers. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission allowed the state’s utilities to switch to “instantaneous netting,” which dramatically reduces the value of customer-owned solar generation.

In December 2022 the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously voted to approve Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0), slashing payments for excess solar production sent to the grid by 75%. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said the decision is “too abrupt” and will slow rooftop solar deployment in the state. “The failure to adopt a more gradual transition to net billing risks putting solar out of reach for millions of residents across the state,” said SEIA.

NanoGraf, an advanced battery materials company, announced that it has raised $65 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round. NanoGraf had previously raised a total of $27 million in funding from a mix of venture, angel and non-dilutive funding sources.

In December NanoGraf announced plans to launch production of advanced silicon anode materials in Q4 2023 in a 17,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Chicago. The company expects phase one material production capacity of 35 tons per year, which is enough for 24 million battery cells, with plans to ramp production to 1000 tons of material production per year by 2024.

NanoGraf’s Series B funding supports its silicon anode production in Chicago, as well as the continued development, production and supply of advanced lithium-ion technologies.

In 2021 pv magazine reported that NanoGraf said it had achieved previously unattainable levels of energy density in an 18650 cylindrical lithium-ion cell. In 2022, NanoGraf reported that it had set a new industry benchmark for the most energy-dense lithium-ion 18650 battery, with more than 20% higher energy density than the industry’s leading cells today.

The energy density achievement was enabled by developing a proprietary silicon-oxide anode material that can be introduced into the same battery form factor at densities beyond what has been achieved previously, according to Kurt “Chip” Breitenkamp, vice president of Business Development.

“NanoGraf’s breakthrough silicon technology further exemplifies our commitment to extending the energy and power performance characteristics of today’s lithium-ion batteries for a sustainable electrified future. I’m incredibly proud of the technologies and products our team has developed over the last 36 months,” said Dr. Francis Wang, CEO of NanoGraf. “This funding not only ensures a domestic supply of a key strategic component of next generation lithium-ion batteries but also enhances our national competitiveness in the global energy storage space.”

NanoGraf is a spinout of Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory. This funding round was co-led by Volta Energy Technologies and CC Industries with participation from GIC, Emerald Technology Ventures, Material Impact, Arosa Capital, Nabtesco Technology Ventures, and TechNexus. Existing investors including Hyde Park Angels, Evergreen Climate Innovations, and Goose Capital also participated in the round.

In November of 2022, the company was awarded a $10 million contract from the U.S. Government to develop its manufacturing facility in Chicago.

“Nanograf’s technology promises to enable higher energy density in lithium-ion batteries, in a way that uses silicon with what is practically drop-in to existing battery manufacturing processes,” said Jeff Chamberlain, CEO of Volta Energy Technologies. “Volta is excited to add Nanograf to its growing portfolio of advanced technology that will be part of the important supply chain of advanced battery and related technology. We are equally enthused by the quality of the group of investors in this round of financing being announced today.”

Illinois residents can begin reaping the benefits of solar power offsetting steadily rising energy prices on their utility bills. Solstice Power Technologies, a customer management platform for community solar development, this week is beginning to enroll subscribers on three low-to-moderate-income (LMI) community solar projects developed by Reactivate, a joint venture of developer Invenergy and Lafayette Square, an impact investment fund.

The Reactivate program is specifically for income-eligible residents whose household must verify as 80% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). Prospective enrollees can check if their household meets the AMI qualifications on Solstice’s website through the “See If You Qualify” prequalification form.

These projects provide benefits to income-qualified and energy transition communities and will deliver enough clean energy to power about 1,200 homes, providing customers a combined projected savings of $12 million over 20 years.

In addition to financial benefits for LMI and energy transition ratepayers, Reactivate reports that its projects will make important environmental contributions to Illinois’ climate priorities. Combined, the three community solar projects in development by Reactivate reportedly will generate nearly 13 million kWh of electricity per year, helping the state avoid 10,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

With 77% of Americans still unable to install rooftop solar, community solar bridges the physical and socio-economic barriers, providing the opportunity for more households to access local renewable energy with monthly savings on their electricity bill, says Solstice.

The Reactivate platform is among the first to collaborate with the statewide Illinois Solar for All (ILSFA) program, which spreads the benefits of low-cost, renewable energy to income-eligible Illinois residents.

Solstice manages the subscriptions of the large majority of projects underway. The subscription offering from Solstice and Reactivate will provide income-eligible residents with a deep community solar discount as well as an enrollment bonus from Solstice.  Eligible residents will benefit from monthly savings of up to 50% off the supply portion of their utility bill and enjoy supporting local renewable energy generation.

“By working with Solstice we will provide economic relief to Illinois households, which include some families deciding between the expense of their utility bill and feeding their family,” said Jordan Leventhal, senior vice president of product development at Reactivate. “The cost savings from subscribing to our projects could be a lifeline for those families.”

Based in Cambridge, Mass., Solstice Power reports that it has sourced more than $1 million in aggregate electricity savings by community solar enrollment and has shared over $250,000 in revenue to grassroots organizations who spread the word about community programs and energy justice. The company is a subsidiary of global energy infrastructure company Mitsui & Co. Ltd., and operates under Mitsui’s North American investment arm, MyPower Corp.

Lafayette Square and Invenergy formed Reactivate in January 2022 as a community solar energy platform supporting development in underserved communities. The platform will finance, acquire, develop, and operate solar energy projects primarily serving LMI communities and areas disproportionately affected by the clean energy transition.

According to Reactivate, the company isn’t limited to community solar projects, and will also develop small-scale utility solar projects, energy storage, building electrification, and EV charging infrastructure. Beyond project financing and development, the company attests that it is focused on creating development, construction, and operational focused jobs while focusing worker training efforts on traditionally underrepresented segments of the workforce and those transitioning to the renewable energy industry.

By 2030, Reactivate seeks to develop 3 GW of renewable energy capacity, save $50 million in energy costs for LMI households, sign 100 contracts with minority or women-owned contractors, and facilitate workforce training for 2,500 underserved workers.

The Illinois Solar For All program established incentives for eligible low-income homeowners and renters for residential properties, properties that house non-profits and public facilities, and community solar projects. The program purportedly enables participants to see no upfront costs, and ongoing costs and fees are expected to not exceed 50% of the value of the energy generated from the solar project.

Commercial and industrial customers are offered an incentive based on system size from ComEd, one of Illinois’ largest utilities. Systems of 2,000 kW of capacity and below are offered $250 per kW.

Like most states, Illinois makes solar exempt from property taxes. Like all states and territories, Illinosians are offered the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which cover 30% of system costs. The ITC is now available to many customers as a direct payment following new provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act.

EV batteries alone could satisfy short-term grid storage demand  Low participation rates for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tech of just 12% to 43% are needed to provide short-term grid storage demand throughout the world by as early as 2030, according to a group of Dutch and U.S. researchers.

SunPower solar to top three multi-family buildings in California  About 2,200 to 2,300 SunPower panels will be deployed on new apartment building residences built by Metonic and HomeFed across California.

Duke deploys solar plus battery storage microgrid in Appalachia  The solar plus lithium-ion battery microgrid provides power to the Appalachian town during a black start, which during a power outage allows for a full repowering without the use of the local grid.

13 European PV equipment makers pitch their machines to U.S. PV manufacturers A $1 to $1.5 billion U.S. market opportunity awaits PV equipment manufacturers through 2030, said a McKinsey consultant, at a Washington D.C. event that brought together potential equipment buyers and sellers.

Utility delays stalling out rooftop solar projects for six months or more  Colorado residents and solar installers have accused utility Xcel Energy for having “no urgency” in installing meters and approving interconnection.

Enphase demonstrates bidirectional EV charger  The bidirectional EV charger enables vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid applications, and integrates into Enphase home energy systems.

Three-party joint venture formed for 250 MW of New York community solar  The trio expects to construct, own and operate one of the largest community solar portfolios in the state by 2025

Interest in solar apprenticeship expands in response to IRA  Apprenticeship programs across the country, such as Rethink Electrical Advanced Program in Illinois, are seeing record numbers of students who are learning the ins and outs of solar installation.

US renewable PPA price hikes cool off as material costs fall  An Edison Energy report shows prices increased more moderately (4%) in Q4 2022, as compared to the steep price hikes experienced since 2021.

Wisconsin solar developer looks to expand to Chicago  SunVest expects to double its 2025 pipeline to 3 GW from its current 1.5 GW threshold, with an expectation of 215 MW of operating assets by year end 2023.

Scientists assess lifetime for perovskite PV to become competitive on rooftops Researchers say that lightweight, high-performance perovskite solar modules could soon become competitive with crystalline PV modules in the residential segment, as such products will likely have lower manufacturing and balance-of-system costs in the future.

OYA Renewables projects selected in N.Y. underserved community program  The solar developer has received more than $4.3 million in support from NYSERDA through the state’s NY-Sun program, which is helping make solar more accessible to families, businesses and communities across the New York.

Retired coal sites to host multi-day iron-air batteries  Two renewable energy storing 10 MW / 1,000 MWh batteries will be installed by Form Energy on former Xcel Energy coal fired plants.

Wyoming 900 MW pumped storage project moves toward licensing  Developer rPlus Hydro submits application for a final license to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for Seminoe project, a milestone reached only a few pumped storage projects in the last 20 years.

Cabot to invest in component for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries  The company plans to invest approximately $200 million in U.S. conductive carbon additives over the next five years, with plans to add 15,000 metric tons of capacity in Texas to meet needs of electric vehicle lithium-ion battery applications.

Minnesota voting on 100% clean electricity today, 10% solar by 2030  The state’s new legislative body, now fully Democratic, is quickly moving bill HB7 through the legislature. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill today.