From pv magazine Global

A research group led by scientists from Purdue University has created a novel model for assessing the growth of corn in agrivoltaic facilities and has proposed to use a spatiotemporal shadow distribution (SSD) model to optimize crop yield and power production.

The new method is based on the agricultural production systems simulator (APSIM) plant model, which is based on finer temporal resolution, with literature reportedly supporting its validity. The SSD model, which accounts for the shadow cast by the PV panels, was used in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) radiation data. These combined data were then calibrated and validated with the results from their field measurements.

The field experiment was conducted at an agrivoltaic farm at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. There, PV panels were deployed in two arrangements, either 300 W modules placed adjacent to each other or 100 W modules arranged in an alternate checkerboard pattern. They all used single-axis trackers and are 6.1 meters high. The set-up was tested between April and October of 2020.

“For validation, 12 plots are considered,” the academics said. “Corn ears of three representative plants from each of these plots were hand-collected. Overall, 570 corn plants from the without-PV region and 36 corn plants from the with-PV region, respectively, were used in the analysis. The ears were cleaned, imaged, and processed using a DuPont pioneer ear photometer.”

The field measurement showed that the corn yield from the area without PV was measured to be 10,955 kg/ha, compared with the yield of 10,182 kg/ha of the PV area. That was in reported agreement with the novel model, which predicted 10,856 kg/ha for the no-PV area and 10,102 kg/ha for the agri-PV field.

The researchers then used the model to test the impact of the tracker height, distance between arrays, panel angle, and the activation of the tracking system on yield. They first found that designs that lower the tracker height without impeding the movement of plant machinery should be envisioned as the overall average corn yield is a weak function of the tracker height up to 2.44 m.

“However, the variability from one corn row to another increases as the tracker height is reduced,” they further explained. “Another interesting finding is that for our PV module sizes, increasing the distance between the adjacent PV rows beyond 9.1 m, while keeping the total power over the entire land constant, does not lead to an increase in corn yield based on the total land area.”

They also found that anti-tracking (AT) around solar noon provided the most significant increase in the corn yield. “However, this increase in corn yield of 5.6% is quite modest and should be weighed against a substantial decline in solar power,” the group emphasized.

The proposed model was presented in “Optimizing corn agrivoltaic farming through farm-scale experimentation and modeling,” published in Cell Reports Sustainability. The research group also included academics from Denmark’s Aarhus University.

Doral Renewables announced that the first segment of its Mammoth Solar project is about to achieve operations. The plant will be the largest operating solar installation in Indiana and is expected to provide enough electricity to power 75,000 homes a year.

In a ceremony that focused on the project’s social and economic impacts on the local community, RJ Howard, chef and owner of the local Maggie Lu’s Market said, “Mammoth Solar’s presence is felt everywhere throughout the county. Almost every industry and business will reap the benefits of this project”.

Mammoth North is an agrivoltaics installation with more than 1,500 sheep already grazing the land. The sheep are managed by local farmer Billy Bope who called the dual-use project a win-win. “We’re able to diversify our farming practices with livestock, which allows us to maintain the vegetation to the level Mammoth North needs,” said Billy. “Specifically for my family, Mammoth Solar also allows the next generations of Bopes to stay on our family’s farm.”

Mammoth North is built on 4,500 acres in Starke County, about 20% of which were used for solar with the other 80% remaining green and/or used for growing crops.

According to Doral, the project started as a grassroots effort in 2019 culminating in having 65 families leasing their land to Doral for the project. In 2021, the company executed a long-term power purchase agreement with AEP Energy, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, who will be the sole offtaker.

“Indiana continues to chart the path forward toward the future economy, ranking among the top states for new clean energy under development thanks to the commitment and partnership of companies like Doral Renewables,” said Governor Eric J. Holcomb. “This mammoth-sized project is not only creating new jobs and new opportunities across northwest Indiana, but it is elevating our state and showcasing Hoosier innovation on the world’s stage.”

The project focused on using local labor and American materials including tracker systems from U.S.-based Nextracker that provided trackers specially designed for agrivoltaic installations. The nearly 76,000 solar panels used in the installation are not U.S. made.

Mammoth North is part of the Mammoth Solar project that, when complete, will have a capacity of 1.3 GW. Sitting on 13,000 acres of farm fields, Mammoth will produce enough electricity to power 247,000 homes.

Doral Renewables is a Philadelphia-based renewable energy developer, owner, and operator of renewable energy assets, with a solar and storage development portfolio of over 13 GW, including 1.3 GW under construction.

Renewables developer Arevon Energy announced it has broken ground on a 228 MW solar project in Posey County, Indiana, among the largest solar projects in the state.

Bechtel is the project’s engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor. The project, called Posey Solar, is expected to become operational by mid-2025.

Arevon and CenterPoint Energy first announced their partnership on the project in February 2021. CenterPoint received final approval from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in October 2023 to acquire the project. The utility will be long-term owner and operator of the project.

“We value the relationship built with Arevon as we continue through the process to construct and bring into service a renewable project that will further diversify CenterPoint Energy’s electric generation portfolio,” said Richard Leger, senior vice president, Indiana Electric and CenterPoint Energy.

The project will create more than 200 full-time construction jobs at peak construction. It has a multi-million dollar budget for operations and maintenance over its estimated 35-year life.

Posey Solar will include a 20-acre local pollinator garden within its footprint. An estimated over $30 million in local tax revenues will be delivered over the life of the project. Over $31.2 million will be diverted to Posey County hotels, restaurants, and other local businesses. The project developers have also committed to providing funds to the Marrs Township Fire Department over the life of the project, including contributing $219,000 toward new communications towers that will support radio service for first responders.

“Posey Solar provides significant benefits to the state of Indiana and to Posey County, including cost-effective renewable energy, substantial construction jobs, and long-term tax benefits to the region,” said Kevin Smith, chief executive officer, Arevon.

Arevon is a utility-scale renewables developer providing energy to utilities and corporations across North America. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and New York City, the company operates more than 3.5 GW of solar, storage, and hybrid projects and has more than 6 GW of projects in development.

First Solar, Inc. inaugurated its new manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, India, with a capacity of 3.3 GW.

India’s first fully vertically integrated solar manufacturing plant will produce First Solar’s Series 7 solar PV modules that were developed at the company’s research centers in the U.S. and optimized for the Indian market, the company says. The facility employs approximately 1,000 people.

“We are pleased that First Solar chose Tamil Nadu for this landmark investment, solidifying our state’s position as India’s hub for manufacturing,” said Dr T R B Rajaa. “This factory sets a high bar for sustainability and advanced manufacturing and has created high-value jobs as a result of its presence in our state, all while supporting India’s ambition to become self-sufficient in solar technology.”

The company reports an investment of approximately $700 million in the facility in India, which includes $500 million in previously announced financing from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the facility is First Solar’s sixth operational factory in the world, with others in the U.S., Malaysia and Vietnam.

“The United States is leveraging American innovation and technology to diversify critical energy supply chains around the world and drive economic growth in India,” said DFC CEO, Scott Nathan. “That’s good for the United States and it’s good for India. This $500 million in financing reflects the increasing strength of our partnership with India – DFC’s largest market and a like-minded partner with a dynamic private sector.”

First Solar reports that its thin film PV modules are produced using a continuous process under one roof that does not rely on Chinese crystalline silicon supply chains. Its proprietary, vertically integrated process takes about four hours to turn sheets of glass into fully functioning solar panels, the company says. Each module has a layer of cadmium telluride semiconductor, derived from byproducts of copper and zinc mining, which First Solar says have several benefits compared to conventional c-Si, including lower cost, superior scalability and a higher theoretical efficiency limit.

The Series 7 module produced by the new facility has a carbon and water footprint that is about four times lower than crystalline silicon modules produced in China, the company reports, using 50% less energy and only a third of the water than an equivalent polysilicon module production facility would require.

The factory in India is located in an area of high baseline water stress, and the company says it is believed to be the world’s first net-zero water withdrawal solar manufacturing facility. The facility will rely entirely on tertiary treated reverse osmosis water from the city’s sewage treatment plant and have zero wastewater discharge, expected to relieve stress on the local water system. Additionally, the factory is home to India’s first solar PV recycling plant.

“One month ago in Dubai, COP28 participants issued a bold call for the world to transition away from fossil fuels, to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050,” said Ambassador Eric Garcetti. “This First Solar production facility will help advance our global transition to cleaner, greener energy, and stands as a shining example of what can be achieved when the United States and India work together – across government and private sectors – to achieve lasting climate action.”

According to its Q3 2023 earnings report, the company delivered gross margins significantly higher than Wall Street expectations. Gross margins came in at 47%, higher than the consensus of 39%. Gross margins improved based on lower sales freight costs, higher module average sales prices, and a higher volume of U.S.-produced modules, which make them eligible for the 45x tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act. First Solar was also the first company to close two separate tax credit transfer agreements, selling $500 million and $200 million of Inflation Reduction Act advanced manufacturing tax credits.

The company continues to grow its manufacturing capacity in the U.S., and expects to have 25 GW of global annual nameplate capacity by 2026.

Founded in 1999, First Solar is among the world’s ten largest solar manufacturers. It sets itself apart, however, by being the only U.S.-headquartered company in the top ten that is not manufacturing in China.

Enphase to lay off 10% of workforce The company is also shutting down contract manufacturing in the U.S. and Romania.

Lightsource bp closed on an $85 million tax equity investment from Bank of America to support construction and operation of the 188 MW Honeysuckle Solar project.

“Project Honeysuckle” has been in the works for at least three years, after RES launched the project, then was seeking a buyer and off taker.

Now with Lightsource bp as owner, it has plans to turn the solar power plant into a pollination station as well. In partnership with the Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund, a custom mix of vegetation is planted underneath the solar panels and around the site perimeter to provide food and shelter for critical pollinators and other wildlife.

In addition to being a home for pollinators, the Honeysuckle solar project will abate more than 204,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year 1, while creating additional benefits for community members and the local environment.

The project has created approximately 200 jobs during construction, and entry-level recruits have the opportunity to apply for apprenticeship programs with three unions represented on-site.

“A truly sustainable investment will create tangible social and economic benefits for people, in addition to fighting the climate crisis,” said Emilie Wangerman, Lightsource bp’s interim COO of the United States. “Bank of America is supporting a positive, long-term ripple effect beyond the solar farm itself.”

The $85 million investment marks Bank of America’s fifth tax equity transaction and seventh solar project with Lightsource bp totaling nearly 1.5GW.  Bank of America also participated in the debt financing that Lightsource bp raised for Honeysuckle Solar, alongside ING Capital LLC (ING), Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Societe Generale.

Located on 1,900 acres of land in St. Joseph County, Indiana, Honeysuckle Solar is scheduled to come online in early 2024 and will deliver power to off taker AEP Energy Partners (AEPEP) under a long-term power purchase agreement.

The 188 MW solar plant will help boost Indiana’s overall solar ranking, which the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) puts at 16^th in the country in 2023, with 2.2 GW installed. SEIA expects it to rise to seventh place in five years.

Lightsource BP is now owned by British oil and gas conglomerate, BP, which said it will scale up Lightsource BP’s solar operations with the acquisition and will “target double digit equity returns.”. Lightsource bp, already active in the U.S., completed its first utility-scale solar installation in 2016. Since 2019, the Lightsource bp team has brought into operation or initiated construction on 3.2 GW of U.S solar projects with capital costs of nearly $4 billion in 11 states across the country.

The demise of rooftop solar in Indiana coincides with significant increases in electricity prices over the last two decades. This development was brought to light in recent filings that show the Indiana-Michigan Power Company (I&M) is seeking a 23% hike in electricity rates. The Citizens Action Coalition Indiana (CAC Indiana) indicates that distributed solar collapsed after the state eliminated net metering in favor of “excess distributed generation” (EDG) tariff on July 1, 2022, the day that Indiana rooftop solar died.

As this has occurred, electricity utilities are now seeking to massively increase the cost of electricity.

According to CAC Inidana’s filing, “The amount of solar installed has decreased dramatically. As shown in Figure 16, in the last one-year period in which net metering was offered (July 2021 through June 2022), I&M customers installed about 7.4 MW of solar. In the one-year period after the EDG tariff replaced net metering (July 2022 through June 2023), solar installations fell to 2.4 MW, a 67% year-over-year decrease in capacity additions.”

The last net metering solar power system in Indiana was installed in the summer of 2023. Featuring bifacial solar panels and ballasted racking, this project is expected to yield $140,000 in operational savings in the first year.

Furthermore, the filing indicated that the average monthly residential electricity bill has more than doubled since 2004, escalating from $70 to almost $150. I&M is now proposing a massive 23% increase, which would push the average bill to $176/month. Accounting for inflation, rates have increased roughly 54% since 2004.

Concurrently with the phase-out of net metering, construction began on the large-scale Mammoth Solar project. SOLV Energy is developing the first 400 MW phase of the 1.3 GWac / 1.65 FW dc facility. The project has secured multiple power purchase agreements, including 80 MW with PNC Bank and portions of the subsequent 360 MW phase with AEP Energy and Doral Renewables.

On November 16, just as the State of California was making drastic cuts to the amount of electricity that apartment complexes were allowed to sell to their renters, the utility PG&E received approval for a 13% rate increase.

Canadian Solar announced it plans to invest $800 million to develop a 5 GW solar cell manufacturing site in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Once complete, the factory is expected to produce enough cells to supply the production of about 20,000 solar modules per day.

The company said it expects to begin production at the plant in 2025. Over 1,200 jobs will be created once the facility is operational.

“Indiana’s strong advanced manufacturing sector positions the state to help lead the global energy transition, developing and powering new solutions in batteries, solar and hydrogen,” said Indiana governor Eric Holcomb. “Canadian Solar’s new U.S. location in Jeffersonville will put our skilled Hoosier workforce at the center of cultivating solar power, making energy efficient panels more accessible to consumers across the country.”

The company said the cells produced at the Indiana facility will be used at its new Mesquite, Texas module assembly plant announced in June.

(Read: “Manufacturing a solar powered economy“)

A total of $12.3 million in tax credits and workforce training grants were offered to Canadian solar through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. The funds are conditional on the company following through on investment and hiring plans.

Canadian Solar has been publicly traded on the NASDAQ since 2016, and was founded in Guelph, Canada in 2001.

In a pv magazine USA webinar, Clean Energy Associates highlighted how solar cells are a critical leg in the supply chain that needs to expand capacity to make a meaningful impact on energy independence for the U.S.

Along with raw polysilicon, ingots, and wafers, cells are under-represented in the U.S. supply chain when compared with module assembly capacity and overall PV module demand.

The newly launched Bila Solar announced plans to open a solar module manufacturing facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the company says it will produce 1 GW of glassless, frameless solar modules per year.

Bila plans to renovate an existing 150,000-square-foot facility and expects to employ 240 people once the plant is fully operational, stating that it will begin production in the summer of 2024.

“We’re bringing to the U.S. market ultralight modules that go where traditional solar panels can’t go,” said Mick McDaniel, VP and U.S general manager, Bila. “In Indianapolis, we found a central urban location, a diverse workforce and an entrepreneurial spirit – ideal for our out-of-the-box approach to making clean energy attainable for all.”

The technology behind the modules was developed in collaboration with the advanced materials industry. McDaniel told pv magazine USA that replacing glass with specially formulated composites was inspired by the windows in airplanes, which are not made from glass, and are lightweight, transparent, strong, flexible, durable and UV resistant. “These same characteristics are excellent for solar panels, so why haven’t we used them yet?  The aerospace industry has figured out how and so our task was how to apply that to the PV industry in a cost effective way that met the needs of solar customers.” said McDaniel.

Bila plans to produce 520 W 144 half-cell monocrystalline modules, with an efficiency of 19.3%. The modules measure 88.4 inches by 47.1 inches by 0.08 inches. Made of an aerospace polymer composite, the module reportedly weighs 17 pounds, which Bila says is nearly 70% lighter than conventional glass-framed modules.

The light weight and thinness of the modules enable them to be deployed in various applications, including low load-bearing commercial and industrial roofs, waterproof membrane roofs, integration into vehicles for solar power, off-grid use and even on curved surfaces, the company reports.

McDaniel said the Bila Solar modules pass the same durability tests as conventional glass panels, including IEC 61215:2016, IEC61730:2016, UL61730 (USA), PID, and salt mist level 8 tests. He added that the modules have also undergone wind tunnel testing, damp heat, adhesion pull tests, flexibility stress tests and more. The modules come with a 12-year  product warranty and a 25-year linear power warranty.

Bila is far from alone in setting up solar manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Earlier this month the Solar Energy Industries Association reported that an additional 85 GW of module manufacturing was coming to the U.S., following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivizes onshoring manufacturing across the solar supply chain. Site Selection Group assisted Bila Solar with procuring state and local incentives for this exciting project.

“Indiana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is strong, and we’re excited to welcome Bila Solar to our growing network of innovators advancing products that power the world,” said Governor Eric J. Holcomb. “With Bila’s new Indianapolis manufacturing operation, Indiana’s skilled workforce will be making solar energy more accessible and powering our growing clean energy sector to new heights.”

With its factory planned for Indianapolis, Bila has also designated the city as the location for its U.S. headquarters.

People on the move: Erthos, Enel, GreenStruxure, and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Top solar panel brands in performance, reliability, and quality  Solar modules are evaluated in the Renewable Energy Test Center annual PV Module Index.

Replacing coal plant with largest energy storage project in Indiana  AES Indiana filed for a 200 MW/800 MWh battery project, slated to be Indiana’s largest. Located at the site of a partially decommissioned multi-unit coal plant, now transitioning to gas, AES expects the project to receive a 40% investment tax credit with the Energy Community adder, and come online by December 1, 2024.

California utility announces launch of distributed energy management system  PG&E will coordinate resources like rooftop solar, electric vehicles and energy storage in partnership with Schneider Electric.

Revolution 300 MWh energy storage project in Texas moves toward commissioning  Spearmint Energy announces mechanical completion and beginning of commissioning activities to bring PowerTitan BESS project online in ERCOT market.

To achieve net zero energy status, solar-powered buildings should not exceed 10 floors  Researchers in Canada have found that nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) with on-site solar energy generation should not exceed an energy use intensity (EUI) of 50 kWh/m2a, which they said corresponds to a maximum of 10 floors. They also ascertained that the maximum permitted EUI by net-zero energy status is 17 to 28 kWh/m2a.

An Indiana-based utility company, AES Indiana, has submitted a request to build the state’s largest energy storage system at a semi-operational coal facility. The proposed site for the Pike County Energy Storage Project is the Petersburg Generating Facility.

The planned battery will have a peak output of 200 MW, with an “expected output [of] 800 MWh at 80% of discharge level,” according to the filings. This suggests the facility could actually house a 1 GWh battery capacity, with AES Indiana having access to 800 MWh of it. The utility has signed an engineer, procure, and construct (EPC) contract with Fluence, the battery manufacturer that will also lead the construction of the facility.

Source: RFP 2023 documents for Pike County Energy Storage Project

The 200 MW will be divided into two 100 MW units, each with a capacity to last for four hours. Each 100 MW segment will connect to its own 34.5 kW to 345 kW transformers, which will supply the Petersburg Substation through a single 0.6-mile-long, 345 kW transmission line. The project will occupy 26 acres of the Petersburg Generating Station property.

Despite Indiana hosting what is likely to be the country’s largest solar power project at 1.3 GW, its small scale solar sector has faced challenges. The music recently stopped playing when the state built its last net metering project, leaving the 17th most populous state ranking 19th in solar power deployed.

This battery is earmarked to replace capacity from Petersburg Unit 2, which according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, is due for retirement in June 2023. Ben Inskeep, program director at CAC Indiana, t he state’s oldest and largest consumer and environmental advocacy organization, suggested the facility ceased operations on May 31, 2023.

The Petersburg Generating Station started with Unit 1 at 281.6 MW in 1967, added Unit 2 at 523.3 MW in 1969, followed by Unit 3 at 670.9 MW in 1977, and completed with Unit 4 at 670.9 MW in 1986. The new owner, AES, retired Unit 1 in May 2021.

Units 3 and 4 are scheduled to switch from coal to fossil gas in 2025.

As part of their filing, AES Indiana has requested “timely cost recovery via a rate adjustment mechanism [that] is also consistent” with Indiana law. This implies that the project’s cost will be covered in the electricity rates of beneficiaries, with standard state mandated profit margins added atop the project’s costs.

The company expects the project to be online by December 1, 2024, as outlined in their proposed timeline.

AES expects the project to receive at least a 40% tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Community clause. The utility projects that it, along with one or more tax equity partners, will own the facility. The filings indicate that once the tax equity partner achieves its internal rate of return, the utility will have the option to purchase the battery – a transaction typically occurring five years after commissioning, in compliance with the Internal Revenuse Service guidelines related to the Investment Tax Credit.

As the project nears completion, the utility will apply to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approval to sell stored energy discharged by the Pike Project facility into the wholesale market. It will also seek authorization to sell capacity and ancillary services to AES Indiana. Upon approval, AES Indiana and Pike County Energy Storage, LLC will formalize a Capacity Agreement and Contract for Differences.

AES Corporation, the parent company of AES Indiana, holds a substantial 34% stake in Fluence, the battery manufacturer involved in the project.

AES Indiana pioneered the first stand alone utility scale energy storage facility in the MISO interconnect region with the 20 MW/20 MWh Harding Street Station Battery Energy Storage System, launched in 2016.

State climate policies that can make a difference Rocky Mountain Institute presents updated climate policy scorecards for 20 states, tracking progress to 2030.

The last net-metered project in Indiana A 1.3 MW, behind-the-meter solar project had to meet a six-month deadline in order for the project to be exempt from Indiana’s 2017 law that revoked net-metering.

Solar powers manufacturing of concrete utility poles  The solar installation is enabling Valmont to create utility transmission and distribution poles at scale with lower greenhouse gas emissions.

How smart electrification can unlock the potential of solar PV Integration  The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) explains how many smart electrification solutions are already available and ready for commercialization, with pioneering companies creating, trialing and deploying potentially transformative innovations.

Texas curtailed 9% of solar generation in 2022  Transmission and energy storage limitations are leading to wasted renewable energy.

Pegasus Solar introduces roof mount with integrated sealant  The InstaFlash pre-installed sealant is designed for composite tile roofs

Valmont Industries announced the completion of a 718 kW ground mount solar installation that uses Valmont Solar’s own Convert-1P tracker. The energy generated by the system is expected to avoid 400 tons of carbon emissions, offsetting 100% of emissions from the manufacturing of concrete utility poles in the Bristol, Indiana facility.

Valmont partnered with Ameresco, a cleantech integrator and renewable energy asset developer, to build the solar array.

“As part of the long-term need for critical infrastructure investment, we recognize the vital role transmission, distribution and substation structures will play in the energy transition super cycle as well as the importance of sustainability in the products, services and solutions we deliver that conserve resources and improve life,” said Aaron Schapper, president of Valmont Infrastructure.”

The solar modules are mounted on 70 Convert single-axis solar trackers. Valmont acquired the Convert tracker business in 2018 when it took at 75% stake in the company.

The 1P tracker is reportedly optimized to adapt to the topography of the land, and is designed for use in utility-scale as well as distributed generation installations.

In addition to solar, Valmont is taking other steps to reduce emissions in its manufacturing process. The facility is incorporating a concrete mix that uses supplemental cementious materials of steel slag, such as waste material from furnace-burned steel production. Traditional cement production is known as a carbon-intensive process, 90% of which are from the kiln where limestone and silica (shale and sand) are heated to create the material called “clinker” necessary in making cement. Of those emissions, 60% comes from “process emissions,” or the chemical decomposition of limestone in kiln. The other 30% comes from the combustion of fossil fuels to reach the high temperatures required to continually make cement, according to the Department of Energy.

After having been used for decades, Valmont reports that slag cement has proven to be strong and sustainable. According to the company, however, it has never been used at scale in utility pole production. Valmont plans to fully transition all six of its concrete utility pole facilities across the country to the eco-concrete mixture within the next 12 months. The company estimates that the rollout could reduce carbon emissions by 12,000 tons annually across these manufacturing facilities.

“Grid hardening has fundamentally changed the utility pole market and we are innovating with a sustainably focused mindset to meet the demand,” Schapper said.

Reimagined Power Guidance Energy Group (RPG) partnered with Florida-based Castillo Engineering to build a PV model meant to power automation and instrumentation manufacturing company Endress+Hauser’s measuring and control devices in Greenwood, Ind. Constructed with bifacial solar panels and ballasted racking, the project is expected to save Endress+Hauser $140,000 in operational costs in the first year.

The instrumentation manufacturer produces flow meters for liquid, gas and steam systems, and this project is expected to help Endress+Hauser offset the production of thousands of flow meters annually. 

That savings in energy and cost is due to the company’s adherence to a six-month deadline to meet specific regulatory and operational guidelines that exempted them from Indiana’s 2017 law that revoked net-metering. They had to apply for and receive permission to connect to Indiana’s utility grid from local utility companies within six months of finishing construction.

“We knew we could trust Castillo Engineering’s extensive expertise to help us meet the tight timeline for delivery of both the electrical engineering for interconnection and structural feasibility analysis required for construction,” said vice president of Design and Engineering at RPG Energy Group, Colton Cooper.  

From 2004 to 2017, residential and commercial PV system owners could, through net metering, sell their unused solar at the end of each month to utility companies at the same rate those businesses charged them for electricity. Another option was re-generating unused power month to month indefinitely on a credit-based system. 

Al Bacon, vice president of Operations and Engineering at Endress+Hauser, said RPG was the only company that could meet tight deadlines for achieving the net metering requirement that afforded them such savings. “We went from initial proposal to completion in eight months,” he said. 

The new bill cuts what customers could have earned selling back excess solar power to utility companies by 70%. “The rates are so unpalatable that only two Northern Indian Public Service Company (NIPSCO) customers have installed rooftop solar since July 1, 2022,” said Ben Inskeep, program director at Citizens Action Coalition (CAC). The company is reported to serve more than 1.2 million customers worldwide. 

“We are grateful to have had this additional opportunity to work alongside RPG to deliver substantial long-term savings to this business,” said Christopher Castillo, CEO of Castillo Engineering. “RPG’s expertise in industrial scale, behind-the-meter solar projects was crucial in the success of this project, which had two separate electrical services and meters that had to be assessed to maximize energy offset and utility bill savings.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In late 2022, pv magazine USA identified a hit rate of more than 50% of utility solar projects attaching energy storage. A midwestern utility retiring the 1.95 GW R.M. Schahfer coal generation facility in Indiana is contributing to that growing trend.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) activated a 465 MW solar portfolio consisting of NIPSCO’s first two utility solar projects, Dunns Bridge I Solar in Jasper County, Ind., and Indiana Crossroads Solar in White County, Ind.:

• Dunns Bridge I Solar (265 MW) is the first phase of a 700 MW solar-plus-storage complex in Jasper and Starke Counties whose combined capacity will produce clean power from a 5,000 acre solar field along with a 75 MW / 300 MWh storage facility. Built by NextEra Energy Resources, both phases of the solar complex are located nearby the Schahfer coal station, which is set to retire by 2025. Dunns Bridge I and II projects will generated $59 million in new tax revenue for the two counties. The second phase (435 MW) of the Dunns Bridge complex is scheduled to enter commercial operations later this year. During peak construction the facility created 300 construction jobs.
• Indiana Crossroads Solar (200 MW) was constructed by EDP Renewables North America and will bring $2.6 million in annual Economic Development Agreement funds to White County in addition to $42 million in property tax payments over the 35-year lifetime of the project.

Dunns Bridge I and Indiana Crossroads are partly funded through tax equity investments from a tax equity investor, while the projects are expected to incur tax benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act as well.

“The addition of our first solar parks to our electric generating portfolio represent meaningful investments in the state of Indiana and a direct benefit to our customers,” said Mike Hooper, president of NIPSCO. “These completed projects are a crucial step in advancing our long-term energy transition plan, providing sustainable, reliable and cost-effective energy now and into the future.”

NIPSCO’s energy transition to a decarbonized generation fleet includes plans to retire all its remaining coal-fired units. The company plans to be coal-free by 2028, driving a reduction in carbon emissions by more than 90% by 2030, compared to a 2005 baseline.

The utility’s clean energy portfolio consists of 2.4 GW of wind, solar and storage assets in operation or under construction and includes:

• Rosewater Wind Farm (102 MW)- located in White County, Indiana (Complete)
• Jordan Creek Wind (400 MW)- located in Benton and Warren counties, Ind. (Complete)
• Dunns Bridge Solar I (265 MW) – located in Jasper County, Ind. (Complete)
• Dunns Bridge Solar II (435 MW) – sited with 75 MW / 300 MWh of battery storage (2023)
• Indiana Crossroads I Wind (300 MW) – located in White County, Ind. (Complete)
• in Jasper and Starke counties, Ind.
• Indiana Crossroads Solar (200 MW) – located in White County, Ind. (Complete)
• Indiana Crossroads II Wind (204 MW) – located in White County, Indiana (2023)
• Cavalry Solar (200 MW) – sited with 60 MW of battery storage in White County, Ind. (2024)
• Fairbanks Solar (250 MW) – located in Sullivan County, Ind. (2025)

As previously announced, NIPSCO is working with developers on other wind, solar and battery storage projects in various stages of development. For those projects not already approved, NIPSCO has requested to add those projects to its supply portfolio in filings with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC). Further details on NIPSCO’s renewable energy portfolio can be accessed 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.

Rising energy prices from the Russia-Ukraine War have created a fertile ground for renewable energy development around the globe. Industry stakeholders continue to see the pace of energy storage systems not keeping pace with rapid industry growth.

In a survey put out by global manufacturer Jabil and consulting group SIS International Research, 88% of respondents said they are struggling to scale up production of energy storage systems to keep pace with heightened demand in the energy transition.

Out of 204 industry stakeholders surveyed in commercial and industrial segments, the group found that 87% of the respondents are considering manufacturing their own battery systems, with an evenly distributed survey group of end users (33%), assembly companies (33%) and module producers (25%).

About two-thirds of the survey group reported interest in making C&I battery solutions of 200 kWh to 1 MWh in power dispatch, while a 62% percentile also favored a slightly smaller 20 kWh to 199 kWh product group.

In a regional survey, the group reported North America (70%) as its preferred market, with California (43%), the Northeast U.S. (42%) and the Midwest (41%) showing the highest distribution rates of deliveries for energy storage systems.

Technology preference

About 78% of the Jabil/SIS survey group manages operates their own battery systems internally, while a 63% demographic procures distributed energy from storage under an energy-as-a-service contract through third-party providers.

More than 90% of the survey group uses lithium-ion battery systems, and 75% of the group plans to continue using the same battery systems.

A stark contrast emerged in the survey group around safer battery systems, with a 45% percentile concerned to find a safer solution and 55% not concerned to use alternative solutions to lithium batteries.

Challenges

Nearly 90% of respondents cited an inability to manufacture at scale needed to meet global demand as their number one challenge in energy storage right now.

About 58% of respondents said they could see expansion opportunities into another energy storage market such as C&I, residential or utility solutions in the next three to five years.

Those who said they are not expanding generally noted that expansion does not align with the larger company strategy and focus, and the opportunity costs for doing so would outweigh the benefits. One respondent explained, “We are satisfied with our current energy storage solutions; the opportunity costs for changing them are very high.”

Respondents cited modularity of storage deployments as a common theme for an increased energy storage rate.

Battery reuse

Sustainability is a key issue for energy storage companies in the years ahead, particularly as lithium batteries reach the end of their lives. However, the useful lives of batteries can often be extended in new applications.

Three-quarters (75%) of respondents said they plan to reuse their batteries in new storage systems or other products. A smaller grouping of 64% of respondents said they plan to use a direct recycling or metallurgical process to recycle batteries.

A bit of a contradiction was revealed when respondents were asked how they would integrate second-life batteries in their value stack. Despite high numbers indicating they would like to reuse their batteries, only 39% of the survey group said they expect to integrate second-use batteries originally used for a different purpose in their energy storage systems over the next decade. Instead, an 84% majority said they plan to use batteries that use recycled materials.

Non-lithium alternatives

Despite respondents saying they plan to continue to use lithium-ion batteries for the next decade, the survey did show some margin for adding non-lithium battery alternatives.

Hydrogen fuel cells (20%) nearly replaced lead-acid batteries as the next generation alternative to lithium-ion batteries, while flow battery technologies (12%), thermal batteries (19%), compressed air storage (7%) and supercapacitors (13%) are some additional technologies over the next decade.

Senate passes debt ceiling bill in mixed bag for energy and environment  Tucked into the bill were provisions to speed permitting for energy projects, undoing core elements of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).

Lightsource bp raises financing for 368 MW pollinator and bird-friendly projects Investment brings economic growth and environmental benefits to Indiana and Louisiana communities, leverages Inflation Reduction Act’s advantages for made-in-America products.

Maxeon claims 24.7% efficiency for IBC solar module  Maxeon said it has achieved a 24.7% efficiency rating for a full-scale Maxeon 7 solar panel using its interdigitated back contact technology. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) confirmed the result.

Minnesota PUC finds energy justice relevant to Xcel’s ratemaking process  Coalition of advocates urged PUC to address racial and wealth disparities in bill affordability, and they continue to push for more progress.

BrightNight developing 2 GW Bluegrass solar portfolio  The company is building a strong renewable power presence and partnerships in the Bluegrass State as its utilities remove 1.5 GW of coal generation from the grid.

50 states of solar incentives: Washington  Washington State’s adoption of solar took off in 2022, nearly doubling the cumulative installed capacity in a mix of residential and utility-scale projects.

Lightsource bp has closed on a $460 million project financing package for the construction of a 368 MW utility-scale solar portfolio comprised of two projects in Indiana and Louisiana.

The portfolio consists of:

• Honeysuckle Solar (188 MW) – Located in St. Joseph County, Ind., the project is secured by a long-term power purchase agreement with AEP Energy Partners, a retail energy arm of utility American Electric Power. Inovateus Solar is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for Honeysuckle Solar, which is set for completion in 2024.
• Prairie Ronde Solar (180 MW) – Located in St. Landry Parish, La., the utility project is secured by a long-term power purchase agreement with fast food giant McDonalds. LPL Solar is the EPC contractor for Prairie Ronde, which is also on track for completion in 2024.

Nearly 800,000 U.S.-manufactured First Solar panels and solar trackers from Array Technologies, also U.S.-made, will be used on both new projects.

“By leveraging domestic content incentives offered in the Inflation Reduction Act, both the Honeysuckle and Prairie Ronde solar projects provide exciting examples of the IRA’s benefits in real action,” said Kevin Smith, chief executive officer of the Americas, Lightsource bp. “With the right policies, we can boost made-in-America products, create jobs and reduce our nation’s foreign dependence.”

Collectively, the projects will abate more than 235,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, the equivalent of taking about 85,000 oil and gas-burning cars off the road.

Honeysuckle and Praire Ronde Solar have created 450 construction phase jobs, with the energy company focused on recruiting from local labor pools.

Lightsource bp arranged the new project debt financing from Bank of America, ING Capital, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Societe Generale. Over the last four years, Lightsource bp has raised over $3.7 billion in project financing for solar projects in 11 states from the lenders, among other financial institutions.

Pollinator-friendly solar

The two utility solar projects will also participate in lightsource bp’s “Responsible Solar” ethos, which encourages project development in conjunction with agrivoltaics practices, which combine solar generation with agriculture use case.

In St. Joseph County, Indiana, Honeysuckle becomes one of the first participants in the Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund’s new “Solar Synergy” program, fostering habitat for bee and butterfly pollinators across the site.

The Indiana program provides  tools and expertise to utility-scale solar developers seeking to cultivate high-quality pollinator habitats at their projects. Some of the benefits of this program include:

• Providing seed mixtures designed to provide high-value food and shelter for pollinators, while meeting the solar industry’s unique needs as well
• Monitoring the health of pollinator populations at the solar farm during operations
• On-site vegetation studies to help pull atmospheric carbon into the soil for long-term sequestration
• Connecting solar developers with opportunities for commercial honey production

“The greater the diversity you have in there, the more pollinator species and the more benefits you’ll be able to impact,” said ​Pete Berthelsen, executive director of the Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund.

On site, a first mix of wildflower plants will grow beneath rows of solar panels across the entire project, containing 25 species of grasses and flowering plants. A second plant mix, which will grow into what’s called a “high-density” pollinator garden, will be seeded on more than 20 acres around the solar site perimeter and contain more than 50 species of plants.

Additional information on Honeysuckle Solar’s pollinator program, including a video clip on honey production from solar sites, can be found here and below.

Meanwhile, at Prairie Ronde, Lightsource is making plans to restore coastal prairie habitat and also provide nesting grounds for Eastern Bluebirds. A long-term Land Management and Biodiversity plan will establish habitats to increase biodiversity through creation of pollinator habitat and natural undergrowth below the panels to  manage water runoff and drainage at the St. Landry Parish, Louisiana project site.

Lightsource bp has a pipeline of projects under development in Indiana and Louisiana. In the Hoosier State, the company built the 173 MW Bellflower Solar project near Indianapolis in March 2023. In the Pelican State, lightsource is also developing the 345 MW Oxbow Solar (fka Ventress Solar) project with LPL Solar serving as the contractor.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the winners of the 21st annual Solar Decathlon, an annual collegiate contest and DOE’s longest-running student competition.

The contest challenges the next generation to design and construct high-performance, low-carbon buildings powered by renewable energy, while promoting student innovation, STEM education and workforce development opportunities in the buildings industry.

Ball State University, University of Minnesota, and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art won the top honors at this year’s competition and were announced at the Solar Decathlon Competition Event at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.

“As we work to build America’s clean energy future and implement President Biden’s ambitious climate agenda, we need dedicated leaders who are ready to undertake any challenge before them with pride and passion,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk.

This year marks the 21st anniversary of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, which has challenged more than 40,000 students to create efficient, affordable buildings powered by renewable energy. The first Solar Decathlon competition was held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2002. Fourteen teams designed, built, transported, and showcased zero energy houses powered entirely by renewable energy—a feat relatively unheard of at the time. During the 21-day inaugural event, more than 100,000 people visited the first-ever Solar Decathlon.

Since those initial 14 groups, the Solar Decathlon has supported 900 teams, grown to include both residential and commercial buildings through Design and Build Challenges. After the initial U.S. events, the Solar Decathlon has expanded to 40 countries, including Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.

Design Challenge is a one- to two-semester, design-only competition, while the Build Challenge is a two-year design-build competition.

Build Challenge winner 

Ball State University took home first place in the 2023 Build Challenge after dedicating nearly two years to designing and constructing a zero-energy home. The Alley House team, made up of students from Ball State’s R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning (ECAP), along with dedicated faculty leads, design advisors, and interdisciplinary consultants, engaged their community in Indianapolis to reimagine a zero-energy future for historically under-used urban lots through the construction of a high-performance, functional family home. The home is not just net-positive energy, but it solves many housing issues in the area. It is designed for an aging population, promotes neighborhood revitalization, and facilitates lifestyle growth for local families. The affordable two-family home activates public alleys and integrates sustainable landscape design criteria and passive house principles.

“I am proud of our ECAP students and faculty, who earned the top prize in this international competition as a result of their skill, knowledge, creativity, and dedication,” said Geoffrey S. Mearns, president of Ball State. “This win is also a testament to the value of Ball State’s Immersive Learning and high-impact learning practices—ways we engage students in experience-based projects that benefit people in the communities that we serve. Equally impressive is the fact that this thoughtfully designed and well-constructed duplex will serve as affordable housing for two Indiana families.”

Teams also receive awards for excellence in specific aspects of building construction and design, including architecture, engineering, market analysis, durability and resilience, embodied environmental impact, integrated performance, occupant experience, comfort and environmental quality, energy performance, and presentation.

See the full list of Build Challenge Contest Winners.

Design challenge winners 

Design Challenge teams compete in the same 10 contests as the Build Challenge teams. Whereas Build Challenge teams develop residential solutions, Design Challenge teams compete in one of six commercial and residential divisions including new housing, retrofit housing, attached housing, multifamily housing, office buildings, and educational buildings. A winning team is named in each division, and from these teams, Residential and Commercial Grand Winners are selected.

The University of Minnesota and Cooper Union earned the Residential Grand Winner and Commercial Grand Winner titles, respectively, in the 2023 Design Challenge, rising to the top of a talented group of 55 competing teams from around the world.

The University of Minnesota created a deep-energy retrofit for a three-story housing structure that aims to preserve the building’s historical character while meeting the local need for affordable, durable, and resilient housing.  The Cooper Union team created an educational building design for the renovation and extension of the New York Harbor School that promotes zero energy retrofit principles and workforce development opportunities for the community.

See the full list of Design Challenge Division Winners.

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

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

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

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

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

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

EDF Renewables North America  announced two agreements with American Electric Power utility Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) to deploy 425 MWac of utility solar projects in Indiana.

Under the agreements, I&M will purchase power output from Sculpin Solar (180 MWac) in DeKalb County, Ind., under a 30-year power purchase agreement.  The utility will acquire 100% of the equity interests in Lake Trout Solar (245 MWac) in Blackford County, Ind., following the completion of construction of the facility, the developer said.  Both projects are anticipated to be put into service in late 2025 at the earliest.

“Indiana and its farmers are taking the lead to decarbonize the energy sector, while also revitalizing the local economy with jobs, vendor contracts, taxes, and lease payments,” said Eric Spigelman, senior director, origination & power marketing, EDF. “We are excited to bring EDF Renewables first solar projects to Indiana and to support I&M as it delivers long-term price stability, stimulates economic growth, and reduces emissions.” 

The Sculpin and Lake Trout solar projects are expected to generate 880,000 MWh of clean energy each year, the equivalent to avoiding over 624,000 metric tons of carbon (CO₂) emissions each year from fossil fuel generating facilities.

According to the American Clean Power IQ database, Indiana generates about 1.6 GW or 39% of its 4.18 GW of renewable energy generation mix from solar resources. The Solar Energy Industries Association ranks the state 18^th in the nation for solar generation, where it fares within the top five U.S. states with a robust 8.24 GW development pipeline over the next five years.

Indiana’s solar market has been restricted to utility-scale projects in recent years, as May 2017 saw the reversal of a net metering mechanism destroy the value of rooftop solar for its 6.8 million residents.

Indiana’s Clean Energy Portfolio Standard (CPS) is significantly lower than comparable states. Known as the Comprehensive Hoosier Option to Incentivize Cleaner Energy (CHOICE) program, the utility program was enacted in May 2011 by Senate Bill 251 and sets a voluntary goal of generating 10% renewable energy off the grid by 2025.

Once completed, the 245 MW Lake Trout Solar project could become the second largest solar facility in Indiana after NextEra Energy’s Petersburg Solar project, a 250 MW solar plus 180 MWh battery storage project in development in Pike County, Indiana. The Petersburg project is on track for construction by May 2024.

Renewable energy deployment fell well short of expectations last year, adding 16% less capacity in 2022 than in 2021. As components, shipping and grid interconnection costs rose and trade wars unfolded, supply chains struggled to keep up with planned projects. The drop in deployment occurred in a year where 30% growth was expected.

The American Clean Power Association (ACP) reported that renewable energy deployment began to ramp up in Q4 of 2022. Developers added 131 projects across 36 states in Q4, 2022, adding roughly 30% of the projects brought online in 2022. Texas accounted for 44% of Q4 installations.

Despite this increase in activity late in the year, Q4 2022 showed the lowest fourth quarter deployment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Q4, 2019.

The 16% decline in clean power installations in 2022 versus 2021 can be explained in part by the mass of projects that have experienced project delays in 2022, the ACP said. More than 48 GW of clean power projects reported delays in 2022 and have not yet come online.

Solar accounts for 64% of the capacity of delayed clean power deployment. More than 4 GW of clean power projects have been permanently terminated since the beginning of 2021.

However, solar had its strongest Q4 yet, adding 4.7 GW, 3% higher than Q4, 2021. Solar commissioned the most capacity among renewable energy projects, adding 12.7 GW in 2022. For the year’s sub-total, solar added 5% less capacity in 2022 than in 2021. This fell short of the anticipated 30% year-over-year growth.

Total operating clean power capacity, which ACP tracks as solar, wind, and energy storage development, has reached 227 GW, enough to power more than 61 million American homes.

Texas leads the nation in terms of total operating clean power capacity (54 GW), as well as total land-based wind capacity (40 GW). California places second overall at 29 GW online, but first for solar (18 GW) and battery storage (5 GW). Iowa ranks third overall with 13 GW, almost all of which is wind power (12.7 GW).

Solar now represents 59% of the clean power capacity in development, gaining 4% in share, the ACP said. Texas leads with 17 GW of solar in development, representing 21% of the national solar development pipeline. This quarter California fell from second place in development, surpassed by Indiana with 6.2 GW in development. California has 6 GW of solar in its development pipeline.

Regionally, 95% of the non-ISO Southeast’s pipeline is solar, followed by MISO, with a pipeline of 77% solar. Solar makes up the smallest portion of the pipeline in ISO-NE at 16%.

Battery energy storage had a record year, adding 4 GW / 12.2 GWh, a significant leap over the 2021 total of 3 GW / 9.5 GWh. Storage capacity increased 80% in 2022. Following small declines in the second and third quarters, battery energy storage rebounded in Q4, growing 17% from Q3. As of December 2022, ACP said there was 16.7 GW/45.6 GWh of storage in development. Nearly 70% of the capacity is paired with on-site solar or wind capacity.

Hybrid projects, or ones that co-locate energy storage, have changed their profile considerably over the years. Almost 75% of all operating hybrid capacity is part of a solar plus storage project. That percentage increased by an average of 7% each year over the past decade, said ACP. Wind plus storage projects, which represented close to 75% of operating hybrid capacity a decade ago, now represents just 17% of operational capacity. The hybrid pipeline is 97% solar plus storage capacity and 3% wind plus storage project capacity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People on the Move: NextEra, Avangrid, Cypress Creek, David Energy and more  Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities, and energy transition finance. 

Five community solar projects coming to disadvantaged communities in California The five projects, to be built by Renewable Properties, will fulfill the remaining capacity of PG&E’s Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff program

DC:DC hybrid solar to EV optimizer distributor raises $7 million in funding Enteligent’s time-of-generation EV charging technology allows real-time charging from solar, resulting in what the company says is up to 25% in energy savings, versus traditional DC to AC configurations.

Sunrun partners with startup to manage virtual power plants  The rooftop solar and battery energy storage provider selected Lunar Energy as VPP manager across the United States. The startup will also be launching its own battery in the coming months.

50 states of solar incentives: Indiana The Hoosier State has a prohibitive residential PV market with net metering recently phased out, while its utility market enjoys 878.8MW of new projects.

Two groups challenge grid operator rules that restrict renewable energy Earthjustice filed a complaint with FERC on behalf of SEIA that challenges a MISO rule that prohibits renewable energy resources from providing ancillary services.

Solar may cover the world’s electricity demand with 0.3% of its land area  An international research group claims that raw materials and land availability do not present a real barrier for a global energy system with solar at its center. They said that forecasts for PV growth should not have their axis on utility-scale power plants and instead consider vertical PV, agrivoltaics, and floating PV as the source of future big market volumes

Global energy industry is at an inflection point, said utility representative Edison Electric Institute Chair Warner Baxter offers his perspective on the interconnected crises facing the energy industry during an unprecedented time.

The solar market in Indiana has been restricted to large utility-scale projects in recent years, as May 2017 saw the reversal of a net metering mechanism destroy the value of rooftop solar for its 6.8 million residents.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) projects Indiana will add just under 7.4 GW of solar over the next five years, placing it within the top 10 states for solar development outlook. Currently there are eight projects operating in the state with 1.4 GW of power capacity.

Indiana’s Clean Energy Portfolio Standard (CPS) is significantly lower than comparable states. Known as the Comprehensive Hoosier Option to Incentivize Cleaner Energy (CHOICE) program, the utility program was enacted in May 2011 by Senate Bill 251 and sets a voluntary goal of generating 10% renewable energy off the grid by 2025.

With five investor-owned utilities operating in state, Indiana ranked third in the country in 2021 in total coal consumption and coal power generation, trailing just Texas and Missouri. Coal power represents 58% of Indiana’s electricity mix for the year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

While Indiana is the sixth largest producer of grain ethanol in the U.S., just 1.4 GW of solar and 2.3 GW of wind turbines power the state, or 2% and 8% respectively of the Hoosier State’s generation mix.

Incentives

On January 4, the Indiana Supreme Court  ruled in favor of utility Vectren’s decision to end certain benefits for residential PV system owners. Vectren, now a CenterPoint Energy utility, argued a new subsidy scheme following a 2017 state law would short change residents who generate more energy than they consume, thwarting a net metering credit system.

The state’s Senate Bill 309, in place since May 2017, phased out retail rate net metering and replaced the former 1:1 kWh bill credit with a much smaller credit based on 125% of the utilities’ wholesale rate. That change in compensation resulted in a bill credit that is approximately 70% to 80% lower than what customers receive for retail rate net metering.

While this changed the level of compensation that solar homeowners would receive, it did not change the method by which the compensation rate would be applied. Homeowners would still be credited at that rate, multiplied by the kWh difference between the electricity that they imported from the grid and the electricity they exported to the grid.

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

Community solar

The Hoosier State does not yet have an active community solar program that allows for retail subscription to solar energy. Senator Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington) introduced community solar legislation, SB 313, into the state in early 2021 but the bill has not yet been heard. Under the proposed legislation, Indiana utilities would be required to install at least five community solar projects within their service territory.

Yoder told local public radio station WFYI that community solar projects would provide more stable energy prices for lower-income residents and revitalize their communities. “Lower-income communities can use their newly attained saving toward other expenses, personal savings, or contribute to the economy,” Yoder told the station.

Notable project

Located 18 miles from the Ohio border in Modoc, Indiana, the 200 MW Riverstart Solar Project entered commercial operations in January 2022.  With $180 million in capital contributions, Riverstart was built by EDP Renewables North America and provides enough power for 36,000 homes. Hoosier Energy, a rural electric cooperative, is the offtake customer for the project.

Following completion, EDP Renovaveis sold an 80% equity interest in Riverstart Solar to infrastructure fund Connor Clark & Lunn Infrastructure.

For now Riverstart holds the title for largest solar project in Indiana, but the title may be usurped by NextEra Energy Resources, which has a 250 MW solar plus 180 MWh energy storage project in the development stages in Pike County, Indiana. That project is on track to be built by May 2024.

Up next

The previous stop on the pv magazine tour of state incentives was Illinois, and next on the tour will be Ohio.

The energy transition has caused an upswing in interconnection costs related to network upgrades across the PJM Interconnection market, according to a new study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. PJM is a regional transmission organization that serves 13 states and the District of Columbia.

At year-end 2021, PJM had 259 GW of new power generation and storage capacity actively seeking grid interconnection. Capacity in PJM’s queue is dominated by solar (116 GW), standalone energy storage (42 GW), solar-plus-storage systems (32 GW), and wind power (39 GW).

PJM’s queue has ballooned in recent years, with 2021’s active queue increasing by 240% compared to year-end 2019. The capacity associated with interconnection requests is nearly twice as large as PJM’s peak load in recent years (155 GW). This explosive growth of interconnection requests along with lengthy study timelines and high project withdrawal rates (423 GW) motivated the Mid-Atlantic grid operator to reform its interconnection process in 2022.

Going forward, PJM has adopted a “first-ready, first-served” approach and increased study deposits that are at risk when projects withdraw.

The PJM study culls data from more than 1,100 projects, covering 86% of new generators in the grid from 2000 to 2022. However, the Berkeley Lab notes the difficulty in finding project cost specific data, creating an information barrier for developers, regulators and policy makers.

For completed projects, average costs have doubled relative to pre-pandemic costs, from $42 per kW to $84 per kW, with a median of $18 per kW to $30 per kW).

For active projects, interconnection costs have ballooned higher, from $29/kW to $240/kW between pre-pandemic costs and costs starting in 2020.

Withdrawn projects face the highest costs, averaging at $599/kW, with a median of $156/kW, which is likely a key driver for those withdrawals, the report notes.

Full access to the study can be found here.

Network upgrade cost driver

The key driver to interconnection cost increases has been network upgrade costs, Berkeley Lab finds.  The average costs for upgrades beyond the substation have risen sharply since 2019, to $71/kW for complete projects, $227/kW for active projects, and $563/kW for withdrawn projects.

A small group of generators face lower network upgrade costs by choosing interconnection services as an energy source instead of a capacity resource. However, as a result project owners forfeit preferential treatment during daily high load times, cannot participate in PJM’s capacity market, and may face increased curtailment.

Among recently completed projects, interconnection costs have fallen for natural gas ($18/kW) facilities, while increasing for both solar ($99/kW) and onshore wind ($60/kW) relative to historical costs through 2016. Costs for both active and withdrawn storage and solar plus storage projects are surprisingly high ($337/kW), but complete projects are much cheaper (storage: $4/kW, solar hybrid: $20/kW).

The PJM study was funded in part under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X), and builds on Berkeley Lab’s previous work tracking interconnection requests and timelines.

After a recent study from October 2022 examining interconnection costs in the MISO market, the Berkeley Lab will publish future analyses on the NYISO, ISO-NE, and SPP markets in the coming months.

Electric vehicle battery manufacturing capacity in North America is projected to increase to 1,000 GWh/year by 2030, representing a 20 times increase from 55 GWh/year of manufacturing capacity in 2021, thanks primarily to stimulus funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

The majority of new EV battery plants are scheduled to begin production between 2025 and 2030. By then, production capacity will be capable of supporting the manufacture of roughly 10 to 13 million fully electric vehicles per year.

In a report by the Department of Energy in conjunction with Argonne National Laboratory, planned battery capacity production is seeing the highest penetration rate in the Midwest and Southeast, with historic Rust Belt states across the Midwest having facilities devoted to battery production.  To optimize supply chain logistics, many battery facilities will be co-located within existing automotive plants.

Michigan, Kentucky and Georgia have the highest estimated battery production capacity through 2030, at 97 GW per year to 136 GW/y, followed by Ohio, Kansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and California, with 46 GW/y to 97 GW/y of estimated battery production.

By existing vehicle production locations, the Midwest has a good number of existing facilities for battery use, at 25 facilities, while surprisingly Ontario has nine facilities and Mexico has 30 facilities that are flagged for planned EV battery capacity.

In addition to vehicle facility co-locations for EV battery production, the concentration of 2030 battery plant announcements broadly correlates to states in the same region seeing the highest rate of new EV registrations. Southeast states like Georgia and Florida, which tallied 128,000 new EV registrations, are seeing a manufacturing uptick across the historic manufacturing hub of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. West Coast states of California (878,000) and Washington  (91,000) seeing a high EV registration are broadly seeing production capacity coming online in the next few years in California, Arizona and Nevada.

A few states with existing vehicle assembly plants such as Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi, have not telegraphed plans for additional 2030 goal EV battery production capacity, despite having five existing vehicle assembly locations.

Since the landmark Inflation Reduction Act passed in August, auto makers and battery companies have announced $11 billion in new investments into the North American EV battery supply chain. Panasonic opened a $4 billion factory in Kansas and is now eyeing Oklahoma,  Toyota increased its commitment to a North Carolina battery production facility from $1.3 billion to $3.8 billion, and Statevolt intends to spend $4 billion on a factory in California.

Through late 2021, 2.3 million vehicles or just over 4% of North American vehicles on the road were EVs or plug-in hybrid EVs, with 630,000 EVs sold in 2021 alone, representing sales growth of 92% compared to 457,000 of sales in 2020.

Since 2010, 65% of EVs sold in the U.S. have been assembled here, and over 110 GWh of lithium-ion batteries have been installed in those vehicles to date.  The average range for EVs reached 290 miles in 2021, with 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline cumulatively saved since 2010, reducing consumer fuel costs by $1.3 billion in 2021. EVs drove 19.1 billion miles in 2021 using 6,100 GWh of electricity, saving 700 million gallons of gasoline.

As of December 2021, Tesla (42.9%), General Motors (11.6%), Toyota (8%), Ford (6.8%) and Nissan (7.1%) generated more than 75% of total EV sales in North America, with four Tesla models, the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Bolt/Volt, Ford Fusion Energi and Toyota Prius making up some of the 14 most popular EV models by sales of over 30,000 units apiece in 2021.

California, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Vermont and Colorado all have total EV shares above 1% relative to total cars on the road, with California holding more than 3% ratio of EVs to conventional vehicles on the road for late 2021, with Hawaii and West Coast states to Colorado following the Sunshine State.

The rate of electric vehicle adoption will likely increase substantially in coming years as states issue EV mandates.

Additional data and reports can be accessed from the DOE here. The research report was authored by Argonne’s David Gohlke, Yan Zhou, Xinyi Wu and Calista Courtney.

AEP Energy Partners, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, is soliciting a request for proposal (RFP) process for off-take agreements from new and existing solar and wind projects in the PJM Interconnection market and solar projects in ERCOT to support the company’s growing retail and wholesale loads in Ohio and Texas, respectively.

In PJM, AEP’s offtake procurement include’s the city of Columbus, Ohio’s community choice aggregation program. PJM is  a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in a large Mid-Atlantic and Midwest region that extends from New Jersey to Illinois, and stretches as far south as the outer banks of North Carolina.

AEP is seeking RFPs for 10, 12 and 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) for new PJM located solar or wind projects, as well as 5 to 15-year agreements for existing projects (including repowering wind projects) in PJM.

In Texas, AEP is seeking renewable energy purchase (REP) agreements of 12 years or less for new ERCOT solar projects.

View full details about the AEP Energy Partners RFP process.

Notice of intent to bid must be received by AEP on or before Dec. 30, 2022.  Proposal packages are due by 5 p.m. EST on Jan. 13, 2023.  Proposals are due by email to Jennifer Williams (jewilliams@aepes.com) and Sean Handel (sthandel@aepes.com).

Further RFP details are available here or by contacting Jennifer Williams at (614) 716-2426 or Sean Handel at (419) 345-9634.

AEP Energy will release a shortlist of winning recipients in February, with official REP execution to come in Q2 2023.

As a competitive retail and wholesale electricity and natural gas supplier, AEP Energy serves more than 700,000 residential and business customers in 28 service territories in six states and Washington, D.C.

It also sells renewable energy through long-term contracts with utilities, electric cooperatives, municipalities, and corporate customers. The business unit currently owns more than 1,900 MW of solar, wind, and energy storage on both a utility- and distributed-scale basis in 26 states.

Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power is a $48.3 billion market cap regulated utility with 5.5 million customers across 11 states.  Effective January 2023, AEP will have exited the Kentucky market through the recent sale of Kentucky Power to Liberty Utilities, an affiliate of Algonquin Power, for $2.64 billion.

JUA Technologies, an agriculture technology start-up that manufactures solar-powered crop dehydrators, has received a two-year, $600,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop its technology.

The goal of the Phase II project, titled Smart Multipurpose Solar Dehydration Device for Value Addition to Specialty Crops, is proof of concept toward product-design improvements and design for the company’s production of a multipurpose solar dryer, called Dehymeleon.

“It is an energy-intensive process with huge operating costs because food dehydrators are typically powered by gas, electricity or fuel oil,” said Dr. Klein E. Ileleji, chief executive officer and co-founder of JUA Technologies, and also a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University. “The high operating cost limits the ability of small and midsize growers and processors in the U.S. to produce dehydrated foods. Small growers and processors are vital to the local foods and urban agriculture industry, which is currently a $1 billion and growing industry in the U.S.”

In developing tropical countries, where post-harvest losses of horticultural produce can be as high as 50%, dehydrating foods using solar energy will not only help support nutrition security but also provide growers an opportunity to increase their income from value-added processing.

Ileleji said dehydrating fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, and medicinal plants still occurs using primitive, open sun-drying methods on mats or trays that degrade nutrients and reduce food quality.

“While there are a lot of solar dryer designs available in literature and online, none of them have been commercialized or utilized in large numbers,” Ileleji said.

JUA Technologies’ proposed high-efficiency multipurpose solar dehydrator fits the USDA’s and National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s priorities in four ways:

• Improved methods to process specialty crops to improve quality and nutritional value.
• Enables small and mid-size growers to add value to their crops and increase farm income.
• Conservation of energy and reduced operating costs.
• Energy-efficient technology promotes renewable energy use and supports environmental sustainability

The USDA SBIR grant will cover four research and development goals. Ileleji said the goals will be addressed by JUA Technologies and contracted manufacturing and product engineering design firms:

• Modeling and simulation to optimize the solar dehydrator’s performance.
• Determining the behavior and performance of the desiccant and heat-recovery system under various drying loads.
• Determining the field performance and validating the modeling effort for fruits, vegetables, spices and herbs in Indiana and California.
• Beta prototyping of the product for manufacture.

In January 2021, Ileleji incorporated Dehytech East Africa Limited as a subsidiary of JUA Technologies. Dehytech is responsible for the import, distribution, marketing, sales and coordination of training and technical services for JUA Technologies’ solar food dryers, Dehytray and other products serving the East Africa region.

In 2019, JUA Technologies received an initial $100,000 SBIR Phase I grant from the USDA and a $50,000 investment from Elevate Ventures.

This year the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized Ileleji as the Indiana and the Great Lakes Regional Exporter of the Year, for the deployment of its portable solar dehydrator, Dehytray.

“Both the Dehytray and Dehymeleon technologies spun out from a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported effort called Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling,” Ileleji said. “It was a multi-institutional effort led by Purdue University to reduce postharvest loss, promote economic growth, improve nutrition and enhance food security in Feed the Future target countries.

West Lafayette, Indiana-based JUA Technologies was formed in 2016 by Dr. Ileleji and wife Dr. Reiko Ileleji  as an affiliate of the Purdue Foundry. The company’s PV-enabled dehydrating technologies are designed for households, small and mid-sized agriculture processes and growing.

Its first product, the Dehytray, has been sold in 28 states as well as more than 10 countries, and retails for about $139.50 on the company’s website and various retailers such as Walmart. In 2017, the company’s prototype technology was among the Top 10 innovations to receive awards at the first All-African Post-Harvest Congress and Exhibit, held in Nairobi, Kenya.

First Solar names Alabama as site for its fourth U.S. solar manufacturing facility The company plans to invest approximately $1.1 billion in a 3.5 GW manufacturing facility to be commissioned by 2025.

The day Indiana rooftop solar died  Since July, only two customers have installed solar in NIPSCO’s 1.2 million customer territory following a new net metering rulemaking. The case has been elevated to the Supreme Court.

Enel North America to build 3 GW solar module manufacturing facility in U.S. The proposed facility will be Enel’s second global PV manufacturing facility after Catania, Sicily, and once completed will be the largest U.S. PV module manufacturing facility.

Urban Racking to focus on rooftop solar canopies in U.S. metropolitan markets  The company’s first 46 kW solar canopy was recently deployed in Brownsville, NYC, and features a low 4.5% shading factor.

Proposed HVDC macrogrid to transmit low-cost renewable power  A grid modeling firm proposes an underground high-voltage DC transmission overlay for the continental U.S. that, along with increased solar deployment and even greater wind deployment, would help reduce climate pollutants and electricity costs.

Solar company protects 215,000 acres of Mojave Desert  Avantus partners with BLM and wildlife services to retire grazing rights and permanently dedicate land to wildlife forage.

California climate policy to kill fossil fuels, shining a spotlight on solar  The California Air Resources Board released its most aggressive climate plan to date, targ ting net-zero by 2045 or earlier, and creating 4 million jobs along the way.

Is hydrogen about to have its solar moment?  As Longi and other solar manufacturers kick off massive growth in hydrogen generation capacity, expect large price decreases resulting from steep learning curves, echoing the rapid advances experienced by the solar power industry since the 1970s.

On July 1, 2022, regulators and utilities in the state of Indiana killed rooftop solar.

Rulemaking proceedings led to the slashing of net metering, a program in which utilities pay customers for their excess solar generation. Net metering has been pivotal in launching rooftop solar, a technology that supports climate resilience in the grid, launched local businesses and helps residents save on their electric bills.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a bill in 2017 that put the state on a path to phasing out net metering by 2047. Meanwhile, it let utilities begin paying solar customers a lower rate when solar penetration reached 1.5% of their summer peak load, or by July 2022. Net metering rates are often lowered over time as a way to avoid cross-subsidization of solar owners by non-solar owners, and a way to retain profits for electric utilities. However, national laboratory studies have shown that until rooftop solar reaches 10% of the grid mix, it leads to a negligible cost to utility companies, and can instead lead to cost savings.

Utilities in Indiana wasted no time in aggressively slashing net metering rates. On July 1, 2022, investor-owned utility CenterPoint Energy switched from monthly net metering to a new model known as “instantaneous netting.” Under instantaneous netting, customers pay the full retail rate for all power used from the grid, and all solar power sent back to the grid is paid at the much lower “excess distribution generation” rate.

Overnight, CenterPoint was approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to pay their customers $0.031/kWh for solar, and northern Indiana utility NIPSCO was approved at $0.026/kWh. Since then, net metering payment rates have creeped up to about four or five cents per kWh as power prices have increased considerably following the invasion of Ukraine.

The new rates altered the estimated typical residential solar payback period from the seven to 10 years to 21 years or more, a value proposition that Hoosiers haven’t been able to stomach.

The rates are so unpalatable that only two NIPSCO customers have installed rooftop solar since July 1, 2022, reported Ben Inskeep, program director at Citizens Action Coalition (CAC). NIPSCO serves over 1.2 million customers.

CenterPoint has had roughly 100 rooftop solar installations, and across the state’s four other utility companies, only 124 customers have applied to go solar under the new rates, reports the Indy Star.

The ratemaking case has found its way to the Supreme Court. Solar advocates argue that the 2017 Holcomb bill never had provisions that allowed for “instantaneous netting.”

“We prefer to call this ‘no netting’, because there really is no netting that’s happening,” said Kerwin Olson, executive director of CAC.

The shorter the interval of netting excess solar production, the lower the payments to rooftop solar customers. Analysis by CAC found that once the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) from the Inflation Reduction Act steps down to zero, payback periods for rooftop solar could exceed 30 years.

The ratemaking debacle highlights an ongoing critical issue for residential solar rollout: uncertainty. Reducing uncertainty was one of the main motivations for the industry push to have the ITC extended for a decade, rather than the piecemeal way it had been extended historically.

“It’s hard to say what your compensation will be in the future — it will change every single year,” said Inskeep.

“You’re making a 25-year investment, but the value is updated on an annual basis. You have no ability to see if your investment will pay off. Utilities never make large investments for 30-year assets without having certainty for that cost recovery. Now they’re asking residential customers to take that risk — with no ability to understand when their investment will pay off or if it will never pay off,” he said.

A similar battle between utilities and a coalition of consumer advocates, environmentalists and solar industry members is raging across the nation in various markets. The nation will be watching Indiana’s Supreme Court case as well as the ruling on Net Metering 3.0 in California as waypoints to determine the fate of rooftop solar.

Altus Power, a commercial and industrial solar development company, increased its sequential portfolio by 100 MW during Q3, while the company recorded revenues of $30.4 million, a 51% increase from the previous year.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based developer grew its portfolio over the recent quarter in part due to a recent acquisition of an 88 MW commercial solar portfolio in Arizona, Nevada, Indiana and Pennsylvania, from D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, and 9 MW of New Jersey assets acquired from a local developer.

Following the transactions, Altus Power operates a project portfolio of approximately 474 MW in 22 states.  Since becoming a public company in December 2021, Altus Power has developed a project pipeline that consists of more than 500 MW of operations acquired by the company and 500 MW of projects under internal development.

While revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $19.4 million were both up year over year, the company wrote a $96.6 million net loss in Q3 22 based on a one-time non-cash loss of $102 million.

The company has developed projects for a number of Fortune 100 and 500 companies such as CBRE and Blackstone Group, both historic investors in the company, as well as Shell and Link Logistics.

Altus shares trade at $7.19 per share today, down 31.4% from $10.48 a year ago, with a $1.1 billion market capitalization.

While most homes run on alternating current (AC) power because that’s what comes from the utility lines from the grid, researchers at Purdue University decided to switch a home over to all direct current (DC) power.

Why? Back in the late 1800s Thomas Edison had a dream of a DC-based electrical infrastructure, but that dream lost to George Westinghouse’s AC system. In recent years, however, with renewable energy sources generating DC power, it would make a home more efficient if the electricity did not have to be converted to AC.

“We wanted to take a normal house and completely retrofit it with DC appliances and DC architecture,” said Eckhard Groll, the William E. and Florence E. Perry Head of Mechanical Engineering, and member of Purdue’s Center for High Performance Buildings. “To my knowledge, no other existing project has pursued an experimental demonstration of energy consumption improvements using DC power in a residential setting as extensively as we have.”

The project to transform a 1920s-era West Lafayette, Indiana home into the DC Nanogrid House began in 2017 under Groll’s direction. The first years were spent renovating and upgrading the infrastructure, and they added insulation and new windows to increase the home’s energy efficiency.

Rectify Solar provided a full installation of solar panels on the roof, while industry partners supplied new appliances and HVAC systems.  The rooftop solar system brings the all-electric home to net zero. Rectify installed Panasonic 330 panels rated for 14.3 MWh annual production, inverters from CE+T America, and a lithium iron phosphate POM Cube 20 kwh battery system, rated at 12.5 kW continuous power.

“Large-scale distribution of DC power through a house in the 21st century is really uncharted territory,” said Jonathan Ore, a 2020 Purdue Ph.D. graduate who served as the lead researcher on the project. “You can’t just go to the hardware store and buy DC circuit breakers or other critical distribution systems. We had to create this infrastructure from scratch.”

Purdue researchers, in collaboration with Rectify Solar, developed and jointly own a patented distribution system that enables the house to integrate both DC power from solar panels, wind turbines or battery storage with AC power from the local utility.

“The creation of the 380-volt DC load center was definitely a challenging and rewarding experience,” said Phil Teague, co-founder and CEO of Rectify LLC. “We used biomimicry and the neural connections of the brain as our inspiration, and added smart technologies and control mechanisms. Transitioning to DC can simplify homes, buildings and the grid as a whole. This project helped me realize that DC is not only the future, it always was.”

“A DC-house can potentially sustain itself for short periods of time by generating its own renewable energy and detaching from the grid through the help of on-site stored energy,” said Ore. This ultimately minimizes the strain on the outside grid in emergency situations. Events like the Texas storm are perfect illustrations of how a DC-house can benefit individuals and the community.”

To monitor the DC home for its comfort and usability, graduate students are living in the home full time. They’ve installed sensors in every room to detect whether people are present so that the HVAC system only heats or cools the areas of the home that are in use.

“This gives us the opportunity to perform both cutting-edge research on energy-saving opportunities and observe its potential benefits in a truly real-world setting, rather than just relying on simulations,” Groll said.

“It’s been really amazing to see the interest in this,” Ore said. “We started this project as just a proof of concept. But as our country experiences more and more issues with the grid, companies are actively seeking to integrate our work. People are interested in it from every aspect: from the electrical side, from the thermal side, from the automation and management side. This is a perfect testbed to experiment with those technologies.”

Purdue innovators have worked with the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization to patent this technology. The researchers are seeking OEM partners to continue developing their technology and to take it to market.

As a result of this project, Phil Teague will be speaking at RE+ in Anaheim next month about this project on the topics of “DC is the Future, It Always Was”, and “DC Microgrid Design-Build Lessons Learned”.

Constellation Energy said it has signed another long-term renewable supply agreement for electricity generated by the Mammoth Central solar project, announcing a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with PNC Bank.

According to constellation, the PPA is for 78 MW of energy from the 600 MW Mammoth Central solar project, the third and final phase of Doral Renewables LLC’s Mammoth Solar project in Starke and Pulaski counties in Indiana. PNC will receive roughly 148 million kWh of energy per year, which it will use to power nearly 50% of its legacy operations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, District of Columbia, and parts of Illinois.

“This collaboration with Constellation is an exciting next step toward meeting our environmental goals of reaching 100% renewable purchased electricity by 2025 and reducing carbon emissions and energy use 75% by 2035,” said Kate Zettl, vice president and energy manager with PNC Bank’s Realty Services.

In 2021, PNC shares that it purchased enough renewable energy and affiliated credits to meet 46% of the company’s purchased electricity use.

In total, the Mammoth solar project, which also includes the Mammoth North, Mammoth Solar I, and Mammoth Solar II installations, will amount to 1.3 GW once the project is completed. The Mammoth Central project is expected to be completed in late 2024.

In addition to PNC, Constellation announced in June that Bank of America signed on for a 15-year, 160 MW power and renewable energy credit supply agreement with Mammoth Central. That deal is expected to cover 17% of Bank of America’s global annual energy consumption.

Constellation says that it has two unannounced PPAs remaining for the Mammoth Central project, with these agreements totaling 62 MW. These purchases in total will cover 300 MW of the Mammoth facility’s planned 600 MW of capacity.

Mammoth Solar I, meanwhile, has a long-term PPA in place with utility AEP Energy, a unit of American Electric Power for the entirety of its 480 MW capacity. Mammoth Solar 1 is expected to reach commercial operation by the second quarter of 2023. It will sell energy into the PJM market.

Bank of America and Constellation have announced a 15-year, 160 MW power and renewable energy credit supply agreement, which is expected to cover 17% of Bank of America’s global annual energy consumption.

The electricity and applicable credits will come from a portion of Constellation’s 600 MW Mammoth Central project, the third and final phase of the broader Mammoth Solar project, which is currently being developed by Doral Renewables LLC in Starke and Pulaski counties in Indiana. In total, the Mammoth solar project, which also includes the Mammoth North, Mammoth Solar I, and Mammoth Solar II installations, will amount to 1.3 GW once the project is completed. The Mammoth Central project is expected to be completed in late 2024.

While the energy purchase covers 17% of Bank of America’s global annual electricity demand, the energy generated by the Mammoth Central project will be used to power Bank of America operations in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Separate from the Bank of America agreement, Constellation and Doral shared that the companies have also entered into agreements with three other customers to purchase an additional 140 MW of power and project-specific renewable energy certificates. These purchases in total will cover 300 MW of the Mammoth facility’s planned 600 MW of capacity.

Constellation has become a go-to source for large corporations looking to meet their environmental and renewable energy procurement goals. On Feb. 18, popular mid-Atlantic restaurant and convenience store chain, Sheetz, announced it had entered into a long-term renewable energy supply agreement with Constellation, enough to power nearly 70% of the chain’s Pennsylvania facilities with renewable energy.

Sheetz will receive approximately 110 million kilowatt hours of energy per year from the long-term power purchase agreements for the 55 MW of Pennsylvania-based solar that Constellation is procuring, with that energy matched by Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) sourced from renewable facilities located throughout the US.

Constellation is also purchasing the electricity generated by the installations via separate power purchase agreements. All of these projects are expected to achieve commercial operation by January 2024.

Prior to that announcement, in Aug. 2021, Constellation announced it came to terms on an agreement to buy power and project-specific renewable energy certificates (RECs) equal to 140 MW from the 200 MW Big Star Solar Project, currently under development in Bastrop County, Texas, just outside of Austin. The energy and RECs will be used to fill power agreements with PepsiCo, McCormick & Co., Best Buy and two Viacom-owned TV stations. Each customer signed an equivalent long-term agreement with Constellation to receive energy and RECs from the project as part of their retail electric supply contract.

Perovskite solar module march continues with 30-year “no thickness” layers and speed testing  A team at Princeton University developed a new technique to accelerate solar cell longevity testing, while concurrently discovering a layer, only a few atoms in thickness, which is credibly projected to support perovskites lasting thirty years.

Construction complete on largest solar farm in Nebraska  The 8.5 MW community solar installation offers battery storage, a pollinator habitat, and an educational component for students at a local community college.

Renewables may replace hydro dams to restore endangered salmon  In a race between governmental processes and the process of extinction, top elected officials in Washington State consider replacing hydro dams with solar and wind in an attempt to save the salmon.

Boviet Solar earns 138 MW module order from US developer  The PERC PV cell, monofacial and bifacial solar module provider will supply its Vega series modules for a US project.

Sol Systems acquires 91 MW Indiana solar project  The Grandview solar project is the latest acquisition in the company’s commitment to developing a strong portfolio of renewable energy assets in the Midwest.

RETC releases 2022 Module Index Report  In addition to outlining the performances of leading solar modules in a range of tests designed to replicate the stresses modules experience in the field, the 2022 PV Module Index report also looks forward at emerging trends in the industry and upcoming technical standard changes.

Rooftop solar and solar carport bring clean energy to Chicago’s Southside community  The new rooftop and carport system was built for the Chicago Urban League through the Illinois Solar for All program.

People on the Move: Georgia Public Service Commission, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, LUMA Energy, and more  Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities, and energy transition finance.

Sol Systems announced that it has acquired a 91 MW solar project still under development in Indiana from Orion Renewable Power Resources, a joint venture between Orion Renewable Energy Group and Eolian.

The Grandview solar project will now be developed, owned, and operated by Sol Systems, and the company shares that it is currently exploring ways to enable local employment opportunities and additional community benefits alongside the project development and operations activities.

Community engagement will be a critical aspect for the project moving forward, as the projects development has sparked some pushback from local residents, some of whom are concerned about the project’s proximity to residential areas, and others of whom are against the development of renewable energy resources entirely.

“This acquisition builds on Sol Systems’ significant footprint in the Midwest,” said Yuri Horwitz, CEO of Sol Systems. “We are eager to kick-off the construction phase of this project which will bring new clean energy and opportunities to the local community and region.”

The significant footprint that Horwitz references includes a 540MW solar development portfolio in southeast Illinois that Sol Systems recently acquired from Arevon Energy. The portfolio consists of three 180MWdc solar energy projects located across Hamilton, Randolph, Saline, and White counties. Sol Systems will own and operate the portfolio and will work with energy developer Tenaska to develop and construct the projects. Tenaska’s development portfolios include nearly 22 GW of solar, wind, and energy storage projects. 

Upon completion, the portfolio will produce enough solar energy per year to power nearly 77,000 homes and offset the equivalent of nearly 140 thousand passenger vehicles’ emissions. 

To date, Sol has developed and/or financed over 1GW of solar projects valued at more than $1 billion for Fortune 100 companies, municipalities, counties, utilities, universities, and schools and provides services to nearly 18,000 customers across the US.

SOLV Energy, among the nation’s largest solar developers with a project pipeline of over 4 GW nationwide, has been selected as engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm for the Mammoth North solar project in Northwest Indiana. SOLV will provide its services for the first phase of the project, which will total 400 MW of the planned 1.3 GW landmark solar facility.

The 400 MW built in the first phase are expected to come online in the next 15 to 18 months, providing electricity equivalent to the needs of 75,000 homes each year. Wholesale and retail energy supplier American Electric Power has signed on for the generation in a power purchase agreement.

Israel-based Doral Renewable Energy Group selected SOLV as EPC. The company reports a total of $1.3 billion has been invested in the project. Once complete, the 1.3 GW Mammoth North solar project will be among the largest solar facilities in the US and may rank top ten in the world in terms of capacity.

(Read: “The world’s largest solar power plants”)

“Mammoth North Solar is a landmark project that has garnered support of dozens of Indiana farmers who will be powering the new economy. The construction of this project speaks to the growing demand for cleaner energy sources right here at home by Americans across the country. As the EPC contractor building Mammoth North, SOLV Energy is proud to represent our industry and the significant job, economic and community service opportunities that large-scale solar projects bring to a region.” George Hershman, CEO of SOLV Energy

Large projects like these have been under threat for cancellation or delay this year, as the Department of Commerce launches its investigation into the alleged antidumping violations of Chinese solar goods into four Southeastern Asian countries.

In February, before the investigation was launched, Hershman joined pv magazine to offer insight into the potential damages of the investigation to clean energy buildout. SOLV‘s projects can exceed $300 million, so the potential 50-250% tariff that could be levied on solar imports would impose between $75 -$375 million in additional costs. This level of risk is untenable and is why Hershman described the case as “an affront to the solar industry.”

“There is no case law to support this, it is a meritless case. It has been determined that the conversion of wafer to cell is the country of origin,” said Hershman.

At the time, based on supply chain constraints alone, Wood Mackenzie lowered its 2022 utility-scale solar projection by 33%, a steep drop of 7.5GW. Since the investigation was announced by Commerce, the Solar Energy Industries Association cut its forecast for deployment this year by 46%.

“It has been a challenging year in the solar industry and we are happy to have the SOLV Energy team by our side as we navigate through these challenges,” said Amit Nadkarni, VP of project management at Doral.

OMCO Solar, an OEM manufacturer of solar tracker and mounting solutions for the community, commercial, and utility-scale markets, announced that it has invested an additional $5 million into its solar manufacturing capabilities, bringing its total investment in equipment and tooling to $75 million.

According to the company, the investment will be used to enable the manufacturing of its OMCO Origin Tracker Torque Tubes at OMCO’s Indiana and Arizona locations. In total, the company has 7 GW of true U.S. manufacturing capacity across four locations: Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio. OMCO manufactures its own torque tubes in order to maintain domestic control of the supply chain and reduce distribution costs. Since torque tubes can be among of the most expensive pieces of a tracker system, OMCO said that its tubes have saved up to 25% of the tracker cost in some cases.

In addition to cost savings, OMCO also credits its factory-direct approach in allowing the company have exceptionally short lead times, sharing that the company can provide mounting or racking solutions for any project in as little as six to eight weeks.

In application, the Origin Tracker Torque Tubes are part of the system that allows the company’s Origin Tracker to operate long module rows effectively by minimizing gaps over posts, between modules and at row ends. The company shares that the trackers can support up to 120 modules in a row.

“Torque tubes are the backbone of the solar tracker, and OMCO Solar is proud to be the only tracker manufacturer to make its own in the U.S.,” said Gary Schuster, president and CEO of OMCO Holdings.

In 2021, OMCO shipped 1 GW of its factory-direct products, which were installed installed in 30 states. Combined with the 8 GW of prior contracted hardware, OMCO Solar now has delivered over 9 GW to the market worldwide.

Early in 2021, OMCO Solar announced that it would to donate racking equipment to help complete a 1 MW solar project and adjacent training lab at the University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) announced in its first quarter 2022 financial results that, due to the uncertainty and delays brought to the solar panel market by the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) investigation into solar cell and module manufacturers in four southeast Asian Countries, it will be delaying the closure of two coal generation plants from 2023 to 2025.

BREAKING: NIPSCO announced today that it is delaying coal plant retirements scheduled in 2023 until 2025 due to the chaos that the Commerce investigation on solar tariffs, which has delayed completion of many of its solar projects in Indiana.

— Ben Inskeep (@Ben_Inskeep) May 4, 2022

According to NIPSCO, most solar projects that the utility originally scheduled for completion in 2022 and 2023 will experience delays of approximately 6 to 18 months. The utility still anticipates to retire all coal-fired generation by 2026-2028, including the Michigan City Generating Station, with that facility’s retirement schedule being so far unchanged by the investigation. NIPSCO also shares that it is is on track to achieve its environmental goals, including an 90% reduction in scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions, relative to 2005 levels, by 2030, and a 50% reduction from 2005 levels in methane emissions from gas mains and services by 2025.

Indiana was one of 13 states in the Solar Energy industries Association’s most recent publication of its anti-circumvention investigation impact survey to have 100% of respondents share that they were experiencing delayed or canceled module supply. It also joined Idaho as the two states to have respondents report that 100% of the state’s development pipeline has been delayed by the DOC investigation.

Those who responded to SEIA’s survey with specific project data outlined that, so far, 3.6 GW of solar projects have been delayed or canceled as a direct result of the investigation, the fourth-most of any state in the country. According to SEIA data, every GW of cancelled projects represents roughly $1 billion in investment at risk. As of the end of 2021, SEIA projected Indiana to add 6.7 GW of solar over the next 5 years, meaning that over half of that pipeline is already in jeopardy.

In total, NIPSCO’s project uncertainties represent roughly $2 billion in delayed investment, and the only real certainty of the situation is that customers’ bills will be going up in the near future.

The solar projects were going to drive huge cost savings to customers. Now NIPSCO customers will have higher bills due to expensive coal prices and the delayed coal plant retirements. Coal prices for Illinois Basin coal are up 250%. pic.twitter.com/zvinf8byiG

— Ben Inskeep (@Ben_Inskeep) May 4, 2022

Across the US as a whole, 42% of the known utility scale solar development pipeline has been disrupted, meaning that it is increasingly likely that other utilities will have to look to alternative sources to meet the generation needs that were supposed to be fulfilled by now-delayed solar installations.

Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), a portfolio company of American Electric Power, issued a request for proposals (RFP) for 500MW of solar capacity and 800MW of wind. The request comes as a first step in implementing the utility’s Next Tomorrow Plan, which calls for 2GW of renewable energy capacity to be added to the utility’s generation mix.

Currently, the utility owns five solar facilities and buys power from four Indiana wind power plants. The company said it generated over 80% of its energy emission-free in 2021.

I&M said it expects some renewables spurred by this RFP to be online in 2024, with the remainder of the 1.3GW online as early as the end of 2025. The RFP is open and non-discriminatory, opening the door for bidders to incorporate changes like battery storage, emerging technologies, and other resources to supplement the portfolio and provide optimum performance and affordability.

“These new resources will combine with I&M’s existing generation to provide an even more diversified and flexible generation portfolio that will stabilize energy costs over time, stimulate economic growth, reduce emissions and take advantage of new technologies,” said Dave Lucas, I&M vice president of regulatory and finance.

The RFP calls for projects located in Indiana or Michigan, and preference will be given to projects that demonstrate local impact or encourage the use of local resources.

Bids are due April 21, and contracts are expected to be awarded this year. The selected projects will be subject to approval by state regulatory commissions. Charles River Associates is serving as independent monitor for the RFP process.

California’s solar market is now a battery market A look at the interconnection queue of California’s grid operator shows that the state’s market has already shifted to batteries—sometimes with solar, and sometimes without.

Indiana makes it harder for HOAs to ban solar House Bill 1196 establishes a process for residents of HOAs with existing bylaws against solar installations to petition for a system in a fashion that cannot be denied once a certain level of community support has been attained.

PV balance of system provider Shoals opens manufacturing facility, reports Q4 earnings Shoals manufactures balance of system components for solar, energy storage, and EV charging solutions. The company opened a Tennessee facility and posted record revenues and gross profits in 2021.

Rocket Lab unveils space solar cell with 33.3% efficiency The new device is based on an inverted metamorphic multi-junction (IMM) cell technology developed by Rocket Lab’s unit Solaero. The cell can be used in applications in the civil, military, and commercial space markets.

Survey said a majority of homeowners want to go solar, but up-front costs are a deterrent Rocket Homes found that 66.5% of homeowners surveyed would like to go solar–and they know it saves on the electric bill and increases resale value–but they need financial incentives to handle costs.

The Solar Tech Check: PV in space, and thin films stride forward This week has seen NASA announce the completion of a new folding array set to power a mission deep into our solar system, while scientists continue to work on new applications to take such explorations even further from the sun. New measurements also promise routes to higher efficiency in cadmium-telluride PV, and details emerge of one of thinnest solar cells seen so far.

Indiana passed legislation, House Bill 1196, which makes it considerably more difficult for Homeowners Associations (HOA) to prohibit residents from adding solar installations to their homes.

The law states that any homeowner who is a member of a HOA that has codified rules (adopted or amended after 2019) or previously ruled that solar installations may not be installed within the community, can petition other homeowners association members for approval to install a solar energy system on the homeowner’s dwelling unit or property.

After providing the members that they are petitioning with some required project and property specifications, they can collect signatures of approving members. If collected signatures exceed 65% of members, or the expressed amount of signatures needed to ratify an amendment under the HOA’s existing rules, the homeowner must then present the signatures and project and property information to the HOA board of directors. The board of directors, an architectural review committee, or an architectural control committee of the HOA may not deny the homeowner’s request to install the solar energy system once the signatures have been collected.

Projects may still be denied for legitimate siting and technical concerns, or if the HOA is responsible for the maintenance of the roof intended for installation. While these technical grounds for denial may exist, the law still opens up development to the nearly 400 HOAs have full or partial solar prohibitions in central Indiana alone. In many cases, the HOAs institute these policies under the guise of “maintaining community aesthetics” or to protect the value of homes in the community. A 2019 Zillow report found that homes with residential solar systems sold for 4.1% more than their non-solar neighbors.

Moreover, research from Michigan Technological University found that grid-tied solar owners subsidize their non-PV neighbors. Solar homeowners also help utilities avoid making many infrastructure investments, and shave peak demand when electricity is the most expensive.

The researchers also found that grid-tied PV-owning utility customers largely are under-compensated for their neighborliness. That’s because the value of solar eclipses both the net metering and two-tiered rates that many utilities pay for solar electricity. The research is published online for any interested parties.

This is not the first initiative of its kind to be introduced in Indiana, with proposed legislation on HOAs and solar panels in beginning in 2017.

In August 2021, Illinois passed similar legislation to House Bill 1196. That legislation rescinded the ability of community associations to ban members from installing solar on certain areas of their homes. The associations can still determine the specific configuration of said installation, so long as that decision does not lower the system’s annual estimated generation output by more than 10%. The law also significantly cut down the amount of time that association members have to wait for a response once filing their application for approval of a system with their association.

Industry efforts prevented Florida rooftop solar bill from being potentially disastrous Though the recently passed House Bill 741 is viewed as a loss for consumer choice and the industry, policy advocates fought for and achieved significant improvements. Palmetto’s Ryan Barnett joined pv magazine to discuss the effort and share how his company will continue to serve solar-ready Floridians.

Duke’s proposed Net Metering 2.0 rule change in North Carolina meets stiff opposition Add North Carolina to the list of states considering changes to net metering rules, as Duke Energy proposes shifting costs to solar customers.

Without federal support, US would only reach 39% of carbon-free energy sector by 2035, said Wood Mackenzie Without important federal measures like the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, the investment tax credit long-term extension, and US manufacturing support, Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said the US will fall short of goals.

Indiana enables renewable-ready communities With the passage of SB 411, Indiana communities can opt to voluntarily adopt regulations that will qualify them as a wind- or solar-ready community. The standards are expected to significantly cut project development time, lower costs, and create thousands of jobs in the clean energy industries.

Charge EVs at work, not home, to put daytime solar power to work Workplace EV chargers, which number only 10,000 in the US, are needed for charging EVs in regions with abundant solar generation, says an RMI study. Home chargers are fine in regions with high wind generation, to enable nighttime charging with wind power.

Renewable advocates urge regulators to reject fixed charge for shared solar program The Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Hearing Examiner has proposed a requirement for residential shared solar customers to pay a $55 minimum bill each month, which opponents claim will dramatically limit program participation.

Solar+food in ethanol fields could fully power the United States Converting the nation’s 40 million acres of ethanol corn farms into solar-plus-food facilities would generate 1.5 times our nation’s electricity needs, while also powering a 100% electrified passenger vehicle fleet.

The Indiana General Assembly has passed SB 411, a bill which allows communities to voluntarily adopt regulations that will qualify them as a wind- or solar-ready community, with the hope being that these standards will significantly cut project development time, lower costs, and create thousands of jobs in the clean energy industries.

The bill is very similar in flavor to last year’s HB 1381, which passed 58-38 in the state House before ultimately dying in the Senate, in that it establishes standards for setback and height requirements, as well as fencing around projects, however the big change is that the adoption of these standards is entirely voluntary and dependent on the community.

The death of HB 1381 has been partially attributed to the fact that it would have required all communities to have adopted these standards, a point of contention within the 32 Indiana counties that previously enacted bans on renewable power projects. With SB 411, the hope is that other communities across the state will recognize the economic opportunity presented by solar, as well as its eventual inevitability as a lowest-cost generation resource in a state that has been slow to adopt it, but is moving rapidly as of late.

“We hope that counties in Indiana will use these new standards, but if not, we look forward to continuing to work with stakeholders to explore ways to grow the state’s energy economy,” said Clean Grid Alliance State Policy Manager, Sean Brady.

Just last month, Duke Energy released a request for proposals (RFP) looking to bring up to 1.1GW of intermittent generation, specifically renewable energy generation like solar, wind, hydrogen or other commercially viable renewable energy technologies to the Hoosier state, as part of it’s most recent Integrated Resource plan.

Duke is also looking to construct or acquire up to up to 1.3GW of non-intermittent generation, which the utility defines as electric generation that is dispatchable on demand, specifically natural gas combustion turbines, combined-cycle units and stand-alone battery storage.

In August of 2021, CenterPoint Energy’s Indiana-based utility filed a request for approval from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to enter into two power purchase agreements for an additional 335 MW of solar energy. The state’s solar takeoff has already begun, with almost all of its roughly 1.6GW of installed capacity reaching operations in 2021. When HB1381 passed the Senate last year, the state had just 475MW of installed capacity.

Over the next five years, the state is expected to add the sixth-most new solar capacity of any state in the country, with roughly 6.75GW of new solar expected in that time. According to the American Clean Power Association, Indiana has 1,218 MW of clean power currently under construction and 4,657 MW in advanced stages of development.

Peabody Energy, a coal company that serves power and steel customers in more than 25 countries on six continents, has launched R3 Renewables LLC, a renewable energy development company that initially will focus on developing six potential sites on large tracts of land on or near previous coal mining operations in Indiana and Illinois.

In a joint venture with Riverstone Credit Partners and Summit Partners Credit Advisors, R3 Renewables plans to develop over 3.3GW of solar PV and 1.6GW of battery storage capacity over the next five years.

Peabody Energy said the sites are in close proximity to grid interconnection points, and the size of the portfolio has the potential for the development of the largest solar and battery storage projects in Indiana and Illinois.

Developing solar on former mining lands is increasing clean energy use in many states, including Kentucky, where the 200MW Martin County Solar Project is being constructed on 1,200 acres of the former Martiki coal mine site, and construction is set to employ displaced coal workers. In 2019, The Nature Conservancy developed a Roadmap for Solar on Mine Lands, which reports that there are up to 400,000 acres of former mine lands and other brownfields that could be suitable for large-scale solar across central Appalachia. If this land area were harnessed for solar development, it could double the total solar capacity installed in the US to date, according to the 2019 report.

Jim Grech, president and CEO of Peabody made it clear that the company is not abandoning coal for renewables. “We are pleased to announce this new joint venture as part of Peabody’s commitment to be the coal producer of choice, creating additional value from our existing assets, supporting our own and our customers’ ESG ambitions and providing added economic benefits for the communities in which we work and live,” said Grech.

John Jones has been appointed CEO of  R3 Renewables, having worked in the independent power industry for 30 years including senior roles at renewable industry leaders GE EFS, Lincoln Clean Energy (now Ørsted North America Onshore) and Invenergy. d the world. For more information, please visit www.summitpartners.com.

As outlined under the integrated resource plan that Duke Energy filed with Indiana regulators in December, the utility has released a request for proposals (RFP) looking to bring to the Hoosier state multiple GW of generation and storage capacity.

Specifically, Duke is looking to construct or acquire up to 1.1GW of intermittent generation, specifically renewable energy generation like solar, wind, hydrogen or other commercially viable renewable energy technologies. All of this requested generation is also open to be paired with energy storage technologies.

Duke is also looking to construct or acquire up to up to 1.3GW of non-intermittent generation, which the utility defines as electric generation that is dispatchable on demand, specifically natural gas combustion turbines, combined-cycle units and stand-alone battery storage.

All proposals submitted under the RFP should be from resources that are deliverable to Midcontinent Independent System Operator Zone 6, though there is an exception for out-of-state wind. Proposals can include existing generating resources or proposed resources with an in-service date no later than June 1, 2027 and can be in the form of purchase power agreements, projects that are built by a developer and then transferred to Duke Energy, or purchases of existing facilities.

According to its Sustainability Report, as of year-end 2020, Duke Energy owned, operated or had under contract almost 8,800MW of wind, solar and biomass. The plan is to own, operate or contract 16,000MW of wind, solar and biomass by 2025.  And as stated in last week’s financial earnings report, 80% of Duke’s 5-year, $63 billion capital plan includes zero carbon generation, which includes investments in nuclear, renewables (wind and solar), hydro and battery storage.

It also listed the goal of achieving net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas distribution business by 2030 in its sustainability report, so don’t expect the company to toss gas generation by the wayside any time soon. The above 1.3GW of non-intermittent generation will likely be a mix of gas and storage, rather than a full commitment to either resource.

“We are continuing a transition to cleaner energy and are focused on reducing carbon emissions from our Indiana power plants,” said Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar.

The request for proposal will be formally issued Feb. 21, and more details will be available at www.DEIRFP.com. Questions can be submitted through the webpage. Selected projects will ultimately be presented to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for approval.

Duke Energy will use an independent third-party administrator, Charles River Associates, to facilitate the request for proposal process and ensure it is conducted in a fair and unbiased manner. Proposals for intermittent generation are due by April 18; the deadline for proposals for non-intermittent generation is May 2.

It has been nearly five years since Indiana Senate Bill 309 was signed into law as Senate Enrolled Act 309 (SEA 309) by Gov. Eric Holcomb in May 2017, a law which significantly reduced the rates that the state’s net metering customers received and which contributed to the relatively limited rooftop solar and larger distributed generation (DG) market within the state.

SEA 309 phased out retail rate net metering and replaced the former 1:1 kilowatt-hour bill credit with a much smaller credit based on 125% of the utilities wholesale rate. That change in compensation resulted in a bill credit that is approximately 70-80% lower than what customers receive for retail rate net metering.

While this changed the level of compensation that solar homeowners would receive, it did not change the method by which the compensation rate would be applied. Homeowners would still be credited at that rate, multiplied by the kWh difference between the electricity that they imported from the grid and the electricity they exported to the grid.

One of the state’s investor-owned utilities, CenterPoint, attempted to change how the bill credit was calculated on customers’ monthly bills by eliminating this netting altogether, replacing it with a tariff provision that charged DG customers the retail rate for every kWh delivered by the utility and credited customers at the much lower 125% of wholesale rate for every kWh of energy delivered by the customer to the grid.

This change was initially approved by Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, but was challenged in the Indiana Court of Appeals by a broad coalition of solar companies, environmental and consumer advocates, led by the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor. On January 28, the coalition won their appeal, and the decision was overturned.

CenterPoint’s proposed calculation had the potential to be approved and become the calculation methodology used by all investor-owned utilities within the state. Advocates argued that if the approval was achieved, the tariff provision was expected to drastically slow down rooftop solar adoption in the state.

“Fair, accurate compensation is the key to expanding residential solar,” said Vote Solar’s Regulatory Director of the Midwest, Will Kenworthy, who served as an expert witness in the proceeding. “CenterPoint’s proposal was neither fair nor accurate, and I’m glad the court recognizes that. Monthly netting makes sense and is a win for Indiana ratepayers who use their hard-earned money to add more solar to the grid.”

Where does Indiana stand?

With nearly 1,350MW of solar in all forms installed in the state thus far, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, Indiana has been by no means a national leader in supporting the resource, but is one of the handful of states to have more than 1 GW of installed capacity. Over the next five years, however, the state is expected to add 5,971MW of new solar, good for 4th in the nation over that period, though the vast majority of these additions are expected to come on the utility-scale side, as the state’s utilities begin to retire their expansive coal fleets.

To date, the state’s residential solar market has been relatively tame, as illustrated by the graph below, and Indiana’s newfound love for large-scale solar likely won’t reflect an increased commitment to installing DG.

While the recent CenterPoint decision prevented further harm to the state’s DG industry, advocates have pointed out that there is still considerable work to be done if that industry hopes to achieve the same success that large-scale solar has found in the Hoosier State.

“This decision comes at a critical time for the Indiana solar industry,” said President of Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance, Laura Ann Arnold. “Solar companies testified that CenterPoint’s proposal would have a devastating impact on both solar/DG providers and their customers. Because there are other similar tariffs already approved or pending, this decision has potential statewide impact much larger than SW Indiana where CenterPoint operates.”