Renewable Energy News

Siemens Energy Management partnered with Microsoft and FuelCell Energy to design, engineer and install equipment and software, including a power monitoring solution, for the nation's first zero-carbon, waste-to-energy data center in Cheyenne, WY. The project uses biogas methane produced by common waste byproducts at the nearby Dry Creek wastewater facility to power the fuel cell system. The fuel cell system then converts the biogas into electricity to power the Microsoft datacenter.

Swinerton Renewable Energy will standardize its entire solar fleet on Locus Energy's SolarNOC monitoring platform and PVIQ analytics suite as part of its SOLV enterprise solution for optimizing and managing plant Swinerton Renewable Energys. By leveraging Locus Energy's web-based SolarNOC software, Swinerton's fleet operators will be able to more efficiently organize and assess performance data over a set of solar PV assets spread across a geographical area, as well as streamline O&M workflows.

Southern Power acquired the 150-MW Solar Gen 2 solar facility in California from First Solar. The Solar Gen 2 facility is being built and will be operated and maintained by First Solar. Construction of the project began in 2013. Completion of the project is expected to occur later in the fourth quarter 2014. Southern Power will initially own 100 percent of the project, with First Solar agreeing to acquire a minority interest subject to certain terms and upon fulfillment of certain conditions.

OneEnergy Renewables and Constellation developed a 4.3-MW solar electric project located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The off-site system, which is part of an electricity supply agreement between Constellation and the National Aquarium, will provide power for approximately 40 percent of the Aquarium's electricity requirements for the next 25 years.

NRG Energy and MGM Resorts International completed installation of the world's largest rooftop solar array on a convention center. Covering approximately 20 acres atop the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the 6.4-MW photovoltaic array will produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 1,000 U.S. homes annually and is the first of its kind on the Las Vegas Strip. NRG financed, constructed, owns and operates the installation for MGM Resorts at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

DTE Biomass Energy completed its 9.6-MW landfill gas-to-energy project at the Uwharrie Environmental Landfill in Mt. Gilead. Landfill gas at the site is used to generate renewable energy which is subsequently sold to Duke Energy Progress. The Uwharrie facility will more than double DTE Biomass' generation capacity in North Carolina, where it already operates six renewable energy projects.

OwnEnergy entered into a long-term PPA with Yahoo. Under the terms of the PPA, Yahoo will purchase wind power to offset much of the company’s energy usage in the Great Plains region. While Yahoo is one of the first tech companies to embrace this model of community-centric partnership, the trend for corporate purchasers to buy wind directly from wind farms is gaining pace.

Healthy Planet Partners, LLC (HPP) and Kyocera Solar completed a solar rooftop and carport system at the Seattle Mariners Spring Training facility in Peoria, AZ. HPP developed and financed the project with partner Kyocera Solar to provide engineering and project management support as well as acting as a finance partner. Sky Engineering and Construction built the system at the Peoria Sports Complex, using Kyocera's high-efficiency solar modules. This 345-kW solar array will generate approximately 529MWh of clean electricity annually.

Trina Solar Limited (Trina Solar) signed a share purchase agreement to sell its 10.6-MW PV power plant located in Trehawke, UK to funds managed by Foresight Group LLP (Foresight). This is the first of two Trina Solar UK projects that connected to the grid in Q1 2014.The utility-scale Trehawke solar power plant utilizes 41,404 Trina Solar TSM-255-PC05A modules that provide high quality, durability and performance. The solar power plant generates 10,300 MWh of electricity every year.

NRG Energy acquired Pure Energies Group, a residential solar industry leader in the critical area of web-based customer acquisition. Pure Energies completes the residential solar capabilities NRG has been working to assemble and complements NRG’s acquisition earlier this year of Roof Diagnostics Solar. Pure Energies and its proprietary customer acquisition process will help NRG Home Solar reduce customer acquisition costs while providing a simplified solar adoption process.