Distributed energy has a long history in the state – with co-generation, or combined heat and power, playing the dominant role. How is that portfolio changing today?
Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power plans to develop a 131- MW PV solar project in Georgia. The electricity and associated renewable energy credits (RECs) will be sold to three Georgia electric membership corporations. Southern Power has selected First Solar to be the EPC contractor for the facility. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in September 2015, and the project is expected to achieve commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Eos Energy Storage demonstrated its grid-scale battery system at Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) smart grid lab in San Ramon, Calif., with the support of a $2.1 million award from the California Energy Commission.
Eaton will provide electrical engineering services and power distribution equipment for the construction of a 5-MW solar microgrid system in Annobon Province, an island off Equatorial Guinea in West Central Africa. The microgrid has battery storage and is designed to supply reliable and predictable power to meet the off-grid community's energy demand. It will be the largest self-sufficient solar microgrid project in Africa.
As Mark Twain would say, the reports are exaggerated.
Distributed energy + distributed controls = distributed benefits.
SunEdison and Renova Energia S.A. created an exclusive joint venture to develop, own, and operate 1 GW of utility scale solar PV energy to supply the Brazilian Regulated Electricity Market. Renova and SunEdison will each own a 50% stake in the joint venture. The joint venture plans to build and operate four utility scale solar power plants in Bahia State, Brazil, by 2017; installing 106.9 MW of solar as part of contracts awarded by the Brazilian Energy Commercialization Authority, Camara Comercializadora de Energia Electrica (CCEE).
SunEdison and TerraForm Power signed a definitive agreement to acquire First Wind for $2.4 billion. SunEdison will purchase over 1.6 GW of pipeline and backlog projects, which have been added to TerraForm Power's call right project list and are expected to be operational in 2016-2017. Included in the transaction is an additional 6.4 GW of project development opportunities.
Diversifying Utility Regulation: State regulators voice opinions as mixed as the nation’s geography.
Lessons learned for U.S. utilities – drawn from first-person fact-finding.