Solar power addition at MATC to help college, students

 

By Craig Spychalla

The sun was shining Monday afternoon, shedding some light on a new subject that is growing in popularity for college students.

Along the wide-open space near Madison Area Technical College in Fort Atkinson, there is the start of a new energy source that will be able to supply the college with all the power it needs.

But more importantly, students will get to learn about one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation by studying the engineering and installation of solar power.

“In the last decade, solar has really exploded,” said Ken Walz, a science and engineer instructor for MATC.

The school has had a renewable energy program for the last 15 years that originally focused on biofuels.

On the Fort Atkinson campus, MATC also had a wind turbine for about a decade that was dissembled last year after a gear box broke.

Walz said educators used the turbine to teach students about wind technology. But the cost to fix the problem was expensive, so the turbine was sold to someone in Michigan who will put that equipment into operation there.

“We were looking at some necessary repairs, and enrollment in wind (energy) classes had gone down over the last several years,” Walz said.

Biofuels also is maxed out in this state, he said, with not much opportunity for jobs growth.

But solar power now is booming and for a good reason. Not only is there abundant sunshine for a place like MATC to operate a facility, but the technology to build solar panels is relatively inexpensive.

In fact, Walz said installing a solar energy system is 90 percent cheaper to build than in 2003 when MATC first installed one.

Back then, the price was about $18 per watt. And now it’s about $1.70 per watt. The MATC-Fort Atkinson project will have a 150,000-watt system.

The growth in the school’s program for wind and solar power is starting to reflect a major shift in the energy industry, Walz stated.

“We can generate a lot more energy from solar at a lower cost and have a lot more students,” he said.

For the rest of the story visit: https://SolarPower@MATCHelpCollegeStudents

Webinar: Utility Communications - CA Rule 21 Phase 2&3, Sunspec IEEE 2030.5

Date: Thursday, October 22, 2020

Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PDT

New changes to grid interconnection standards now require secure communications between the utility company and the inverter. California investor owned utilities are requiring compliance to these standards for NEM interconnection.

Come learn about the changes to these interconnection standards, how they impact you and the homeowner, and what you can do to comply. 

For more information and to register: https://UtilityComWebinarCARule21

The Fall Cohort of Solar Ready Vets Fellowships is off to a great start!

 

Solar Ready Vets Fellowship extends the corporate fellowship by Hiring Our Heroes to the solar industry. Mid - senior level service service members are placed with solar employers for 12 weeks of on-the-job training and professional development to support a smooth transition from military service to the civilian solar workforce. 

We're proud to have SRV Fellows placed in diverse roles spanning logistics and operations, markets and policy, and business development. Current solar host companies include SunPower, Energy Toolbase, FTC Solar, Built Well Solar and Solar Support. 

Solar employers: want to host a Solar Ready Vets Fellow? 
We're now recruiting employers to join us for the Winter  2021 Cohort!  Placements will be made in management and professional roles, such as business development, project management, communications, and operations. 

For more information visit:https://SolarReadyVetsFellowship

IREC Applauds Sweeping Updates to California’s Rule 21

 

By Gwen Brown

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued sweeping changes to Rule 21, the rules under which distributed energy resources, like solar power and energy storage, may interconnect to California’s electric grid. 

The changes represent a radical shift in how states handle interconnection policy, with a number of unprecedented changes that will provide a model regulators in other states can look to as they work to enable more renewable energy on the grid through modern interconnection policies. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) was deeply involved in developing and advocating for many of the changes adopted and commends these efforts by the CPUC.

“IREC applauds the CPUC’s recent updates to Rule 21, which significantly modernize California’s energy policy and pave the way to more rapidly deploy large amounts of clean energy—critical to meeting the state’s climate commitments and increasing resilience,” said IREC President and CEO Larry Sherwood. “Today’s changes are a major milestone that represent the culmination of many years of work. IREC has been engaging on Rule 21 since 2011 and involved in almost every major innovation, including helping to develop California’s Integration Capacity Analysis, which today’s decision puts into use in improving the interconnection process.” 

For the rest of the story visit: https://IRECApplaudsUpdatestoCA Rule21

K-12 Schools Increasingly Turning to Solar for Savings

 

By Matthew Mercure

Since 2014, K-12 schools have seen a 139% increase in the amount of solar installed, according to a new report from clean energy nonprofit Generation180, in partnership with The Solar Foundation and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

The report finds that 7,332 schools nationwide utilize solar power, representing 5.5% of all K-12 public and private schools in the U.S. Over the last five years, the number of schools with solar increased by 81%, and now 5.3 million students attend a school with solar.  The top five states for solar on schools – California, New Jersey, Arizona, Massachusetts and Indiana – helped drive this growth.

“Solar is absolutely attainable for all schools – regardless of how sunny or wealthy it is where you live,” says Wendy Philleo, executive director of Generation180. “Too few schools realize that solar is something they can take advantage of to save money and benefit students today.” 

For the rest of the story visit: https://k-12solarforsavings

Utility-Scale Solar Remains Resilient Despite Pandemic

 

By Michael Bates

The U.S. solar market installed 3.5 GW of new solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in Q2, a drop of 6% from Q1 installations. At the same time, utility-scale solar remained resilient despite the COVID-19 pandemic, representing 71% of all new solar capacity brought online in Q2, according to recently released U.S. Solar Market Insight Q3 2020 report.

The report, released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, notes that the residential and non-residential segments saw a significant slowdown in the quarter. Installations were down 23% quarter over quarter in the residential segment, and 12% quarter over quarter in the non-residential sector, due to restrictions and shelter-in-place orders imposed to curb the pandemic.

“The growth we see in this report underscores the resilience of the solar industry as we deal with COVID work stoppages, a struggling economy, harmful trade policy and an uncertain tax environment,” says Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA. “Tens of thousands of our workers have been laid off or furloughed amid this crisis, and SEIA remains firm in our commitment to fight for equitable policy that allows the solar industry to compete and grow our workforce.”

For the rest of the story visit: https:UtilitySolarStrongDespitePandemic

Sonnen Brings Virtual Power Plants to California Apartment Complexes

 

By Jeff St. John

Multifamily housing is a hard nut to crack for solar and battery developers. Sonnen and Wasatch Group say that bundling the value of solar and storage for tenants, property owners, outside investors, utilities and grid operators can make it work. Now, one year after launching their first project in Utah, they’re bringing the model to California. 

On Thursday, the Shell-owned German home battery provider and the Utah-based real estate company announced plans to direct $130 million of investment to bring 60 megawatt-hours of energy storage to multifamily solar-battery projects across the Golden State over the next few years. 

Their first $19.7 million project at the Heron Pointe apartment community in Fresno, Calif. will feature about 4,800 solar panels and 417 units equipped with sonnen ecoLinx battery systems, said Ryan Peterson, president of Wasatch Energy Group. It’s capable of generating up to 1.85 megawatts and storing up to 8.3 megawatt-hours of energy, according to Peterson.

For the rest of the story visit: https://www.SonnenPowerPlantsCAApartments

Portland General Electric Jumps Into Virtual Power Plant Business

 

By Julian Spector

Portland General Electric, the largest utility in Oregon, is jumping into the cutting-edge business of turning home batteries into grid resources.

The company announced this week that it has received approval from regulators to link up 525 homes with solar-storage systems into a controllable fleet, often referred to as a virtual power plant. The five-year pilot will study how to optimize the use of these batteries for the grid, while ensuring the customers get what they want out of participating. 

The fleet of small batteries will only add up to 4 megawatts. But it could lay the groundwork for expansion under PGE’s ongoing grid modernization plan, which envisions around 200 megawatts of “distributed flexibility” to balance supply and demand.

“This is part of our overall efforts to really understand distributed resources on our system,” said Andy Macklin, director of the utility's Smart Cities & Grid Products divisions. “We’re looking at a decarbonized future. As we add renewables to our system aggressively, we need a flexible distribution system where customers are excited to bring some of their flexibility to the system to help balance those renewables.”

For the rest of the story visit: https://PortlandGeneralElectricVirtualPower

Enel Reveals Plan to Add 1GW of Batteries to US Renewables Fleet by 2022

 By Julian Spector

Enel announced a dramatic scale-up of its U.S. energy storage ambitions on Tuesday, saying it will add 1 gigawatt of storage capacity to its renewables fleet by 2022.

That's a huge jump from late 2019, when the Italian utilities group and renewables powerhouse pledged to build another 14.1 gigawatts of renewable power capacity globally by 2022 through its Enel Green Power arm, along with 300 megawatts of energy storage from its Enel X unit.

While Enel X focuses on smaller, customer-sited batteries to help businesses with demand charges, backup power and other needs, the new 1-gigawatt commitment applies to Enel’s utility-scale renewables development business. And it kicks off in Texas, which has long lagged in energy storage development but recently has started to heat up.

“North America is very much at the forefront of Enel’s plans to roll out storage with its renewable generation fleet,” said Ryan Prescott, Enel Green Power’s head of growth strategy and energy storage development, in an interview Monday.

For the rest of the story visit: https://Enel1GWBatteries

What Other Countries Can Learn From Australia’s Roaring Rooftop Solar Market

 

By Jason Deign

Policymakers looking to speed up renewable energy deployment have a best-practice case study to look to: Australia is rolling out renewables 10 times faster than the global average, offering lessons as to what factors can improve the uptake of clean energy.

A RenewEconomy analysis of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) figures for 2019 shows Australia’s per-capita deployment rate was also four times higher than fast-developing renewable markets such as China, Europe, Japan and the U.S.

In terms of overall capacity, Oceania still only accounts for a tiny share of global renewables. Its 40 gigawatts of renewables amounted to just 2 percent of clean energy worldwide in 2019, IRENA figures show. But it added 6.2 gigawatts of capacity last year, growing more than 18 percent. That compares to 6 percent growth in North America, 7 percent growth in Europe and 9 percent in Asia.

Australia’s modest population of 25 million means per-capita growth rates are even more extreme.

For the rest of the story visit: https://AustraliaRoaringRooftopMarket