Tesla Powerwalls in California join the movement to create virtual power plants
Made up of distributed residential energy storage, these “plants” stabilize the grid and often end the need for new fossil generation. Tesla customers in California are the latest to join the movement.
Hydrogen-fired gas turbines vs. lithium-ion storage
According to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hydrogen-fired gas plants will compete with lithium-ion storage for seasonal storage and their competitiveness will strictly depend on the heat rate of the gas power plants they may replace.
‘Lack of objections should mean permits are automatically granted for solar’
The question of overly complicated, time-consuming permitting processes again raised its head at a two-day online event held by the Global Solar Council to examine how to accelerate deployment of photovoltaics.
Grid connection is key culprit as investor confidence wanes in Australia
Ongoing grid connection issues and concerns about Australia’s unpredictable regulatory and policy environment have been identified as the key culprits with a new report revealing investor confidence in the nation’s renewable energy sector has slumped to a five-year low.
China set to mandate solar on at least 20% of residential roofs in pilot counties
State body the NEA has given its provincial offices until July 15th to suggest counties where a solar mandate – which rises to at least half of all government roofspace – can be rolled out. Selected companies will be awarded whole-county contracts.
Netherlands licenses first EV smart charging company to provide grid services
The NewMotion electric vehicle (EV) charging business owned by Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell has become the first such entity to obtain a licence to provide grid balancing services in the Netherlands. Dutch grid company Tennet has licensed NewMotion to provide megawatt-scale balancing services to maintain grid frequency at 50 Hz by varying the rate at […]
Electrification could drive 51 GW of solar in Canada by 2050
And that figure is based on a less ambitious climate change policy than the one Ottawa has committed to since the North American Renewable Integration Study started, in 2018.
East African renewables developers and investors need matchmaking
Lack of grid capacity and renewable energy institutions are a common lament in sub-Saharan Africa but there is no lack of cash to invest, nor eligible projects in East Africa, as a recent event heard; the problem lies in marrying the two.
Industrial green hydrogen could become a global commodity but local production is needed for transport uses
Long distance, point-to-point transport of green hydrogen for industrial use can harness the cheap solar electricity available in some parts of the world but distributing the energy-storage gas to individual refueling stations, for vehicle fuel cell use, will likely have to depend on production nearby.
Dutch grid company notifies further lengthy bottlenecks
The final 980 MW of transmission capacity in parts of the Friesland regional grid have been allocated to generation projects, and state-owned network business Tennet says bottlenecks could occur over the next seven years.
