California

Senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren has announced plans for a targeted expansion of renewable energy development on public lands along with a moratorium on new fossil fuel leases.

Washington is looking to become the fourth state to make the move to 100% renewable electricity, with only a senate review and the hand of Governor Inslee left in the path of SB 5116.

The state grid operator reported breaking 11 GW of instantaneous power from large scale solar on Saturday at 1.50pm. Just 20 minutes earlier, the CAISO grid was exporting a record 1.5 GW of electricity, and last Wednesday it hit 93% clean electricity for a moment.

Macquarie has closed on funding for a third portion of a 340 MWh project in Southern California, and LADWP is planning 1.8 GW of batteries.

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a type of electrode which is highly resistant to salt corrosion, therefore allowing them to produce hydrogen using seawater. Applied at a larger scale, this development could potentially cut the cost of power-to-gas applications by greatly increasing the amount of water available.

On Saturday afternoon, utility-scale solar output on California’s grid peaked at 10,745 MW – its highest level since last summer. More importantly, California is wringing greater flexibility out of its imports, meaning more renewables with less curtailment.

pv magazine’s Charles Thurston has written about the potential of solar carports in this month’s, hot-off-the-presses edition of the magazine. As a taster, here’s a few extra points on the topic that came in too late for the print deadline.

With the passage of the Energy Transition Act in both houses of New Mexico’s legislature, the state is poised to join California and Hawaii in setting a mandate to fully decarbonize its electricity system by 2045.

The California-based microinverter maker posted $92 million in revenue in the final quarter of last year, and more than $106 million in cash as the company reported its first positive quarterly and annual operating income figures in years. Enphase is booked out for all of this quarter and seemingly into the late spring months too.

The legislation would enshrine a customer’s right to generate and store electricity as well as to connect to the grid without undue burden and would provide freedom from discriminatory fees and set compensation for battery power exports.