A total of $42 million will be invested to improve solar photovoltaic performance, reliability and manufacturabilit, and enable greater market penetration for solar technologies.
At the mouth of the Bay of Fundy on the border between easternmost Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, Ocean Renewable Power Co. has been testing huge undersea turbines that the company claims eventually will generate low-cost tidal power from the tidal flow in Cobscook Bay for all of Downeast Maine.
One of the largest single investments in Alliant Energy’s multiyear plan to create cleaner and more efficient ways to generate electricity will be a $1-billion expansion of an Iowa wind farm, adding 500 MW of capacity to the 200 MW now in place.
Propelled by powerful and complementary forces, the U.S. renewables market is in the early stages of a multiyear period of sustained development and construction activity that may come to be viewed as the golden age of wind and solar power.
The Spanish renewable-energy giant Abengoa, which applied for preliminary creditor protection in November, is laying off staff and halting some operations, a company spokeswoman tells ENR.
Energy storage is a hot topic in California, where lawmakers are mandating that the state’s three biggest utility companies provide 33% of their electrical energy from renewable sources by 2020. Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric are mandated to buy a total of at least 1300 MW of energy storage to help make the plan work.
The U.S. Army has ramped up efforts to power its domestic bases with renewable energy sources, issuing a draft request for proposals to enter into power purchase agreements totaling $7 billion with local utilities over the next 30 years.
