Grid modernization investments are creating a construction boom across America — largely driven by the deployment of solar.

According to the Department of Energy’s latest report on jobs in the energy sector, employment in the electric power sector rose 13 percent in 2016 as utilities and developers built new power plants, replaced aging equipment, and invested in new technologies to manage an increasingly complicated distribution grid. 

There are now 860,869 people employed in the electric power sector, an increase of more than 101,000 jobs from 2015. Workers in the construction industry building solar, natural gas and wind power plants accounted for most of the increase, reported DOE. The coming year will likely bring a 7 percent bump in employment across power generation.

Coal has long been the dominant fuel for America’s electric grid, but no longer. Utilities are burning less of it, and miners are digging less of it. Many politicians — including the incoming president — believe the decline of coal is wrecking America’s economy.

But the opposite is happening. Jobs are being created in new areas of the economy.

There were 26,000 megawatts of new power plant capacity installed last year in the U.S. Wind provided 6,800 megawatts of new capacity, natural gas provided 8,000 megawatts, and solar provided 9,500 megawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“The electric generation mix in the United States is changing, driven by the transition of coal-fired power plants to natural gas and the increase in low-carbon sources of energy. This transition has required significant build-out of new power generation facilities and technologies in the United States,” writes the DOE.

In fact, 10 percent of all U.S. construction jobs are now serving the electric power sector. And the majority of those jobs are being created by building out renewable power plants.

Click Here to Read Full Article

As of January 1, all new buildings of 10 stories or fewer in San Francisco must be built with solar panels included.

Since that local measure passed last spring, its author, Scott Wiener, moved from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to the state senate. Now, he’s bringing the conceptto Sacramento, first in summary form, with the full proposed legislation expected in four to six weeks.

If adopted, mandatory rooftop solar legislation would set a groundbreaking example of how a legislature can expand distributed solar through less conventional means, diverging from the default models of renewable portfolio standards and tax credits. That outcome is by no means guaranteed, though.

The process of passing the legislation through the state legislature will likely raise new questions about how the policy would impact the entirety of the massive Golden State. There are more legislators to convince than in San Francisco, and more interest groups and industry lobbyists who may try to stop it. 

“The state, of course, is much bigger and much more diverse geographically and in every other respect,” Wiener told GTM. “We are actively soliciting input to make sure we’re crafting legislation that will work for the whole state.”

For any other state, requiring solar photovoltaics or solar thermal on most new buildings would seem dramatic, if not unthinkable. For California, however, it’s the latest iteration of a legislative program years in the making.

Click Here to Read Full Article

The year in energy storage started off with a bang as Italian utility Enel acquired a 100 percent stake in U.S.-based Demand Energy, a developer and operator of energy storage systems and software, for an undisclosed amount.

Enel’s renewables division operates 36 gigawatts of clean energy around the world. The North America subsidiary, which will control Demand Energy, has more than 100 plants spanning hydropower, wind, geothermal and solar energy, with a managed capacity of more than 2.8 gigawatts. That global portfolio now has become a ready and willing customer for Demand Energy’s storage and energy management software, named DEN.OS, for Distributed Energy Network Optimization System.

“Through this transaction, we will be able to greatly strengthen our position in the growing battery storage market with a complementary partner and innovator,” said Francesco Venturini, Enel’s head of global renewable energies, in a statement. “By combining our global presence and expertise in systems integration with Demand Energy’s software and established product offering, we will expand the development of renewables and storage both in the U.S. and globally, delivering a clean, reliable, high-tech and cost-effective energy solution.”

That’s not a bad outcome for the 30-person American startup with just 3 megawatts and 9 megawatt-hours of installed storage capacity under its belt. The goal now is to quickly scale Demand Energy’s resources and capabilities, said President and CEO Gregg Patterson.

“As we were looking at our options, Enel clearly stood out,” he said. “They have a monstrous renewables portfolio worldwide and they really wanted a dependable and capable software platform. We were looking for the ideal partner to scale and grow behind the meter, in front of the meter and in microgrids.”

Click Here to Read Full Article

Climatescope, a new report from BNEF, was released last week, and while many news outlets highlighted the finding that solar is now cheaper than wind, the report contains numbers that signal another major shift in renewable energy.

The report focuses on “clean energy market conditions and opportunities in 58 emerging nations in South America, Africa, the Mideast, and Asia” and contrasts the progress of these poorer nations against the achievements of the OECD countries — the wealthier nations of the world that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

And for the first time, the developing nations are winning.

The center of the clean energy universe has shifted from north to south

The 58 emerging-market economies aggregated in the Climatescope report set a record for clean energy deployed in 2015 with 70 gigawatts built, compared to the 59 gigawatts of clean power deployed in the 35 wealthier OECD countries. Cumulatively, the developing nations have won $154.1 billion in cleantech investment and added more clean energy capacity, with faster growth rates than the OECD nations using both those metrics. 

According to the report, 80 percent of the developing nations studied now have national clean energy targets, while three in four have set CO2 emissions reduction goals.

China played a big part in this, but “less-developed nations also played a role.”

There is a downside to record rates of renewables being added to existing grids, and that’s integration challenges. The report notes that some nations have built wind or solar projects despite not having the “associated transmission to deliver power” along with “grid operators [prioritizing] delivery” of power from fossil-fuel plants over those from renewable sources.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Panasonic Corp (6752.T) will invest more than 30 billion yen ($256 million) in a New York production facility of Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors (TSLA.O) to make photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, deepening a partnership of the two companies.

Tesla’s shares were up 3.5 percent at $220.75 in early trading on Tuesday.

Japan’s Panasonic, which has been retreating from low-margin consumer electronics to focus more on automotive components and other businesses targeting corporate clients, will make the investment in Tesla’s factory in Buffalo, New York.

The U.S. electric car maker is making a long-term purchase commitment from Panasonic as part of the deal, besides providing factory buildings and infrastructure.

Bloomberg: Yamanashi Vies for Energy Storage Investment

A patch of land in the shadow of Mount Fuji is becoming a testing ground for energy storage, with some of Japan’s leading companies trying to develop technologies such as spinning flywheels and fuel cells.

The Yamanashi Prefectural Government is hoping that by attracting companies such as Panasonic Corp. and Toray Industries Inc. it can become a kind of Silicon Valley for energy storage development.

As part of a project in the city of Kofu, the prefecture has built a 1-megawatt solar power station that is being made available to developers of storage devices who want to run tests under closed conditions, according to Masaki Sakamoto, an official in charge of the project.

“It’s not easy to find a large-scale solar power station available for pilot projects,” Sakamoto said. “The best scenario would be that advanced research being conducted here leads to more collaboration between major and local companies and the creation of supply chains.”

Click Here to Read Full Article

When Elon Musk released the second generation of Tesla’s home battery in October, one of the key upgrades was the inclusion of an inverter.

That piece of power electronics plays a vital role in switching the battery’s electricity from DC to AC so it can be used in the house or sold back to the grid. The first Powerwalls required a separate inverter, adding time and expense to an installation. Putting Tesla’s in-house inverter in the box amounted to a significant advance in the customer experience.

It turns out, the situation is a little more complicated.

The Powerwall 2 actually comes in two different versions: an AC-coupled model that includes the inverter and a DC-coupled one that does not. That’s a departure from the company’s product website, which says the new Powerwall is an “all-in-one” product that “uses an internal inverter to convert DC energy to the AC energy required for your home.” 

Tesla didn’t advertise its decision to offer both types of battery, but doing so gives installers more options in designing the best system for a given house. And Tesla says it will charge the same price either way.

A choice of architectures

By quietly offering Powerwalls with or without an inverter, Tesla is providing installers options to customize the product for homeowners, without asking the customer to think through the details of power electronics.

“Tesla is trying to simplify the information that it’s providing to the end customers, whereas other companies will specifically say, ‘This is an AC-coupled system or a DC-coupled system,'” said Ravi Manghani, energy storage director at GTM Research. “It’s probably an information overload in some cases.”

Click Here to Read Full Article

What do Gerald Ford, a fossil-fuel plant on the Houston Ship Channel, the second-largest utility in Vermont, and the California legislature have in common?

They each ushered in a major national market transformation in the U.S. power sector over the last 40 years, at a rate of one per decade.

And in 2016, right on schedule, that once-per-decade cycle repeated. This year, it was batteries that made a transformative advance into both the competitive and vertically integrated power markets. 

A quick review of how competition entered the power industry, decade by decade:

• 40 years ago: Energy efficiency bills signed by President Ford established incentives to encourage demand management.
• 30 years ago: Generation competition launched as the AES Deepwater co-generation plant began operating in Houston under PURPA.
• 20 years ago: Retail competition launched with Green Mountain Power, then the second-largest utility in Vermont, offering renewable energy choices in the first retail pilot programs in New England. 
• 10 years ago: Solar competition launched as California’s legislature passed SB1 supporting the California Solar Initiative, thus creating terminal market velocity for distributed solar to orbit across the U.S. — the ultimate form of retail choice.
• 2016: Battery competition hits early, widespread market penetration, culminating with FERC’s November efforts to establish national standardization for energy storage participation in organized wholesale markets.
• With four momentous market transformations under our belts, what have we learned that can inform industry and advocates’ efforts on the next stage of power market design evolution including central and distributed storage? Here are five conclusions.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Ambri, with its liquid metal battery technology, has returned to the energy storage race after “a pause” during which it redesigned its high-temperature seals and worked on other facets of its storage system.

Getting an entirely new and novel battery chemistry to commercial scale is Sisyphean work. About a year ago, the firm had to lay off approximately 25 percent of its staff because the startup had “not made the technology progress [it] had anticipated.” The CEO said at the time, “Bringing new scientific discoveries in the physical sciences to commercial success is hard; the process is not entirely knowable or amenable to predictable timelines.” Ambri had been working on prototype storage systems with project partners such as Hawaiian Electric and Con Edison.

The now 37-employee company just announced that it’s still going after the potentially immense stationary energy storage market, but with an improved version of its unique battery.

Ambri’s technology is based on the research of Donald Sadoway, MIT professor of materials chemistry, and inspired by the economies of scale facilitated by modern electrometallurgy and the aluminum smelter. The big-battery startup has raised more than $50 million in venture capital from investors KLP Enterprises, the family office of Karen Pritzker and Michael Vlock, Building Insurance Bern, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates and French energy giant Total. 

Over the last year, the firm kept busy redesigning high-temperature seals and developing its battery management system and heater control. Ambri has been testing a “fully functioning in-lab” energy storage system, which provides 20 kilowatt-hours of energy storage with a peak capacity of 6 kilowatts.

Click Here to Read Full Article