May 5
Peninsula Clean Energy to Install Solar, Battery Storage
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Peninsula Clean Energy has reached innovative agreements with nine cities and the County of San Mateo, California to install solar and future battery storage on public buildings. Peninsula Clean Energy is executing 20-year power purchase agreements to install 1.7 MW of solar power on 12 public buildings in San Mateo County and the City of Los Banos.
Younger consumers today are often touted as a tech-savvy and eco-friendly cohort, which would seemingly make them a perfect fit for innovative, tech-driven utility programs and services that deliver environmental benefits. However, many of these younger consumers are not ready to engage with their electricity providers in these offerings.
Tax day may not be popular, but there’s a reason to celebrate new clean energy tax credits thanks to the passing of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA represents the largest federal investment – $369 billion – in decarbonizing and modernizing the power sector in history. Many parts of the power system will be impacted, notably the electricity sector.
Duke Energy released a report that outlines its approach to sustainability and its progress on strategic business priorities and goals. Among the key points in Duke’s Impact Report, the company said its planned investment of $145 billion over the next 10 years for critical energy infrastructure will support more than 20,000 additional jobs annually and produce $250 billion in economic output.
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Industry News
It’s hard to get Americans to agree on anything these days, but the country does appear to be largely aligned on at least one thing: Two-thirds of American adults want the government to encourage production of solar and wind power, according to the Pew Research Center.
The leaders of Portland General Electric have signed agreements to secure 400 MW of battery capacity, which they say is enough to power all of its customers’ homes in Portland for an evening. The utility expects to spend $360 million to buy the 200 MW Seaside battery project in Portland and will buy 20 years of 200 MW capacity from an Oregon facility owned by NextEra Energy Resources.
Aggregated distributed energy resources (DERs), including battery storage, electric vehicles, smart appliances, water heaters and smart thermostats, are increasingly being used by utilities to achieve load control on the grid. Two DER aggregator companies in late April announced milestone achievements in their enrolled devices.
A small but growing number of Minnesota electricians are finding steady work installing residential EV chargers. Minnesota has around 35,000 EVs on the road today, but that number is expected to rapidly grow in the coming years as more models become available. The state is using federal funds to help build out a public charging network along major highways, but even so, research suggests most drivers are likely to mostly charge at home.
