March 24
Duke Energy Begins Construction on Floating Solar Pilot
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Last Thursday, Duke Energy Florida announced it was beginning construction on its first floating solar pilot. The almost 1-megawatt floating solar array will be built in Polk County on an estimated 2 acres of water surface and feature more than 1,800 floating solar modules, officials said. The pilot will be built on an existing cooling pond at the Duke Energy Hines Energy Complex in Bartow.
Salt River Project broke ground on the Babbitt Ranch Energy Center, a 161 MW wind project, now under construction in Coconino County, north of Flagstaff. This facility is scheduled to begin delivering renewable wind energy to SRP customers by early 2024. The 50-turbine project will produce enough energy to power nearly 40,000 average-size homes.
Consumers have more opportunities than ever to participate in energy efficiency programs and leverage smart energy technologies, and they generally understand the importance of saving energy at home. However, the consumers that would benefit the most from energy efficiency and clean energy programs still face significant barriers to participation, according to a new report from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Prioritizing energy equity is transforming the way that some utilities are making decisions. To bolster and accelerate those efforts, it’s critical to engage with underrepresented communities and include them in conversations around the transitions that will affect their community. This engagement builds trust in the community and helps utilities design better customer programs that meet the needs of more diverse populations of customers.
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Industry News
For the past seven years, Allume Energy has been implementing a unique solar-sharing technology in its sun-drenched home market of Australia that helps make multifamily solar projects affordable. Now the startup is coming to the U.S. — but not the parts of the country best known for solar-friendly policies.
Across all segments of the industry, the U.S. energy storage market installed 4.8 GW of capacity in 2022, nearly equal to the combined 2020 and 2021 installed capacity of 5 GW, becoming a record year for battery storage, according to a new report from the American Clean Power Association and Wood Mackenzie. The report’s findings show that the U.S. grid-scale segment installed a total of 848 MW in Q4 2022.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s research arm NRECA Research applied for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to accelerate the deployment of next-generation smart grid technologies at 69 electric co-ops. The co-ops, which serve 6.5 million consumers across 26 states, will use the funds to complete high-priority grid modernization projects and increase the reliability and resilience of their electric power systems.
Despite “record-high” residential electricity prices, customers are not taking advantage of energy management and conservation programs offered by utilities, J.D. Power said in a report published Wednesday. Only 14 percent of residential electricity customers participated in one or more energy management programs in 2022, the firm said, citing internal data.
