Renewable energy businesses – primarily wind and solar power – in the US are moving from adolescence to maturity. The US solar industry experienced a transformative 2013, with the proliferation of physical assets, installed capacity and new finance mechanisms, while the wind industry raced to begin projects by end-2013 in order to receive production tax… Keep reading →
It might the hottest issue in solar, but a leading analyst says not to worry – for now, at least. We’re talking about the debate over net metering – NEM, for net energy metering, by the industry’s nomenclature. Utilities have been pushing back against NEM policies that often reward solar power system owners at the… Keep reading →
Freezing weather throughout much of the US is sending spot energy prices soaring. “Natural gas for next-day delivery on the Transco pipeline into New York rose to a record $90 per million British thermal units on Monday, up 660 per cent from last week’s close and 20 times more than benchmark futures prices, according to… Keep reading →
Last year, the US wind industry Production Tax Credit was scheduled to expire at the end of December and the news media was all over it. The PTC is also scheduled to expire that the end of this year, but the issue is getting much less attention, why is that? Senator Don Nickles, who served… Keep reading →
SolarCity has unveiled an energy storage system for businesses. The system includes software that determines when to charge and when to discharge so as to minimize the utility bill. They use batteries from sister company Tesla motors. Although SolarCity has previously teamed batteries with rooftop solar, the new DemandLogic systems are meant for peak shaving.… Keep reading →
Recent enforcement actions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on alleged manipulation of US power markets are “alarming” and set a dangerous precedent that departs from previous cases, a Harvard professor and former International Association for Energy Economics president told energy traders gathered in New York City this week. FERC is endangering the functioning of… Keep reading →
The utility business model is changing from one of large, centralized generators that own and run entire power systems – from plants, to transmission, to distribution – to one involving more distributed generation and more players offering innovative products, services, and most importantly, customer savings. But crafting the right policies and regulations will be cornerstones… Keep reading →
When it comes to energy trading, there’s very little that’s 100% certain. But you don’t need to know everything to get a leg up in natural gas or power markets. You just need to know more than the other guy. Software firm EarthRisk Technologies has unveiled a mid-range temperature forecasting product designed to give its… Keep reading →
The success of distributed solar generation is one of the surprising twists in the ongoing drama of shifting US power markets, and now the revolution is set to come to wind power. United Wind started the road toward an anticipated half a billion dollars in financing by 2017 for distributed wind installations this week with… Keep reading →
Early indications of the direction the newly activist Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are deeply worrying, not just for the power industry but for the entire economy, as well as for the future of the agency’s own necessary and important work in overseeing the evolving US electricity sector. Not many people cry for banks when regulators… Keep reading →
