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Panel maker SunPower wins tariff exemption
SunPower Corp., the second-biggest U.S. solar manufacturer, won’t have to pay import tariffs on the panels it makes in factories outside the country. The company was granted an exclusion from the U.S. tariffs on imported solar panels President Trump imposed earlier this year, according to a statement yesterday from San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower. The shares jumped the most in 10 months. [ read more … ]
California Clean Energy Mandate Comes at Utilities’ Expense
The law Governor Jerry Brown signed this month commits the state to generate all its electricity from carbon-free sources such as wind and solar by 2045. That’s a big jump for state that currently gets about 30 percent of its power from renewable sources, posing a costly and difficult goal, said Toby Shea, a senior credit officer at Moody’s Investors Service. The company said that the mandate could hurt the credit ratings of electricity providers such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the investor-owned PG&E Corp. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Iowa utilities don’t want rooftop solar panels to charge cars
Iowa utilities are happy to let their customers resell electricity for charging vehicles, as long as the energy is generated from a utility power plant and not the customer’s solar panels. A coalition of Iowa investor-owned utilities, rural cooperatives and municipal utilities made the distinction in joint comments in response to a rulemaking initiated by the Iowa Utilities Board. [ read more … ]
‘Locked-in’ technologies seen undermining emission curbs
That’s the warning in a series of recent papers from university professors and a book claiming that solar, wind and energy storage may have settled too early on specific technologies and thus may not reach levels necessary to prevent catastrophic warming. It’s not entirely a new idea but one that is getting renewed attention and sparking heated debate among analysts. One critic called the idea “madness,” while others say policymakers need to be thinking more about it to ensure greenhouse gases stay in check. [ read more … ]
Utilities fear CAFE rollback will impact EV charging
Electric utilities want more time to digest the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of Obama-era clean car rules. Associations that represent utilities across the country — including the Edison Electric Institute, American Public Power Association and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association — sent the administration a letter yesterday requesting an additional 60 days to comment on the cars proposal. [ read more … ]
DOE renews research seeking battery breakthroughs
The Energy Department yesterday committed $120 million to renew a research project led by the Argonne National Laboratory to construct new storage battery technologies from the bottom up, “atom by atom.” The five-year grant, announced by DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar, aims to invent batteries to supplant the lithium-ion workhorses of today’s digital applications. [ read more … ]
Boston University to buy wind power to offset emissions
Boston University says it will buy power from a South Dakota windfarm to offset its carbon emissions in Massachusetts. The school announced Tuesday it will buy wind power for 15 years starting in 2020 as part of a plan to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2040.
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Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.