New Hampshire House passes bill to raise net metering cap to 100 MW

New Hampshire lawmakers look to revamp the state's net metering policy in the wake of dominant utility, Eversource Energy, hitting its net metering cap in January. 

By Herman K. Trabish • March 12, 2016

Duke rolls out long, short duration hybrid battery storage system

Duke Energy combines techologies to create a low cost hybrid energy storage system to ease integration of renewables and store energy for peak demand. 

By Peter Maloney • March 11, 2016

Explore the Trendline➔

Sustainability

Companies are pursuing increasingly ambitous sustainability goals around clean energy, but integrating rising amounts of renewables, minimizing environmental impacts, and achieving carbon reduction targets can be challenging.

By Utility Dive staff

Xcel to test battery storage, microgrid systems in Denver for solar

Xcel Energy's Colorado utility is launching two tests of battery storage systems that could be used to back up solar power and microgrids.

By Peter Maloney • March 10, 2016

5 things you should know about community solar programs

Natacha Kiler, a marketing and communications expert with extensive experience in the solar industry, maps out five reasons community solar is the most straightforward approach to netting clean and affordable energy. 

By Natacha Kiler • March 10, 2016

Dueling studies draw battle lines for next Arizona utility-solar showdown

Studies commissioned by APS and TASC have hugely different approaches to solar valuation, but share an important piece of common ground.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 10, 2016

Report: US solar market set to grow 119% this year

GTM Research predicts the U.S. market will grow 119% this year and will surpass 100 GW by 2021.

By Robert Walton • March 10, 2016

Maine Gov. LePage opposes plan to replace net metering with market-based incentives

Governor’s energy office says the plan would not protect against cost shifts, while TASC says it should include net metering as an option for solar owners.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 10, 2016

National Grid rolls out comparison shopping program for solar

National Grid in Rhode Island will be the first utility to offer customers a simplified process to research and purchase solar PV equipment, the utility said. 

By Robert Walton • March 10, 2016

Florida Supreme Court skeptical on utility-backed solar amendment

It's a tricky case involving competing ballot initiatives, but media reports indicate Florida Supreme Court justices are divided over the utility-backed proposal, which would fail to legalize third-party financing of solar panels. 

By Robert Walton • March 9, 2016

Learning by doing: How utilities are answering the distributed energy resources challenge

As our 2016 survey shows, utilities are beginning to understand how they can make money with distributed resources, but it's still a work in progress.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 9, 2016

SPP notches back-to-back wind generation records

The grid operator achieved 44.8% of its electricity from wind March 6 and 45.1% on March 7, bringing its total record counts to six so far this year. 

By Herman K. Trabish • March 9, 2016

SDG&E issues call for 140 MW of renewables, DERs, demand-side resources

The utility has issued an RFO for storage, renewables, distributed generation, energy efficiency and demand response resources to comply with CPUC procurement targets.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 9, 2016

HECO, E-Gear try storage to resolve solar installation bottleneck in Hawaii

Hawaiian Electric and E-Gear to deploy storage pilot program to address solar installation bottleneck on Molokai.

By Peter Maloney • March 9, 2016

As ITC extension promises growth, storage developers look to define position under tax code

Changes to the investment tax credit could give energy storage a boost.

By Peter Maloney • March 8, 2016

Vivint Solar pulls the plug on the $1.82B SunEdison merger deal

The rooftop solar developer said SunEdison struggled to meet its obligations under the merger agreement. 

By Krysti Shallenberger • March 8, 2016

Charts: How will the Clean Power Plan stay affect the utility power mix transition?

Utilities will keep adding renewables and natural gas, but what happens to the Clean Power Plan could have a big effect on just how much of both are brought online in the coming years.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 8, 2016

Wind and solar provided all new U.S. electric capacity in January

Renewables also beat earlier EIA estimates for generation share in 2015. 

By Herman K. Trabish • March 8, 2016

California utility IID halts net metering incentives after hitting 5% cap

Imperial Irrigation District says it is still accepting applications, but installers say solar is a hard sell without the generation incentives.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 8, 2016

Rocky Mountain Power clean energy bill would destroy Utah solar market, critics say

SB 115 would allow Rocky Mountain Power authorization to establish programs and the ability to recoup costs as outlined in the bill through state lawmakers instead of in a rate case with the Utah Public Service Commission. 

By Robert Walton • March 7, 2016

Report: Advanced energy market bigger than US beer market

The advanced energy sector in the United Sates is about $200 billion -- twice as big as the beer industry, according to a new report from Advanced Energy Economy. No word yet, however, on how energy performs in a blind taste test.

By Robert Walton • March 7, 2016

Oregon passes utility-scale solar incentives to support 50% RPS

The proposal, overshadowed last week by the larger bill its aims to support, would provide $0.005/kWh for 2 MW to 10 MW installations.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 7, 2016

After record year, U.S. energy storage forecasted to break 1 GW capacity mark in 2019

Energy storage installations were up 243% in 2015 compared with 2014, according to new GTM Research/Energy Storage Assoc. report.

By Peter Maloney • March 7, 2016

Clean coalition: How utilities and greens teamed up to pass Oregon's 50% RPS

A unique combination of threat and opportunity brought Oregon’s investor-owned utilities to the negotiating table, but not everyone is pleased with the results.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 7, 2016

BLM issues new guidelines to streamline Western solar development

Identifying Solar Energy Zones aims to shorten development timelines and protect sensitive environments from effects of solar plant construction. 

By Herman K. Trabish • March 5, 2016

Arizona's Tuscon Electric plans for 1.1 GW of new renewables by 2030

A preliminary plan filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission seeks to burn less coal and add large amounts of renewable energy.

By Robert Walton • March 4, 2016