Electrek Green Energy Brief

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has determined that four out of eight Chinese solar companies that it’s been investigating are “attempting to bypass US duties by doing minor processing in one of the Southeast Asian countries before shipping to the United States.” Here’s what it means for the US solar industry.

The largest landfill solar project in North America, a 25.6 megawatt (MW) solar farm in Mount Olive, New Jersey, is online – which means yet another dumpsite has been turned into a revenue-generating, clean energy asset.

Montgomery County, Maryland, will be the US East Coast’s first county to ban natural gas in new buildings.

Hitachi Energy just launched wireless Spark Prevention Unit indicators that help prevent wildfires by enabling remote monitoring.

France and Ireland signed contracts on Friday to advance the Celtic Interconnector, a subsea electricity link to allow the exchange of electricity between the two EU countries. It will be the first interconnector between continental Europe and Ireland. 

The US Interior Department today announced that an oil and gas lease sale for Alaska’s Cook Inlet will take place on December 30 – a concession made to Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) so that he’d vote for the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Renewable energy provided almost 23% of electrical generation in the US during the first three quarters of 2022, according to new data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign.

France’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project, the 480 megawatt (MW) Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm, is now fully up and running.

San Francisco-headquartered Sunrun, the largest residential solar and battery storage installer in the US, yesterday posted on social media that its transition to electric fleet vehicles is under way with a photo of Sunrun-branded Ford F-150 Lightnings.

Swell Energy today announced that it has raised $120 million to grow its virtual power plants (VPPs). Virtual power plants allow clean energy to be quickly added to the grid to address frequency and voltage imbalances, local disruptions, and keep the grid stable.

Quaise Energy is on a mission to prove that deep geothermal drilling could provide more than enough clean energy to meet the world’s needs as we move away from fossil fuels. Matt Houde, cofounder at Quaise Energy, explained its potential at the TED^X Boston Planetary Stewardship Event last week.

The Biden administration, through the US Department of Energy (DOE), today announced that applications are now open to states, tribes, and utilities to tap into $13 billion in new financing opportunities for the expansion and modernization of the US power grid.

Enel North America, through its affiliate 3Sun USA, today announced that it will build one of the largest solar PV factories in the US. Initially, it’s expected to produce at least 3 gigawatts (GW) and scale up to 6 GW of high-performance bifacial PV modules and cells annually. This facility will be among the first in the US to produce solar cells, a vital part of the supply chain.

First Solar, the largest American solar panel maker, will invest up to $1.2 billion to ramp up production of US-made solar panels. The announcement follows the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in August, which incentivizes domestic clean energy manufacturing.

In just two years, Northern European companies have taken wooden wind turbines from prototype to commercialization. Now Finnish renewable product maker Stora Enso, one of the largest private forest owners in the world, is partnering up with German start-up Voodin Blade Technology to make sustainable wooden wind turbine blades.

Dandelion Energy today announced the closure of a $70 million B1 funding round to scale geothermal in the US, but it quietly left Vermont in the fall.

Hywind Tampen, the world’s largest and Norway’s first floating offshore wind farm, powered up yesterday for the first time.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – the largest utility in the United States – will launch a first-of-its-kind pilot program to determine whether closed coal ash storage sites can host utility-scale solar.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the nonprofit trade association of the US solar industry, just flagged a proposed change to the 2024 International Building Code by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that would do more harm than good to the US solar industry.

Dallas-based Hover Energy, which makes wind-powered microgrids with solar and storage, is going to begin commercial-scale production in January 2023. And potential customers can feel confident about the resiliency of the company’s rooftop-mounted microgrids – one survived 105 mph winds during Hurricane Ian.

Washington State will require new homes and apartments to have heat pumps installed from July 2023, the State Building Code Council ruled on Friday.