USA

The Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) has approved a plan to add 149MW of PV power to OUC’s generation portfolio, which will double the utility’s current efforts in the state of Florida.

Rainy Solar, a division of Rainy Investments, commissioned a 1.18-MW rooftop community solar project in Elgin, Illinois.

Sunfinity Renewable Energy, a vertically-integrated residential, commercial and utility-scale solar power provider, has begun operations in two additional Western states — Arizona and Colorado — to expand the company’s existing footprint throughout California, Texas and Oklahoma. With the addition of Arizona, Sunfinity will now be operating in the top three states nationally for solar growth.

The City of West Plains, Missouri, will partner with electric utility Evergy to provide solar power to the community. Evergy will build a 9.6-MW solar array in the city that will generate enough energy to power 1,200 homes.

Six months later, GTM gets an exclusive update from APS and Fluence on an event that’s forcing a new look at grid battery engineering.

On this week’s Interchange podcast: how residential batteries differ from other forms of distributed energy.

Germany has long been a global leader in driving acceptance of clean technologies through its progressive energy policies and regulations. Its influence in addressing climate change extends well beyond its borders, and the country is taking an active role to support the global energy transition through international cooperation. Germany has bilateral energy partnerships with approximately 20 countries, and its strong partnership with California is focused on creating a route to the future – a carbon-neutral one. State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Andreas Feicht met with pv magazine to discuss the country’s partnership with California, and its journey toward decarbonization.

Solar and storage developer 7X Energy has spent more than US$100 million to stockpile 2GWac of Power Electronics inverters in order to take advantage of the full investment tax credit (ITC) before it starts to taper next year.

Colombia’s still-dormant solar scene is poised for a major boost under a new partnership, bringing together a European and a Latin American player.

Batteries that power our smartphones need lithium – an increasingly precious resource. Could Bolivia supply the world?

American John B. Goodenough, Brit Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, from Japan, have received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing the lithium-ion battery. A statement from the Royal Academy of Sciences of Sweden said the invention “laid the foundations of a society without wires and fossil fuels, and [they] are of great benefit to humanity”.

Norwegian polysilicon manufacturer REC Silicon announced last Thursday it is considering selling its silane gas facility in Butte, in the US state of Montana.

The rising solar appetites of global investors so far in 2019 have put the industry on course to reach full-year financing volumes unseen since 2017, according to Mercom.

US assistant secretary of state for energy Francis Fannon says Indian solar developers should put quality, service and diplomacy above one-time expenditure.

Total corporate funding in the solar sector (including venture capital/private equity, public market, and debt financing) for the first nine months of 2019 was up with $9 billion raised, compared to $6.7 billion in for the same time period in 2018, a 34% increase year-over-year.