News

According to the the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind turbines in Texas broke a record when they produced 10,296 megawatts of electricity on March 26. This happened at 8:48 p.m. that night. ERCOT has 11,000 MW of commercial wind power and so at 8:48 p.m. - when the record was broken, the state was using 94 percent of the total wind power available. Read more here.

According to a new ACEEE report, energy efficiency costs utilities two to three times less to provide electricity than traditional power sources. Energy efficiency programs cost about three cents per kWh while it costs two to three times more to generate the same amount of energy from traditional sources. The report also shows that natural gas utility energy efficiency programs are also highly cost-effective at an average cost of 35 cents per therm. Read more here.

NRG Energy has announced its intention to acquire residential solar installer Roof Diagnostics Solar. The terms of acquisition have however not been disclosed. Roof Diagnostics Solar will start operating under NRG’s residential solar installation and financing business NRG Residential Solar Solutions within the next month. Read more here.

In more Tesla-related news, an Ohio Senate Committee has approved the direct sale of Tesla electric vehicles to consumers. The decision was a compromise between Tesla and the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association which was against the direct sale of cars without a middleman. Under this new legislation, Tesla would be able to operate its Columbus and Cincinnati stores and can add a third one as long as it isn’t sold or acquired or doesn’t produce anything other than all-electric vehicles. Read more here.

Cape Wind announced that it has secured $400 million in financing for its offshore wind farm project in Nantucket Sound. This brings its total fundraising to $1.3 billion, approximately half of its $2.5 billion cost. Cape Wind also expects to qualify for a federal tax credit, which will cover 30 percent of the capital costs. Read more here.

Electricity supplier FirstEnergy Solutions plans to charge about 220,000 of its Illinois customers $5 to $15 in a June surcharge for the extreme spikes in wholesale power costs during January’s polar vortex when market referee PJM Interconnection lifted price caps as supply tightened. This will be a one-time charge. Not all suppliers are passing on costs to customers. Read more here.

Lawmakers in New Jersey are seeking to undo the ban on direct sales of Tesla electric vehicles. The new legislation would allow Tesla to sell directly to its customers as opposed to going through dealerships. Read more here.

Arizona has moved to legalize direct sales for Tesla electric vehicles as opposed to the dealership-network model. House Bill 2123 would permit direct sales by automakers that solely manufacture electric vehicles and have a service center within state borders. This follows the state being named as one of the four finalists for Tesla’s “gigafactory” for lithium-ion cells and battery packs. Read more here.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has released a report showing the cost of saving energy (CSE) through efficiency programs funded by utility customers in 31 states between 2009 and 2011. The report shows that the U.S. weighted-average electricity CSE is a little more than two cents per kilowatt-hour ($0.021/kWh). This is also the value for commercial, industrial and agricultural efficiency programs. Furthermore, efficiency programs in the Midwest had the lowest levelized CSE while those in the Northeast had a higher average CSE value. Read more here.

Solar systems developer Dragonfly Solar has partnered with solar panel manufacturer SolarWorld to deliver a 517 KW solar array to four electric utility cooperatives. The project is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and will be owned and managed by Minnesota-Three, an entity owned by three utility cooperatives in Minnesota.