News

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 to use a value-of-solar formula when charging customers with distributed generation. This makes Minnesota the first state to develop a formula for calculating the value of customer-generated solar power. It also gives investor-owned utilities the option of using the tariff instead of the retail electricity rate when crediting customers for excess electricity generated from solar panels. Read more here.

Indiana’s Senate has voted to shut down the Energizing Indiana Program, an energy efficiency program that provides funding for home and business energy audits and improvements. Senate Bill 340, which was launched in 2012 cleared the House two weeks ago and will now go to Governor Mike Pense. If Pense signs the bill, Indiana utilities will no longer be required to reduce statewide consumption by 2 percent every year through 2019. Read more here.

SunEdison and the SunEdison Foundation have announced a $1.2 million philanthropic partnership with GRID Alternatives to launch a National Women in Solar Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to increase the number of women in the solar industry and support their professional advancement. The investment is both financial and in the form of solar panels.

SolarCity announced a partnership with Best Buy to make residential solar electricity service available to customers through select Best Buy stores. SolarCity plans to offer its services in about 60 Best Buy stores in Arizona, California, Hawaii, New York and Oregon.

New Jersey became the latest to say no to Tesla selling its cars directly to the public. On Tuesday, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission on behalf of auto dealers changed a rule to require a franchise license to sell new cars in the state. This is a problem for Tesla as its strategy is to sell cars through company owned stores. Governor Chris Christie’s office insists that the new rule does not represent a change in policy, but “cleans up regulatory language” to ban direct sales. Read more here.

GEI Global Energy and C&S Engineering Solutions have partnered to develop a GEI X5 hybrid fuel cell electric power generator. The GEI X5 will incorporate high temperature Polymer Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell and a high-density energy storage system. It also has the ability to use multiple fuels such as natural gas and bio-renewables fuels. Read more here.

Austin Utility is about to sign a 25-year PPA with Sun Edison for 150 MW of solar power that it will pay for at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. This could mean lower rates for customers. Austin Energy has a 35 percent renewable energy resource goal by 2016 and a solar goal of 200 MW by 2010. It’s currently at about 25 percent of this goal with 850MW of wind as its make up. Read more here.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Centre on Small Hydro Power (ICSHP) have launched the world’s first small hydropower interactive database. The portal is aimed at giving policymakers and other interested stakeholders access to data about the vast potential of small hydropower. It also contains 20 regional overviews and 149 country-level reports. Read more here.

Mosaic, the Oakland-based solar financing startup has launched a solar home loan financing project - Mosaic Home Solar Loan. This is aimed at helping homeowners own their solar system outright, without having to pay upfront for the total cost of the system. They will pay back the loan covering the cost of the solar system over a 20 year term, with an interest rate of 8 percent. Mosaic is in partnership with RGS Energy, which will install the solar systems financed under the program. Read more here.

Silver Spring Networks (SSNI) and its long-time customer Florida Power & Light have launched the first and largest smart-grid connected streetlight project in the U.S. The project will deploy 75,000 streetlights in the Miami-Dade County region. Each networked light will serve a dual purpose for the utility. First, it will remotely control lighting, detect outages and diagnose what parts are needed to replace them. Second, it will extend and strengthen the wireless mesh network they connect to. Read more here.