photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. The California Legislature is moving to put into law a regulation requiring the state’s utilities to obtain a third of their electricity from renewable energy by 2020. But how did California’s three big investor-owned utilities do in meeting a previous mandate to [...]
Archive for the ‘renewable energy’ Category
California utilities (just) miss renewable energy deadline
Posted in energy, PG&E, renewable energy, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison on March 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Short-circuiting California’s solar thermal power plant boom
Posted in BrightSource Energy, energy, environment, NextEra Energy Resources, renewable energy, Sierra Club, solar energy, Solar Millennium, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, Tessera Solar on February 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In Thursday’s New York Times, I write about how the nascent solar thermal boom in California’s Mojave Desert is being derailed by lawsuits from environmental, union and Native American groups: SAN FRANCISCO — Just weeks after regulators approved the last of nine multibillion-dollar solar thermal power plants to be built in the [...]
SolarCity buys East Coast’s biggest home solar installer
Posted in renewable energy, solar energy, SolarCity, Sungevity on February 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
photo: SolarCity I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. California solar companies are continuing their eastward expansion, with Silicon Valley’s SolarCity on Wednesday acquiring the residential operations of one of the East Coast biggest solar installers, groSolar. With the acquisition, SolarCity, California’s largest residential solar installer, will move into Massachusetts, New Jersey, [...]
Southern California Edison signs another big solar farm deal
Posted in renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison on February 10, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Southern California Edison on Wednesday announced another big photovoltaic power plant deal, this time to buy electricity from a 250-megawatt solar farm to be built by First Solar. Add that contract to 831 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaic power purchase agreements the Los Angeles utility signed [...]
Wind power now competitive with coal in some regions
Posted in renewable energy, wind power on February 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. More good news on the renewable energy front Monday: The cost of onshore wind power has dropped to record lows, and in some regions is competitive with electricity generated by coal-fired plants, according to a survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a market research firm. [...]
Solar gets big and cheap in California
Posted in Amonix, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison on February 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Earlier this week, I wrote about the green evolution in California regarding electric cars. Well, when it comes to solar energy, it’s starting to look more like a revolution. This week, utility Southern California Edison asked regulators to approve 20-year contracts to buy 250 megawatts [...]
NRG to acquire SunPower solar farm for $450 million
Posted in environment, NRG Energy, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, SunPower, Uncategorized, tagged NRG Energy on January 20, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I wrote this story for Reuters, where it first appeared on November 30, 2010. A subsidiary of NRG Energy on Tuesday said it will invest up to $450 million in a 250-megawatt photovoltaic power plant to be built by Silicon Valley’s SunPower on the central California coast. The New Jersey-based power provider, which operates a [...]
Sage-grouse map could help avoid wind farm fights
Posted in endangered species, renewable energy, wind power on January 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Reuters, where it first appeared on November 26, 2010. In an effort that could help avoid conflicts between wind energy developers and environmentalists, the United States Department of the Interior this week released a map that identifies breeding densities of the imperiled sage-grouse in 11 Western states. The chicken-sized bird [...]
Saving the desert tortoise from solar power plants
Posted in BrightSource Energy, endangered species, energy, environment, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged desert tortoise, Ivanpah, Mercy Vaughn, Peter Woodman on November 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In the New York Times on Wednesday, I follow up my story on solar power plants and desert tortoises: In an article in The New York Times on Wednesday, I write about how the fortunes of big solar power plants in the desert Southwest can hinge on the way developers handle imperiled [...]
Why the green energy revolution needs the smart grid
Posted in alternative energy, environment, green policy, green tech, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged Sacramento Municipal Utility District on November 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. If you want a birds-eye view of the future of power, scramble up to the roof of a 562,089-square-foot warehouse in Ontario, a city that sits in the smoggy heart of Southern California’s Inland Empire east of Los Angeles. On a roof [...]
