In Wednesday’s New York Times, I wrote about two experimental projects in California to store solar energy produced by photovoltaic rooftop arrays: In the garage of Peter Rive’s San Francisco home is a battery pack. It is not connected to Mr. Rive’s electric Tesla Roadster sports car, but to the power grid. The California Public [...]
Posts Tagged ‘California Public Utilities Commission’
SolarCity, Tesla to test storing solar energy in EV batteries
Posted in electric cars, energy, environment, green cars, green policy, SolarCity, SunPower, Tesla Motors, tagged California Public Utilities Commission, energy storage, SolarCity, SunPower, Tesla Motors on September 17, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Solar eBay: California floats utility auction for green energy
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, green policy, renewable energy, solar energy, tagged California Public Utilities Commission, renewable energy projects, reverse auction mechanism, solar energy on August 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: PG&E I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. It’s been a big week for Big Solar. On Wednesday, the California Energy Commission approved a license for the nation’s first new large-scale solar thermal power plant in two decades. Over the next month, the energy commission is expected to green-light three more [...]
San Diego utility charges ahead with electric car plan
Posted in electric cars, environment, green cars, green policy, San Diego Gas & Electric, smart grid, tagged California Public Utilities Commission, Chevrolet Volt, electric cars, Nissan Leaf, San Diego Gas & Electric, smart grid on June 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Nissan This post first appeared on Grist. With the first mass-market electric cars set to hit California roads later this year, the state’s utilities have been working to ensure that early adopters – who tend to be clustered in places like Berkeley and Santa Monica – don’t overload neighborhood transformers and trigger local blackouts. [...]
Batteries included: California passes energy storage bill
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, green grid, green policy, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged California, California Public Utilities Commission, energy storage, solar energy, wind energy on June 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody This post first appeared on Grist. The California Assembly has passed legislation that takes the first step to requiring that a percentage of electricity generated in the state be stored. Electricity, of course, is the ultimate perishable commodity. If the bill is approved by the California Senate and signed by Gov. Arnold [...]
California regulators reject utilities’ fuel cell projects
Posted in alternative energy, Bloom Energy, energy, environment, fuel cells, green policy, PG&E, Southern California Edison, tagged Bloom Energy, California Public Utilities Commission, fuel cells, PG&E, Southern California Edison on March 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In The New York Times on Wednesday, I write about California regulators’ preliminary decision to reject requests by two big utilities to install grid-connected fuel cells: While Google, Wal-Mart and other corporations have embraced fuel cells, California regulators have turned down requests from the state’s two biggest utilities to install the technology. [...]
Green light for world’s first space-based solar farm
Posted in green policy, green startups, solar energy, solar power plants, Solaren, tagged California Public Utilities Commission, solar power plant, Solaren, space-based solar on December 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
image: Mafic Studios Could this be another sign that Jerry Brown’s return to the California governorship is imminent? As I write Thursday in The New York Times, the state’s public utilities commission has greenlighted a contract for the world’s first orbiting solar power plant: California regulators on Thursday went where no regulators have gone before [...]
The fight to control California’s EV infrastructure
Posted in Better Place, electric cars, energy, environment, green cars, green grid, green policy, PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, tagged Better Place, California Public Utilities Commission, electric car charging networks, electric car infrastructure, PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison on October 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Better Place With electric cars months away from hitting the road, the California Public Utilities Commission has begun the complex task of establishing a regulatory framework for the state’s emerging electric vehicle infrastructure. The biggest fight is likely to be over whether to regulate companies like Better Place, which plans to build an electric [...]
California moves to auction off solar energy contracts
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, green policy, PG&E, Recurrent Energy, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, SunPower, tagged California Public Utilities Commission, CPUC, photovoltaics, Recurrent Energy, reverse auction market, solar energy, SunPower, Suntech on August 28, 2009 | 3 Comments »
photo: Southern California Edison It hasn’t received much media attention, but the California Public Utilities Commission has just proposed instituting a first-of-its-kind reverse auction market to spur renewable energy development — mainly solar photovoltaic. As I write today in The New York Times: California regulators are taking an eBay approach to ramping-up renewable energy in [...]
