If you live in California, there’s a good chance that you’re a customer of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). This company, based in San Francisco, provides natural gas and electricity to about 16 million people throughout northern California, making it one of the largest utilities in the United States.
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The electrical grid–the interconnected web of power plants and transmission lines that keeps the lights on throughout the country–is a feat of modern engineering. However, it was built for a different era. In order to accommodate the increase in distributed energy resources (like solar), as well as to improve the overall resilience of the electrical system, the grid of the future will be a smart grid.
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In this week’s Solar News Roundup, Vermont utility Green Mountain Power plans to launch a blockchain-based energy marketplace, and U.S. lawmakers introduce a 100% clean energy bill.
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In August 2019, the solar and storage industries took a giant leap forward with the introduction of the Soleil Lofts virtual power plant project. The apartment complex, which lies just south of Salt Lake City, Utah, is a unique, first-of-its-kind collaboration between a building developer, an energy storage company, a major utility and a local solar installation company. To learn how the Soleil Lofts project came together, and to get a feel for the lessons learned during the process, EnergySage sat down with Jess Phillips, the CEO and founder of Auric Energy, the solar and energy storage developer responsible for the project.
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A recent report from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative found that half of all electricity customers don’t know what electric rate they are on, which begs the question: what electric rate are you on? And what do different electricity rates actually mean?
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As the costs of solar batteries continue to decline, more and more homeowners are adding energy storage to their solar installations: in California, for instance, one in every twenty solar installations now also includes a solar battery. As utilities become more familiar with the benefits of distributed solar + storage on the grid, from added operational flexibility to decreased electricity demand, several utilities in the Northeast are now offering large incentives for home energy storage pilot programs.
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With the declining cost of energy storage technology, solar batteries are becoming an increasingly popular addition to solar installations. However, it’s not just residential and commercial solar shoppers who benefit from installing energy storage. In fact, utility-scale battery storage is increasingly playing a major role in the operation of the electric grid, providing cost savings, environmental benefits and new flexibility for the grid.
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Reading Time: 2 minutesIn this week’s News Roundup, we’re taking a slight detour from our usual theme of solar energy. Instead, we decided to focus on two recent stories in the energy industry that have wide-ranging implications for not just solar, but the way we use energy as a whole.
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere are myriad benefits to solar energy. From reducing or eliminating your electric bills to increasing your property value, and from creating local jobs to protecting the environment, there are plenty of reasons to go solar. Another, lesser known benefit of installing panels on your property is that solar helps the entire electrical grid.
Reading Time: 5 minutesA large portion of the cost of electricity comes from a very small portion of hours out of the year. As a result, utilities, electricity grid operators and private companies alike are finding innovative solutions to these infrequent but substantial electricity costs. One product in particular that has already proven to be successful throughout the country is demand response.
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