california

A 500kV, 125-mile transmission line between California and Arizona broke ground last week, promising to bring over 3GW of renewable energy capacity to the US Desert Southwest region.

PV solutions provider SPI Energy’s wholly owned subsidiary, Solar 4 America (S4A), has begun manufacturing M10 (182mm) modules in the new production line at its facility in Sacramento, California.

NEM 3.0, the latest iteration of California’s rooftop solar net metering scheme, was passed yesterday by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Vocal public debate surrounded the legislation before the vote as solar industry workers and representative bodies called for revisions to the proposed decision.

On 15 December, the California Public Utilities Commission will vote on the latest net energy meeting (NEM) proposal regarding the state’s rooftop solar market. Ahead of the vote, activists have taken to the streets in a series of demonstrations against the legislation, and the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) and other representative groups have been vocal in their criticism of the proposal.

The intense wildfires that ravaged California in the US in 2020 have been responsible for substantial solar energy forecasts errors, according to a study led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Green Hydrogen company Fusion Fuel has penned an agreement with energy infrastructure developer Electus Energy to build a 75MW green hydrogen plant in Bakersfield, California.

The Californian Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposal yesterday to alter its Net Energy Metering (NEM) tariff to encourage domestic battery storage systems alongside distributed rooftop solar. The new proposal reversed some of the measures in the poorly-received NEM 3.0 programme.

One third of US households who installed solar PV in 2021 had incomes between US$50,000-100,000, according to a report from LBNL.

The US residential solar market saw its fifth consecutive record for both customer additions and quarterly installations in Q2 of this year as high energy prices and inflationary pressures caused demand to spike.

Spanish renewables platform Matrix Renewables has closed financing for construction of its California-based Gaskell 2 and 3 solar-plus-storage projects, which are already in an advanced construction phase.