us

News in Brief: NRG commissions a 3.15MW Florida solar plant with Lakeland Electric, Power Africa reaches 30,000 new solar connections in Nigeria, PayGo solar company Azuri nets US$5 million for off-grid expansion in Africa, UPS will expand its solar capacity five-fold and India's BHEL bags its biggest single rooftop PV order.

As California’s municipal utilities are rapidly reaching their 5% net metering caps, the scope for residential solar becomes a harder sell.

Floridian utility Gulf Power has proposed to increase its power rates for customers by implementing a mandatory demand charge.

A new Senate Bill submitted to the Wyoming legislature last week bars utilities from providing any electricity to the state that is derived from large-scale wind or solar projects by 2019.

Arizona utility Arizona Public Service (APS) has commissioned its largest solar PV plant to date – the 40MW Red Rock Solar Plant in Casa Grande.

A pending Arizona Corporation Commission ruling will decide whether to amend its recent decision on grandfathering, to alter the timing when consumers will be grandfathered under pre-existing rules. The decision will have a significant impact on the future of solar in the state.

Ohio governor John Kasich has stuck to his guns and vetoed a bill that sought to make compliance for investor-owned utilities (IOUs) with the state’s energy standards voluntary, as opposed to mandatory, for a further two years.

Whilst the future of Ohio’s clean energy standards might lie in the hands of governor John Kasich, recent research by watchdog industry group Energy and Policy Institute (EPI) reveals that fossil fuel and utility interests have been pulling the strings behind the freeze on Ohio’s clean energy standards.

After years of drawn-out discourse, the Arizona Corporation Commission will decide next week what the ‘value of solar’ really is, and just how much utilities will pay for electricity generated by rooftop systems.

Illinois utility groups Exelon/ComEd are attempting to pass a legislative energy bill that would implement a mandatory demand charge and could result in “the largest rate hike in US history”, according to Dave Lundy from the BEST Coalition.