08/06/2008 10:39 AM

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: August 6, 2008

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For PV systems, even a 1-MW facility is quite large, and MW-scale systems are now planned for many parts of the country. In late April, for instance, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced a MW PV system will be installed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Pennsylvania. In late May, Duke Energy Carolinas announced plans to buy all the power from a 16-MW PV facility, to be built north of Charlotte, North Carolina. SunEdison LLC is building the facility and expects to have it running by 2010. In mid-June, Pepco Energy Services was awarded a contract to install a 2.36-MW PV system on the roof of the Atlantic City Convention Center in NJ, with the installation to be completed by the end of the year, and in late June, enXco agreed to install a 1.3-MW system and a 0.5-MW system on two warehouses in South Plainfield, NJ, under a contract with Hall's Warehouse Corporation.

But California has always been a leader in solar power, and last week First Solar, Inc. announced that it will install a 2-MW PV system on the roof of a commercial building in Fontana, CA, and at least 7.5 MW of ground-mounted PV panels in Blythe, CA, with the power from both systems to be sold to Southern California Edison. See the press releases from Mayor Nutter, Duke Energy, Pepco Energy Services, enXco, and First Solar.

Texas to Spend $4.93 Billion on Transmission Lines for Wind Power

The Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas approved last week a plan to build transmission lines to carry up to 18,456 MW of wind power from West Texas and the Texas Panhandle to metropolitan areas of the state.

Back in April, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which oversees the state's electrical grid, provided the PUC with four scenarios for transmission system upgrades, with the costs ranging from $2.95 billion to $6.38 billion. The most expensive option would have delivered 24,859 MW of wind power to the cities of Texas, but the PUC chose a less expensive option, Scenario 2, at a cost of $4.93 billion. The PUC estimates that the new lines will be in service within 4 or 5 years, at which point residential customers will be charged about $4 per month to pay off the cost of the transmission lines.

According to ERCOT, the selected plan includes 6,903 MW of wind power capacity that was either in service when ERCOT started preparing its report in September 2007, or had progressed to the point that its developer had signed an agreement to connect the system to the grid. For that existing and near-term future wind power capacity, the new transmission lines will provide greater access to markets, allowing a more efficient and economical use of those wind power resources. In addition, Scenario 2 will allow the development of 11,553 MW of new wind power. That includes 2,393 MW of wind power in the "Panhandle B" zone, which is where a company founded by T. Boone Pickens plans to eventually build the world's largest wind power plant, with a generating capacity of 4,000 MW. The 1,000-MW first phase of that project, the Pampa Wind Project, is expected to go online by early 2011. See the Texas PUC press release (PDF 15 KB); the April press release from ERCOT, which includes a link to the full ERCOT study; and the article from this newsletter on the Pampa Wind Project.

Pennsylvania Creates a $500 Million Alternative Energy Fund

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell has approved a bill that establishes a $500 million fund to support alternative energy projects. Special Session House Bill 1 authorizes the Commonwealth Financing Authority to borrow $500 million, most of which will be split into six funding sources relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy: $80 million in grants and loans for solar energy projects; $100 million in grants, loans, and rebates for up to 35% of the cost of solar energy projects at residences and small businesses; $165 million in grants and loans for alternative energy projects, excluding solar energy, at businesses and local government facilities; $25 million for wind and geothermal energy projects; $40 million to help start-up businesses involved in energy efficiency technologies; and $25 million in grants and loans to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes and small business buildings. An additional $65 million will go toward pollution control technologies and to help low-income families pay their energy bills. See the governor's press release and the full text of the bill (PDF 250 KB).

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