Renewable Energy News

Dominion acquired a solar project in Somers, Ct., capable of producing approximately 5 MW of electricity from Kyocera for an undisclosed sum. Kyocera and CleanPath, a San Francisco-based clean-energy company, jointly developed the Somers project, which is expected to begin commercial operation within the 4th quarter of 2013. The Somers Solar Center will use Kyocera Solar’s photovoltaic technology. The electricity will go to Connecticut Light & Power under a 20-year PPA.

EDF EN Canada Inc., a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles, and West Moberly First Nations (WMFN) signed a protocol agreement regarding the development of three wind energy projects representing over 500 MW of renewable power in the Peace River Region of British Columbia.

Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., a division of MDU Resources Group, signed a PPA with Thunder Spirit Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Wind Works Power. The agreement is for approximately 105 MW of installed capacity of wind turbine generators to be located in southwest North Dakota. The generation will interconnect at Montana-Dakota’s substation near Hettinger, ND. The project is expected to begin commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2015. Montana-Dakota issued a request for proposal earlier this year for electric capacity and energy.

TransAlta Renewables, through a wholly owned subsidiary of TransAlta, will acquire the economic interest in a 144-MW wind farm in Wyoming for approximately US$102 million from an affiliate of NextEra Energy Resources. The wind farm is fully operational and contracted under a long-term PPA until 2028 with an investment grade counterparty. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of December 2013.

Enphase Energy completed a 125-building distributed solar project developed by Main Street Power that uses Enphase microinverters. The project was spread across 29 schools and two facilities buildings throughout the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), with individual system designs varying in size and orientation. Enphase microinverters allowed Main Street Power and the San Diego Unified School District to rely on one type of inverter technology to support 3.1MW of arrays and more than 125 different systems designed using different angles, orientations and sizes.

S&C Electric announced a $9.7 million project with Green States Energy for construction of a 4.1-MW solar PV farm in Sandwich, Mass. The project team will be led by S&C, which will provide engineering, procurement and project management services for both the AC and DC portions of the project. Charlotte, N.C. based Green Earth Developers is providing physical construction services including installation of the racking systems, solar panels and construction management of the DC systems and AC interconnection.

AEG Power Solutions (AEG PS) and its subsidiary skytron energy successfully deployed a 5.8-MWp commercial PV installation for PPA Partners, a national renewable energy development company in Yuma, Arizona. The PV installation covers four individual sites, each divided into multiple sub-sites, and a mix of rooftop, ground, and carport installations. The solution included AEG PS’ Protect PV.500 inverters, which feature power stacks with advanced measuring and control technology to enable DC input voltages of up to 1000 VDC.

Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power, in partnership with Turner Renewable Energy, began commercial operation on the Spectrum Solar Facility, located in Clark County, Nevada. The 30-MW solar PV installation utilizes tracking technology that enables greater efficiency by directing solar panels to track the sun as it moves across the sky. The 311-acre site was built and will be operated and maintained by SunEdison.

Google partnered with Silver Ridge Power, formerly known as AES Solar, to invest approximately $103 million in Silver Ridge Power’s 265.7-MW Mount Signal Solar project. The project, also known as Imperial Valley Solar 1, is a utility-scale solar PV generating plant under construction in Imperial County, California. Mount Signal Solar is expected to be fully operational in 2014 and will sell its output to the San Diego Gas & Electric under a long-term PPA.

Abengoa announced that Solana, the world´s largest parabolic trough plant and also the first solar plant in the United States with thermal energy storage, has successfully passed commercial operation tests. A thermal energy storage system allows Solana to generate electricity for six hours without the concurrent use of the solar field. This technology consists of parabolic shaped mirrors mounted on structures that track the sun and concentrate the sun's heat, later transforming water into steam and powering a conventional steam turbine.