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.

GridSTAR brought a battery online to help improve the quality and reliability of the electric grid. The battery is part of the new GridSTAR Smart Grid Experience Center being developed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, spearheaded by Penn State and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The battery uses a special control system to inject or draw energy from the grid based on a signal from a utility.

The California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) received $2.2 million over four years from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to provide support and technical assistance throughout California, Nevada and Hawaii to drive wider development of cogeneration energy technologies as solutions to the nation’s energy issues. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy selected San Diego-based CCSE to direct the Pacific regional combined heat and power technical assistance partnership (CHP-TAP), one of seven regional partnerships.

eMeter, a Siemens business, made available a new cloud-based offering for their smart grid application platform, EnergyIP. The new offering can be accessed from the cloud directly via Siemens or through strategic partners as a managed service with subscription-based pricing on a per meter, per month basis. With the eMeter cloud offering, utilities can map specific business drivers to applications on the platform. eMeter can sit side by side with any meter data management (MDM), advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), or consumer engagement solution.

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.

Duke Energy Carolinas filed an application for a certificate of environmental compatibility and public convenience and necessity (CECPCN) with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSCSC) seeking approval to construct and operate a 750-MW natural gas-fired combined cycle plant at the existing Lee Steam Station in Anderson County, S.C. This filing was in partnership with North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC), which will be a minority owner of 100 MW of the project if constructed.