systems

WASHINGTON — Within three years, large-scale battery projects are expected to surge across the Texas and California power grids as developers seek to store the electricity generated by the state’s expanding wind and solar farms.

The Energy Department estimates that 21 gigawatts of storage capacity will be connected to the US power grid by 2026, more than 2½ times the amount currently in operation. About 8 gigawatts are expected in Texas.

The boom in battery development comes as weather-dependent wind and solar power become an increasingly large part of the U.S. power grid, requiring an alternative energy source when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

As renewable energy has grown over the past decade, natural gas-fired turbines have taken on much of that load. But as lithium-ion battery prices have fallen in recent years — while natural gas prices have risen — energy utilities are increasingly looking to larger batteries to fill the gaps.

“The technology you’re seeing here is starting to hit its tipping point,” said Ryan Katofsy, managing director of trade group Advanced Energy Economy. “Costs go down, performance improves. There is more information about qualities (batteries).”

The boom coincides with growing concerns about the reliability of the US power grid amid changing weather patterns linked to climate change. Texas suffered days of deadly blackouts last year after a winter storm caused power plants and natural gas wells to freeze. Michael Webber, an energy professor at the University of Texas, said the batteries could theoretically help provide power when generators fail.

But what’s driving investors’ interest is a state energy market in the Panhandle and West Texas where wind power often exceeds the capacity of transmission lines serving the state’s population centers, he said. If a power company can store electricity during off-peak hours and deploy it during times of peak demand, there is a profit to be made.

“You get these opportunities for big changes from low to high,” Webber said. “Frankly, we’re going to build batteries everywhere.”

Texas’ burgeoning battery market is dominated by two startups, according to federal records. Houston-based Broad Reach Power has 14 projects with a total of 2.2 gigawatts of capacity coming online by 2024, and Austin-based solar developer SolarPro has nine projects with a total of 4.1 gigawatts of capacity coming online by 2025.

Broad Reach declined to comment and SolarPro did not respond to a request for comment.

More battery projects could come with 79 gigawatts of pending projects at the Texas Electric Reliability Board, the state’s grid operator. Many of these projects have yet to secure funding or other milestones, but they represent one-third of all generation currently in development on the ERCOT network.

To help them, Congress included a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act passed this year that would allow battery projects to claim the same investment tax credit as solar manufacturers.

“You had some people have expectations (of the tax credit), so they were getting projects in line so they would be ready when the policy happened,” Katofsky said. “It’s a bit of a gamble, but that’s all.”

[email protected]

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Nearly a year after being approved by the Texas State Public Utilities Commission, Tesla has launched Tesla Electric, a solar energy retail program.

The company made the announcement Thursday on Twitter, calling it “a power plan that offers affordable clean energy for homes with Powerwall, starting in Texas.”

This is the first Tesla program of its kind in the world and is part of a pilot program with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) approved earlier this year.

PUCT approved Tesla Energy Ventures, LLC as a provider last year before launching this pilot.

Tesla Can Now Sell Electricity to Texans: How It Could Work

“The goal is to develop more ways for ERCOT customers to manage their electricity use, to their benefit and to the benefit of the Texas grid,” said PUCT spokesman Rich Parsons.

How would customers do this? Through virtual power plant (VPP).

“Instead of a big new gas plant, you’d have a lot of different distributed energy resources, which are small [houses]”,” explained David Tuttle, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. “Each one would be small, but when combined together, it generates a meaningful amount of electricity. You can export it as a virtual power plant.”

So the idea is that homeowners, with their strength of numbers, can help reduce the stress on the ERCOT grid by selling and sending back the extra solar energy.

ERCOT said there are currently no VPPs sold in the wholesale market in Texas.

A new pilot program with PUCT allows Tesla and other companies to try to do just that.

It is called the Total Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) Pilot Project.

“This pilot task force, I’m proud to report, and together with ERCOT, is the first to address this in Texas,” Tesla spokeswoman Arushi Sharma Frank said during a Sept. 12 PUCT workshop.

He was part of the task force behind the launch of this pilot.

“The concept is that specific, controllable devices in the home (especially Powerwalls for Tesla) can be connected between customers in a geographic area and participate directly in the wholesale market, including shipping and providing ancillary equipment through the ERCOT marketplace. services,” an ERCOT spokesperson wrote in an email to KXAN.

Tesla Electric requires a Tesla Powerwall, a rechargeable lithium battery that goes inside the house and stores solar energy.

From there, according to Tesla’s website, Tesla’s algorithms monitor electricity prices in the customer’s area and direct their Powerwall to sell extra energy to the grid when prices are high. This is done through his program.

Tesla is now hiring for a dedicated role in its new electric retail business

Kind of like an electricity exchange, Tuttle said.

The company says this is different from other solar buyback plans, which buy additional solar power “when it’s plentiful and cheap.”

All of this will help Tesla Electric customers save on their bills.

Powerwall customers can sell power “when there is more demand and more value,” the website notes. “Compared to other real-time solar feed-back plans, Tesla Electric can help its customers unlock more value from energy exports than real-time solar feed-back plans.”

“This initiative is about Tesla’s customers and it’s about the retail energy offering that Tesla can bring to this market,” Sharma Frank said during public comments at an ERCOT board meeting in July.

Who can and cannot access Tesla Electric

“I think it’s good to have another retailer because it increases the number of competitors in competitive areas,” Tuttle said.

This is their key; You must live in a “competitive area” to be able to buy solar from a private retailer like Tesla.

Because of this, even though Austin has many Powerwall homeowners, they can’t use Tesla Electric; their provider is a municipality or cooperative, such as Austin Energy.

Tesla is behind the development of East Austin’s newest solar community

Your provider will have to partner with Tesla, but you won’t be able to participate in Tesla Electric as an individual homeowner.

Municipalities and cooperatives make up about 25% of the state, ERCOT said. The rest is fair game for solar electric retailers like Tesla.

ERCOT told KXAN that Tesla and other companies are currently trying to pick up customers. The VPP pilot program itself will begin next year.

The spokesman said there would be limits on the amount of energy bought and sold so agencies can analyze the program’s costs and benefits and address issues before expanding.

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – “This year, Consumers Energy has made a major commitment to clean energy,” said Consumers Energy Spokesman Brian Wheeler.

The goal of the company’s new clean energy plan is to expand solar power throughout the state, Wheeler said.

This 20-year plan was put together to meet Michigan’s changing energy needs.

“By 2040, more than half of the energy we supply to homes and businesses in the next generation will come from solar,” Wheeler said.

And for that to happen, Wheeler said Consumers will need some land.

“Whether it’s in the Lansing area or really in the lower peninsula. We are looking for large tracts of land where we can develop solar energy that can provide this clean energy,” Wheeler said.

The consumer action comes at a time when many people in mid-Michigan are somewhat skeptical about whether installing solar panels would be beneficial to their land, with some calling it an eyesore and others saying the panels would take up too much space. .

“Many communities and many solar developers will plan projects with landscape buffers and vegetative screening so that residential areas or roadways do not directly see that solar installation,” said Brad Neumann, MSU senior extension lecturer.

The sun is not only good for the climate, but also for your finances.

“Some of the other impacts of solar, or the benefits of solar, could be tax breaks that could be available to the local community that hosts these projects,” Neumann said.

Problems arise when officials fail to plan these projects ahead of time, leaving communities at a disadvantage, he said.

Apollo Energy appears to have closed its Northwest Arkansas location and is not providing the services it promised.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – 5NEWS received several messages from viewers after a Northwest Arkansas solar panel company could not be reached and failed to deliver what was promised to customers.

“It’s embarrassing, but you know you think it’s all lined up,” Yolanda told Olivera.

It all started in May when someone from Apollo Energy knocked on the door of Yolanda Olivera’s Springdale home to sell them solar panels. After calling the electricity provider, he felt comfortable going forward.

“We made the loan agreement over the phone. So it was all done with a Zoom meeting that took place that day. From there, they set up an appointment to see when the home permits were actually done. So they can start installing the panels.”

In September, he had 11 solar panels installed on his home, but when the power company came out to make sure the solar panels were producing electricity, he found out they weren’t working. After no one heard from Apollo, he called the company his loan company, stopped paying, and filed suit.

“I haven’t lost any money so far. But I know there are other people, I know my sister has overpayments and her solar panels don’t work. “I personally can’t pay for something that doesn’t work,” he said.

They didn’t want to go on camera, but we also spoke to people who worked at Appolo Energy and were never paid for several weeks of work.

Apollo Energy has an office on Garland Avenue in Fayetteville. 5NEWS went there Wednesday, Dec. 14, and it appears to have been abandoned. Neighboring businesses said they had not seen anyone in that office for about a month. They also have a warehouse space in Springdale, but no one was there. We also called the number listed online and no one answered and there was no option to leave a voicemail.

Apollo Energy applied for accreditation in April 2022 and has been operating since 2021, according to the Better Business Bureau. Director of Communications Cara Carlin says they ran background checks, had their licenses checked and had no complaints, but that all changed this month.

“Our first complaint was received on December 1 this year and since then we’ve received a total of six complaints and still no response from the business,” Carlin said.

As the BBB begins to receive new complaints, it says businesses still have time to respond, but it’s highly unusual to receive six complaints about a company in 14 days, so they’re trying to launch an active investigation.

“It’s a very unique situation, but it happens. So the documents and everything should be in place. It’s unfortunate, but you don’t usually have this problem when someone is on the up and up. That’s why it’s strange,” he said.

The Arkansas Attorney General’s Office said it has received nine complaints about Apollo Energy.

Follow 5NEWS on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Download the 5NEWS app to your smartphone:

Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch 5+ shows on your streaming device

To report a typo or grammatical error, please email [email protected] and detail which story you are referring to.

The renewable energy movement still has a ways to go to meet the ambitious climate goals set by the Biden Administration. But we celebrate victories where we can.

The United States is currently the second largest producer of solar energy in the world, behind only China. As of the end of 2021, the US had generated 95,209 megawatts (MW) of solar energy – enough to power 18 million households.1

We have American companies to thank for much of this progress. We know EcoWatch doesn’t usually applaud big corporations for helping the planet. We are not saying that their adoption of solar energy also erases their climate violations.

But we still celebrate victories where we can. And American companies are installing a record number of solar installations to power their operations. According to the Solar Means Business 2022 Report, these corporations currently account for 14% of all installed solar capacity in the United States – a total of more than 19 gigawatts (or 19,000 MW).

Without further ado, here are the top 10 corporate solar adopters of 2022:

Meta: 3,588 MWAmazon: 1,115 MWApple: 987 MWWalmart: 689 MWMicrosoft: 551 MWTarget: 515 MWCargill: 342 MWKaiser Permanente: 303 MWAnheuser-Busch: 301 MW Evraz North America: 300 MW

1. Meta Platforms Inc.

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California

Meta is a leading corporate supporter of the solar world. As of June 2022, the company has installed more than 3,588 MW of solar power, or about 3.59 GW. That’s three times more solar power than the next closest company, Amazon.

If you’re not familiar, Meta is the company formerly known as Facebook, Inc. The multinational technology company owns most of your favorite phone apps like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, along with a host of other products and services.

2. Amazon

Headquarters: Seattle, WA

More than 2,400 megawatts behind Meta, Jeff Bezos’ empire ranks second in terms of Amazon solar installations. The rooftop solar power is part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge plan to become carbon neutral by 2040.

In addition to solar power, Amazon has set a goal of 100,000 electric trucks and plans to source 80% of its energy consumption from renewable sources within five years and to go net-zero by 2030.3

3. Apple

Headquarters: Cupertino, California

The two-time former solar champion has fallen down the ranks this year due to bigger pushes from Amazon and Meta, but Apple is still among the top three corporate solar adopters for 2022 with 987 MW installed.

Although we expect Apple to rise again in the coming years. Earlier this year, 213 of the company’s key manufacturing partners pledged to supply all Apple production in 25 countries with renewable electricity. Like Amazon, Apple aims to be carbon neutral by 2030. 4

4. Walmart

Headquarters: Bentonville, AR

At 689 MW, retail megastore Walmart produces the most energy of any non-tech company. In 2019, Walmart actually increased its use of solar by 35% – more than any other US company.

In addition to solar energy, Walmart is also a big investor in wind energy, acquiring the most wind energy of any company in the United States in 2019. The big-box retailer also has a goal of being powered by 100% renewable energy by 2035.5

5. Microsoft

Headquarters: Redmond, VA

Microsoft doesn’t have as much solar power as its big rival, Apple, but 551 MW is enough to put it in fifth place.

The tech company announced a partnership with Volt Energy in 2021 to reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025.6 Microsoft has a large solar installation on its Silicon Valley campus, allowing the company to save more than $100,000 a year on electricity. gives 7

6. Target

Headquarters: Minneapolis, MN

With 515 MW of solar installed, another big retailer is just behind Microsoft: Target.

In 2020, Target reached its goal of adding rooftop solar panels to 500 locations over five years. The retailer is more than a quarter of the way to its goal of sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

7. Cargill

Headquarters: Wayzata, MN

This is probably the first company on the list that you don’t immediately recognize. Agricultural giant Cargill, Incorporated is a privately held American global food corporation that delivers food, agricultural, financial and industrial products to people in need around the world.

Cargill has installed 342 MW of solar power by June 2022, helping it move toward its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2025.9

8. Kaiser Permanente

Headquarters: Oakland, CA

Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente installed a massive 2.3 MW of solar panels at its Sacramento facility in 2020, the largest of the company’s 41 solar projects. As of mid-2022, Kaiser Permanente currently has 303 MW of solar capacity.

In addition to installing solar panels, Kaiser Permanente has taken other steps to support solar energy, including a $150,000 grant to GRID Alternatives.10

9. Anheuser-Busch

Headquarters: St. Louis, MO

One of America’s favorite brewing companies has already reached its goal of getting 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025 – thanks in part to its 301 MW solar installation.11

Anheuser-Busch has a 222 MW solar farm in Texas, as well as a 152 MW wind farm in Oklahoma.

10. Eurasian North America

Headquarters: Chicago, IL

Behind Kaiser Permanente and Anhuser-Busch is Evraz North America, which has installed 300 MW of solar capacity. Evraz is a leading manufacturer of engineered steel products for the rail, energy and industrial markets.

Although Evraz has just dropped into the top 10 list, we expect this company to rise in the ranks after the construction of a 300 MW solar farm in Colorado is completed.12

Top 25 Corporate Solar Applications

Corporate Solar adoption continues to grow

Commercial companies have installed about 19 GW of solar in the US by June 2022, but half of that has been installed since 2020 alone.

Much of this recent growth can be attributed to the rapid expansion of foreign corporate solar purchases, which now account for 55% of all commercial solar use. Over the past 2.5 years, almost 70% of all corporate solar power has been brought online.13

Credit: Solar Energy Industries Association

With more solar projects in the works and the company’s climate goals with deadlines between 2025 and 2050, we can expect those numbers to continue to grow. SEIA estimates that total commercial solar installations will double again over the next three years, with about 27 GW of offsite projects involving corporate layoffs by 2025.14