Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Tina Smith (D-Minn) introduced energy storage legislation this week that calls for a $300 million initiative to build five advanced, grid-scale systems across the country. Under the Better Energy Storage Technology Act (BEST), the Department of Energy would invest $60 million a year from 2020 through … [Read more...]
California has opened the door for residential microgrids in all new homes with the recent release of 2019 building standards aimed at improving energy efficiency. Issued by the California Energy Commission, the 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards require solar photovoltaics for all new homes. They also provide new home builders with … [Read more...]
A recent federal ruling is likely to give energy storage its biggest boost in years, and buoy microgrids along the way, by granting storage more access to revenue from competitive wholesale electricity markets. Issued February 15 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the rule aims to eliminate barriers that prevent energy storage from … [Read more...]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave energy storage a triple boost yesterday with the release of a series of new climate change initiatives. First, Cuomo called for 1,500 MW of energy storage in New York by 2025, a goal he sees the state reaching through regulatory changes and utility solicitations. Second, he proposed that the NY Green Bank … [Read more...]
While the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and the West’s wildfires are fresh in our minds, it’s critical to start focusing on grid resiliency -- and how distributed energy can contribute to it. Utilities and state regulators right now focus more on grid reliability than grid resiliency, said Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage … [Read more...]
Microgrids and energy storage improve electric reliability. So it was perplexing to see how little attention they received in a major study on grid reliability issued this week by the U.S. Department of Energy. Businesses, communities and institutions across the country have stepped up installation of microgrids in recent years to ensure power … [Read more...]
Energy storage companies, as well as other stakeholders, in New York have a new opportunity as of this week. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced that it has made $15.5 million available to fund energy storage projects to support the electric grid. The funding will go toward energy storage that can … [Read more...]
Panasonic’s operations hub in Denver has a brand new microgrid. Announced at the Energy Storage Association’s 27th Annual Conference, Younicos – in partnership with Panasonic and Xcel Energy – has commissioned a solar plus storage microgrid for a smart transit project underway in Denver. The 1 MW/2 MWh lithium ion battery system can be found at … [Read more...]
Energy storage gets a big nod under recent changes to California's self-generation incentives, which also place new emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the revisions to the self-generation incentive program (SGIP) on June 23. Under the changes, 75 percent of the funding goes to … [Read more...]
Is it time to look beyond just emissions from power plants and vehicles and consider embedded carbon in steel, scrap metal, minerals and other building blocks?
The electric power grid is undergoing one of the most fundamental changes since its inception over a century ago. And if the aim of a decentralized and digitalized grid is reliability and resilience, the digital tools used to design, test and integrate the components to achieve that end are of utmost importance. Download the new Microgrid Knowledge report, courtesy of Typhoon HIL, to learn more about how new tools and processes like Hardware in the Loop (HIL) testing and Model Based Engineering (MBE) can pave the way to a better microgrid.
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