Virtual power plants (VPPs) are moving from concept to broad deployment throughout many countries worldwide, aiming to get the most out of distributed energy resources (DERs) in these regions. Recent efforts include Statkraft’s 1-GW VPP in the United Kingdom, Tesla’s 250-MW VPP in South Australia, and China’s first VPP, theRead More

Distributed solar capacity in the United States, which includes all solar power capacity other than utility-scale installations 1 MW or larger, totaled 12.3 gigawatts (GW) as of September. About 30% of that amount (3.7 GW) was owned by third-party owners. Third-party owners are private companies that provide either solar electricityRead More

Texas electricity provider TXU Energy is issuing a limited-time instant rebate for residential consumers who purchase SunPower rooftop solar systems through the company. At the same time, TXU Energy unveiled a new plan that increases the credit customers get for the electricity that their solar systems generate but they don’tRead More

NEC Energy Solutions selected Ideal Power to supply its power conversion systems for select configurations of NEC’s newly launched DSS distributed energy storage solution. This new distributed energy storage platform targets commercial & industrial customers and includes lithium-ion batteries, advanced software controls and Ideal Power’s power conversion systems. The DSSRead More

Two prominent voices for renewable energy have circulated an open letter to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and a petition to try and change the structure of SEIA’s board of directors in order to achieve a better balance between distributed generation and utility-scale proponents when setting the direction of the advocacyRead More

Locational value, the potential to defer traditional “wires” investments, is a key value proposition for distributed energy resources (DERs), such as battery storage, distributed solar, energy efficiency and demand response. With the push to incorporate DERs into distribution planning, a common metric or approach is needed for assessing potential capacityRead More

SunPower reports that its distributed generation business performed well — and plans to continue focusing on that segment — but at the cost of its power plant segment, which fell short of its lofty 2016 goals. The company plans to cut 15 percent of its workforce as a result. AsRead More

  Electric utilities are facing a variety of challenges because of rising amounts of solar, storage and other distributed energy technologies on their systems. In response, some of them are speeding their integration planning efforts. That is the finding of a new paper from Black & Veatch and the SolarRead More

Schneider Electric, a specialist in energy management and automation, has strengthened its collaboration with San Antonio-based CPS Energy, a large municipally-owned electric and gas utility. Together, Schneider Electric and CPS Energy are developing a distribution automation strategy that will improve system reliability, allowing CPS Energy to deliver consistent power qualityRead More

SolarCity Corp. completed its first securitization of distributed solar loan assets, the company’s fifth securitization transaction to date. SolarCity completed a private placement in the amount of $185 million—$2.89 per watt of generation capacity in the portfolio—with a blended coupon interest rate of 5.17 percent and a blended yield rateRead More