This past week, 20,000 renewable energy professionals flocked to Salt Lake City for Solar Power International and North America Smart Energy Week. Nestled in the spectacular Wasatch mountains, Salt Lake City was the perfect host for the conference. The people of the city were warm and friendly, and the views were breathtaking.
Last week, I had a sit down with Andrew Breiter-Wu, President of Breiter Planet Properties. I asked him a few questions about himself and the company, and got to know more about his story. As we walked through the Prudential building in Boston, looking for a place to sit down and talk, Andrew noted: “I love this area, because there is always something going on. It’s great to be in the action.” In the solar world, Andrew is definitely “In the action”.
Is it possible for utilities to provide 100% renewable energy?
Xcel Energy is an electric utility based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It serves more than 3.3 million electric customers throughout Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Xcel has a goal of delivering 100% carbon free electricity by the year 2050. As of 2018, their delivery was 38% carbon free, and by 2030, Xcel hopes to deliver 80% carbon free electricity before reaching their ultimate goal of 100% carbon free by 2050.
Community choice aggregators in California have now signed over 2 GW of power purchase agreements for renewable energy projects, with 1.4 GW in 43 projects coming from solar power.
This past week we remembered the incredible achievements of the Apollo 11 team that put the first man on the moon, 50 years ago. CBS, CNN, and other media organizations did a great job covering this with segments throughout the week and specials using the original footage from the historic day/week back in July of 1969.
Hawaii regulators have approved six of eight proposed large solar plus storage projects, with all coming at or under 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Dr. Miguel Oneto has developed a 682 MWdc solar power project in Childress County, Texas. The project is the second by the new developer, following a 324 MWdc project under construction nearby.
U.S. Department of Energy
It’s a story that would only happen in Texas, where everything is a little bit bigger – including the business opportunities.
In August of last year, pv magazine reported on a 240 MWac / 324 MWdc solar power project that broke ground in northern Texas. A couple of months later, the developer reached out to start a conversation with us about the next project he was developing, and gave us a bit of a background story.
