Renewable energy accounted for more than 30% of the world’s electricity for the first time last year following a rapid rise in wind and solar power, according to new figures.

A report on the global power system has found that the world may be on the brink of driving down fossil fuel generation, even as overall demand for electricity continues to rise.

"...across all the state’s utilities by 2035."

Is this a good balance between ambitious and realistic timeline? 2035 is just over a decade away.

https://archive.is/ygEMK

Just 10 years ago, landlords could ban you from putting solar cells on your balcony because it makes their building look "messy". Now Germany is really pushing forward to let everybody put solar modules on their balcony with these new laws. How is legalization of balcony solar cells in your country? Is setting up solar modules on your balcony easy or difficult law-wise?

Although Germany has massively invested into green energy, the issue is that the electric network has not been sufficiently expanded. This means that solar and wind energy has to be turned off to not overload the network. However, the owners of solar/wind energy still get paid. This means that in Germany, the price of energy will only make up ~50% of the bill. The other 50% are payments for unused energy (to not overload the network) and costs for expanding the electric network (because some regions such as Bavaria refuse to have wind turbines or solar panels "because they look ugly", but still need electric). Lesson: When implementing renewable energy in the rest of the world, we have to keep in mind that we have to massively invest into the electric network as well or it won't work.

Executives at the companies say they reopened the factory in part because of incentives for domestic manufacturing in the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s signature climate law. They expressed hope that their decision would also encourage other companies to revive production of a technology that was created in the United States about 70 years ago.

I'll note that right now, this is a seasonal issue, associated with moderate springtime temperatures when there is a lot of sunshine available.

Main page: https://fbrc.dev/

See also: https://codeberg.org/FBRC/RFB-dev-kit

And: https://dualpower.supply/posts/rfb-kit-workshop/

Meanwhile, in Southern California, nonprofit news site Canary Media reports that an old gas combustion plant is being replaced by a "power bank" named Nova.

It's expected to store "more electricity than all but one battery plant currently operating in the U.S."

The billion-dollar project, with 680 megawatts and 2,720 megawatt-hours, will help California shift its nation-leading solar generation into the critical evening and nighttime hours, bolstering the grid against the heat waves that have pushed it to the brink multiple times in recent years... The town of Menifee gets to move on from the power plant exhaust that used to join the smog flowing from Los Angeles... And the grid gets a bunch more clean capacity that can, ideally, displace fossil fuels...

Moreover, [the power bank] represents Calpine's grand arrival in the energy storage market, after years operating one of the biggest independent gas power plant fleets in the country alongside Vistra and NRG... Federal analysts predict 2024 will be the biggest-ever year for grid battery installations across the U.S., and they highlighted Calpine's project as one of the single largest projects. The 620 megawatts the company plans to energize this year represent more than 4% of the industry's total expected new additions.

Many of these new grid batteries will be built in California, which needs all the dispatchable power it can get to meet demand when its massive solar fleet stops producing, and to keep pace with the electrification of vehicles and buildings. The Menifee Power Bank, and the other gigawatts worth of storage expected to come online in the state this year, will deliver much-needed reinforcement.

The company says it's planning "a portfolio" of 2,000 megawatts of California battery capacity.

But even this 680-megawatt project consists of 1,096 total battery containers holding 26,304 battery modules (or a total of 3 million cells), "all manufactured by Chinese battery powerhouse BYD, according to Robert Stuart, an electrical project manager with Calpine. That's enough electricity to supply 680,000 homes for four hours before it runs out."

What's remarkable is just how quickly the project came together. Construction began last August, and is expected to hit 510 megawatts of fully operational capacity over the course of this summer, even as installation continues on other parts of the plant. Erecting a conventional gas plant of comparable scale would have taken three or four years of construction labor, due to the complexity of the systems and the many different trades required for it, Stuart told Canary Media... That speed and flexibility makes batteries a crucial solution as utilities across the nation grapple with a spike in expected electricity demand unlike anything seen in the last few decades.

The article notes a 2013 Caifornia policy mandating battery storage for its utility companies, which "kicked off a decade-long project to will an energy storage market into existence through methodical policies and regulations, and the knock-on effects of building the nation's foremost solar fleet."

Those energy storage policies succeeded in jumpstarting the modern grid battery market: California leads the nation with more than 7 gigawatts of batteries installed as of last year (though Texas is poised to overtake California in battery installations this year, on the back of no particular policy effort but a general openness to building energy projects)... California's interlocking climate regulations effectively rule out new gas construction. The state's energy roadmap instead calls for massive expansion of battery capacity to shift the ample amounts of solar generation into the evening peaks.

"These trends, along with the falling price of batteries and maturing business model for storage, nudged Calpine to get into the battery business, too."

Abstract credit: https://slashdot.org/story/427236

Although New York has the largest of several state tax credit incentives for homeowners installing rooftop solar, the state’s “rooftop solar gap” is large, leaving many low-income residents unable to take full advantage of incentives, according to a new report from think tank Win Climate.

New York’s State Solar Tax Credit has paid for 25% of a rooftop solar installation, or $5,000 – whichever is less. The Residential Solar Tax Credit Reform Act (S3596/ A6739) made the tax credit fully refundable, with the intention of allowing low-income homeowners and residents to benefit, and increased the tax credit amount to $10,000.

The report, Closing NY’s Rooftop Solar Gap, aimed to analyze how many New York residents have utilized the State Solar Tax Credit, and how the Residential Solar Tax Credit Reform Act could impact the cost of solar for low-income residents. The “rooftop solar gap” is the difference in rooftop solar installation rates between households making more and less than $50,000 per year.

"Spanish consultancy AleaSoft Energy Forecasting recorded negative hourly electricity prices for all but one European energy market it analyzed during the first week of April, including in the Spanish and Portuguese markets for the first time. It also registered an all-time production record for photovoltaic energy in Portugal and the second highest value ever recorded in Italy"