Clean Energy News Roundup (Blockchain, Community Solar, Indian Solar Manufacturing…)
How does blockchain technology enable a community microgrid? Where is community solar coming to next? What’s new in the Indian solar sector? What’s going on with Boulder’s fight to form its own utility? We’ve got all of that, and more, below, in this clean energy news roundup.
[CleanTechnica isn’t the only Important Media site to cover clean energy news, and if you’re looking for more stories on solar, wind, and other renewable energy, we’ve got them at sites such as Solar Love, CleanTechies, and Planetsave.]
Blockchain technology? Isn’t that something to do with virtual money or anonymous payments and assets or something? Kinda sorta, but not really. It’s often associated with Bitcoin, but that’s not the be-all end-all of blockchain, as this story about a “TransActive Grid” being implemented in Brooklyn explains.
TransActive Grid is a microgrid composed of two energy sellers and 13 potential energy buyers, all in the same neighborhood. Using smart electric meters that can accurately track the flow of electricity both ways, neighbors can purchase excess electricity using tokens rather than money. Blockchain technology takes care of the accounting part.
Community solar is coming! Community solar is coming! To San Antonio, Texas, that is.
CPS Energy plans to have a new community solar facility online and available to all its customers in the San Antonio area this fall. The installation will have 11,200 panels spread across 10 acres. One of its unique features is that the panels will be mounted on movable frames that will allow them to track the sun during the day. That should boost output by 15% over traditional fixed panel systems. Total system output is projected at 1.2 megawatts.
Nigeria is bulking up to cover some of its “massive power deficit” through its first solar PPA.
The government-owned energy overseer, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), has signed the country’s first-ever solar power purchase agreement (PPA) with more than ten project developers, totaling 975MW of utility-scale solar.
SafetyWear, a small business in Indiana, is finding that the benefits of its rooftop solar array are helping its bottom line.
The plan was for SafetyWear to generate about 107% of its electricity needs from the system, which would allow it to bank a small amount of excess energy with the local utility company. In the past six months, the company has consumed 65 megawatts of electricity, but its solar-power system has generated 70 to 72 megawatts, meaning it has generated seven megawatts more electricity than it has used.
Indian conglomerate Adani seeks to become an integrated solar company by setting up its own copper smelter to feed its solar module factory.
Adani Enterprises, which controls Adani Power and Adani Green Energy, recently submitted an application with the Ministry of Environment and Forest for approval to set up a 1 million tonne/year copper smelter.
Chile’s new electricity transmission law will benefit the solar boom in that country.
Following the Chilean Congress’s passage of a major electricity transmission law, experts contend this will help the development of both renewable and non-renewable energy projects in the country. Under the adopted policy, a new national interconnected power system will be established alongside a new independent operator.
A bolder Boulder is still fighting to form its own electric utility.
Boulder officials hope to have something in front of the public before year’s end. It could wind up taking the form of a negotiated agreement or collaboration with Xcel — a commitment from the utility to supply more renewable power and reduce electricity generation emissions.
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