GLREA Annual Meeting on Saturday, Dec. 8 will provide the latest insights into what is happening with renewable energy in Michigan. Pre-meeting workshops from 10-12 will include Julie Baldwin, MPSC, discussing what DTE has proposed to replace net metering and Dave Strenski, SolarYpsi, discussing how communities can expand solar energy. The meeting will start at noon and include a panel that will share perspectives from the utility, private, and rural sectors on the development and growth of renewable energy in Michigan. Ms. Patti Poppe, President and CEO Consumers Energy, will provide comments toward the end of the meeting. The meeting will also include a GLREA update, solar property tax update, awards, and election of new board members. There will be time for networking too. Registration is $20. All are welcome. Please pre-register at www.glrea.org.
Michigan News
Senate Finance Committee has voted HB 5143 and HB 5680 to the Senate floor where action by the full Senate is expected in early December. Taxes on solar panels are currently assessed inconsistently across the state and this legislation is necessary to avoid the patchwork system of interpretation and enforcement. HB 5143 exempts behind-the-meter distributed energy generation systems from real property taxes. HB 5680 adds alternative energy systems to the list of repairs and household upgrades that are not considered when determining the true cash value of a property for assessment purposes, until the property is sold.
Michigan Saves is offering new energy improvement options as part of their financing programs. Both the Home Energy Loan Program and the Commercial Energy Financing Program have added EV charging, micro combined heat and power systems, wind turbines, whole-home generators, whole-home battery storage, and water efficiency measures. More details.
Michigan Interconnection Rules Update Stakeholder Process, hosted by the MPSC Staff, will explore new interconnection rules in accordance with the recent order in Case No. U-20344. All interested parties are invited to participate. This process will consider interconnection requests, interconnection studies, cost responsibility, safety and technical specs, legal responsibilities and obligations, updates to IEEE 1547, FERC interconnection procedures, distributed generation, and legacy net metering. The goal is to produce an updated interconnection ruleset by the end of next summer. The first meeting will be held on Dec. 7, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. at the MPSC offices. December 7 2018 Agenda final.pdf
East Lansing Community Solar Park (see photo above), located in Burcham Park, is coming online by the end of 2018. It has 1,000 345-watt panels for a total of 345 kW. Participants lease a panel for $399 for 25 years. The Lansing Board of Water & Light, City of East Lansing, Michigan Energy Options, Pivot Energy and Patriot Solar Group are the team responsible for creating the solar park, which sits atop a capped landfill. Enhancing the solar park will be native pollinating plants and meadow grasses and a sculpture by Jim Cunnigham called “Energy for Life.” The solar park will include educational signage and offer tours for school and community groups. With its solar financing partner, Pivot Energy, Michigan Energy Options created an LLC, Community Energy Options, which owns and will operate the array.
Michigan Energy Office (MEO) has announced the kick off of an effort to develop a roadmap to improve energy efficiency and renewable energy programs for the state’s agricultural and rural residents. MEO, with support from Public Sector Consultants and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, will assess existing state policies and programs and their effectiveness and develop a report that will include recommendations for improving programs, policies, and services for agriculture and rural customers.
Charlevoix City Council has approved new procedures to connect wind or solar generators to the city electric system. In 2017, council members approved new electric rates to be used to reimburse customers that install wind or solar generators, but there was no connection procedure in place. There are currently two approved rates, one for solar and one for wind. A solar customer would pay 9.366 cents per kWh they use and get 8.44 cents per kWh for excess electricity provided to the city. While the credit rate can be changed, it stays the same for 7 years from the date of installation. More details.
Beyond Michigan
Lazard Annual Report shows the least expensive form of electricity is utility-scale wind, with an average cost of $42 per MWH, followed by utility-scale solar at $43. Next is combined-cycle natural gas, at $58. Coal and nuclear are each more than $100. The numbers are estimates of a power plant’s levelized cost of energy, which takes into account the costs of construction, fuel and other expenses over the life of the plant in the U.S. market. More details.
2 Gigawatt-Hours of Battery Storage will be replacing 3 California natural gas plants.
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a proposal by Pacific Gas & Electric to replace 3 natural gas power plants with 4 projects totaling 567.5 MW/2,270 MWH of battery storage. The projects strengthen the case for storage to fill the role of flexible generation on the grid. More details.
Sunrise Movement conducted a sit-in in the offices of Rep. Nancy Pelosi demanding the creation of a select committee for the creation of a “Green New Deal”, including the goal of moving the nation to 100% renewable energy by 2030. The proposal by Ocasio-Cortez is for a select committee that would be tasked with drafting a 10-year green jobs and infrastructure plan to radically reduce carbon emissions. More details.
Invenergy is preparing to build one of the world’s largest renewable energy projects in Lima, OH that pairs wind and solar to create a hybrid power source. It’s a combination that’s expected to become more common. The project would include a 175 MW wind farm and a 150 MW solar farm. More details.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab researchers have come up with a new recipe for renewable fuels that could bypass limitations in current materials and create an artificial photosynthesis device called a “hybrid photoelectrochemical and voltaic (HPEV) cell” that turns sunlight and water into both hydrogen fuel and electricity. More details.
Case Western Reserve University researchers have been awarded $1.35 million from the U.S. DOE to continue its work toward increasing the efficiency and lifetime of PV modules aimed at pushing their lifespan to 50 years. The research is expected to help determine the relative value of two different kinds of module construction for encapsulating PV cells: one of double-glass construction and the other known as glass/backsheet, where the backsheet is a multilayer polymer laminate. More details.
U.S. Electric Power carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) have declined 28% since 2005 according to new findings from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The decline is due to slower growth in electricity demand and changes in the mix of fuels, e.g. wind and solar energy. More details.
Events
Wind Turbine Technician Academy will be held at Kalamazoo Valley Community College from Jan 3- June 14. More details.
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