Tag: Solar energy
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McAuliffe Moves to Cap Utility Carbon Emissions
Big news yesterday: Governor Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order to cap greenhouse gas emissions from Virginia power plants. Unfortunately, I’m out of town on personal business today, so I don’t have time for anything more than a cursory analysis. Said McAuliffe in a press release: ““The threat of climate change is real, and we have a…
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Bristol Home Builder Proposes Solar Subdivision
Developer Aaron Lilly is seeking Bristol planning commission approval to construct 30 upscale townhouses using solar power to offset electric bills. He envisions the project as the first solar-powered subdivision east of the Mississippi, reports the Bristol Herald-Courier. The project would be built on 12.5 hillside acres near an Interstate 81 exit. The townhomes would…
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McAuliffe Signs 11 Renewable Energy Bills into Law
Governor Terry McAuliffe has signed 11 solar and renewable energy bills into law. Quasi-community solar. The most significant is SB 1393, which creates a mechanism for Dominion, Appalachian power Co. and Virginia’s electric cooperatives to sell solar-generated electricity to subscribers. While the law does not provide everything that solar enthusiasts would like, it does open up economic space…
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Please, Norge, Don’t Go NIMBY on Solar Project
Report from today’s Virginia Gazette: Members of the Norge community of James City County are “concerned” that a proposed solar farm will impact their neighborhood negatively. The James City County planning commission approved in April an application to build a solar farm on a 225-acre property on Farmville Lane. The developer, California-based SunPower, said that the…
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Dominion Sings New Tune, Embraces Solar
Dominion expects to install up to 5,200 megawatts of solar generating capacity by 2042 — about thirteen times its current commitment and enough to power 1.3 million homes — according to forecasts contained in its 2017 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). That represents a dramatic shift from forecasts in previous versions of the long-range planning document, which is filed…
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Follow Ups: Fracking and Taxes
Frack me a river. A week ago, I noted how American Rivers had designated the Rappahannock River the fifth “most endangered” river in the United States on the grounds that the gas industry was showing interest in drilling in the Taylorsville shale basin beneath the river. Environmentalists claim that fracking is a hazard to drinking…
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A Good Year for Retail Solar in Virginia
A collaborative process involving utilities, solar developers and environmentalists broke the legislative logjam thwarting the growth of retail solar in Virginia. A new law will enable electric customers to subscribe to green electricity built by independent developers. The same process will be used to tackle tough issues like net metering. So, you want to help…
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Property Tax Assessments Could Sabotage Virginia’s Solar Industry
A quirk in the way the state treats the value of solar energy projects for tax purposes could throttle Virginia’s solar industry in its infancy, according to an analysis prepared by SolUnesco, a Reston-based developer of solar energy projects. In theory, a major investment in solar energy should benefit the jurisdiction where the project is located…
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Will NIMBYs Thwart SolUnesco Solar Plan?
Not all barriers to solar energy emanate from Richmond. Take Albemarle County, for example. The county zoning code outlaws solar farms, we learn from Charlottesville Tomorrow. “The current zoning ordinance allows for the transmission and distribution of energy, but not the generation of energy,” said county planner Margaret Maliszewski at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The issue arose…
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Electric Reliability and Energy Mix
Electric utilities in the 13-state PJM Interconnection regional transmission territory have a balanced resource mix — coal, nuclear, gas and renewables — that is “well equipped” to support reliable operation of the regional grid, PJM has found in a new report, “PJM’s Evolving Resource Mix and System Reliability.” But continued evolution of the resource mix —…
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Solar as Economic Savior for Wise County?
When I covered the coalfields beat for the Roanoke Times in early 1980s, Virginia coal companies employed more than 25,000. The number has dwindled to one-tenth that number today. Not only has the number of miners plummeted, but so has employment in the industries that supply them with everything from timbers, rock dust and roof…
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Following the Least-Cost Pathway to CO2 Cuts
Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased steadily as China, India and other countries bring new coal-powered electric plants online, but the United States has bucked the trend. In the U.S. electric power sector, CO2 emissions declined 20% between 2007 and 2015. One might think that California, which is re-restructuring its electric power system to reduce carbon…
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Tracking California’s Grand Experiment with Solar
California is leading the nation’s transition from fossil fuels and nukes to renewable fuels, mostly solar power. The Golden State’s aggressive investment in solar energy has created such a glut of daytime electricity that solar wholesale prices literally drops to zero and such a shortage during the night that real-time prices surge as high as…
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Dominion Fulfills 400-Megawatt Solar Commitment
Dominion is investing more than $800 million in solar projects in Virginia totaling 398 megawatts of generation either completed or under development. The projects bring the company within an eyelash of fulfilling a 2015 promise to bring 400 megawatts of large-scale solar generation facilities into service by 2020. Furthermore, said Dominion in a press release issued…
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McAuliffe Reverses, Now Opposes Electric Rate Freeze
Governor Terry McAuliffe said yesterday that he supports legislation that would cancel the freeze in base electric rates on Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power if President Trump kills the Clean Power Plan. The endorsement came a little late for state Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, D-Fairfax City, whose bill to roll back the freeze was…