Utilities

Utilities

California's biggest utility plans to bury 10,000 miles of power lines. How much will that cost residents?

Wildfires and other climate disasters are pushing PG&E to put lines underground, but it's a notoriously expensive process.

By Elizabeth McCarthy . 6 August 2021
Climate crisis

Newsletter: California isn't ready for hot grid summer

The "fail fast" ethos doesn't work so well for avoiding grid outages.

By Julian Spector . 4 August 2021
Utilities

Top 10 utility regulation trends of 2021 — so far

Renewables, DERs and EVs are still top priorities for utility commissions, but extreme weather and Covid-19 are also shaping regulatory action in 2021.

By Noah Garcia . 30 July 2021
Solar

Can smart solar inverters help keep grid voltages in balance? Sunnova, SolarEdge and National Grid team up to find out

One of the largest tests of its kind will tap thousands of rooftop solar inverters in Massachusetts and Rhode Island — and examine what it’s worth to both utilities and customers.

By Jeff St. John . 27 July 2021
Transmission

New transmission can prevent power outages during extreme weather — and save tons of money

Transmission could have paid for itself in savings during big Texas blackout, a new report finds. But capturing that value is tricky.

By Jeff St. John . 26 July 2021
Long-duration energy storage

Stealthy storage contender Form Energy reveals secret formula: Iron and air

And it raised another $200 million to get to market.

By Julian Spector . 23 July 2021
Climatetech finance

Fossil fuels and climatetech finance digest

A roundup of recent energy and climatetech finance news.

By Eric Wesoff . 20 July 2021
Fossil fuels

California has embraced clean energy, so why is it still building natural gas infrastructure?

Decarbonization advocates are fighting ratepayer subsidies that incentivize the growth of an increasingly obsolete gas system.

By Elizabeth McCarthy . 14 July 2021
Hydrogen

How much renewables expansion is needed for a global green hydrogen economy?

And is a massive wind and solar buildout of that scale even feasible?

By Jason Deign . 13 July 2021
Clean energy

A microgrid powered only by solar and batteries points the way to bigger all-renewable grids

Australia’s Horizon Power and partner PXiSE showed they could power a town without generators. The implications for expanding renewable energy are massive.

By Jeff St. John . 12 July 2021