Geothermal, demand-side management and distributed resource integration will be critical to achieving California's greenhouse gas-reduction and renewable-energy targets for 2030 and 2045 as required by 2019's SB 100, panelists said during an Oct. 20 discussion on flexible zero-emission resou…
California's three largest investor-owned utilities are already utilizing innovative energy technologies, such as distributed storage and microgrids, but further policies are needed to support grid and market transformation, representatives of the IOUs said during an Oct. 20 plenary panel at…
Pacific Gas & Electric this week faced new questions and a lawsuit regarding the fatal Zogg Fire in Shasta County, and the judge overseeing the utility's felony probation ordered it to explain identified shortcomings in its vegetation-management practices.
Regulators and grid officials in California focused on the temperature when discussing the rolling blackouts that hit California in mid-August, but members of the state Legislature were more interested in brass tacks at a hearing last week in Sacramento.
Standard & Poor's gave Central Coast Community Energy an "A" issuer credit rating Oct. 16, an indication that S&P considers the community choice aggregator "stable."
California continues powering forward with renewable natural gas use and production through newly announced partnerships.
Microgrid adoption is being considered across California as a means for communities to achieve energy independence and resilience, but cost and complexity are often mentioned as inhibiting factors.
Federal investigators looking into the nearly 116,000-acre Bobcat Fire near Azusa are examining tree branches and power lines that might be related to its ignition, Southern California Edison said in an Oct. 12 letter to state regulators.
Pacific Gas & Electric cut off power to 41,000 customer accounts beginning Oct. 14 as part of its latest round of public-safety power shut-offs.
Climate change-induced extreme heat, a failure to meet planning targets and certain practices in the day-ahead electricity market were the main factors in the rolling blackouts in California in mid-August, a new multiagency report says.
Two community choice aggregators have signed resource-adequacy contracts for battery energy storage from a facility under development in Northern California.
The Clean Power Alliance board of directors at its Oct. 1 meeting signed power contracts that will bring additional solar and new battery storage to the community choice aggregator's long-term renewables portfolio.
Wholesale electricity market prices were highly competitive in the California Independent System Operator in the second quarter due to favorable market conditions, and lower electricity load and natural gas prices pushed down costs compared with the prior quarter, CAISO's market monitor said…
Dry conditions during the state's 2020 water year translated into a dramatic cut in hydroelectric generation sent to the California Independent System Operator grid, according to recent reports.
Only one out of every five clean-energy workers who lost their jobs in the U.S. between March and May have returned to work, according to an Oct. 7 analysis of clean-energy sector employment data.
A group of almost 100 board members from 11 different community choice aggregators sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission Sept. 24, asking it to take prompt action to resolve the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment fee.
Typical case-study webinars focus on positive outcomes for energy programs; however, Sonoma Clean Power managers did not mince words at a recent event, saying they found battery storage for commercial-customer resiliency simply does not pass conventional economic feasibility analysis.
More types of organic materials are now eligible to be converted into pipeline-quality renewable natural gas under a new bill signed into law Sept. 30 by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
An iconic Paris fashion house on Sept. 23 announced it will commit $35 million to install approximately 30 MW of solar energy systems to serve low-income, multifamily households in California. Chanel will partner with San Francisco-based home solar, battery storage and energy services compan…
The Wildfire Safety Advisory Board at a Sept. 23 meeting acknowledged new challenges as the effects of climate change raged across the state in the form of record temperatures and millions of burning acres.
Pacific Gas & Electric has changed its notification protocol for public-safety power shut-off events in response to customer feedback requesting earlier advance notice and more details about potential events. PG&E will now issue Watch and Warning notifications designed to allow custo…
Southern California Edison on Sept. 23 reached a $1.16-billion settlement agreement for insurance subrogation claims in pending litigation arising from the 2017 Thomas and Koenigstein fires and the 2018 Montecito Mudslides.
Solar power is becoming increasingly important for K-12 schools across the country for numerous reasons, including energy reliability.
Tech giants Google and Facebook on Sept. 14 independently announced ambitious new carbon emissions-reduction targets across their operations, each linking its decision to combating the threat of climate change.
Nearly half a million clean-energy workers remain unemployed across the U.S. despite modest gains in sector employment over the past three months, according to an industry group's latest report.
Newport Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. in the past 45 days has signed contracts for more than 20 million gallons of renewable natural gas.
Peninsula Clean Energy on Sept. 16 announced the launch of a $28-million electric-vehicle charging infrastructure program that is designed to install 3,500 charging ports throughout San Mateo County within the next four years.
For the East Bay Community Energy board of directors and its advisory committee, this week's meeting seemed like déjà vu all over again with renewed discussion about the community choice aggregator's products and whether its current carbon-free product option would offer nuclear generation in 2021.
Wildfires blazing across California and the West endangered the grid this week, along with high winds that caused public-safety power shut-offs as smoke blotted out the sky across much of the state.
Los Angeles Department of Water & Power staff appears to be acting on pleas from the municipal utility's Board of Water and Power Commissioners to adopt a "sense of urgency" in repairing a methane leak at one of its generating facilities.
There are significant obstacles for hydropower and pumped-water storage to participate in state clean-energy programs, experts said during a Sept. 8 webinar hosted by the Clean Energy States Alliance.
Tight power supplies during a recent heat wave indicate an urgent need to reform the existing resource-adequacy rules in California, the California Community Choice Association told Gov. Gavin Newsom.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended certain permitting requirements for power plants and declared a state of emergency due to a heat wave moving into California over the Labor Day weekend.
A new grid storage program rolling out across the San Francisco Bay Area could increase community resilience to blackouts and decrease a power provider's resource-adequacy obligations, but regulatory uncertainty remains, speakers said during an Aug. 28 webinar.
A real estate developer is working with a Shell subsidiary to bring virtual power plants to California apartment communities.
Offshore wind turbines in Monterey Bay could harm endangered sea creatures and alter the habitats of federally protected marine mammals, according to a letter from environmental groups to the California Energy Commission. But the turbines could also play an important role in the state's rene…
While the California Independent System Operator was instituting rolling blackouts during the last heat wave, the lights in the Balancing Authority of Northern California's service area were still on.
The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Board of Water and Power Commissioners was caught off guard by an oral staff report in which management confirmed it had known about a methane leak at one of its generating facilities, an issue that was not disclosed to commissioners or the pub…
The radiation level from the 2020 liquid batch releases at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is about 100 times lower than the radiation exposure from a round-trip flight across the U.S., a radiation safety specialist said at the third quarterly meeting of the SONGS Community Engagem…
The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking huge changes on the U.S. energy industry, analysts say, as the research community begins to analyze how the crisis is quickening the transition to a cleaner energy industry.
Gov. Gavin Newsom this week leaned on California's shipping ports to reduce electricity consumption in order to reduce the need for rolling blackouts across the state.
California utilities reported a series of equipment problems as a heat wave and lightning storms enveloped the state, and controversy flared in San Jose regarding Pacific Gas & Electric's reported outage numbers there.
Officials with the California Independent System Operator provided more details on the steps they took during power shortages last weekend that led to rolling blackouts.
Two international firms best known as fossil-fuel refiners and retailers announced they are planning to offer clean-energy alternatives to diesel fuels in California.
EDF Renewables North America announced a deal with Masdar in which the United Arab Emirates-based energy developer will acquire a 50-percent interest in EDF's 1.6-GW clean-energy portfolio.
Hydroelectricity sourced from across the West played a large supporting role during the weekend of Aug. 15 and 16 after the California Independent System Operator on Aug. 14 declared a Stage 3 Electrical Emergency, initiating rolling blackouts throughout the state. But chronic drought and wa…
A series of product announcements by Western vehicle manufacturers indicates the medium- and heavy-duty electric-vehicle transportation sector is moving forward with new product options for waste and cargo haulers.
Analysts at an energy and finance think tank are recommending against investing in carbon capture, utilization and sequestration projects following the suspension of the nation's only such operation: a coal-fired unit in Texas.
Although the clean-energy sector saw its second straight month of job growth since March, the increase was only 0.1 percent, leaving about 15 percent of the pre-pandemic clean-energy workforce still without employment.
The Electric Power Research Institute and the Gas Technology Institute on Aug. 10 launched a five-year program designed to accelerate the development and demonstration of low-carbon energy technologies, since existing technology is not sufficient to meet "increasingly ambitious decarbonizati…
