2015-04-30 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Thursday, April 23:

• Dynapower Company has expanded the micro-grid system at its company headquarters in South Burlington, Vermont, by adding 375 kW/250 kWh of lithium-titanate batteries by Microvast Power Solutions. The micro-grid system has 100 kW each of PV and of wind power, and 750 kW of other battery storage. [Vermont Biz]

Equipment in Dynapower’s micro-grid in South Burlington, Vermont

• “The Value of Building-Scale Microgrids & Small Wind” Our energy landscape is changing, and there is no doubt of that. A lot of unpredictable factors will yet hit the playing field. One likely possibility that a lot of people in the industry are predicting, is that microgrids will play a much larger part than they do now. [CleanTechnica]

Friday, April 24:

• Plans for a 25-MW floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Portugal have been given the green light by the European Commission. Aid approval was given for Portugal to provide feed in tariff payments to the 25-MW Windfloat project. The EC said subsidies would not distort competition in the single market. [Business Green]

Principle Power WindFloat offshore windfarm

• Solar advocates pressed the Vermont Senate Finance Committee last week to alter the state’s net metering laws in order to allow larger projects to take advantage of better power pricing. Vermont limits the size of net-metered projects to 500 kW to encourage development of small installations. [Utility Dive]
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s latest Energy Infrastructure update reveals that wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower together provided over 75.43% of the 1,229 MW of new generating capacity placed into service during the first quarter of 2015. The balance, 302 MW, was natural gas. [RenewEconomy]
• Germany’s cost of producing solar energy has shrunk to about a third of the price households pay. Most bids to build large ground-mounted solar plants in the first solar auction in Germany came in at €0.09/kWh ($0.097/kWh) to €0.10/kWh. German retail consumers are paying on average €0.298/kWh. [Bloomberg]

Saturday, April 25:

• Opinion: “N.E. Governors Fixated on More Natural Gas” – New England’s governors agreed at a recent energy summit to work collaboratively on energy issues facing the region, principally by supporting the development of more natural-gas pipelines. The purpose of development is to keep the price of gas low. [ecoRI news]
• Tucson Electric Power is seeking bids for the design and construction of a utility-scale energy storage system that would be operational by the end of 2016. The company, which has 414,000 customers, is seeking a project partner to build and own a 10-MW storage facility under a 10-year agreement. [Yahoo Finance UK]
• Energy giant NTPC signed a power purchase agreement with distribution companies in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh for 250 MW of solar power. The solar plant being developed under the first phase of the 1,000 MW ultra mega solar power project planned by the public sector major in the state. [The Hans India]

Sunday, April 26:

Graphs comparing additions of fossil fuels with those of renewables.

• Clean energy has overtaken fossil fuels in terms of annual electricity generation capacity additions, with more renewable energy capacity now being added globally than coal + natural gas + oil combined. And, perhaps more importantly than that simple proclamation, there’s now no going back. [CleanTechnica]
• According to an independent environmental monitoring firm, there were 695 “avian detections” and another 8 injured birds found over the first four seasons operation of the Ivanpah solar power tower project from October of 2013 (during the initial pre-production commissioning) and October of 2014. [CleanTechnica]
• Under a new plan put forth by Maine’s Governor LePage, which is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday at 1 pm before the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, voters would no longer have a say on the creation of nuclear power plants with generating capacities of 500 MW or less. [Press Herald]

Monday, April 27:

Siemens hands over the world’s largest offshore grid connection to TenneT

• Siemens has handed over the North Sea grid connection SylWin1 to German-Dutch transmission grid operator TenneT and it is now in commercial operation. The cable is more than 200 kilometres long and supplies up to 864 MW of green electricity, enough to power more than a million German households. [Renewable Energy Magazine]
• Kyushu Electric, the Japanese utility that last year temporarily suspended new grid applications for large-scale solar, will install a huge battery project aimed at integrating a higher capacity for renewable power. The battery, to be installed in Fukuoka Prefecture, will have capacities of 50 MW and 300 MWh. [PV-Tech]
• The Vermont town of Norwich is now the first community in the state whose municipal buildings all get their electricity from the sun, sending excess to the grid. A local solar manufacturer, Solaflect, arranged the financing with help of solar tax credits and the guarantee the town would continue to buy the power. [Rutland Herald]

Tuesday, April 28:

• The US has taken another big step in the transition beyond coal to clean energy as the nation’s first offshore wind project broke ground. It is being installed off Block Island, 12 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. This project will provide 30 MW, enough for the island’s residents, cutting their electric bills 40%. [Huffington Post]
• Chairman of the Carbon Trust and former chairman of Shell UK James Smith called on oil and gas companies to “change profoundly over the next couple of decades … if costly climate damage is to be avoided.” He said companies based on fossil fuels need to begin “tackling climate change” sooner, rather than later. [CleanTechnica]
• An advanced flow battery system has been established at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. The system is from ViZn Energy Systems, based in Kalispell, Montana. The microgrid-scale system uses non-acid Zinc/Iron chemistry. ViZn batteries are made as 80-kW/160-kWh and 1-MW/3-MWh. [CleanTechnica]

Wednesday, April 29:

• A tractor able to run on two renewable fuels, hydrogen and ammonia, was demonstrated in Iowa by its developers, who cited sustainability and zero carbon emissions. The tractor has a 150-hp engine and operates at full power for up to 4 hours, or up to 50 acres. [The Gazette: Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines]
• Grid-scale battery storage solutions have arrived in Europe, despite a lingering controversy. No longer a distant dream, projects in Germany are already feeding energy into the grid, while in the United Kingdom and Italy, commercial projects are close to coming online. The technology, however, is not fully tested. [Environment & Energy Publishing]
• Hawaii lawmakers compromised for a bill that would set 2045 as the date to reach a goal of using renewable energy sources for 100% of the state’s electric power generation. House and Senate bills had different target dates for 100% renewable power. The state got 18% of its power from renewables in 2013. [Honolulu Star-Advertiser]

2015-04-23 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Thursday, April 16:

The Burgar Hill wind farm has been in operation for 13 years and faces the windiest conditions in the UK

• A wind turbine in Orkney has become the first in the UK to generate more than 100,000,000 kWh of electricity. It sits on the island’s exposed Burgar Hill, the windiest location for a wind farm in Europe. It was erected as a prototype in 2002, and produces enough power, on average, to supply 1,400 homes. [Scotsman]
• America’s power generation fleet has changed so much since the 1950s, and especially over the last decade, that the amount of carbon we emit per MWh of electricity produced has dropped to its lowest point in recorded history. In fact, 2015 could be the cleanest ever for our power industry. [Environmental Defense Fund]
• The Dow Chemical Company announced new sustainability goals, to be accomplished by 2025, which include creating products that offset three times more carbon dioxide than they emit throughout their life cycle and delivering $1 billion in cost savings or new cash flow by valuing nature in business decisions. [Environmental Leader]

Friday, April 17:

• As it turns out, the solution to a serious problem discovered last year at Ivanpah, the first solar power tower in the US, actually has turned out to be “one weird trick.” A mishap in January produced the Eureka moment for safe solar power tower development. Now there are no more dead birds at all. [CleanTechnica]

Tower at Ivanpah. Photo by Craig Dietrich. Wikimedia Commons.

• One of Australia’s largest power generators, AGL Energy, has adopted a new policy. AGL will not finance or build new coal-fired power stations, and it will not extend the operating life of any existing coal-fired power stations beyond 2050. The announcement came at the opening of AGL’s 102-MW Nyngan Solar Plant. [The Australian Financial Review]
• BP shareholders voted overwhelmingly to publish regular updates on how its strategies were affecting climate change, making it one of the first global oil companies to disclose such details. The plan was proposed by a group of investors the annual general meeting and got support of 98% of investors. [News24]
• In a poll of US parents, 81% said they want to live in a solar-powered home. The majority (67%) also wants solar to be the world’s primary energy source when their children grow up. And 95% believe it’s their responsibility to teach their children about alternative energy for a better environment for the future. [CleanTechnica]

Saturday, April 18:

• The European Commission announced approval for Germany to invest nearly €30 billion in the development of 20 offshore wind farms. Germany notified the EU of its plans to invest in 17 wind farms set to be located in the North Sea, and another 3 in the Baltic Sea, amounting in total to 7 GW of new capacity. [CleanTechnica]

Wind Lift I, a special crane ship for installing offshore wind turbines. Photo by kaʁstn, Wikimedia Commons.

• Nebraska Public Power District, the state’s largest utility, announced plans to replace a coal-fired power plant unit with one that runs on hydrogen, cutting its carbon emissions by over 1 million tons per year, even as the state battles proposed new federal rules on coal plants. It will generate 125 MW with the unit. [Reuters Africa]
• US wind power saved 68 billion gallons of water in the US in 2014, according to a report by the AWEA. This is an increasingly valuable benefit in droughts. In California, wind energy saved 2.5 billion gallons of freshwater in 2014, while Texas led the nation with savings of 13 billion gallons of water. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

Sunday, April 19:

• The Hazelwood brown coal power plant is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the Australian state of Victoria. Two Harvard fellows have attempted to find the cost of unseen impacts of the plant’s emissions, based on work by the US National Academy of Science. They estimate it at about $900 million a year. [The Age]
• “ExxonMobil’s Dangerous Business Strategy” – Total, ENI, Statoil, and Shell are advocating for a carbon price (such as a tax or permit system) to hasten the transition to low-carbon energy and are beginning to prepare internally for it. However, ExxonMobil’s business model continues to deny reality.[Mareeg Media]
• In 2013, computer simulations by the Hawaii Electric Company showed the grid could not handle more distributed solar power, and they put a moratorium on new rooftop solar connections. Then Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, got HECO to run actual tests, and based on the results, the moratorium was ended. [Reading Eagle]

Monday, April 20:

• The Detroit Zoo is headed for greener pastures with its plan for the first biodigester at a US zoo. The $1.1 million project will convert 400-500 tons of manure and other organic waste annually. The biodigester will save the zoo $70,000-$80,000 in energy costs and $30,000-$40,000 in waste disposal fees. [Crain’s Detroit Business]
• Toshiba Corp on Monday said it has started operations at a demonstration facility using renewable energy and hydrogen in the city of Kawasaki, Japan. Solar power is used in the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen, which is then stored and used in fuel cells to generate electricity and hot water. [SeeNews Renewables]

Tuesday, April 21:

• Carbon emissions from the US energy sector increased in 2014 for the second year in a row, despite a big boost in renewable energy capacity, the Energy Information Administration reported on Monday. Energy-related carbon emissions increased 0.7% in 2014, while the 2014 GDP grew at a rate of 2.4%. [ThinkProgress]

A flock of Geese fly past the smokestacks at the Jeffrey Energy Center coal power plant as the sun sets near Emmett, Kansas.

• After overhauling Indonesia’s fuel subsidy program, the country’s government is now striving to explore new and renewable energy resources. Indonesia is currently heavily dependent on fossil fuels, particularly oil and coal, despite having abundant resources for renewable energy, primarily geothermal and solar. [Jakarta Post]
• Apple’s new Environmental Responsibility Report doesn’t mince words. It states clearly the debate about whether climate change exists is over: “We don’t want to debate climate change. We want to stop it.” Apple is a big advocate of renewable energy and is willing to put its money where its mouth is. [The Green Optimistic]

Wednesday, April 22:

•  Audi has been a pioneer of diesel vehicle technology for decades. Now they have announced having successfully produced their first batch of an eco-friendly diesel fuel. It is a synthetic version, made from carbon dioxide and water, using Audi’s latest technology in sustainability. Ambient CO2 can be collected for use. [eGMCarTech]

Korean solar PV-covered bike lane.

• Korea has created a PV-covered bike lane connecting Sejong and Daejeon. It offers a clean transit option that utilizes unused median space in an existing highway, while providing renewable solar electricity. The PV-covered bike lanes runs approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) between the two cities. [CleanTechnica]
• Big oil is losing its grip on the auto industry; and, perhaps more interestingly, the recent drop in oil prices is at least partly the result of demand destruction rather than simply being a supply issue, according to analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The future of transportation is set to look very different. [CleanTechnica]
• Three organizations, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co, the US DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the industry-backed National Fuel Cell Research Center, are combining forces to produce a series of projects demonstrating converting renewable power into methane fuel. [Natural Gas Intelligence]

2015-04-16 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Thursday, April 9:

• Commercial and industrial, governmental and educational institutions signed over 23% of wind power purchase agreements last year, for more than 1,770 MW of power. US non-utility groups are increasingly buying wind power as a hedge against rising fuel costs and reduce their environmental impact. [SeeNews Renewables]
• A team of Stanford researchers has developed an aluminum ion battery that offers many significant advantages over the traditional lithium-ion batteries currently used in most electronic devices and today’s electric and hybrid cars. It is lower cost, has longer life, is not a fire hazard, and has environmental benefits. [Planetsave]
• Billionaire Michael Bloomberg says he’s donating an additional $30 million to a Sierra Club initiative working to reduce the nation’s use of coal. The Sierra Club has a goal of replacing half the nation’s coal plants with renewable energy by 2017. Bloomberg had donated $50 million to the program in 2011. [Business Spectator]

Friday, April 10:

• The North Seas Grid should be one of the building blocks of the Energy Union, companies and campaigners have told EU energy ministers. Momentum builds behind the project connecting offshore wind farms in Ireland, Scotland, the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. [EurActiv]
• An area in southern England could hold more oil than the North Sea. Oil and Gas Investments, an exploration firm that has been drilling in the region, says it could hold as much as 100 billion barrels, or 158 million barrels per square mile. The North Sea produced about 45 billion barrels over the last 40 years. [AOL Money UK]
• The California Public Utilities Commission is ordering Pacific Gas & Electric Co to pay a record $1.6 billion penalty for unsafe operation of its gas transmission system, including the pipeline rupture that killed eight people in 2010. Most of the penalty amounts to forced spending on improving pipeline safety. [CNN]
• The US is seen to deploy a record 18 GW of new renewable energy capacity this year, while also retiring 23 GW of coal-fired power plants, according to research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The US will add an estimated 9.1 GW of solar parks and 8.9 GW of fresh wind capacity in 2015. [SeeNews Renewables]
• Analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance have forecast that 2015 will be a watershed year for the US’ decarbonization efforts, predicting that the country will reach a two-decade low in power sector emissions nationally this year. They say the US efforts to transform the nation’s power sector are bearing fruit. [RenewEconomy]

Saturday, April 11:

• A study in Nature Climate Change shows that electric vehicle batteries have been getting cheaper much faster than expected. From 2007 to 2011, average battery costs for battery-powered electric vehicles fell by about 14% a year. The cost of batteries is about what the International Energy Agency predicted for 2020. [UK Progressive Magazine]
• With the lesson of Hurricane Sandy in mind, New York aims to get ahead on adapting to climate change by modernizing and integrating renewables into its power grid and making its infrastructure better able to withstand extreme weather. Its smart grid research is likely to influence the rest of the country. [Tribune-Review]

Sunday, April 12:

• Despite the public perception of offshore wind energy being highly expensive, electricity generated via this technology is already cheaper in Europe than that generated by gas-fired power plants or proposed nuclear projects such as the Hinkley Point C project, according to a new analysis of publicly available data. [CleanTechnica]
• The public health burden associated with the coal industry and coal-fired power plants had some light shed on it by a study in The New England Journal of Medicine. It found that long-term improvements in air quality were strongly associated with better respiratory function among growing children. [CleanTechnica]

Monday, April 13:

• The economic viability of some 53% of 39 of the power plants planned for construction in Europe’s largest economy by 2025 has been called into question, according to the German energy industry association BDEW. It said investors are nervous over low profitability for coal- and gas-fired power stations. [Economic Times]
• The world’s largest network of municipalities adopted an action plan aimed at taking prompt measures against climate change. The Seoul Action Plan was released by a congress held in Seoul to gather more global support at the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives World Congress. [eco-business.com]
• Gunter Scheibner, in charge of keeping flows stable over 6,200 miles of transmission lines in eastern Germany, must keep power from solar and wind in harmony whether it’s sunny or overcast, windy or still. He is proving that renewable energy from the sun and wind can be just as reliable as fossil fuels. [Bloomberg]

Tuesday, April 14:

• Wind is now the cheapest way to bring new electricity generation to the grid in many countries, including the US. Solar PV costs are rapidly dropping and solar is expected to join wind over the next few years. Low-cost utility-scale solar already beats out all other sources of electricity in some bidding processes. [CleanTechnica]

• In 2014, the World Health Organization measured air quality levels in 1,600 cities around the world, and the Indian capital city of New Delhi was found to have the highest concentration of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers. It was ten times as bad as New York’s level and three times Beijing’s. [CNN]
• Wind power output in Estonia on Sunday reached 3,797 MWh. According to recently released data by the EU’s statistics office, Estonia is one of three member states that have surpassed their renewable energy target for 2020. The country reached a 25.6% renewables share in 2013; the goal for 2020 is 25%. [SeeNews Renewables]

Wednesday, April 15:

• Analysis presented at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit says the world is now adding capacity for renewable power faster than for coal, natural gas, and oil combined. This has been going on since 2013, when 143 GW of renewable capacity were added, compared with 141 GW for fossil fuels. [Bloomberg]
• Renewables, mainly including hydropower, solar and wind, reached 28% of the total electric power supply in Germany in 2014, 19% in the UK, 22% in China, 76% in Brazil and 13% in the US, as investments in renewables increased more than 15% globally last year, BNEF Chairman Michael Liebreich said Tuesday. [Climate Central]
• The US witnessed an 82% surge in wind energy project financing following the release of guidance last year that clarified the qualifying criteria for the wind energy Production Tax Credit, according to a new report.Wind energy project finance shot up to $7.1 billion, an 82% increase on the $3.9 billion the first half. [The Engineer]
• Legislation strengthening Illinois’s renewable electricity and energy efficiency standards would drive billions in new clean energy investments and save consumers $12 billion by 2030, reducing the typical household electricity bill by 23%, or $22 per month, in 2030, according to new analysis. [Union of Concerned Scientists]

2015-04-09 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Previously missed, but important 

• “A Reagan approach to climate change” George Shultz says observations of a changing climate are simple and clear, so he concludes that the globe is warming and that carbon dioxide has something to do with that fact. He says those who say otherwise will wind up being mugged by reality, and he proposes a carbon tax. [Washington Post]

Thursday, April 2:

• The global wind market can expect continued growth for the rest of the decade, according the Global Wind Energy Council. They suggest the market will top 50 GW again in 2015 and reach 60 GW per year by 2018. China will lead growth, the body said, and seems on track to hit 200 GW ahead of its 2020 target. [reNews]
• In a major new report, global investment bank Citigroup has defined the current battle between cheap oil, and renewables like wind and solar, to be so fundamental it will define the future of energy. But it says renewables will win out because of basic economics, energy security, and environment and issues. [CleanTechnica]
• Some UK coal-fed power stations are at risk of halting for the summer after the doubling of a carbon emissions levy hurt the profitability of plants run by utilities. The UK carbon price support, designed to help fight global warming, increased by 88% on April 1, causing one measure of profitability to drop 53%. [Bloomberg]

Friday, April 3:

• According to Red Electrica de Espana, the Spanish peninsula got 69% percent of its electricity generation in March from technologies that produce zero carbon emissions. Nuclear as a whole provided 23.8% of the country’s electricity in March, while 47% came solely from renewable sources. [ThinkProgress]
• SolarCity continues to beat its own electricity generation milestones at mind-blowing rates. SolarCity just surpassed the 5 GWh/day benchmark. This was just two weeks after reaching 4 GWh/day of electricity generation. And that is an increase of 40% from last year, when it reached 3 GWh/day in April 2014. [CleanTechnica]
• A new report by the US Energy Information Administration finds in New England electric rates went up an average of 9% last year. Vermont’s Green Mountain Power, however, reduced rates by 2.46%. GMP has kept rates low for customers through a mix of things, including innovative products and services. [vtdigger.org]

Saturday, April 4:

• The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis estimates that the share of coal-generated electricity in China will decline from 72.5% in 2014 to 60% in 2020. While last year’s drop in coal use may have been a technical blip, Chinese coal consumption is expected to peak very soon, probably next year. [Journal of Turkish Weekly]
• The sharp drop off of drilling activity in the offshore oil and gas industry, including the UK’s North Sea, means offshore services contractors are now seriously under-employed. Day rates have been dramatically reduced. And industry experts predict the capital expenditures savings could be in the order of 15-20%. [Proactive Investors UK]
• Since President Obama took office, solar electricity generation has increased 20 fold, doubling last year alone. The solar industry is adding good-paying jobs 10 times faster than the rest of the economy. The Administration intends to drive growth in the solar industry further while also supporting our veterans. [Imperial Valley News]

Sunday, April 5:

• The UK’s National Trust will begin campaigning aggressively for action to combat the impact of climate change, which it says threatens the quiet landscape and atmosphere it was set up to shield. The Trust’s director general says its charity status does not mean it cannot speak out on the issue. [Kentucky Post Pioneer]

The UK’s National Trust aims to protect the British countryside.

• The Vermont Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee passed a resolution Friday declaring that human-caused climate change is real and calls on the state to take steps to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The resolution has 14 sponsors and is intended to show lawmakers take climate change seriously. [vtdigger.org] (Thanks to Julia Michel of VPIRG for forwarding the article.)
• California has a giant reservoir to its west that could supply it with water. It is called the Pacific Ocean. With new state policy, desalination plants and related technology are being introduced or revived in the state. The $1 billion Carlsbad desalination plant, south of Los Angeles, is scheduled to open in 2016. [USA TODAY]

Monday, April 6:

• Coal companies are in trouble because of low prices. They keep pulling coal out of the ground, taking a steady loss rather than one big write-down, in the hope that prices will bounce back. That, of course, is only adding to the supply glut in the US, the world’s second-biggest producer, and driving prices down further. [Bloomberg]
• One of the more hilarious criticisms of renewable energy is that it costs too much. A report says the economies of China, the EU, and the US could save as much as $500 billion a year in fossil fuel imports alone if they switched to 100% renewable energy. There would be many other large benefits as well. [CleanTechnica]

Tuesday, April 7:

• Solar PV is already upturning the business models of utilities around the world, yet right now it contributes just 1 per cent of global electricity demand. Imagine what its impact will be when it grows another tenfold in the coming decade. Deutsche Bank expects solar to become a $5 trillion market by 2030. [RenewEconomy]
• The first grid-connected hybrid flywheel project in Europe has been announced and is to be sited in the Irish midlands. The development in storage will be welcomed by renewable energy industries as the technologies they offer continue to make inroads in affordability, cost effectiveness and grid stability. [PennEnergy]
• According to a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association, Vermont added 38 MW of solar energy capacity in 2014. This brings the state’s total installed solar capacity to 70 MW, enough to power approximately 7,500 average homes. $76 million was invested in Vermont solar last year. [Hydrogen Fuel News]

Wednesday, April 8:

• New York State has issued a $160 million call for clean energy projects. Eligible renewable energy sources include wind farms, solar projects, fuel cells, biomass facilities, renewable biogas and the upgrading of small-sized to medium-sized hydropower projects that provide power to the electric grid. [reNews]
• London-based solar developer, Lightsource Renewable Energy, has revealed that it connected over 300 MW of PV capacity in March. It energised 27 solar farms prior to renewable obligation support for projects greater than five MW being scrapped. The company has a target of owning 1 GW of UK solar capacity. [Solar Power Portal]
• By the end of August, solar power should be part of Entergy Mississippi’s electricity-generation repertoire. The utility broke ground Tuesday on one of three solar projects it plans in Jackson, Senatobia and Brookhaven as part of its $4.5 million Bright Future Plan. It’s the first large-scale solar project in the state. [Jackson Clarion Ledger]
• The growth of microgrid deployment in the US continues, with the latest project seeing a range of distributed generating technologies coupled with smart grid technology and storage. Network operator Oncor has labeled a Dallas area project with four interconnected microgrids the “most advanced microgrid in North America.” [pv magazine]