QUICK NEWS, April 29: GOOGLE MAKES ITS BIGGEST NEW ENERGY BUY; XCEL RFP CALLS FOR 100 MW OF BIG SOLAR; NY GOV PROPOSES NEW GRID, NEW ENERGY VISION

GOOGLE MAKES ITS BIGGEST NEW ENERGY BUY Google Agrees to Buy 407 Megawatts of Buffett’s Iowa Wind

Ehren Gossens, April 22, 2014 (Bloomberg News)

“Google Inc. agreed to buy 407 megawatts of wind power from Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., the technology company’s largest deal to date for renewable energy…The capacity will power Google’s Council Bluffs, Iowa, data center…Google, along with Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Intel Corp. (INTC) and other companies, are buying power from renewable energy projects to curb greenhouse-gas emissions…MidAmerican will provide the capacity from multiple wind farms that are part of its Wind VIII effort to add 1,050 megawatts of wind energy in Iowa by the end of 2015…[Google] has invested more than $1 billion in 15 projects around the world in an effort to promote wider use of clean power…” click here for more

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XCEL RFP CALLS FOR 100 MW OF BIG SOLAR Xcel sets stage for solar bidding war

David Shaffer, April 23, 2014 (Minneapolis StarTribune)

Xcel Energy’s request for proposals (RFP) for 100 megawatts of new solar will dramatically increase Minnesota’s installed solar capacity over from its present twelve megawatts at about 730 rooftop sites. The RFP, for commercial-industrial and utility scale installations of five megawatts and over, will move Xcel about one-third of the way toward compliance with the Minnesota's Solar Energy Standard mandating its utilities get 1.5 percent of their power from solar by 2020. The proposals must be submitted to Xcel and reviewed in time for regulatory approval of the twenty year power purchase agreements this fall so construction can be completed before the 30 percent federal investment tax credit drops to 10 percent after December 31, 2016. This new round of solar development will be an opportunity for Xcel to demonstrate if it will use Minnesota’s newly instituted Value of Solar Tariff or revert to the familiar net energy metering policy. click here for more

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NY GOV PROPOSES NEW GRID, NEW ENERGY VISION Governor Cuomo Announces Fundamental Shift in Utility Regulation; Regulatory Changes to Spur Development of World-Class Energy System in New York State and Mitigate Climate Change Impacts

April 24, 2014 (Governor’s Press Office)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Reforming Energy Vision (REV) initiative will ask the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to prepare utilities and the grid operator for smart technologies, a streamlined electricity market, and practices that will expand demand management, energy efficiency, renewable energy, distributed generation, and energy storage. The initiative would create new policies and programs to support adoption of practices by consumers, businesses, and industries that would ease the burden on power generators of peak demand and open the single biggest saving opportunity for ratepayers. The initiative leaves to the PSC the burden of deciding which existing grid operating and electricity market practices should be modified and how utilities can manage distributed energy resources and move ratepayers to energy consumption priorities that benefit themselves and the system. The example of the Empire State Building efficiency retrofit stands tall in New Yorkers awareness of the savings available from such programs. click here for more

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