QUICK NEWS, July 30: ILLINOIS LAWMAKERS GIVE SOLAR $30MIL; WIND BRINGS DOWN POWER COSTS IN MICHIGAN; VIRTUAL POWER PLANT MRKT TO QUINTUPLE

ILLINOIS LAWMAKERS GIVE SOLAR $30MIL BOOST Illinois Investing in Solar Power

June 28, 2014 (AP via CBS St. Louis)

“…[The Illinois Power Agency] will buy up to $30 million worth of solar power and pump it into the energy mix for electricity customers under legislation [just] signed into law…[The new law] establishes a competitive process to purchase the energy from new or existing solar installations, which could include rooftop solar panels that homeowners can use to sell any leftover power back to the electricity grid…The Illinois Power Agency was set up in 2007 to develop plans for buying renewable energy for utilities to feed into the grid. The money for the solar power purchases comes from the agency’s Renewable Energy Resources Fund, which is made up of clean energy fees paid by power suppliers…” click here for more

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WIND SURGES, BRINGS DOWN POWER COSTS IN MICHIGAN Michigan's wind energy industry soaring

Frank Witsil, June 28, 2014 (Detroit Free Press)

“The shift to renewable energy sources in Michigan — particularly wind — has picked up in the past few years…One reason: [Wind energy is] about half as expensive to produce than utility companies initially expected, down to as little as $50 a megawatt hour last year from more than $100 a megawatt hour in 2009, according to the Michigan Public Service Commission...Michigan is home to about 120 companies that supply wind components and employ 4,000…A [2008] state law that requires 10% of electricity produced come from renewable sources by the end of next year has increased demand and helped propel the construction of wind farms…[Since 2008], utilities have invested more than $2.2 billion in renewable technology…There are now more than 20 wind farms in Michigan that are operational and in development…Michigan’s growing wind business has meant falling prices for residential consumers…This year, largely because of the lower cost of wind, DTE has reduced its [renewables] surcharge from $3 per meter a month to 43 cents, and Consumers Energy is eliminating its surcharge altogether…” click here for more

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WORLD VIRTUAL POWER PLANT MRKT TO QUINTUPLE Virtual Power Plants Demand Response, Supply-Side, and Mixed Asset VPPs: Global Market Analysis and Forecasts

2Q 2014 (Navigant Research)

“…Successful strategies to manage [the increasing two-way complexity of distributed energy resources (DER)] are being deployed today all over the world. One such strategy is a virtual power plant (VPP)…[which combines] a rich diversity of independent resources into a network via sophisticated planning, scheduling, and bidding of DER-based services…Several recent trends are creating an environment conducive to VPPs…However, challenges to commercial rollouts of VPPs remain, including the lack of reliance upon dynamic, real-time pricing and consumer pushback against the smart grid…Navigant Research forecasts that total annual VPP vendor revenue will grow from $1.1 billion in 2014 to $5.3 billion in 2023 under a base scenario…” click here for more

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