QUICK NEWS, November 12: THE GREAT U.S. ENERGY SHIFT; NRG AND SUNPOWER BRING 250 MW OF SOLAR ONLINE; WORKING OUT WIND'S SUPPORT

THE GREAT U.S. ENERGY SHIFT 5 Charts That Explain the Great Energy Shift; The rise of fracking and the decline of coal

Todd Woody, November 4, 2013 (The Atlantic)

“The United States is undergoing the greatest revolution in energy production in decades thanks to the shale-gas boom and the rise of renewable energy…The lure of cheap natural gas has led utilities to shutter aging and carbon-spewing coal-fired power plants…Pending federal emissions regulations make it unlikely that any new coal plants will get built…while state renewable energy mandates and the declining cost of solar and wind technologies have triggered a boom in green power…Power plants are multibillion-dollar investments…designed to operate for decades…[T]hose natural gas-fired power plants and solar and wind farms coming online now will be fueling the economy for a good chunk of the 21st century…A lot of the dirty coal plants are more than thirty years old.” click here for more

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NRG AND SUNPOWER BRING 250 MW OF SOLAR ONLINE NRG Energy, NRG Yield and SunPower Begin Commercial Operations at 250 MW California Valley Solar Ranch; Utility-scale solar facility in San Luis Obispo County, one of the world’s largest, provides clean power to an estimated 100,000 California homes

October 31, 2013 (NRG Energy)

"NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG), NRG Yield, Inc. (NYSE:NYLD), and SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ:SPWR)…announced the completion of the final phase of the California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR) photovoltaic (PV) generating facility in San Luis Obispo County, California, bringing total electric generating capacity of the plant up to 250 megawatts (AC). NRG acquired CVSR from SunPower in 2011, and the project is jointly owned by NRG Yield (48.95%). CVSR is one of the world’s largest operating solar PV power plants and will sell its electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric under two long-term power purchase agreements…CVSR received a federal loan guarantee for $1.2 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office. CVSR created more than 700 jobs during its two-year construction period and generated an estimated $315 million of economic development for the local economy…” click here for more

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WORKING OUT WIND'S SUPPORT Three Wind PTC Issues That Still Need To Be Resolved

Hannah Hawkins, November 5, 2013 (North American Windpower)

"In the American Taxpayer Relief Act, enacted in January 2013, Congress made perhaps the most significant change to the wind production tax credit (PTC) in the incentive's 20-year history…[by changing] the requirement that PTC facilities be placed in service by a date certain to a new standard that requires projects to merely begin construction by a defined date…The new PTC rules, however, left open…[three] unresolved issues that could prove challenging in qualifying for the PTC…[pertaining to] what are continuous efforts and what are acceptable delays…whether multiple facilities can be treated as a single facility…[and how] to document that construction has begun for projects which are not yet identified [or how pre-purchased equipment should be allocated]…” click here for more

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