Ukraine’s first and only grid-scale battery system is at the site of the now-occupied nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya. Image: DTEK.

RePowerEU, the European Commission’s plan to increase energy security and lower dependency on Russian gas imports, needs to focus on pairing renewable energy with energy storage.

The argument has been put forward by the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) after the European Commission (EC) revealed the RePowerEU strategy earlier this month.

The invasion of Ukraine begun by Russia in February prompted the commission into making proposals to become independent of Russian gas, which accounts for 40% of imports into the EU. About 45% of its coal and 25% of its oil also come from Russia. 

The plan as proposed would drive forwards development of renewable energy and energy efficiency — sister site PV Tech noted that 420GW of additional solar PV capacity would be deployed in the EU by 2030 — with speedier permitting, encouraging electrification of industry and creating power purchase agreement (PPA) financing structures among measures to be taken.

RePowerEU nonetheless sees gas playing a big role, suggesting a 90% target for filling up underground gas storage before next winter and diversifying suppliers of gas to include higher shares of liquid natural gas (LNG) and pipeline imports from non-Russian sources. 

Europe was already experiencing surging electricity prices before the war began and the EC is looking into how to limit the impact of gas price rises in electricity markets and could work with regulators to figure out changes to electricity market design. 

The plan also includes an emphasis on hydrogen, with EC president Ursula von der Leyen having said that the “quicker we switch to renewables and hydrogen, combined with more energy efficiency, the quicker we will be truly independent and master our energy system”.

However, trade association EASE said last week that the diversification of gas suppliers as a strategy risks locking in dependency on fossil fuels. Instead, RePowerEU should make renewable energy paired with energy storage its major focus, EASE argued. 

Gas plants are increasingly being called on to enable the integration of variable renewable energy generation from solar PV and wind onto the European grid network, providing flexible backup generation as more and more coal retires off the system. 

Therefore, increasing renewable energy targets will not in itself make the EU independent from gas imports — which account for 90% of consumption already — as gas peaker plants will continue playing that grid flexibility role. 

Energy storage however can shift energy from when it gets produced to when it is demanded and EASE said it “must be a pillar of an energy secure, decarbonised Europe”.

The association also noted that the growing procurement of dispatchable backup generation from gas means electricity prices will continue to rise. Renewable energy produced at times of surplus is being curtailed and wasted and in the end homegrown energy is thrown away by Europe, “only to pay [Russian gas company] Gazprom to fill the gap,” EASE said. 

EASE said the humanitarian and climate crises unfolding have to serve as a wakeup call for policymakers in Europe that enabling a true energy transition is the only way to become “truly energy independent”. 

Policy is needed that supports diversification in the profile of energy storage deployed: in particular, market structures do not exist that value long-duration energy storage of the type that can support generation during periods when renewable energy production is low and can enable shifting of energy demand from peak to off-peak.

EASE called for changes in European energy market rules that don’t value decarbonisation and mean that capacity auctions are still won by gas peaker plants. 

A factsheet on the proposed RePowerEU plan can be found here.

Ukraine, Moldova grids synchronise with European network

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Moldova’s power grids have been synchronised to the Continental European Power System in partnership with other national transmission system operators, two years earlier than originally planned.

The European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) has been working with counterparts in the Ukraine-Moldova power system since 2017 on bringing the pair into the Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA) — the world’s largest synchronous electrical grid in terms of connected power. 

Ukraine’s Ukrenergo and Moldova’s Moldelectrica made the emergency request to speed up the project, which was meant to be completed in 2024. Successful islanding trials for their grids, which had already been scheduled to take place, went ahead amid the start of the invasion in late February.

It means the pair will share the platform for maintaining grid frequency at 50Hz — which provides common markets for the primary containment reserve (PCR) ancillary service, also known as frequency control reserve (FCR) that battery storage competes in. 

The CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest energy sector investor, described the technical synchronisation as a “key step towards energy independence from the aggressor”. It means Ukraine’s energy sector has an “airbag” to minimise any disruptions, DTEK’s Maxim Timchenko said. 

DTEK inaugurated Ukraine’s first-ever grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) project in May 2021, supplied by Honeywell with support from SunGrid and other partners. 

Timchenko has described energy storage as being vital for Ukraine’s energy security and decarbonisation efforts. However the fate of DTEK’s first BESS is uncertain — it is located at the site of the company’s nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhya, which has been seized and occupied by Russian forces.

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Lithium batteries and packs at a Li-Cycle Spoke facility. Image: Li-Cycle.

Lithium-ion battery recycling specialist Li-Cycle has seen its revenues rise as it commercialises its business, although the cost of expansion to meet expected future demand remains high.

The Canada-headquartered company has claimed its two-step process for battery recycling can recover and process 95% of the materials they contain, including lithium, manganese, cobalt and nickel. 

Li-Cycle’s shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in August last year after merger with listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Peridot Acquisition Corporation. 

Li-cycle noted in financial disclosures ahead of the transaction that it only began commercial operations during 2020, as it rolls out a network of so-called ‘Hub & Spoke’ facilities, strategically located near to demand and production centres for the growing lithium battery economy. 

Its financial year runs to the end of October and from US$64,000 of revenues in the 12 months to 31 October 2019, by the same period the following year this had grown to just over a million dollars. Meanwhile that full-year performance was equalled in the first quarter of its 2021 financial year, ending 31 January 2021. 

In the first quarter of its fiscal year, revenues were US$3.8 million, a 277% increase year-on-year. Production of ‘black mass’ intermediary materials recovered from spent batteries at Li-Cycle’s existing Spoke facilities in Ontario and Upstate New York increased more than 190% over the year before.

Two further Spokes will come online during this year — in Alabama and Arizona — while a Hub in Rochester, New York, is expected to come online in 2023. The Spokes shred charged, used batteries from different types of applications and create the inert, black mass product, Hub facilities will then hydrometallurgically process cathode and anode materials into battery grade end-products for reuse. 

Each of the two new Spokes will be capable of processing up to 10,000 tonnes of lithium battery input annually, while the Hub should be able to process 35,000 tonnes of black mass — equivalent to 18GWh of Li-ion batteries each year to produce 42,000 to 48,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate, 7,500 to 8,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate and between 6,500 to 7,500 tonnes of cobalt sulphate. 

Cost of expansion and growth to meet recycling demand

The company has some big deals in place with off-takers and feedstock providers and in December announced that LG Chem and LG Energy Solution had agreed to make an equity investment into its business as well as a 10-year deal to buy nickel from its facilities.

Li-Cycle said in its financial results announcement that those commercial agreements are expected to be concluded in April, having extended the timeframe for negotiating contracts past an earlier date set in mid-March. 

Li-Cycle’s SPAC merger raised more than half a billion dollars, including a private investment in public equity (PIPE) commitment from investors and the company said it ended Q1 FY2022 with roughly US$522 million cash on hand.

It also recorded US$28.5 million net profit for the quarter, as opposed to a net loss of about US$6.8 million in Q1 FY2021.

Ahead of its listing, the company had said that expanding its commercial scale and reach was likely to be an expensive endeavour but pointed to a huge addressable market opportunity. In the first quarter of FY2022, that related to operating expenses reaching US$22.6 million, a big jump from US$7.2 million in Q1 FY2021.

Personnel costs have grown, as have professional fees and administrative costs related to operating as a public company, while at the same time increased production of black mass meant higher running and materials costs. 

A quarterly adjusted EBITDA loss of US$16.9 million was reported, considerably higher than US$3.7 million in the previous year’s same period, which again Li-Cycle said was largely in relation to higher staffing and network development costs as the company grew and expanded its business. 

Li-Cycle, which has told Energy-Storage.news it views the stationary energy storage system (ESS) industry as an important off-take as well as input sector, claimed it has a strong balance sheet position to be able to fund its pipeline of Spokes and Hubs. It is advancing further Spoke projects in Norway and in Germany which it aims to be able to commission during 2023. 

The company said it will provide additional detail during this financial year on the approach it will take to financing and that it is “evaluating multiple capital sources, including but not limited to debt-based financing alternatives” as well as optimising the cost of capital and its future flexibility.

Recycling as an integral aspect of the battery value chain is becoming an important consideration for its stakeholders, from politicians to end-customers and the many different industries and segments involved.

Another company, Ascend Elements, is opening the largest single-site lithium battery recycling operation in North America in August this year and recently announced a deal to take manufacturing scrap from two gigafactories being built near its facility in the state of Georgia by SK.

Mercedes-Benz also just announced that its forthcoming battery gigafactory in Germany will include a pilot recycling plant, which is being developed by a newly-formed subsidiary of the luxury automaker, called LICULAR.

The European market could have added impetus for sustainability, with the European Union set to introduce regulations for batteries including minimum recycled content and carbon footprint labelling requirements over the next few years.

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Madison Gas and Electric (MGE), in partnership with We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service (WPS), subsidiaries of WEC Energy Group, received approval from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to purchase solar energy and battery storage from the Paris Solar-Battery Park. MGE will own 20 MW of solar energy and 11 MW of battery storage from the 200 MW solar and 110 MW battery storage facility in Kenosha County, Wisconsin.

“We are working every day toward deep carbon reductions and net-zero carbon electricity by 2050,” says Jeff Keebler, MGE’s chairman, president and CEO. “The Paris Solar-Battery Park continues the progress we’ve already made increasing renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions and advancing new technologies to benefit all our customers. MGE’s first addition of utility-scale battery storage is a new and important technology to help us reach our sustainable energy goals.”

Located on about 1,500 acres in the Town of Paris in Kenosha County, the Paris Solar-Battery Park will feature up to 750,000 solar panels.

We Energies and WPS will own the remaining 180 MW of the solar output and 99 MW of battery storage from the project. Construction is expected to begin this year, and the project is expected to begin serving customers in spring 2023. Invenergy LLC is the project developer and will construct the Paris Solar-Battery Park.

MGE has a goal to reduce carbon emissions at least 80% by 2030, consistent with global climate science to limit global warming. MGE continues to transition its energy supply to cleaner sources, with the anticipated addition of nearly 400 MW of wind, solar and battery storage between 2015 and 2024.

Image: Photo by Andreas Gücklhorn on Unsplash

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It is Mitsubishi Power’s eighth BESS project in California. Image: Mitsubishi Power.

Californian investor-owned utility San Diego Gas & Electric has ordered a 10MW, six-hour battery energy storage system (BESS), dubbed Emerald, from Mitsubishi Power.

Mitsubishi is supplying its solution for the Pala-Gomez Creek BESS project announced last month when it was authorised by California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), as reported by Energy-storage.news. The BESS is set to enter commercial operation on 31 January 2023.

The BESS project Mitsubishi Power is delivering to is one of three being developed for SDG&E totalling 161MW/664MWh which were authorised, with the other two being provided by Fluence and ConEdDev.

It is the Tokyo-headquartered company’s eighth BESS project in California bringing the total in the state to 280MW/1,140MWh. The company’s Emerald storage solution includes full turnkey design, engineering, procurement, and construction, as well as a 10-year long-term service agreement.

The project will repower an existing energy storage site, the company said, and will use its energy management system (EMS) the Emerald Integrated Plant Controller. The BESS is a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery system.

The Pala-Gomez Creek BESS is to be located at an existing SDG&E battery storage yard adjacent to the Pala substation in San Diego county. It was the result of efforts by the investor-owned utility to identify potential future energy storage sites that can leverage existing infrastructure.

California is the main driver of the energy storage market in the US, accounting for 90% of utility-scale deployments in 2021. Its three investor-owned utilities have in the last few years been directed by the regulator to procure additional, clean energy resources to bolster the grid in light of fossil fuel retirements but also increased wildfire risk. It plans to have a zero-carbon electricity grid by 2045.

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In U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2022 (AEO2022) Reference case, which reflects current laws and regulations, EIA projects that the share of U.S. power generation from renewables will increase from 21% in 2021 to 44% in 2050. This increase in renewable energy mainly consists of new wind and solar power. The contribution of hydropower remains largely unchanged through 2050, and other renewable sources of power generation – such as geothermal and biomass – collectively remain less than 3% of total generation.

In the AEO2022 case, EIA projects that the contribution of total solar generation, including both utility-scale solar farms and small-scale rooftop end-use systems, will surpass wind generation by the early 2030s. Early growth in wind and solar is driven by federal tax credits set to expire or significantly decline by 2026, but declining costs for both technologies play a significant role in both near- and long-term growth.

Meanwhile, it projects that the total share of U.S. fossil fuel-fired power generation decreases from 60% to 44% in the AEO2022 case as a result of the continued retirement of coal generators and slow growth in natural gas-fired generation. Although natural gas-fired generation increases in absolute terms, the share of natural gas in the total generation mix decreases slightly, from 37% in 2021 to 34% in 2050.

In the reference case projections, the natural gas share remains consistent despite several projected retirements of coal and nuclear generating units, which cause the shares from those sources to drop by half. Generation from renewable sources increases to offset the declining coal and nuclear shares, largely because existing regulatory programs and market factors incentivize renewable sources.

Energy storage systems, such as stand-alone batteries or solar-battery hybrid systems, compete with natural gas-fired generators to provide electric power generation and back-up capacity for times when non-dispatchable renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, are unavailable. Because energy storage shifts energy usage from one time to another and is not an original fuel source of energy, EIA did not include it in the generation graphic in this report. Based on planned projects reported to EIA, energy storage capacity is expected to increase in upcoming years.

Image: Photo by Jadon Kelly on Unsplash

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Another RCID Solar project, FL Solar 5, which is part of the RCID Solar Philanthropic Initiative

Maxeon Solar Technologies Ltd. will supply approximately 400 MW of its high-efficiency shingled bifacial Performance line solar modules to Origis Energy for one of its U.S. utility-scale projects. Module deliveries will commence in June of 2023 and will conclude at the end of 2023.

“This 400 MW procurement agreement with Maxeon Solar Technologies is an important component to fulfill the robust Origis solar portfolio,” says Guy Vanderhaegen, CEO and president of Origis Energy. “The Maxeon technology will help ensure our solar plants meet performance goals to provide clean, competitively priced energy to our customers across the U.S. Additionally, Maxeon continues to be a pioneer in sustainability initiatives including its leadership with Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG). ESG factors are important to all Origis stakeholders, from investment partners to utilities and corporate energy buyers. “

Produced using proprietary manufacturing processes, the Performance line solar modules leverage Maxeon’s shingled cell technology, protected by 83 granted patents. Utilizing bifacial mono-PERC solar cells made on large format eight-inch G12 wafers, the Performance line offers efficiency along with enhanced shade tolerance and durability to reduce system lifetime energy cost.

“We are pleased to be selected by Origis Energy as a long-term partner,” comments Jeff Waters, CEO at Maxeon Solar Technologies. “Origis’ decision to invest in our Performance line validates the technology’s performance, durability and reliability advantage over conventional solar panels, as well as its competitiveness. Moreover, it proves the confidence utility-scale customers have in our ability to deliver on our commitments.”

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A BESS project in West Virginia developed by Invenergy, the company developing the solar and storage park in Wisconsin. Image: Invenergy.

Wisconsin investor-owned utilities Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and WEC Energy have received regulatory approval to buy a 200MW solar and 110MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in Kenosha County.

MGE and two WEC Energy subsidiaries have got the go ahead to buy the Paris Solar-Battery Park, which was developed by Invenergy and is set to become operational in 2023.

In summary:

MGE will own 20MW of solar and 11MW of BESS (10% of the total) WE Energies will own 150MW of solar and 82.5MW of BESS (75% of the total) WPS will own 30MW of solar and 16.5MW of BESS (15% of the total)

The total estimated cost of the acquisition is US$433 million according to a Final Decision filing (Docket 5-BS-254) from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s Citizens Utility Board has argued against the deal on the grounds it may not be the most cost-effective solution, in a brief to the commission.

It is MGE’s first ever battery storage which will serve its customers and the following quote from the Final Decision filing alluded to the Utility Board’s objections:

“Due to the novelty of battery storage technology for utility-scale applications, and based on the application materials, data request responses, and testimony received into the record in this proceeding, Commission staff’s financial evaluation was unable to verify the applicants support for the cost-effectiveness of acquiring 110 MW of BESS in this docket,” it read.

Energy-storage.news has asked MGE whether the park is true solar-plus-storage or just colocation with a shared connection to the grid and will update this article with their response.

A passage from the Paris solar park’s application to the Commission back in February doesn’t clarify this but gives an indication of the role the BESS will play:

“The impact to the MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) grid from the integration of a BESS at Paris Solar will be positive, as the storage system can act as an “electrical suspension” system for the grid, to smooth out abrupt ups and downs in solar production that can occur on partlycloudy days,” it read.

“The system can furnish other grid services such as frequency response, voltage support, and output scheduling to potentially shift some afternoon production to later in the day, if needed, to correspond with peak demands.”

WEC Energy aims to achieve a 55% emissions reduction by 2025 and a 70% reduction by 2030, and is investing US$2 billion in solar, wind and battery storage projects by 2025 to achieve this. Its two aforementiond subsidiaries plan to retire 1.6GW of fossil fuel generation by 2024.

It has filed a request for a similar project called to Paris called Darien which is also set to go live in 2023. That would involve more solar (250MW) but less storage (75MW) than Paris and cost around US$446 million under the same 90%/10% ownership structure between WEC and MGE. Paris’ solar portion is smaller than the initial 300MW plan announced last year.

The Midwest is behind market leaders like California and Hawaii (and to a lesser extent Texas and New York) but storage deployments could accelerate in the next few years as the region phases out coal, according to IHS Markit.

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FREYR Battery CEO Tom Jensen. Image: FREYR Battery.

Norwegian lithium-ion gigafactory startup FREYR Battery could easily dedicate half of its 2030 production capacity target of 100GWh to energy storage and is also launching a system integrator play, CEO Tom Jensen has told Energy-Storage.news in an interview.

The company was founded 2018 on three core tenets of speed, scale and sustainability. It has a massive lithium-ion gigafactory pipeline with the first four totalling 36GWh in Mo I Rana, Norway, going online in 2023-2025. But unlike many other players in the space, FREYR’s focus appears to lean towards energy storage as much as if not more than electric vehicles (EVs).

Energy storage focus

“We aim to have 83GWh of installed production capacity by 2028 and more than 100GWh by 2030, and I would say that based on what we see now, we believe that we might easily dedicate half of that to the energy storage system (ESS) market,” Jensen said.

He explained that the technology it has licensed from the US company 24M to build its batteries is highly suited to storage applications because it contains more energy-carrying material thanks to. (You can read an interview Energy-storage.news did with 24M’s management team about its technology here.)

FREYR is therefore targeting all segments of the ESS market and could theoretically dedicate even more than half of capacity to the sector, Jensen said: “We believe that the (storage) market is growing much faster and going to be much bigger than most people think so we could in fact dedicate all our production capacity to energy storage, if we wanted to.”

“But we’re also getting quite a lot of interest from mobility and EV players, so the exact fraction (of production capacity) is going to be a function of multiple different ongoing discussions. But the technology we have and our positioning in the ESS space makes us a leading provider of ESS solutions using decarbonised battery systems, and we will obviously try to capture as much of that market as possible.”

System integrator play

The emphasis on storage as a target market is clear from the fact its two major announced offtake agreements have both been in that space. Technology group Honeywell will buy 19GWh of batteries from FREYR between 2023-2030 while a second, unnamed partner will purchase 31GWh in the same period in a partnership that will see FREYR contribute to a system integrator play.

“Once finalised, we believe that these two initial offtake agreements may take the bulk of our first gigafactory’s capacity (operational in 2023) for the first four to five years,” Jensen said.

“We expect to enter into a joint venture with the unnamed partner for developing full containerised solutions, which will basically be the final product including BMS (battery management system) and everything. That will effectively be a system integrator approach together with that partner.”

FREYR Battery’s gigafactory pipeline. Source: company presentation (January 2021).

Jensen also touched on three massive topics of discussion in the BESS space but also the wider battery ecosystem: the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) versus nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) debate, current supply chain issues with lithium battery materials, and sustainability, one of FREYR’s key tenets.

LFP vs NMC

LFP cathode-based batteries are growing in adoption by the energy storage industry thanks to a lower fire risk and fewer ESG concerns around its materials’ supply chain than the NMC market standard.

“Our technology platform is chemistry flexible. In the first facility, we’ll produce LFP only because the customers demand it, and we see a lot of automotive stakeholders are increasingly interested in LFP,” he said.

“We do also have an ambition and customer interest for NMC based materials or high nickel content materials. But to the extent we use cobalt, it will be responsibly and sustainably sourced through our partnership with Glencore.”

He pointed out the lower energy density for LFP compared to NMC doesn’t really matter in an energy storage context where cycle life is king and for which the 24M technology also has benefits thanks to the ability to make larger cells.

Supply chain and new financing

The discussion then moved on to global supply chain issues which have temporarily caused LFP battery cathode prices to reach parity with NMC ones for the first time, or even surpass them according to other sources.

“What we’re seeing now are temporary bottlenecks that are challenging, of course, with the near-term pricing, but we’re in dialogue with our customers and aim to have relevant commercial arrangements that allow us to pass through some of those raw material price increases if they reach certain thresholds.”

“I think everyone who’s building anything in the world today is subjected to the same challenges. So relatively speaking, things will become more expensive but the relative cost advantages of this technology are still the same.”

He suggests that FREYR’s capital requirements might have increased since a year ago but that any necessary additional financing – it has a market cap of over US$1 billion since a SPAC merger listing in July last year – would draw on strong interest and an increasing understanding from governments and capital markets about storage’s role in the energy transition.

Sustainability

As alluded to earlier, sustainability is one three tenets upon which Jensen said FREYR was built, along with speed and scale. “We have the ambition to be produce the world’s cleanest or greenest batteries,” he said.

“Our initial ambition is to have by 2025 an 80% reduction in CO2 footprint on a lifecycle basis for the batteries compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries today, and then over time we aspire to a net zero ambition. How fast we get there depends on how fast we can mitigate the harder to abate parts of the value chain.”

Norway is one of a handful of countries with 100% renewably energy thanks to an abundance of hydroelectric power. Jensen said that FREYR’s production power needs, which will be 60% lower than conventional lithium-ion production, will be serviced by “almost completely renewable hydropower but also a little bit of wind”.

“In addition, we plan to selectively partner and invest upstream, meaning input materials that go into battery cell manufacturing. A very large part of the CO2 footprint of the battery comes from the way in which the materials are produced, so if we really are serious about decarbonizing the battery itself, we need to get these materials to be produced in areas with renewable energy and we want to be a catalyst in this regard.”

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Another Standard Solar, Ogos Energy LLC, and Earth and Air Technologies collaboration, the Old New Windsor Solar Project in Maryland

Standard Solar Inc. is partnering with The Catholic University of America to build the Washington metropolitan region’s largest urban community solar array on the university’s campus in northeast D.C.

The 7.4 MW project will provide access to locally generated, renewable energy through the D.C. community solar program to residents, nonprofits and businesses. Standard Solar will own, operate and maintain the system.

Generating approximately 10,000 MWh of solar energy annually, the project will make a significant contribution to the district’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2032 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

“Catholic University is showing tremendous leadership with this innovative solar project to bring clean energy to the region,” says John Finnerty, director of business development at Standard Solar. “The project goes beyond expanding the University’s sustainability initiatives and environmental stewardship to directly creating benefits for the Washington, D.C. community and generations of students.”

In addition, the project will provide educational opportunities for students at all levels from K-12 to graduate level. Students will learn about sustainability and environmental stewardship through field trips, STEM projects, and access to a real-time, web-based energy production monitoring tool.

The solar array will be installed on an undeveloped portion of the University’s 173.4-acre campus. The project is currently in the design process, with construction anticipated to begin in 2022.

This project is the latest in Catholic University’s commitment to sustainability. The campus already has 2,700 solar panels; four LEED-certified buildings; EV charging stations; solar carports; a new energy-efficient, central hot and chilled water generation and campus distribution system that replaced a century-old steam system; and a five-year sustainability plan.

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Photo credit: Courtesy of California State University, Dominguez Hills

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has proposed a new pilot to help California universities reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions in support of the state’s climate goals. If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), PG&E would team up with the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems to introduce a Clean Energy Optimization Pilot (CEOP) to campuses across Northern and Central California.

First unveiled by Southern California Edison for UC and CSU campuses in their service area, the program focuses on substantially lowering GHG emissions at the source. Universities would receive incentives directly based on their GHG reductions. PG&E also proposes to consider the expansion of this program to similarly situated customers in the future.

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most critical and impactful steps an organization can take to reduce its environmental impact,” says Aaron August, PG&E’s vice president of business development and customer engagement. “Innovative and collaborative programs like the Clean Energy Optimization Pilot are essential to the future of a clean California, and PG&E is proud to collaborate with California universities on this exciting proposal.”

In the CPUC filing, PG&E seeks to use approximately $50 million of unspent, unallocated GHG auction revenues over a four-year period. Funding would result from California’s Cap-and-Trade Program, not from customer rates.

UCs and CSUs in PG&E’s service area would be eligible. Participants could take a variety of steps to receive incentives, including retrofitting buildings to be more energy efficient; building new construction efficiently with energy usage top of mind; investing in on-site renewables, such as solar and energy storage; and installing electric vehicle charging stations and electrifying customers’ fleets to run on clean electricity. If approved, the program could begin as early as 2023 and would run for four years.

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