New research by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows the number of local zoning ordinances governing renewable energy deployment is increasing in the United States. The amount of land available to deploy renewables depends on the characteristics of the ordinances.

“It’s important to understand the types of ordinances in effect, specifically setback ordinances, or the required distance from a specific feature like a house,” says Anthony Lopez, lead author of a newly published paper that describes the research. “Setback ordinances determine how much land is available for deployment and how much wind and solar resource we have to decarbonize our energy system.”

The effect of setback ordinances requires highly detailed modeling and hyper-local data so it has not traditionally been captured in large-scale resource assessments. Consequently, previous evaluations have likely overestimated the amount of land available to renewables and, in turn, underestimated the cost and challenges of achieving high levels of deployment.

Ordinances influence how and where a developer can site and deploy new wind and solar projects. For example, ordinances can protect the natural habitats and species where renewable energy projects are deployed and ensure efficient, sustainable use of land resources. In many places in the U.S., zoning ordinances at the county and township level need to be enacted before a large-scale solar or wind facility can be constructed on private land.

The NREL study identified 1,853 local wind ordinances in effect during 2022 compared to 286 in 2018. The most common types were related to setbacks from structures, roads, and property lines; noise levels; and wind turbine heights. A first-of-its-kind companion survey of regulations related to the development of utility-scale solar identified 839 ordinances in effect during 2022.

Setback distances within the identified zoning ordinances vary considerably across jurisdictions. For wind, the setback is typically determined by a multiplier of the wind turbine’s total height; for solar, the setback is typically a fixed distance. Researchers found wind and solar resource could be as much as 87% and 38% lower, respectively, under the strictest setback scenario compared to a baseline that does not account for setback ordinances.

Local land use and community considerations play a significant role in U.S. decarbonization and should therefore be accurately reflected in modeling and analysis.

Lopez concludes: “It’s really important that we understand the impacts of renewable development on communities and provide information that helps them develop ordinances that balance regulation of the real impacts of renewable energy development while enabling deployment and the benefits of that deployment.”

The complete findings of the study appear in the Nature Energy article titled “Impact of Siting Ordinances on Land Availability for Wind and Solar Development.”

Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.

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Climate and energy analytics company Sunairio recently conducted a study and found that climate change is increasingly impacting solar energy generation in the United States.

Traditional, industry-standard solar production risk assessment approaches are based on decades-old methods that use historical data and which crucially omit the growing influence of climate trends. As a result, pre-construction energy models over-predict solar production from new projects by 5% to 12%. This impact is strongest in the Midwest and Southeast, followed by the East Coast – regions where climate change is causing decreased irradiance through cloudier weather patterns and greater precipitation.

While other recent studies have identified and attempted to diagnose solar asset underperformance in the U.S., the Sunairio study is the first to quantify the influence of climate change in this problem.

“We can’t expect to create accurate solar production estimates if we’re using historical weather data not adjusted for the growing influence of climate change. Those estimates get worse and worse over time, as climate change causes greater and greater deviations from historical norms,” explains Rob Cirincione, CEO of Sunairio. “Future weather risks are being estimated from historical data, but the climate is changing so quickly that modeling based on historical analysis can drastically underestimate the frequency of extreme events and the impact of climate trends going forward.”

To conduct the analysis, Sunairio selected a representative sample of 100 actual utility-scale solar sites across the U.S. and calculated forward-looking, 15-year production estimates for each – taking into account current and expected climate-induced changes in local weather patterns informed by the company’s climate simulation techniques.

Sunairio compared these findings to two industry-standard methods – typical meteorological year (TMY) analysis and historical time series analysis – neither of which adjusts historical weather data for climate trends. Sunairio found that TMY methods, which have changed little since their introduction in 1978, create a sunnier-than-typical year and thus overly rosy solar generation forecasts.

Across all U.S. sites studied, Sunairio found an average production gap of 2% currently, increasing to 5% by 2034. On an individual site basis, the difference between using conventional backward-looking analysis and a climate-change-aware simulation can be as high as 5% currently and 12% by 2034. For solar project owners, missing energy production translates to much lower project returns. For a project that borrows 75% of capital costs, a 5% revenue drop will cause a 20% drop in equity returns.

“The irradiance trends observed in this study are broadly consistent with the output of global climate models that predict increasing precipitation for much of the Midwest, East, and South,” says Tim Ivancic, Ph.D., senior data scientist at Sunairio. “This study provides a roadmap (the incorporation of climate modeling insights) that explains how solar project investors can refine their pro-forma modeling to be confident that future production and revenue targets will be met — even in the face of a changing climate.”

Photo by Andre Furtado on Pexels.

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From analysing the environmental curtailment settings on a wind turbine to identifying PV tracker alignment issues in a solar array, maximising asset value over a 20+ year lifetime requires the latest optimisation tools and techniques. Left unchecked, these issues can cost operators significant material damage, reduce revenue, and erode project profitability.

In this webinar, we dive into the top obstacles in asset performance management and the cutting-edge techniques and optimisation solutions that are increasingly used by industry leaders. You will learn about:

The importance of collecting and standardising operational data across your portfolio of wind, solar, and battery storage assets

How AI is changing the way portfolio owners and operators monitor assets, identify performance issues, and engage O&M providers

Practical examples of common operational issues with wind, solar, and storage assets 

Best practices for internal and external reporting and stakeholder alignment

Speakers in this webinar:

Gianmarco Pizza, head of digital asset performance management, Fluence

Stefan Van Niekerk, head of operations, BTE Renewables

Presentations from the speakers is followed by a panel discussion-style interview moderated by Energy-Storage.news editor Andy Colthorpe, and the webinar concludes with an audience Q&A.

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You can also access the recording of this webinar “How industry leaders optimise the performance of their renewable and energy storage assets,” as well as many others on-demand at the site and receive presentation slides (registration required), at the site here.

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Matrix Renewables, the TPG Rise-backed global renewable energy platform, has acquired a controlling interest in the Pleasant Valley Solar Project from rPlus Energies. Located in Idaho, the 200 MW AC / 261 MW DC solar project will deliver energy to the Idaho Power system. Specifically, output will go into the same grid that supports Meta’s new data center in Kuna, Idaho.

The Pleasant Valley Solar project was awarded a power purchase agreement (PPA) through a negotiated process with Meta and Idaho Power. This PPA was made possible through the collaborative efforts between Meta and Idaho Power to develop a special energy services agreement that will allow Meta access to renewables to support its local operations. The project will begin construction in the third quarter of 2023.

“We are very pleased with the acquisition of the Pleasant Valley Solar Project and look forward to begin construction and finalize project financing over the coming months,” says Cindy Tindell, managing director and head of U.S. for Matrix Renewables. “We highly value rPlus as a partner, including the deep connection with the community that they bring to the table. Matrix is excited to be part of this landmark project in Idaho.”

rPlus Energies, a leader in renewable energy development in the American West, has rapidly developed a portfolio of over 40 projects across the U.S. representing over 14 GW of renewable energy production and electric storage capacity.

In the U.S., Matrix owns over 6 GW of projects in operation and in various stages of development across four different regions (CAISO, MISO, ERCOT and WECC) and continues to expand its pipeline and team. Globally, Matrix’s portfolio already surpasses 13 GW of solar power, battery storage and green hydrogen projects.

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Empact Technologies (Empact), a clean energy tax incentive management software and services company, has launched its new platform designed to maximize the impact of clean energy project incentives under America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Empact combines powerful software with incentive-compliance expertise into the industry’s first and most comprehensive IRA management platform.

Empact also signed an agreement with Stella Energy Solutions, a utility-scale solar and storage developer in Houston, Texas. Stella will use the Empact Technologies platform for IRA tax incentive management on all current and future solar and energy storage projects for a period of five years.

“We’re on the brink of a global transformation to a clean energy future. Empact’s platform will enable a more sustainable and equitable energy transition by optimizing the financial, social and environmental impact of clean energy projects,” says Charles Dauber, founder and CEO of Empact Technologies.

According to analysts from Goldman Sachs, the IRA is the most supportive regulatory environment in clean tech history, providing an estimated $1.2 trillion of incentives by 2032.

Empact enables developers to leverage the IRA clean energy program to secure project construction financing, while ensuring regulatory compliance. Empact also provides a thorough data repository to protect investors from IRS recapture risk. 

Empact’s platform combines proprietary SaaS technology with professional services, enabling projects to meet IRS regulatory requirements for prevailing wage and apprenticeship, domestic content and energy and low-income community incentives.

Empact’s comprehensive compliance data repository includes EPC and on-site subcontractor payroll records, domestic content qualification data for steel/iron and manufactured products, as well as project location and supporting documentation for energy and low-income community incentives.

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Public Storage, a national self-storage company, and Solar Landscape, a commercial and industrial rooftop solar developer, have begun constructing the first of more than 130 rooftop community solar projects that comprise a multistate community solar partnership.

Together, the 133 community solar installations in Maryland, New Jersey and Illinois will power over 10,000 homes with renewable energy. The 87.53- MW DC clean energy portfolio is one of the largest in the nation making affordable renewable energy accessible to low- and moderate-income (LMI) residents.

The program will allow local community residents to subscribe to nearby solar installations located on Public Storage’s rooftops and receive discounted electricity, often with additional savings for LMI households. Community solar expands access to renewable energy for those who are unable to install solar panels for reasons such as high costs, lack of roof control or insufficient sunlight. Public Storage’s rooftop projects will lower energy bills for subscribers, saving residents millions of dollars per year on electricity costs.

Part of this nation-leading community solar portfolio includes 21 projects spanning 13.2 MW that were announced on July 27 by the Illinois Power Agency (IPA) in conjunction with its Community-Driven Community Solar tranche of the Illinois Shines program. The 21 projects will serve nearly 1,500 households.

Public Storage’s 57 low-income focused community solar installations in Maryland will serve nearly 2,600 homes, many of them LMI families, making it the largest portfolio of projects from a single company in the Maryland Community Solar Pilot Program’s LMI subcategory. These projects will save Maryland residents nearly $1 million per year on their energy bills.

Public Storage plans to dedicate up to 44 of its properties in Illinois to community solar including the 21 approved by the IPA, and plans to dedicate another 32 properties in New Jersey. The company and Solar Landscape worked closely on site selection, solar system design, financing options and state program applications to maximize effectiveness.

The proposed renewable energy installations will be located on more than 8 million square feet of Public Storage’s facility rooftops. The 133 solar projects represent 13% of Public Storage’s commitment to install solar on more than 1,000 properties by 2025.

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Yash Anand

To support Invenergy Renewables Operating I LLC (IROI) and its parents’ growing project development pipeline, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking (Natixis CIB) recently closed a $1.5 billion sustainability-linked revolving credit facility. This financing upsizes the existing $600 million working capital facility of IROI with the support of existing lenders and several new lenders joining the syndicate.  

Mandated lead arrangers were Natixis CIB; Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A., New York Branch (Rabobank); Export Development Canada; and Desjardins Group.

Acting as sustainability coordinator, Natixis CIB worked with IROI this year to structure sustainability-linked features aligned with the company’s strategy to deliver clean energy. The facility is tied to two key performance indicators: the increase in GHG emissions avoided related to IROI’s assets and a health and safety metric.

“Natixis CIB was proud to partner with the excellent team at Invenergy and an outstanding bank group to deliver this landmark financing,” says Yash Anand, head of energy transition & natural resources, Americas at Natixis CIB. “This transaction is a further testament to Natixis CIB’s continued commitment to supporting best-in-class sustainable energy platforms.”

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A motion was made and passed at a commission meeting to declare a temporary moratorium for six months, allowing time for the consideration of “additional regulations and development standards for BESS uses”.

The board claimed further study and research are necessary prior to the implementation of BESS projects in the county, and said it recognised that “additional regulations and development standards are necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Jefferson County”. The Tennessee county is home to just under 60,000 residents.

Jefferson County’s board becomes the latest local authority in the US to enact such a moratorium. According to Energy-Storage.news’ tracking of reports from local media around the country, they have been imposed in a number of towns.

Largely focused on public fears of what might happen in the event of a fire or explosion at a grid-scale BESS, there appears to be the greatest concentration of moratoria in towns around New York State.

Perhaps partly in response to that, but more pertinently to the fact that the state has seen three energy storage system fires since May, New York governor Kathy Hochul has just announced an inter-agency working group will take on the task of verifying the safety of the state’s energy storage projects and set up best practices for future projects.

In many cases, a moratorium is imposed as a direct result of a specific proposed BESS project coming up before local authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) and meeting public opposition.

In Jefferson County, developer Plus Power is planning to build a 250MW/1,000MWh battery storage asset, called Dumplin Valley. Plus Power is hoping to have Dumplin Valley online by the end of 2027, and sell storage services from the plant to utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

According to local news outlet 10 News, Plus Power picked the site, in the Tennessee community of Piedmont, due to its “optimal place” on the local transmission network. However, the Board of Commissioners voted to not approve its construction at a meeting earlier in July before going a step further with its moratorium later in the month.

The temporary moratorium remains in place until 27 January 2024.

Moratorium comes after better luck for developer in Massachusetts

Plus Power enjoyed better fortunes in another set of recent development negotiations that involved moratoria. As reported by Energy-Storage.news at the beginning of July, two towns in Massachusetts, Medway and Carver, had enacted a halt to new battery storage – and in the case of Carver, new ground mount solar PV too.

Large-scale BESS project proposals were on the table in both towns, with Plus Power behind one of them, the Cranberry Point 150MW/300MWh BESS facility in the Town of Carver. Both towns had enacted a moratorium on utility-scale BESS as the technology is too new to have been included in local zoning laws.

To cut a long story short, Plus Power and the other developer Eolian were granted zoning law exemptions by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, clearing the path for the projects to start getting necessary approvals from other stakeholders.

“We thank Massachusetts’ leadership for making this decision based on the facts of regional need, project design, minimal environmental footprint, and safety best practices. Battery energy storage is already widely deployed across the country to help decarbonise and modernise electric grids,” Plus Power CEO Brandon O’Keefe said at the time.

“The Cranberry Point Energy Storage project will be a critically-important asset to improve power reliability and clean electricity for Southeast Massachusetts,” O’Keefe said, adding that Plus Power looked forward to working closely with the Town of Carver.

However, a source close to the company commented that the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities decision was a one-off event, given that it came after a lengthy discussion over which state agency had jurisdiction over energy storage.

That made it difficult to draw conclusions or take precedent from it, the source said, noting that there are a lot of conversations going on in the US today about where the authority should lie for energy storage facilities and their siting.

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The grant came from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) LDES Demonstration Grant Program which seeks to advance energy storage solutions that guarantee a minimum of 10 hours of continuous back-up power during grid outages.

The Program was launched in 2020, with Nomad and another $9.5 million beneficiary are the first companies to benefit from grants under it. Corvias Military Living has received the same amount to demonstrate one of the first EV-inclusive microgrids at Fort Riley in Kansas, in a project involving General Motors (GM) Defense and other GM businesses, though fewer details have been provided on that project.

Nomad’s mobile energy storage systems will help keep the Vermont communities powered up, reduce their energy costs and decarbonise, and serve as an additional tool during emergency response periods.

“This project, enabled by the U.S. Department of Energy’s support, will ensure that the benefits of clean energy and long-duration storage reach communities that need them,” said Nomad CEO Paul Coombs. “We are proud that the systems NOMAD builds here in Vermont will benefit rural communities of the Northeast that are too often left behind.”

Nomad was formed in 2020 by Kore Power, the company building lithium-ion gigafactories in the US while also now deploying energy storage system (ESS) projects after acquiring system integrator Northern Reliability last year.

Also involved in the project is the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), is a non-profit research organisation which counts most of the US’ utilities in its membership.

GMP has ordered the first power systems from Nomad, which will be assembled in Vermont, and will deploy them to create Resiliency Zones to strengthen the grid and prevent outages. The Zones will be in Panton, Brattleboro, Grafton and Rochester. GMP will use the batteries during peak demand periods.

“We are so excited to continue rapidly growing battery storage in Vermont to keep everyone powered up through extreme weather,” said Mari McClure, GMP’s president and CEO.

Nomad will build the mobile solutions using Kore’s modules, with each unit capable of providing power to about 50 homes for 10 hours, and the units will also be capable of providing EV charging.

The news is the latest in a string of mobile BESS stories, after new UK firm Allye raised seed capital to start building its product while established player Moxion announced plans to build a manufacturing plant in California with 7GWh of production capacity, although these are targeting different use cases than the projects from Nomad.

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Nova Scotia is among the most coal-dependent of Canada’s provinces, and according to the national regulator burned coal for 51% of total generation in 2019. The Act calls for an end to coal generation by 2030.

It also wants to get to 80% renewable electricity by that time, and the provincial government said those two goals “have the greatest impact on our greenhouse gas emissions,” in its progress report.

Actions it is taking to enable them include building out more local renewable energy facilities and allowing better connection with renewables in neighbouring provinces in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

The government also said that additional support for energy storage, as well as expanding energy efficiency programmes, will result in further emissions reductions while improving stability of the electricity system and suppressing increases in electricity costs.

The “additional support” referred to includes the passing earlier this year of Bill 264. The legislation is an amendment to Nova Scotia’s Electricity Act framework enabling the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Renewables to either run competitive procurements and issue contracts to grid-scale battery storage, or contract directly with projects and developers without the solicitation process.

“There’s no energy market, or ancillary services market in the province to speak of,” Patrick Bateman, an independent consultant retained by trade group Energy Storage Canada to work on Atlantic Canada industry issues told Energy-Storage.news earlier this year.

“So without those direct bilateral contracts, there’s no path to market.”

While contracts with the province would be a game changer, Bateman said, the key questions now are how the new structures will be implemented, how quickly, and what Nova Scotia’s ambitions are.

Nova Scotia’s main electricity supplier is Nova Scotia Power, an investor-owned utility (IOU), which announced this Spring that it had closed a request for proposal (RFP) for 150MW of battery storage, while a number of other developers have large projects in the province, Bateman said.

“One key development will be, now that this bill is in place, that sends a strong signal to those companies that there’s contracts at the end of the rainbow, so they can keep on developing and moving it [their project] forward.”

‘Energy storage clearly a leading option’

Natural resources and renewables minister Tory Rushton gave a speech as the Electricity Act amendment passed that mentioned twice in its opening paragraph a desire at government level to fast-track energy storage projects.

Regular readers of this site as well as subscribers to our quarterly journal PV Tech Power, will be aware of growing energy storage activity across Canada, although as Bateman pointed out, around 90% of a 5GW pipeline of projects expected to come online by 2030 is focused in two provinces, Ontario and Alberta.

However, as one of the provinces facing the biggest challenge to get off coal, Nova Scotia represents an interesting opportunity for energy storage to showcase its central role in the energy transition. Although Nova Scotia Power’s most recent integrated resource plan (IRP) modelled a need for around just 200MW of storage by the end of this decade, that could well change through subsequent revisions, Patrick Bateman said.

“In Nova Scotia, this province does not have good access to gas supply, they’re at the end of the pipeline. So when they’ll need it during the winter peak, that’s when it’s going to be least available and most expensive,” Bateman said.

“So how this province phases out coal, if it can go straight from coal to clean, and not from coal to gas to clean, that’ll be obviously the best future-proofed approach. Energy storage is clearly a leading option not only for the capacity that they need, but also the ancillary services as well.”

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