Archive for category: Resilient Power Project

Massachusetts’ Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) grant program was created to jump-start the energy storage industry by piloting innovative, broadly-replicable demonstration projects with multiple value streams, thereby priming Massachusetts for increased commercialization and deployment.

Batteries are beginning to complete head-to-head with natural gas peaker plants, and they’re starting to win.

A new release of NREL’s free online tool allows anyone to enter in a building’s information to estimate how much solar+storage capacity would be needed to keep critical loads powered during an emergency.

California’s recently adopted building standards require solar to be a part of all new residential construction. As the first state to enact such a standard, it’s been lauded as a historic and game-changing event for solar power in the U.S. But some have argued that the new standards don’t go far enough.

It’s rare to have an opportunity to shape an energy technology market as it emerges. Today, battery storage is that energy technology.

Three of California’s largest utilities recently proposed more than 100 megawatts of utility-owned energy storage to support resiliency in critical public facilities and $6 million in incentives for customer-owned storage at multifamily affordable housing properties.

Just this past week, Puerto Rico suffered another setback in its effort to restore power to the island. One of its 400 megawatt power plants caught fire, plunging people back into the darkness.

Extreme weather and related power outages come with a price tag, but these costs are not typically accounted for when considering the potential benefits of a resilient power system. The result is that fewer solar+storage systems pencil-out to make economic sense than would be the case if the power resilience they provide was accurately valued.

Any investigation into the massive power outage at Atlanta’s international airport last month should not only look back to see what went wrong. Rather, it should look forward to how the airport could use new technologies like solar and battery storage to prevent such disasters from happening again.

Last week, the Baker-Polito Administration awarded $20 million in grants to support 26 energy storage projects in 25 Massachusetts communities. This grant program puts the state clearly in the storage leadership role in the East.