Latest news with #solarprojects
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Massachusetts grid breakthrough could benefit customers while boosting solar
A pesky question has long stalled efforts to expand U.S. power grids in the face of growing demand and surging renewable energy: Who should pay for the upgrades? An under-the-radar breakthrough in Massachusetts may finally provide a template for answering that question. Over the past year or so, the state's largest utilities and regulators have approved plans for dividing grid costs between customers and the companies that build solar arrays. It's been a long time coming. The plans in question have gone through numerous iterations since utilities, regulators, and solar developers started working on them about six years ago, making progress hard to track. And the name they settled on — "Capital Investment Projects,' or CIPs — isn't exactly an attention grabber. But behind the staid name lies a significant advance for a state striving to fairly allocate the costs of shifting to clean energy, said Kate Tohme, director of interconnection policy at Massachusetts-based community solar developer New Leaf Energy. In fact, advocates working on similar efforts in states from New York to California are 'all trying to use the Massachusetts framework as a model,' she said. The roughly $334 million in CIP grid projects from utilities Eversource and National Grid that have been approved or are being considered by regulators are doing something rare in the world of regulated utilities. Instead of forcing distributed solar and battery projects to pay up-front for grid improvements that allow them to connect to the utility system, the CIPs spread those costs onto customers' future utility bills. Under the old system, clean energy projects regularly died on the vine because up-front grid costs were prohibitively high. That doesn't mean developers are getting a free ride, however. They'll still have to pay a portion of those costs back as they're connected to the grid, reducing the burden on customers over time. And every project in question had to prove to regulators that the grid improvements at large also deliver customer benefits, whether through improved grid reliability, enabling access to cheaper community solar power, or both. Massachusetts can't avoid these kinds of grid investments if it's to meet its clean energy and electrification goals, according to Tohme, a former official at the state Department of Public Utilities who was directly involved in some of the earliest CIP work. The state has committed to cutting emissions 50% below 1990 levels by 2030, which will require building lots of renewable energy and electrifying vehicles and home heating. 'In the short term, it's going to increase our costs,' Tohme said. But 'once the grid is modernized and we get distributed energy interconnected, it's going to drastically decrease our electricity costs' by replacing expensive fossil-fueled power with cheaper renewable energy and batteries. The landmark plan emerged as a response to what might be seen as a clean-energy success story — Massachusetts had too much community solar trying to get onto an overly crowded grid. The launch of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program in 2018 had created lucrative incentives for community solar developers, spurring a rush of applications to connect to utility distribution grids. As available capacity was used up, the cost of upgrading those grids to accommodate more solar power started to rise. 'For a while, the cost to interconnect was tens of thousands of dollars, something a project could absorb,' said Mike Porcaro, director of innovative grid solutions at National Grid, one of the state's largest utilities. 'But eventually the modifications grew so large — hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars — that it was hard for projects to move forward.' National Grid was encountering the same kind of interconnection backlog and upgrade cost challenges that have tied up utility-scale solar and wind projects on high-voltage transmission grids across the country. The main difference is that community solar projects connect to lower-voltage grids that carry power from big substations to end customers. Similar backlogs have dogged other states with lots of community solar, including Minnesota and New York. One of the best-established ways to relieve interconnection stresses is for utilities and grid operators to stop painstakingly studying each project one at a time and batch them instead. Such 'group' or 'cluster' studies of multiple projects seeking interconnection in a particular region allow utilities to conduct a speedier and more holistic assessment of the impacts they'll cause and upgrades that will solve them. It also allows grid-upgrade costs to be shared among the projects in the cluster, rather than foisting them on whichever project engineers determined would push that part of the grid over its existing capacity limit, thus triggering an upgrade, Porcaro said. But the approach has its limits. 'You're still sharing the costs among that group,' he said — and forcing projects to pay even a portion of those costs up front can still make them too expensive to move forward. To deal with that disconnect, the Department of Public Utilities launched its 'provisional system planning program,' the precursor to the CIPs, in 2021. The idea, Porcaro said, was to allow utilities to move faster on solving the fundamental problem for all of those community solar projects — a grid that wasn't being built out quickly enough to match the exploding demand for capacity. National Grid and other utilities already plan ahead to accommodate growing electricity demand from customers or to serve big new developments like housing subdivisions or factories, Porcaro noted. The goal of the provisional system planning approach was to find a way to similarly pay in advance for proactive grid investments to bring community solar projects online. 'The review and discovery to get these CIPs approved was no small feat,' Porcaro said. 'It wasn't a quick decision.' In late 2022, the Department of Public Utilities approved its first test case for CIPs — a cluster of projects put forward by utility Eversource, known as the 'Marion-Fairhaven Study Group' after two of the Southeastern Massachusetts towns in the area being considered for upgrades. Eversource estimated at the time that it would cost about $116 million in distribution grid upgrades to enable roughly 140 megawatts of community solar to connect to the grid. To avoid the chicken-and-egg problem of requiring projects to pay up front for the upgrades — something they couldn't afford to do — Eversource proposed charging them about $370 per kilowatt of solar they connected once the grid work was done. The risk of this approach is that some of the projects involved in the group study would end up dropping out, leaving customers on the hook for their unpaid share, Lavelle Freeman, Eversource's vice president of distribution system planning, told Canary Media in a 2023 interview. That put the burden on Eversource to plan a grid upgrade that didn't just make room for the solar projects but benefited customers as well. Fortunately, the same kinds of upgrades that expand capacity for community solar also improve customer reliability and provide headroom for growing electrical loads. 'We're also improving the substations, adding new capacity, adding new transformers and feeders, making the system more robust,' Freeman said. 'We developed a very rigorous algorithm to calculate the reliability benefits,' which ended up showing a roughly 50-50 split in the benefits between customers and solar developers. 'That went a long way toward convincing regulators that the cost-allocation principle would work.' To be clear, there are significant risks to committing utility customers' money to building out grid infrastructure to serve the needs of community solar projects. In Massachusetts, the state Attorney General's Office is tasked with protecting utility customers' interests in regulatory proceedings like these. A senior official at the Attorney General's Office who was involved with the CIP process told Canary Media that the office 'took serious issue' with how Eversource first proposed splitting grid-upgrade costs. 'Not only were ratepayers paying more than they should have, it created a lot of risk for ratepayers,' said the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss matters outside the official regulatory process. On the other hand, the official said, 'being able to have more homegrown generation is going to be important for Massachusetts. It is a cost risk. But how do we minimize those cost risks to ratepayers, and maximize those benefits to ratepayers, as we bring this solar online?' These concerns from the Attorney General's Office pushed the finalized version of CIP to shift more of the cost of new grid investments onto community solar projects as opposed to utility customers. That's not ideal from the perspective of solar developers, obviously, but it's far better than being stuck with the unaffordable upgrade costs they faced before. Having a known per-kilowatt cost locked in well in advance is also helpful, said Mike Judge, currently undersecretary of energy for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, who spoke to Canary Media in 2023 when he was vice president of policy for the trade group Coalition for Community Solar Access. Developers often need to secure interconnection rights before they can secure the financing and start signing up subscribers that allow them to move forward with projects, he said. 'There's so much value for a developer to know I'm going to pay $370 a kilowatt to connect,' Judge said. 'You're not waiting a year, year and a half for a utility to come back with study results to say, it's $5 million — and you have to cancel your project.' The model that Eversource established for the Marion-Fairhaven project is largely mirrored in the 10 other CIPs that it and National Grid have submitted to regulators. All told, Eversource has identified six groups with more than 250 MW of community solar or battery storage capacity. Porcaro said that National Grid has five CIPs that will enable about 300 MW of new projects — 'that's huge.' Massachusetts isn't the only state working on policies that aim to spur grid expansion while keeping customers' power costs in check, Tohme said. Similar efforts are now underway in states including California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, and New York. But to Tohme's knowledge, no other state has accomplished what Massachusetts has with its CIP structure. New York is closest, she said, with a cost-sharing framework that allows community solar developers to split up the costs of necessary upgrades rather than bearing them alone. But that still doesn't include the same 'build in advance, pay later' structure that the CIPs have, she said. At the same time, Tohme pointed out, the CIPs remain a response to a problem that's been hounding the state for years now: projects stuck behind an inadequately upgraded grid. The next logical step is to figure out where grid upgrades should be made before that kind of situation happens again. That's one of the goals laid out for the state's three major investor-owned utilities under a sprawling grid-modernization mandate created as part of a major energy and climate law passed in 2022. It's called the Electric Sector Modernization Plans process, and the Department of Public Utilities is now reviewing the proposals submitted by utilities last year to determine next steps, Porcaro said. CIPs are a part of that broader plan, he said. But the modernization plans are 'going above that and saying, 'plan for everything' — for everyone having an EV, and electrifying their homes, and specific goals for how much energy storage we need. It's a tall order.' Given how long it took to figure out CIPs, clean energy developers have reason to worry that this even more sweeping and complicated planning task could take even longer. Clean-energy industry group Advanced Energy United has urged state regulators to keep doing CIPs while it undertakes this broader new effort. Porcaro highlighted other work that can help get more clean energy connected even before the grid gets built out. He pointed to National Grid's Active Resource Integration pilot, launching this year, which is looking at ways community solar and battery projects can connect to grids that can safely absorb their power output during all but a handful of hours of the year. If those solar farms can curtail their output during those hours, they could connect years ahead of utility grid upgrades. These kinds of 'flexible interconnection' structures, as they're generally known, could help 'get us through now to when the full system could be built, or to get through certain areas where you don't need a full buildout,' Porcaro said. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on building out a grid that can support Massachusetts' clean energy and electrification ambitions. Later this year, the Department of Public Utilities is expected to issue its ground rules on how utilities should start to calculate the fair sharing of costs between their customers and the community solar and battery projects trying to connect to their grids under the Electric Sector Modernization Plans, Tohme said. Once that's done, utilities and other stakeholder groups will bring cost-sharing proposals to the regulator and start to hash them out, she said. 'So we have a long way to go before we have proactive proposals.' But just because it's going to be hard doesn't mean it isn't worth doing, she said. 'We have to modernize our grid. Right now we're doing it anyway — we're just reacting. We're just doing it non-strategically. And that's just as expensive,' Tohme said — if not more so.
Trade Arabia
2 days ago
- Business
- Trade Arabia
ALTÉRRA backs Absolute Energy to develop renewable capacity in Italy
ALTÉRRA, the UAE's $30 billion climate investment vehicle, today announced a €50 million commitment via ALTÉRRA Acceleration Fund to Absolute Energy, an innovative Italian renewable energy platform. The co-investment, made alongside global infrastructure investment manager, I Squared Capital, will help accelerate the development of an initial active pipeline of 1.4GW projects across Italy. Absolute Energy focuses on the rapid development of multiple commercially viable small to medium-scale solar projects across Italy, leveraging the country's supportive regulatory environment - including accelerated permitting processes and guaranteed grid access. Through this initial buildout of 1.4GW of solar and battery storage capacity, along with a broader development pipeline of over 6GW, Absolute Energy is well positioned to become a next-generation Independent Power Producer (IPP) playing a key role in advancing Italy's decarbonization and energy independence goals. ALTÉRRA estimates that this 1.4GW pipeline could eliminate up to 380,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions annually. Italy has set a national target of adding 46GW of new solar capacity by 2030 to advance its net zero ambitions, address rising power demand, strengthen energy security, and reduce dependence on energy imports. Benefiting from favourable conditions such as high solar irradiation levels coupled with supportive policies, Italy represents a compelling market opportunity for advancing solar infrastructure at a pivotal moment in Europe's energy transition. Majid Al Suwaidi, CEO of ALTÉRRA, commented: 'We are excited to support Absolute Energy as it enters its next phase of growth. With a strong pipeline and deep sector expertise, the company will help drive Italy's clean energy future. ALTERRA invests to accelerate the climate transition through innovative approaches and partnerships. In working with a global leader like I Squared Capital with their strong track record in platform building and investing in renewables, this investment further demonstrates how ALTERRA works with partners to invest at scale to accelerate impact across key markets.' Sadek Wahba, Chairman and Managing Partner of I Squared Capital, said: 'We are proud to welcome ALTÉRRA as a strategic partner in Absolute Energy. Their investment underscores the strength of the platform and the scale of the opportunity in accelerating Italy's energy transition. ALTÉRRA brings deep climate focus and ambition, and we share their commitment to deploying capital with urgency and impact. This partnership is a powerful endorsement of Absolute Energy's innovative model and I Squared's long-standing approach to building transformational infrastructure businesses in critical sectors around the world.' -
Zawya
22-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Africa's Energy Future: Now!
Powering AI data centres, accelerating large-scale solar projects and leading the global energy transition are just three of the critical topics up for debate at next month's Africa Energy Forum (aef), kicking off for the first time in Cape Town, South Africa, 17–20 June 2025. Forum sponsor Sun Africa returns for the third consecutive year, a testament to its sustained commitment to powering Africa's clean energy future. For a full programme and to join the debate, visit: Under the theme of 'Africa United', and featuring hundreds of ministers, policymakers and executives from nations across the continent, the aef will spotlight the continent's expanding ambition and the urgent drive to reshape its own energy future. With South Africa now chairing the G20, the continent will gain a pivotal voice in global decision-making, making aef 2025 the launchpad for a bold message to the world: Africa knows what it needs, and it's ready to lead. This year's aef will welcome a significant number of new companies participating for the first time, expanding the community of innovators and investors at the event. It will also host delegations from 33 countries, comprising head of state, ministers, regulators, and other public sector leaders from across the continent. Confirmed speakers include the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, South Africa's Minister of Electricity&Energy, Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Nigeria's Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu and Noureddine Yassaa, Algeria's Secretary of State for Renewable Energies. The high-level line-up also features the current Senegalese candidate for the Presidency of the African Development Bank, Amadou Hott, plus senior ministers and policy makers from Liberia, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Madagascar. This year's aef will focus on how the private sector can help move from ambition to implementation on Mission 300, connecting power to 300 million people by 2030. And, as demand surges from commercial and industrial sectors, the aef will also unpack the infrastructure, investment, and regulatory models needed to keep pace. Grounded in Ubuntu, the African philosophy of shared humanity, the event will call for a global energy transition that is cooperative, equitable, and Africa-led. 'Something urgent has to be achieved as we simply cannot have another 10 woeful years of investment into projects. No more [time] can pass with one side saying we 'we need guarantees' and the other side saying, 'we can't afford guarantees.' Time is THE DETERMINING FACTOR holding energy access back and this needs to change. Now is the time for Africa to unite behind common goals and common infrastructure!' Simon Gosling, Managing Director, EnergyNet 'The future of African power infrastructure starts with Sun Africa, and the conversation about Africa's energy future continues at the Africa Energy Forum. We are proud to be the Forum Sponsor of an event that will unite visionaries and unite people from across the continent.' – Adam Cortese, CEO, Sun Africa. Bringing together community and sport, the 2025 edition of eaf also features the Africa Challenge Cup, a special evening of football at Cape Town's iconic DHL Stadium. Four teams will face off in friendly matches under the floodlights, offering a chance for delegates, partners, and peers to connect in a spirited, relaxed setting alongside friends and family. The Youth Energy Summit (YES!), held in parallel with aef, is expected to welcome more than 4,000 participants, making it one of the largest gatherings focused on youth engagement in the African energy sector. Many companies are supporting the initiative not just as sponsors, but as active partners in youth participation across the continent. These include the DBSA, Nedbank, Pele Green Energy, Seriti Green, Siemens Energy, Genesis, and others from the energy and mining sectors. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of EnergyNet Ltd.. Notes: The main sponsors at this year's aef include Sun Africa, AKSA, Red Rocket, Globeleq, Nedbank and the World Bank. See Lead sponsors at this year's aef include the Africa Development Bank, AMEA Power, the British International Investment, BCG, EDF, Engie, the European Investment Bank, GE Vernova, Infinity Power, Standard Bank, Synergy Consulting and TotalEnergies. See For media inquiries and registration please email : Poliana Sperandio: poliana@ Sylvia Gaita: About the Africa Energy Forum (aef): The Africa Energy Forum (aef) is taking place in the Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa, 17-20 June 2025. The event is the continent's leading platform for energy sector stakeholders to collaborate, invest, and accelerate progress. In its 27th year, the aef brings together governments, developers, investors, and innovators to drive real-world solutions in energy access and sustainability. See
Globe and Mail
21-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
SolarBank (NASDAQ: SUUN) (Cboe CA: SUNN) (FSE: GY2) CEO Discusses Business Mode on GotStocks Podcast
Disseminated on behalf of SolarBank Corporation CEO Dr. Richard Lu discussed SolarBank's vertically integrated business model on a recent GotStocks podcast. SolarBank is an expanding developer, builder, operator, and owner of clean energy projects across North America, maintaining a $184 million portfolio of assets generating recurring revenue. The company's flexible supply chain strategy helps mitigate any tariff risks while reducing costs. Going forward, a recently announced up to $100 million transaction with CIM Group is set to fund up to 97 MW of U.S. community solar projects. Dr. Richard Lu, CEO of SolarBank (NASDAQ: SUUN) (Cboe CA: SUNN) (FSE: GY2), a premier developer and owner of renewable and clean energy projects, specializing in distributed and community solar initiatives throughout Canada and the U.S., offered insights into the company's operations, strategy, and unique competitive position during a recent interview on IBN's GotStocks podcast ( The conversation centered on SolarBank's dual role as both a developer and long-term owner of solar energy assets, an approach that differentiates the firm in a competitive market. 'SolarBank is both a developer and an independent power producer,' Lu said. The company identifies suitable sites, secures permits, engages utilities, and finances projects. 'As a developer, we secure sites for clean and renewable energy project development. We bring the projects to the attention of local… Read More>> For more information, visit the company's website at This report contains forward-looking information. Please refer to for additional details. Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the InvestorBrandNetwork website applicable to all content provided by IBN, wherever published or re-published: Corporate Communications
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Doral Renewables gains $1.5bn financing for US solar projects
US-based renewable energy assets developer Doral Renewables has secured up to $1.5bn in financing for its Mammoth South, Mammoth Central I and Mammoth Central II solar projects in Pulaski County, Indiana, US. The projects, each with 300 megawatts alternating current (MWac) capacity, are integral parts of the larger 1.3GW Mammoth Solar facility, set to supply electricity to 275,000 households each year. Each project has secured long-term power purchase agreements with prominent utilities and all will commence commercial operations in the fourth quarter of 2026. KeyBanc Capital Markets, Banco Santander and HSBC Bank USA served as co-ordinated lead arrangers for the $1.3bn construction debt financing. The package includes $412m in construction-to-term loan facilities, $614m in tax equity bridge loans and a $259m letter of credit facility. The financial closure coincided with Doral's agreement of more than $200m in tax equity commitment from Truist Bank for the Mammoth South project. Doral Renewables chief financial officer Evan Speece stated: "We are thrilled to close these landmark financings to support the construction of the remaining three phases of our Mammoth Solar project. "Each of the three banks leading the debt financing is a repeat partner for Doral and we could not be happier to broaden our relationships with them. Notably, we are also proud to be extending our long-standing relationship with Truist by executing our first tax equity transaction together." The Mammoth South, Central I and Central II projects will be ground-mounted single-axis photovoltaic systems and will incorporate more than one million solar modules manufactured in the US. They will utilise 20,000 tonnes (t) of Indiana steel, injecting tens of millions of dollars into the state's economy. Doral aims to broaden its agrivoltaics initiatives within the project sites, promoting heritage farming activities such as livestock grazing and food production. Marathon Capital Markets acted as tax equity advisor, while McDermott Will & Emery provided legal counsel to Doral for both the construction debt and tax equity. CCA Group was the tax equity advisor, with Milbank providing legal counsel to Truist. The lenders received legal counsel from Norton Rose Fulbright. In April 2025, Doral Renewables also secured tax equity financing for its Great Bend solar project, with Fifth Third Bank committing to an investment of $30m. "Doral Renewables gains $1.5bn financing for US solar projects" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
