Ohio Supreme Court reverses permit for Agrovoltaics site
The Supreme Court of Ohio has reversed a previously approved permit for Madison County's Oak Run Solar project, which would have been the largest solar installation in the history of the state and one of the largest agrivoltaics projects in the US. The 6,000-acre project would have included about 800 MW of solar generation as well as 300 MW worth of battery storage capacity.
Developers filed for approval with the Ohio Power Siting Board in 2023, claiming the project would create more than 3,000 construction jobs as well as 63 long-term operational and maintenance jobs once online. The utility-scale project would provide enough power for about 170,000 homes, and $7.2 million in tax revenue for the county over and estimated 35 years. The Siting Board approved the project in March of 2024. Opponents to the project then appealed the decision to the supreme court.
The court, composed of seven Republicans and one Democrat, reversed the permit issued by the Siting Board on technical grounds, stating that the developers did not submit enough photographic simulations or pictorial sketches that displayed the project from public vantage points. The lone decent, Democrat, Jennifer Brunner, argued that the sitting board already had adequate information from which to determine the visual impacts of the project.
The court sent the project back to the siting board with orders to more adequately address the visual impacts of the substations. The court also dismissed a slew of objections raised by local and county officials claiming the solar development was an undesired use of land that had traditionally been used for farming.
The project is an example of the now partisan nature of solar development. Republican commissioners from 27 counties — about 30 percent of the state — have banned solar and wind projects in their jurisdictions, according to the Associated Press.
More than 1 million solar customers connect to California utility
California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced it has surpassed 1 million customers with solar systems connected to its grid.
Customers have been making solar connections in PG&E territory for over 30 years. More than half a million new interconnections were added between 2020-2025 and more than 70,000 new solar installations have been connected annually in recent years.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), there are currently about 6 million customer-owned solar arrays connected to the grid nationwide, meaning that one in six systems is currently connected to the PG&E system.
Coal powered electricity continues to decline in US
When Donald Trump launched his initial campaign for the White House, he promised to end the so-called "war on coal," lower energy prices and put thousands of miners back to work.
But since taking office in 2016, the use of coal in generating electricity has been cut in half. In 2016 coal accounted for approximately 30 percent of all electricity generation. Today it accounts for just 15 percent.
Similarly, in 2016 there were between 70,000 - 75,000 coal miners employed fulltime across the nation. That number has also been cut in half, now employing approximately 38,000.
In an effort to revive the industry, Trump administration officials last week offered specifics on over $700 million in Energy Department funding to boost coal-fired power and ship more coal overseas.
In contrast, lawmakers have budgeted a total of $320 million solar and wind programs under the DOE, despite the administration proposing to cut these programs entirely.
DOE officials presented a list of 13 coal-fired plants that will receive a combined $425 million to upgrade and extend their span of operation. They also announced plans to fund two new coal-fired power plants, one in Anchorage AK and another in Mt. Storm WV. If constructed, these would be the first coal-fired plants to come online since 2013.
Google funds 100 MW virtual power plant
Google will fund a three-year, 100-MW virtual power plant in the PJM Interconnection with the aim of creating an "industry-leading scalable blueprint" for unlocking capacity to meet data center demand, the tech giant announced last week.
The company is partnering with operator Voltus to aggregate distributed energy resources from residential, commercial and industrial customers across the midwestern states managed by PJM.
Data center development across the region has been cited as a major reason for electricity shortages, higher prices and potential power outages. Experts claim that many of the capacity issues could be eliminated if data centers would be willing to curtail their load demands during periods of peak load demand.
But Google responded in their recent press announcement that it is often faster and more cost effective for them to simply pay other customers to shift their electricity usage, rather than to change the way their centers operate.
Google's virtual power plant (VPP) will work by pooling thousands of distributed energy resources—like home batteries, electric vehicles, and smart thermostats—into a single, coordinated network. Partnering with energy aggregators, Google then pays device owners to temporarily reduce power consumption or discharge stored energy during peak grid demand.
Tandem PV announces module with 30.4 percent efficiency
U.S.-based perovskite/silicon solar module maker Tandem PV has achieved a conversion efficiency of 30.4 percent from a demonstration module in laboratory testing.
According to Tandem PV CEO Scott Wharton, breaking the 30 percent efficiency barrier has been a company goal for some time.
Wharton estimates a full-sized module using the design could achieve 28 percent efficiency — offering 12 percent more output from the same surface area as the current silicon-based efficiency leader, a 545 W back-contact solar module with 25 percent efficiency from manufacturer Aiko. He said that Tandem PV hopes to deliver such a module for the utility-scale market sector later this year.