News | United Power Partners

CPUC Continues Efforts to Ensure Grid Reliability

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today opened a new proceeding to continue its efforts to ensure the availability of reliable and cost-effective electricity supply in California through implementation and administration of its Resource Adequacy program. The preliminary scope of issues for the new proceeding includes: Adoption of Local and Flexible capacity procurement requirements for …

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Energy Firms, Green Groups and Others Reach Deal on Solar Farms

News / By Staff

Solar developers, environmentalists, farming groups and tribal organizations said on Thursday that they had reached an agreement that could make it easier in the United States to build large solar farms, which have attracted stiff opposition in some places. The agreement seeks to address some thorny land-use and biodiversity issues that often stymie power projects …

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Opinion | How One Tiny Island Nation Is Replacing Fossil Fuels With Renewable Power

News / By Staff

Weaning the developing world off fossil fuels is critically important to prevent the climate crisis from becoming a catastrophe. But a major sticking point is making that goal hard to accomplish. Many developing countries lack access to the cheap financing they need to make the switch to clean power, so they continue to burn fossil …

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CPUC Staff Propose $45 Million Penalty for PGE Over Dixie Fire

News / By Staff

SAN FRANCISCO –The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today issued a staff proposal that seeks CPUC Commissioner approval for a $45 million penalty against Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in connection with the 2021 Dixie Fire. Proposed Penalty Breakdown Under the proposed Administrative Consent Order (ACO) and Agreement, PG&E would pay a $45 million …

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Vermont Utility Plans to End Outages by Giving Customers Batteries

News / By Staff

Many electric utilities are putting up lots of new power lines as they rely more on renewable energy and try to make grids more resilient in bad weather. But a Vermont utility is proposing a very different approach: It wants to install batteries at most homes to make sure its customers never go without electricity. …

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Millions of Californians Set to Receive Climate Credit on October Electric Bills

News / By Staff

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today offered a reminder that this October, millions of Californians across the state will see a credit on their electric bills designed to reward their commitment to fighting climate change. Thanks to the State’s Cap and-Trade program, most customers of electric investor-owned utilities will see an approximate $40-$70 credit …

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Opinion | Free the American West From Barbed Wire

News / By Staff

Virtual fencing stands on this common ground: The regional organization Conservation Northwest funded the two base stations the Wilsons use, seeing virtual fencing as a chance to protect a movement corridor for elk, deer, bears, wolves, ground-nesting birds and other resident species. “As soon as we heard about it, we were all over it,” said …

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In Summer Heat, ‘Artificial Shortages’ in Texas Grid May Have Cost $8 Billion

News / By Staff

When VJ Arizpe installed solar panels connected to batteries at his home in Houston last year, he did so to avoid the kind of power outages that had plunged much of Texas into darkness in the middle of a winter storm in February 2021. The new equipment allowed him to sell back extra power to …

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Peak Oil Is Near, Energy Agency Says, but Climate Change Is Far From Solved

News / By Staff

Cleaner energy technologies like electric cars and solar panels are spreading so rapidly that the global use of oil, coal and natural gas could peak this decade, but countries will still need to pursue more aggressive measures if they want to limit global warming to relatively safe levels, the world’s leading energy agency said Tuesday. …

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Can the U.S. Make Solar Panels? This Company Thinks So.

News / By Staff

For more than two decades, workers at a factory in Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo, have been making something that other businesses stopped producing in the United States long ago: solar panels. How the company that owns the factory, First Solar, managed to hang on when most solar panel manufacturing left the United States for China …

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