Empower Energies announced the completion of a 14.5 megawatt solar facility to complement CYRQ Energy’s Patua Geothermal Power Plant in Churchill County, NV. The 25 megawatt Patua Geothermal Power Plant is a base load power facility that provides enough renewable energy to power 20,000 homes and is sold directly to customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in northern California. 

Duke Energy Renewables shoots north with its first solar project in New York. The utility will purchase the 29.4 megawatt Shoreham Solar Commons project in Long Island from Invenergy. The solar farm is predicted to create 175 jobs during construction and produce up to $900,000 in tax revenue for Brookhaven and surrounding areas every year.

The solar industry is giving back to those who serve in the US military. Out of appreciation of military personnel, Palomar Solar is awarding a residential rooftop solar system of up to 7 kilowatts to one San Diego military family. The grand prize winner of the Palomar Solar Gives Back sweepstakes will receive a solar array expected to save up to $300 per month on power bills and offset the household’s energy consumption by up to 95 percent.  

Amazon joined the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions’ (C2ES) Business Environmental Leadership Council (BELC). The online retail giant joined the council to work with mainly Fortune 500 companies to find practical solutions to reduce its carbon emissions and promote renewable energy development throughout its global operations.

Salesforce, a Fortune 500 company and cloud services provider, is the largest company to power its San Francisco headquarters with 100 percent renewable energy through CleanPowerSF as a “SuperGreen” company. Joining the program will enable Salesforce to save the emission of greenhouse gases equivalent to burning 1.8 million pounds of coal annually.

Arizona Public Service (APS) is among a handful of utilities in the US installing energy storage systems to replace traditional transmission infrastructure. After considering the price of rebuilding 20 miles of transmission infrastructure over rough terrain to rural Punkin Center, AZ, APS chose to install 8 megawatt-hours of battery storage for around the same cost. The battery system will increase grid reliability for 600 current customers and facilitate the town’s growing energy needs over the next 10 years.

The city council of Waterville, ME, passed a resolution to allow the development of a 25 megawatt utility-scale solar project on the retired Webb Road landfill. The $30 million project will begin construction in early 2020 and is expected to provide electricity for 3,750 New England homes. The project is expected to revitalize the local economy and create more than 175 jobs during the peak of its construction.

Buying a rooftop solar array and battery storage system is about to be as easy as purchasing a kitchen table at Ikea in the United Kingdom. Ikea customers can now purchase and install residential  systems that combine Solarcentury’s photovoltaic panels with LG Chem lithium-ion batteries in 3.3 kilowatt-hours or 6.5 kilowatt-hour configurations. The combined system can save customers an estimated $730 a year on power bills, according to Ikea. 

Con Edison is investing $10 million to develop a program to bring the benefits of solar power to low-income customers in Brooklyn, Queens and Westchester County, NY. The utility’s Shared Solar Pilot Program is expected to save each household an estimated $60 per year on power bills.

Businesses and organizations throughout Hawaii are about benefit from 2.4 megawatt-hours of solar-plus-battery systems at 7 locations, thanks to a partnership between Powin Energy and Adon Renewables. Powin Energy will install its Stack140 storage systems at 7 locations, which include the Aqua Kauai Beach Resort and the Boy Scouts of America.