Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the electric automaker’s next new product: the Powerwall, a modular battery storage system aimed at the residential sector. The lithium-ion battery pack, which can be combined with as many as eight other units, mounts to a wall and stores energy from solar collectors.
“If you have the Tesla Powerwall, if the utility goes down, you still have power,” Musk said. “The whole thing is an integrated system that works.” The components will be built at the company’s $5 billion Gigafactory now under construction near Reno, Nev. The company announced two versions of the battery: a 10-kWh unit for $3,500 and a 7-kWh one for $3,000, the latter of which is designed for daily cycling. Tesla is also marketing a version for the commercial sector called the Powerpack.
Initial reaction from analysts was positive. Tesla said it received more than 38,000 orders for the product, including 2,800 for the commercial version. “We’re basically sold out through the first half of next year,” Musk said.
Other companies are working on the same idea, including NRG Energy, which is developing battery storage products. “We have to be in this space,” NRG Home CEO Steve McBee said. “If your goal is to build a meaningful solar business that is durable over time, you have to assume that the solar business is going to morph into a solar-plus-storage solution.”
More: New York Times; The Next Web
Dominion’s Annual Meeting Scene of Pipeline Protest
The Dominion Resources annual meeting drew more than 100 protesters opposed to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Richmond, Va.-based company is a major partner in the $4.5 billion plan to build a 500-mile pipeline across rural parts of West Virginia, Virginia and into North Carolina to bring shale gas to eastern markets.
“I think that we’ll get the attention of the shareholders of the corporation that don’t realize they’re risking lives,” said Yvette Ravina of Churchville, Va., a rural area. Picketers gathered outside the site of the meeting, and at least six were inside the meeting itself.
CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said the pipeline would be critical to providing the natural gas necessary to meet growing customer demand, especially now that the pressure is on to meet Environmental Protection Agency emissions mandates. “Virginia and North Carolina in particular do not have enough gas infrastructure,” he said. “This is extremely important. … it’s going to result in much cleaner air.”
More: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Exelon’s Oyster Creek Down for ‘Electrical Disturbance’
Exelon Nuclear’s aging Oyster Creek Generating Station was taken offline Thursday due to what the company termed “an electrical disturbance on the non-nuclear side of the plant.” They said there was no release of radiation.
“We want to make sure why it happened, but for public safety and the plant workers the plant is safely shut down,” said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan. “Now it’s a matter of troubleshooting exactly what occurred.”
The 636-MW plant on the New Jersey coast also shut down in March. It is the oldest in the company’s fleet and is scheduled for decommissioning in 2019. The plant received a “white” performance indicator from the NRC because of four unplanned shutdowns in 2013 and 2014. It received a more serious “yellow” finding last month after problems were found with two of five reactor pressure valves.
More: Press of Atlantic City
Duke Buys 7.5% Stake in $3B Gas Pipeline Project
Duke Energy will buy a 7.5% stake for $225 million in a proposed natural gas pipeline that is to run from Alabama, through Georgia and terminate in Florida. The other partners in the 500-mile Sabal Trail Transmission project are Spectra Energy (59.5%) and NextEra Energy (33%). The pipeline is scheduled to begin operations in 2017.
More: Atlanta Business Chronicle
Southern Co. May Use Drones to Inspect Lines
Southern Co. said it is researching the possible use of drones to inspect its thousands of miles of power lines. It has asked for and received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to test unmanned aerial systems for business purposes.
The company has more than 27,000 miles of transmission lines throughout the Southeast. COO Kimberly Greene said the use of drones could expedite storm recovery, and drone inspections could be done safely and cost effectively.
More: Atlanta Constitution Journal
Mississippi Power Adding 52 MW to Solar Stable
Southern Co. subsidiary Mississippi Power is partnering with Origis Energy to build a utility-scale solar farm in Sumrall, Miss. It will be Mississippi Power’s third renewable project in the state. The company is also building a 450-acre, 50-MW solar station in Hattiesburg, and a 3 to 4-MW facility in conjunction with the U.S. Navy at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport. All three projects, pending approval of the Public Service Commission, are expected to be in service by the end of next year.
More: PennEnergy
Ohio Religious Leaders Appeal to FirstEnergy for Reform
A group of 38 Ohio religious leaders, concerned about low-income customers, have asked FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones to change the way the utility does business. “It’s time that we as citizens demand corporate America be accountable to us,” Eugene Ward Jr., a Baptist bishop from Cleveland, wrote in the letter to Jones. “We can’t afford the higher rates nor the damage that FirstEnergy is wreaking on our environment.”
Many of the clergy face staggering utility bills from heating and cooling old, inefficient churches. The group also denounced FirstEnergy’s attempt to get approval for its Electric Security Plan, which would guarantee income for underperforming plants.
“This subsidy would rob the poorest among us for the profit of a massive corporation and hurt families by forcing them to underwrite the costs of outmoded facilities whose harmful byproducts make them sick,” the letter said.
More: Cleveland Scene
PPL’s Susquehanna-Roseland Tx Line About to Go into Service
A 130-mile, $632 million transmission line running from PPL’s Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, Pa., to a substation near Newark, N.J., is set to go into service. Under construction since 2012, the development of the line prevailed despite community opposition. The line follows a previously existing transmission corridor through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area. PPL officials said testing is being done on the line now, and it should go into service by the end of the month.
The 500-kV line was fast-tracked by federal authorities as part of the Obama administration’s drive to upgrade the nation’s power grid. It was constructed in collaboration with Public Service Electric & Gas.
More: The Morning Call
Annual Market Report for RGGI CO2 Allowances Released
No evidence of anti-competitive conduct has been found in the market for Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative CO2 allowances, according to Independent Market Monitor Potomac Economics’ 2014 Annual Report on the Market for RGGI CO2 Allowances.
Firms acquire the RGGI CO2 allowances in the primary market, mainly the RGGI CO2 allowance auctions, and can also buy and sell CO2 allowances in the secondary market. According to the Monitor, the average 2014 auction clearing price was $4.72, a 62% increase from $2.92 in 2013. Secondary market prices were generally consistent with auction prices at an average price of $4.82.
Demand for allowances at auction also increased in 2014. For the second year in a row, no allowances offered at auction have gone unsold. Compliance entities held 85% of the CO2 allowances in circulation at the end of 2014, an increase from 81% at the end of 2013.