Apple’s newly formed energy subsidiary has filed with FERC to begin selling wholesale power from its solar facilities in California and Nevada (ER16-1887).
Apple Energy, formed on May 20 and headquartered in Delaware, asked FERC last week for market-based rate authority to offer capacity and other services, such as spinning reserves, frequency response and operating reserves, in CAISO.
However, the company also seeks permission to sell in NYISO, MISO, ISO-NE, SPP and PJM, suggesting further expansion. The company asked for approval within 60 days of the filing.
More: 9to5Mac; Tech Times
WPPI Energy Seeking 100 MW of Renewables
WPPI Energy, a Wisconsin public power supplier, said it is looking to secure 100 MW of renewable energy for its companies in Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa to meet regulatory mandates in those states.
WPPI, which serves 51 municipal electric utilities in the three states, already has several wind projects in development. Its current plan is to sign power purchase agreements stretching 20 years or more, the company said.
More: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
DCNS Joins Maine Floating Turbine Consortium
French defense contractor DCNS Group has formed a partnership with Maine Aqua Ventus, the University of Maine-led consortium developing a floating offshore wind farm.
Maine Aqua Ventus aims to build a 12-MW wind farm near Monhegan Island in a pilot program supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The role of DCNS, which builds submarines and naval vessels, is still being defined, according to the consortium.
Frederic Le Lidec, DCNS’s marine renewable energy director, said the company is working on three marine renewable technologies: tidal energy, ocean thermal energy conversion and offshore wind. He said DCNS is offering its services in engineering, construction, installation, maintenance and project management.
More: Portland Press Herald
Shell Chemical to Build Pa. Ethane Cracker Plant
Shell Chemical Appalachia announced plans to build a massive, multibillion-dollar ethane cracker plant near Pittsburgh.
The plant will need 105,000 barrels of ethane a day, produced in the Marcellus and Utica shale fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. It will break down, or “crack,” that ethane into 1.5 million metric tons of ethylene, a chemical used in the production of plastic, a year.
The complex will receive $1.65 billion in tax credits spread over a quarter century. Pennsylvania officials hope the complex will spur other industries in the area. Shell will begin construction within 18 months on the grounds of a former zinc smelter in Beaver County. While the company wouldn’t give an exact cost of the project, a similar ethane cracker in Lake Charles, La., cost $11 billion.
More: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Exelon to File for 20-year Extension for Peach Bottom
Only days after announcing that it will close two nuclear generating stations in Illinois, and that another in Pennsylvania is at risk, Exelon Generation announced that it will seek a 20-year extension for its Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Delta, Pa.
The licenses for the plant’s two reactors expire in 2033 and 2034, but the company said it will file for the extensions in 2018. Reactor license renewals typically take about two years to make their way through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission process.
Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Inks 98-MW Wind Deal
The Dairyland Power Cooperative has agreed to buy the output of a proposed 98-MW wind farm near Platteville, Wis., nearly tripling the co-op’s wind capacity.
The 49-turbine Quilt Block wind farm is gathering regulatory approval and is scheduled to come online by the end of 2017.
Dairyland’s agreement would increase wind’s contribution to its load from 4.5% to 12.6%. The co-op has a goal to source 18% of its power from wind by 2025.
More: Associated Press
DTE Energy to Retire 8 Coal Units at 3 Plants
DTE Energy will close eight coal-fired units at three Michigan plants in the next seven years.
The Detroit utility said the affected units at its River Rouge, St. Clair and Trenton plants will be retired between 2020 and 2023. The three plants represent a quarter of the company’s total electricity production. The utility said employees impacted by the shutdowns will be offered jobs at its other facilities.
The move will leave DTE with just six coal-fired units of the 17 it had in 2015. Earlier this year, DTE retired three other coal-fired units and said the lost generation would be replaced with wind, solar and natural gas resources.
More: Crain’s Detroit Business
Dominion’s Chesapeake Center Coal Ash Estimate Triples
Dominion Virginia Power has three times as much coal ash stored at the company’s Chesapeake Energy Center near Norfolk than it previously estimated, according to documents received as part of a Sierra Club suit.
Dominion previously estimated the amount of coal ash at the site was about 1 million tons. But the company’s newer estimates say the three impoundments contain about 3 million tons.
The Sierra Club is asking in a civil suit for the company to remove all of the ash from the site to a lined landfill away from the Elizabeth River to prevent heavy metals from leaching into groundwater and into the river. The suit is scheduled to be heard later this month.
More: The Virginian-Pilot
Toyota’s New HQ will Draw 25% Power from Solar
Toyota’s massive new North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, will draw about 25% of its electricity from a 7.73-MW solar facility mounted on three parking garages.
In the project’s first phase, two 2.45-MW systems will be installed by August 2017, with a 2.83-MW system by December 2017. The seven-building campus, which is about halfway finished, is expected to be completed sometime in 2017.
Toyota did not disclose the cost of the facility, one of the largest in the state. The company estimates the entire campus and moving costs for employees will total about $1 billion.
More: The Dallas Morning News
Talen to Run Natural Gas to Montour Plant
Talen Energy is in the process of selecting an entity to construct, own and operate a 15-mile pipeline to bring natural gas to the 1,500-MW Montour plant as part of a project to convert its two coal-fired units to dual-fuel by 2018.
The estimated cost of modifying the plant in north-central Pennsylvania, near the Marcellus Shale natural gas fields, is about $70 million.
“The Montour plant is located in close proximity to one of the largest natural gas formations in the world, the Marcellus shale,” Talen CEO Paul Farr said. “Co-firing the plant to burn natural gas produced in Pennsylvania enables Talen Energy to leverage the strategic location of the plant.”
More: Talen Energy
New Technology is the ‘Uber of Battery Storage’
Solar industry veteran Shihab Kuran has founded a company to offer modular grid-scale lithium-ion battery systems that can be delivered by truck, train or barge.
The Power Edison systems travel in special containers that can be stacked like Legos and shipped according to shifting demand.
“We are the Uber of battery storage,” said Kuran, who also founded solar energy generation company Petra Systems. “We’re going to offer a solution for the duration that it’s needed, and, after that, we’ll take our solution and repurpose that for other applications.”
More: Bloomberg
Cooperative Hires Lightower To Build Fiber Network
The Delaware Electric Cooperative has chosen Lightower Fiber Networks to build a 250-mile, custom fiber network that will provide a secure way for the co-op to communicate with substations and remote advanced electrical equipment.
The project, which connects 28 sites in Delaware, includes the construction of 180 miles of new network.
More: Lightower
Cities to Break Contracts with Indiana Michigan Power
Nearly a dozen cities in Indiana and Michigan have given Indiana Michigan Power the required four-year notice to end their power purchase agreements. The cities, which all belong to the Indiana Michigan Municipal Distributors Association, plan to break their contracts in 2020, six years earlier than the agreements were originally slated to end.
A city administrator in Niles, Mich., estimated that the city is paying 30% more than market price for electricity, while a general manager for Mishawaka Utilities, in Indiana, put the figure at around 20% over market value.
While the cities could individually buy electricity from other utilities, they can also renegotiate a deal with Indiana Michigan Power.
More: Associated Press