On June 16, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) seeking comments on what it described as two separate but related issues, both of which apply to electric energy storage (EES).
First, because FERC is interested in facilitating the development of robust competitive markets to provide ancillary services from
As we’ve previously discussed, California’s AB 2514 requires the CPUC and municipal utilities in California to open proceedings by March 1, 2012 to determine appropriate targets, if any, for the procurement of viable and cost-effective energy storage systems by load-serving entities. Over a year before that deadline, the CPUC opened Rulemaking 10-12-007 in December of last
Having first reported to our readers in February that LexisNexis had nominated the Stoel Rives Renewable + Law Blog for its Top 50 Environmental Law & Climate Change Blogs for 2011 award, we are pleased to announce we made the list of winners! In publishing its Top 50 list, LexisNexis declared that our Renewable +
At the National Hydropower Association conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this week, Department of Energy ("DOE") Secretary Steven Chu and Department of the Interior ("DOI") Secretary Ken Salazar announced a $26.6 million grant program to advance the development, testing, validation, modeling, and interconnection of advanced conventional hydropower systems. The agencies’ news came at the same time that the
Santa Fe-based Chamisa Energy Corporation recently announced a request for proposals for up to 250MW of nameplate wind generation resources to be used to provide energy to a 135 MW or larger compressed air energy storage (CAES) facility under development in Swisher County in the Texas panhandle. The proposed CAES facility would compress air and store it in
On February 11, 2011, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Administrative Law Judge Burton Mattson issued a Proposed Decision conditionally accepting the 2011 Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) Procurement Plans for Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and San Diego Gas and Electric Company. If adopted, the Decision would set a schedule for
Today, Senate Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced bipartisan legislation to accelerate the deployment of hydropower projects across the country. According to Murkowski, the Hydropower Improvement Act of 2011 "achieves common sense regulatory reform, spurs economic growth and takes advantage of hydropower’s position as the country’s leading source of clean, renewable energy."
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March 8-10
Last week, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation ("Reclamation") issued a draft report titled "Hydropower Resource Assessment at Existing Reclamation Facilities" (the "Resource Assessment") for public comment. The Resource Assessment provides information on 530 exiting Reclamation sites and makes a preliminary determination about whether or not hydropower development at each facility would
Don’t forget that the deadline for Phase I grant applications under the U.S. Department of Energy’s ("DOE") Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") and Small Business Technology Transfer ("STTR") programs is 8:00 p.m. Eastern, November 15, 2010. Qualified small businesses with strong research capabilities in science or engineering in any of the research areas identified