Legislation setting voluntary statewide standards for large wind and solar projects is on its way to the governor, but without a key provision to entice local governments to adopt the standards.
Indiana lawmakers are taking another stab at setting up statewide standards for large wind and solar projects, a year after a group of counties shot down an earlier effort.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce is again calling for legislation that it says would remove some of the local hurdles such projects now face.
The state’s largest electric utility wants to retire much of its coal-fired generating fleet by 2035, but critics say Duke Energy lags all other Indiana utilities in the green-energy transition.
A blank-check company, or SPAC, plans to close early next year on a merger with California-based Energy Vault that will take the company public and give it a cash infusion of $388 million.
The $1.5 billion solar farm’s first phase is expected become operational by mid-2023 and will produce 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 75,000 households, according to the company.
Doing so would require massive changes in U.S. policy and billions of dollars in federal investment to modernize the nation’s electric grid, a new federal report says.
The U.S. government is suing WindStream, which shut down in 2016. It says the company owes $3.12 million in loans that the U.S. Export-Import Bank guaranteed as WindStream was expanding globally.
While businesses were laying off employees last year by the boatload because of the pandemic, an Indianapolis company that specializes in building wind and solar farms hired scores of people to tackle new projects nationwide.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved the project, which will include 581,594 solar panels and generate 195 megawatts of electricity, making it one of the largest solar farms in the state.
A subsidiary of Florida-based Next-Era Energy Resources is attempting to rezone more than 1,660 acres across Union and Marion townships in Boone County to build its planned $210 million solar farm.
Much-debated legislation to boost wind and solar farms in Indiana was thwarted during this legislative session, but a key state lawmaker said Thursday he hopes to revive the issue next year to help meet the growing need for renewable energy.
A strong coalition of renewable energy developers, major businesses and manufacturers could not muster enough support in the Indiana Senate on Tuesday to pass a bill that would have shifted some local control over the siting of wind and solar farms to the state.
The project, which would be on built on leased land and span 1,500 acres, including 896 acres in Vigo County and 604 acres in Sullivan County. It would be located on a reclaimed coal strip mine currently being used for crops.
The installations are happening at Chase branches across the United States, and each installation will provide 30% of that branch’s annual power needs, Chase spokeswoman Carlene Lule said.
RACER Trust and Muncie officials said they have reached an agreement for the city to purchase the 53-acre main parcel of the former property.
Thousands of acres of farmland are being developed or eyed for massive solar farms that would install hundreds of thousands of solar panels as far as the eye can see. And not everyone is pleased.
The research found that heat pulled from a room can be sent into outer space, potentially negating some of the devastating effects of global warming.
The Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor is recommending state regulators deny a utility’s request to compensate customers with solar panels less for extra energy they send back into the power grid.
A utility that serves about 145,000 customers in Indiana wants approval to significantly reduce financial credits given to people who send excess solar-generated electricity into the power grid.
