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• New England's solar duck curve accelerates, deepens Continued installations of consumer-sited solar power have poised New England for a new record number of "duck curve" days, or periods when wholesale demand for grid electricity is lower during the middle of the day than during the night. The shift has consequences for the rest of the grid, including on the portfolio of other generating resources needed to meet demand, related emissions, and power pricing.Historically, consumer demand for electricity has been highest during the day and lowest during the... More
• Competing tensions around Revolution Wind Federal regulators have issued a stop-work order to the developer of an offshore wind project under construction off Rhode Island and Connecticut, to allow the agency to address concerns about national security and interference with reasonable uses of the ocean over the U.S. outer continental shelf. The developer says it is "evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously". Meanwhile, the regional electric grid operator says that delaying the wind project's completion "will increase risks to reliability" and could harm... More
• TVA, Google and Kairos Power to collaborate through nuclear PPA The Tennessee Valley Authority, Google, and nuclear reactor developer Kairos Power have announced agreements to collaborate on the development of a new small modular nuclear power plant in Tennessee, designed to provide power to the TVA grid to support Google data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.Congress created the TVA in 1933 as a public power provider assigned to improve living standards. TVA cites energy, environmental stewardship, and economic development as three essential components of how it achieves its mission.Kairos Power... More
• Pumped storage hydro in Maine Could a large pumped storage hydroelectric facility be developed in Maine? A company named Western Maine Energy Storage, LLC has applied to federal hydropower regulators for a preliminary permit to evaluate the potential development of a 500 megawatt pumped storage facility above the Androscoggin River in the Dixfield area.Historically electricity has been easier to generate than to store. Hydropower typically harvests energy from water flowing or falling downhill under gravity's influence. If water in a hydroelectric system can be pumped... More
• US tariffs on Canadian energy imports President Trump has issued a series of executive orders, including orders imposing tariffs or duties on articles imported from Canada, and declaring a national energy emergency.Under Section 2 of the Imposing Duties executive order, most imports from Canada are subject to a general 25% tariff . However, Section 2(b) applies a lesser 10% tariff to “energy or energy resources" as defined in section 8 of Executive Order 14156 of January 20, 2025 (Declaring a National Energy Emergency), and related Federal... More
• NESCOE requests first ISO-NE LTTP RFP In a move that could unlock significant new energy supplies for New England, a committee representing the six states has asked the region's electric grid operator to use a new process to solicit transmission capable of accommodating large amounts of new generation plants interconnected to the Maine grid.The New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE) is a not-for-profit entity recognized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as a regional state committee. NESCOE represents the collective perspective of the six New... More
• Record-low inflation-adjusted natural gas prices, says EIA For the tenth time this year, natural gas at the U.S. benchmark "Henry Hub" pricing point has reached an all-time low in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.Image source: U.S. Energy Information Administration According to U.S. EIA, natural gas at the Henry Hub has recently reached all-time low pricing on an inflation-adjusted basis. EIA says gas at Henry Hub was priced at $1.21 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) twice last month, on November 8 and November 11,... More
• Corporate nuclear power offers solicited Tech company Meta Platforms Inc. has issued a request for proposals "to identify nuclear energy developers to help us meet our AI innovation and sustainability objectives — targeting 1-4 gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear generation capacity in the U.S."In a statement on its sustainability blog, Meta expressed its views that nuclear power would help the company meet its objectives relating to both artificial intelligence and sustainability:... we believe that nuclear energy can help provide firm, baseload power to support the... More
• New England passes its 100th duck curve day of 2024 For the 100th time this year, demand for electricity from New England's power grid was lower at midday than overnight, a sign of significant growth in behind-the-meter solar photovoltaic power in recent years. Until 2018, this phenomenon -- called the "duck curve" due to the shape of graphs of demand -- had never occurred. But according to the region's grid operator, duck curve days will likely continue to recur.ISO New England says that April 21, 2018 was the first day... More
• Small modular reactors and Maine's nuclear referendum law Tech companies, datacenters, and industrial consumers are pursuing the development of small modular nuclear reactors (SMR), capable of producing stable amounts of carbon-free power at a distributed scale. Much smaller than a typical commercial or utility-scale nuclear power plant, SMRs are typically envisioned as varying in size from tens of megawatts up to hundreds of megawatts, with potential uses including power generation, process heat, desalination, or other industrial uses.Utilities, tech companies and some other corporate energy consumers have signed deals or... More
• New England natural gas market dynamics affected by constraints and changing supply mix Natural gas market dynamics vary across the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with a key pricing hub in the Northeast showing both high prices and high price volatility due to constrained infrastructure and a changing supply mix.According to EIA, natural gas is traded at about 200 pricing hubs across North America, with prices varying widely based on factors including location, weather conditions, proximity to supply, pipeline constraints and bottlenecks.EIA produced the graphic below, showing the range of... More
• Maine PUC awards biomass power contract Maine utility regulators have voted to award a long-term contract to a biomass-fueled power plant proposed for development in northern Maine.In 2022, the Maine legislature enacted a law directing the Public Utilities Commission to establish a wood-fired combined heat and power program. The law creates an opportunity for qualifying projects to compete for long-term contracts to sell electricity or renewable energy certificates to Maine's investor-owned transmission and distribution utilities. In 2023, the PUC solicited proposals, but the PUC ultimately found... More
• Gulf of Maine offshore wind lease auction scheduled U.S. ocean energy managers will soon auction the right to lease about 850,000 acres offshore Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, according to a recent federal announcement. On September 16, 2024, the Department of the Interior announced an offshore wind energy lease sale to be held on October 29, 2024. Through an auction process, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will sell leasehold interests in eight designated areas in the Gulf of Maine.According to BOEM's Final Sale Notice for offshore wind leasing on... More
• BOEM releases Gulf of Maine offshore wind environmental assessment U.S. federal ocean energy managers have issued a final assessment of the environmental impacts of issuing leases for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's final Environmental Assessment (EA) of the Gulf of Maine Wind Energy Area (WEA) sets the stage for future leasing.Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy designated the Gulf of Maine WEA and announced that BOEM would prepare an EA on potential impacts from offshore wind energy leasing... More
• ISO-NE EPCET report projects future power supply and demand New England's electric grid must overcome operational, engineering, and economic challenges to support state decarbonization commitments, according to a recently released draft report by grid operator ISO New England. ISO-NE's Economic Planning for the Clean Energy Transition (EPCET) study report concludes that a "vast renewable build-out may be required" to support wide swings in demand for electricity across days and seasons.Today, peak demand for electricity occurs during the summer for reasons including air conditioning demand. But ISO-NE projects that peak demand for... More