North America PV News Snippets

Hydro-Québec's 480 MW RE tender gets only 1 bid for solar PV; Dominion Energy Virginia's 17 MW solar plant retrofitted with storage; LyondellBasell signs solar PPA with Buckeye; Hecate Energy gets permit for New York's 'largest' solar farm; Roth analysts positive on US IRA development.

Hydro-Québec gets bids for 4.2 GW RE capacity: Canadian utility Hydro-Québec says in response to its 2 renewable energy tenders launched in December 2021, it has received 24 bids for a total of 4.205 GW capacity. For the 300 MW wind energy tender, it received 11 bids representing 2.103 GW capacity, and for 480 MW renewable energy procurement tender, 13 bids came in for 2.101 GW. List of bids received for 480 MW tender show only 1 PV project with 40 MW DC capacity, proposed by Groupe Stace that's scheduled to enter commercial operations in October 2026. Remaining projects under the tender have been proposed for wind and hydro power. The utility will now analyze the tender entries before making a final decision.

17 MW solar plant in US retrofitted with battery storage: Dominion Energy Virginia's 17 MW Scott Solar Facility in Powhatan County has been retrofitted with 3 independent battery systems with 12 MW/4 hour battery systems combined capacity. The utility said this is its largest operational battery energy storage pilot project. It will enable the company to learn about the proficiency of lithium-ion battery technology that will store solar power generated, and its use during periods when the load is high or solar generation is low. The utility also hopes to understand how well a battery can optimize power production of the solar facility. It has 2 more battery storage pilot projects with 2 MW/2 hour battery each—one for a substation in the Town of Ashland, Hanover County and the other for a substation in New Kent County serving a 20 MW solar facility.

LyondellBasell enters PPA for 165 MW solar from Texas: Dutch chemicals company with US operations, LyondellBasell has entered 2 long-term renewable electricity power purchase agreements (PPA) with Buckeye Partners for 165 MW. It will come from solar farms in North Texas for 15 years. It is 4^th renewable energy PPA for the company as it previously announced a PPA for 100 MW renewable energy project of Engie North America, and another 116 MW Buckeye project. The 4 agreements represent a total of 381 MW of renewable energy, estimated to generate approximately 1,037,000 MWh of clean power annually. The company aims to procure around 5 million MWh renewable energy annually as part of its 2030 goal.

New York's largest solar farm: Hecate Energy has secured permit from the New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) for 500 MW Cider Solar Farm calling it the 'largest' solar energy project in New York State. Hecate says the project will be built across the towns of Elba and Oakfield, with construction planned to start by 2023. It will generate close to 920,000 MWh of renewable electricity annually on completion.

Roth Capital solar analysts positive on IRA development: In a note to investors, Roth Capital Partners said on July 30 that it is now very upbeat that the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) gets passed. "We are increasing our probability for the IRA to get passed to 75% based on our latest round of checks vs. our prior of 50%. Clearly, there are still things that can go wrong with Sen. Sinema (see here), Senators out with Covid, etc. That said, the will and path appear to be there" (see US Senate Settles For $369 Billion Clean Energy Investment).