North America PV Snippets: Clearway, Wells, Morgan, Swift

Ground breaking on 75 MW PV in Hawaii: Clearway Energy Group has started construction on 2 utility scale solar projects with a combined 75 MW capacity in Hawaii. Groundbreaking ceremony for 39 MW Mililani I Solar and 36 MW Waiawa Solar Power projects was held on April 8, 2021. Both the projects will be accompanied by a combined 300 MWh of storage capacity which the company claims will make it among the 1^st utility scale battery storage and solar projects on the island. Clearway expects to invest $280 million on the 2 projects that on completion are to bring to the city and county more than $10 million in taxes. Once these projects come online, these will take Clearway’s total PV capacity connected to the Hawaiian grid to 185 MW. In September 2019 the company switched on 3 PV projects with 110 MW cumulative capacity in Hawaii (see Three PV Projects With 110 MW Capacity Online In Hawaii).

20-year solar PPA for Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo has entered a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NextEra Energy Resources and Duke Energy for a 58 MW solar power plant in North Carolina, US. The 20-year agreement will see the financial services company turn offtaker for 100% of clean energy or 130,000 MWh to be generated by close to 200,000 solar panels annually. It will be developed, owned and operated by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources in Catawa County under Duke Energy’s Green Source Advantage (GSA) program, and will come online in 2022. Wells Fargo will retain the Renewable Energy Credits (REC) associated with the project. According to Wells Fargo, it is expected to supply close to 50% of the bank’s electricity needs for North Carolina, and around 8% of its annual global electricity.

In June 2020, Wells Fargo signed up for innovative structured renewable energy agreements with Shell Energy North America and MP2 Energy for 150,000 MWh annually to be generated by utility scale solar installations (see Wells Fargo Enters RE Agreements With Shell).

13.7 MW solar project with special optical films energized in Alberta, Canada: Morgan Solar has commissioned a 13.7 MW solar power project deploying its proprietary optical film SimbaX technology for solar panels manufactured by Silfab Solar. The Alberta Solar One (ABS1) solar project with 36,500 solar panels uses optical films to redirect ‘otherwise discarded light’ onto the PV cells to boost generation, explained Morgan Solar and added that these films can be formatted to be easily integrated into panel manufacturers production processes. It is currently working with partners on variants that can be incorporated into buildings to generate 100% of the power with 90% of cells with a view to mitigating the impact of single axis trackers’ shading on bifacial modules.

Morgan Solar said this project is the 1^st utility scale demonstration project of its SimbaX technology and was co-developed with Enbridge, with support from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).

Swift Current Energy attracts Investors: Buckeye Partners, L.P. and Nala Renewables have announced to jointly acquire the majority ownership of clean energy company Swift Current Energy in the US. Since 2016, Swift said it has commercialized over 1.1 GW of renewable energy capacity and currently holds a pipeline of over 6 GW of solar, wind and energy storage projects with 8 solar projects together representing more than 2 GW of this capacity. These assets are located closer to US demand centers in liquid power markets, it added, driven by high demand from utilities, commercial and industrial users, and retail customers.

Investment from Buckeye Partners and Nala Renewables will enable the company to work swiftly on its growth plans.