MarketWatch – February 16
As millions of people in Texas lost heat and electricity during a historic cold snap early this week, the future of renewable energy in the large-and-growing state drew fresh scrutiny. However, according to experts, the crisis in Texas was not caused by the state’s renewable energy industry. The largest loss of generation apparently came from gas-fired power plants, with the drop-off from wind farms a long way behind. There are specific lessons to be learned from Texas. For one thing, the state has several large population centers but renewable energy clusters are far away from major cities, requiring more miles of potentially vulnerable transmission lines. And, there is no winter-reliability mandate for the state-run utilities system as there is in other parts of the regulated U.S. The incident highlights the need for more incentives for renewables, or even other sources, to increase capacity, especially in severe winter weather.
Monday, 15 February 2021 Portland General Electric has announced that Intel has joined PGE’s Green Future Impact program. Intel’s participation is enabling PGE to enter into a 15- year agreement with Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc., to purchase clean, emissions-free energy from a new 138-megawatt solar facility that will be developed in Wasco County, Oregon. Intel’s purchase is the single largest in PGE’s program; the company joins 17 other businesses and municipalities that have committed to purchase clean power through the Green Future Impact program, filling the program’s original 300-megawatt capacity. Courtesy of PGE
Intel signed a 15-year agreement with PGE to enable the development of this additional new solar facility, which it is naming Daybreak Solar. It will produce a significant portion of the energy needed to power Intel’s advanced technology development and manufacturing facilities in Hillsboro, Oregon. Intel will be the only purch