Photo voltaic Power Revolution Brewing In Arkansas With Help From GM

Join every day information updates from CleanTechnica on e-mail. Or observe us on Google Information!

The Intertubes lit up final week when Common Motors dropped phrase that it’s going to energy three of its meeting vegetation with clear electrical energy from a brand new photo voltaic farm in Arkansas, however that’s simply the tip of a photo voltaic vitality increase washing over the state. Arkansas has been shaking the mud off its renewable vitality profile and eco-friendly skinny movie photo voltaic know-how can also be in play.

Arkansas Has Not Caught Photo voltaic Power Fever, But

As of Q1 2024, Arkansas ranked #27 on the state-by-state rankings of put in photo voltaic capability tracked by the Photo voltaic Power Industries Affiliation. That’s significantly better than many different US states, although not practically as a lot as larger-population states together with Texas and California.

One space that has seen some wholesome exercise is rooftop photo voltaic and different small scale tasks. In Might of 2021 the information group Arkansas Cash & Politics Consultants ran the numbers and credited Act 464, a state legislation that handed in 2019. The brand new legislation expanded web metering and offered entry to third-party financing. “Since then, there was an ever-increasing variety of college districts, cities, counties and municipal utilities shopping for into photo voltaic vitality,” AMP famous.

Nonetheless, as of Q1 2024 Arkansas had only one,122 megawatts of put in solar energy capability to its credit score. In keeping with the figures stored by SEIA, a single utility-scale photo voltaic undertaking in Chicot County accounted for an outsized share of these megawatts. Accomplished in 2020, the Chicot Photo voltaic undertaking was nonetheless the biggest solar energy vitality in Arkansas as of Q1 2024, with a capability of 140 megawatts.

Extra Photo voltaic Power For Arkansas

The Arkansas photo voltaic needle is lastly starting to maneuver, and GM can take a part of the credit score. The automaker has been on a renewable vitality tear below the stewardship of CEO Mary Barra, with a give attention to energy buy agreements. PPAs commit an electrical energy consumer to a long run contract for the acquisition of unpolluted kilowatts from a renewable vitality undertaking. That association gives builders with monetary safety. It additionally frees the purchaser from having to pay up entrance for setting up their very own devoted renewable vitality undertaking.

To be clear, the purchaser nonetheless receives the native grid mixture of electrical energy, which may embody non-renewables. The principle level is to help a monetary pipeline that launches extra renewable vitality tasks into the grid extra shortly.

Final week GM introduced that it has entered right into a PPA for electrical energy from the biggest ever photo voltaic vitality undertaking in Arkansas up to now, the Newport Photo voltaic undertaking. Situated within the city of Newport, the 180-megawatt undertaking comes below the umbrella of the agency NorthStar Clear Power, a department of CMS Power.

The Newport Photo voltaic deal can also be the largest PPA deal the automaker has made but. In an fascinating twist, the corporate is assigning electrical energy from the photo voltaic vitality undertaking to 3 meeting vegetation that aren’t positioned in Arkansas. The fortunate amenities are Michigan’s  Lansing Delta Township Meeting and Lansing Grand River Meeting, and Missouri’s Wentzville Meeting. All three vegetation are linked to the identical grid because the Newport Photo voltaic undertaking.

The deal between GM and NorthStar isn’t a one-off for GM. The corporate has been stimulating the clear vitality transition because the Obama administration, by means of collaborative efforts just like the RE100 company clear vitality initiative and the Clear Power Consumers Affiliation (previously the Renewable Power Consumers Alliance).

With the Newport photo voltaic vitality undertaking in hand, GM maintains its standing as the biggest company purchaser of renewable vitality within the US. Its roster covers 17 completely different tasks throughout 11 states.

Amongst different actions of notice within the photo voltaic vitality journey of Arkansas since Q1 2024, in June the agency EDP Renewables flipped the change on a brand new 175-megawatt array in Mississippi County, and an enormous 313-megawatt array is forthcoming in the identical space from Lightsource bp and Entergy Arkansas. Development of a 180-megawatt array can also be below method in Crittenden County, below the banner of NextEra Power Assets.

Skinny Movie Photo voltaic Finds Its Mojo

One other fascinating facet of the Newport undertaking is the usage of skinny movie photo voltaic know-how, with greater than 500,000 panels offered by the main US producer First Photo voltaic.

That’s of curiosity as a result of skinny movie photo voltaic know-how has been comparatively sluggish on the uptake in comparison with silicon photo voltaic panels, that are most popular by way of photo voltaic vitality conversion effectivity. Nonetheless, conversion effectivity isn’t the one issue of curiosity to photo voltaic builders (see extra skinny movie photo voltaic background right here).

First Photo voltaic, for instance, leads its pitch with the superior environmental footprint of skinny movie know-how in comparison with silicon. The corporate explains that its skinny movie modules function a cadmium telluride (CadTel) semiconductor, deploying byproduct supplies from copper and zinc mining operations.

“First Photo voltaic’s skinny movie PV know-how produces energy-efficient modules with a superior degradation price, temperature coefficient, spectral and shading response, and the smallest environmental footprint within the trade,” the corporate states, including that its modules want solely a fraction of the semiconductor materials utilized in silicon photo voltaic cells.

“The corporate’s vertically built-in manufacturing know-how ends in fewer course of steps and sooner manufacturing instances with superior traceability and transparency,” First Photo voltaic emphasizes.

Photo voltaic Power And Arkansas: Smaller Works Additionally

SEIA projections or not, a rising wave of opposition to rural photo voltaic improvement may put a crimp on utility-scale photo voltaic vitality tasks within the state. Nonetheless, Arkansas ratepayers will preserve getting their palms on clear energy, a technique or one other.

In Might, Arkansas Advocate reporter Mary Hennigan took notice of a $94 million pot of federal funds geared toward steering photo voltaic vitality to low-income households in Arkansas. A part of the funds will go to assist set up rooftop photo voltaic panels on single-family properties. A technique for offering photo voltaic vitality to multi-family buildings can also be a part of the plan.

“Arkansas was certainly one of many states chosen to obtain the federal funds from the Environmental Safety Company’s $7 billion Photo voltaic for All program, introduced final month. The funds grew to become accessible by means of the Biden administration’s Inflation Discount Act,” Hennigan recounted. This system is being carried out by two non-profit organizations, the Arkansas Superior Power Basis of Little Rock and Hope Enterprise Company. Hope additionally serves ratepayers in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

That’s only for starters. Hennigan describes two different federally funded, multi-state photo voltaic vitality initiatives for low-income households in Arkansas. Native governments are additionally spurring the photo voltaic vitality motion, together with a plan within the works to offer for 70% of the electrical energy utilized by buildings below the town of Little Rock umbrella.

A brand new Arkansas legislation that slashes peak web metering compensation in half may put a damper on that type of exercise when it goes into impact for brand spanking new photo voltaic vitality tasks linked to the grid after September 31.

On the brilliant aspect, the falling price of vitality storage may assist preserve the wheels in movement, no less than for large-scale ratepayers that additionally worth vitality storage as a hedge in opposition to grid outages and curtailments. Keep watch over a forthcoming 20-megawatt solar-plus-storage microgrid undertaking for the agency Producers Rice Mill below the banner of the Arkansas agency Scenic Hill Photo voltaic.

Observe me by way of LinkTree, or @tinamcasey on Threads, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Picture: Arkansas is turning into a photo voltaic vitality hotspot, with Common Motors lending a hand by means of a brand new 180-megawatt energy buy settlement to provide clear electrical energy to 3 of its meeting vegetation (courtesy of Common Motors).