By Mick Zawislak, Daily Herald

The installation of solar panels on the Big Hollow Elementary District 38 campus in Ingleside is a lesson in persistence prompted by fourth-graders. Spread along the rolling terrain in two sections — the smaller near the school bus parking lot and the larger on the west side of Wilson Road — the panels will produce enough energy to cover about 85% of the district’s power needs and save about $90,000 a year. Continue reading here.

SEIA Resource: Solar Power Purchase Agreements
More Illinois News: Making Galesburg model city for solar, Review Atlas 

IN NEBRASKA

• Voluntary emissions limit focuses on the future, The Wire, OPPD Blog
• NPPD process ensures customer safety, grid reliability before starting a renewable energy project,  NPPD News Release

NEWS FROM OTHER STATES

• Iowa bill would give apartment-seekers more information on energy bills, Energy News Network. The legislation has momentum in large part due to a Des Moines-area property manager who has been a champion for energy efficiency in his buildings. “Rental housing is the low-hanging fruit” of energy efficiency, said Keith Denner, president of Professional Property Management.
• MidAmerican Energy: Keeping the power on, The Messenger
  MidAmerican is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. MidAmerican serves 770,000 electric customers and 751,000 natural gas customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota. Its service area spans 10,600 square miles in four states.
• Virginia climate faith group finds persistence leads to progress, Energy News Network
  The nondenominational Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions has expanded to include 75 congregations and communities.
• Virginia approves 100% clean energy legislation, pushing state toward 2.4 GW storage, RGGI, Utility Dive
• Virginia Clean Economy Act
• In Connecticut, low-income customers will see solar savings appear on bills, Energy News Network. Under new rules, utilities will identify customers who qualify and automatically enroll them for shared solar projects.
• California’s solar mandate to deliver more than 1 GW, PV Magazine
  California’s new residential solar mandate, effective from the first day of 2020, is going to add more than 1 GW of PV over the next five years, according to analysts. The US state already has a nation-leading 26.2 GW cumulative PV installed base.
• Why Traditional Wind Markets Are Flipping to Solar and Vice Versa, Greentech Media
  Storage and transmission are not the only solutions for high-penetration renewables markets, writes Vestas U.S. chief Chris Brown. We should start looking at high levels of renewables penetration not as a problem but as an opportunity to show the strength and flexibility of these technologies. There are some indications that this integration transition is already happening. And I predict we will see wind-heavy states like Texas become new leaders in solar development, along with the Midwest.

MULTI-STATE SOLAR AGGREGATION

Standard Solar gets creative to finance this 18-rooftop, multi-state solar portfolio for Iron Mountain Inc, Solar Builder Magazine

“Through our partnership with Standard Solar, we have been able to build a holistic program that allows Iron Mountain to seamlessly install on-site solar in multiple states. This program is helping Iron Mountain progress towards meeting their environmental goals of RE100 and the Science Based Target Initiative in a cost effective and simple to implement method,” said Lauren Fitch CBRE Energy Manager for Iron Mountain. Standard Solar also partnered with OnSwitch, whose patented AI-powered SkyQuotes platform makes it simpler for solar developers and building owners to evaluate, buy/finance and install commercial solar energy solutions at a guaranteed lowest price, to help maximize cost savings for the projects.

 CLIMATE RISKS & RESILIENCE

Trend: Corporate climate reporting gets physical, contributed GreenBiz article by Lauren Smart, Managing Director, Global Head of ESG Commercial at Trucost, part of S&P Global.

What will companies gain from reporting physical risks? Risk mitigation, for starters. Research by Trucost highlights the scale of corporate exposure: almost 60 percent of companies in the S&P 500 (market capitalization of $18 trillion) and more than 40 percent in the S&P Global 1200 ($27.3 trillion) hold assets at high risk of physical climate change impacts. Identifying these exposures and building business continuity and resilience plans is critical. It’s not just companies in the obvious sectors, such as agricultural value chains or resource-intensive ones, that are vulnerable. For many U.S. financial companies, which may have thought their exposure to climate risks was minimal, 2012’s Superstorm Sandy was a wake-up call.

GLOBAL ENERGY TRANSITION

• Transitioning the World to 100% Renewable Energy, CleanTechnica
  in the first half of this special two-part episode of our CleanTech Talk podcast interview series, Michael Barnard, Chief Strategist of TFIE Strategy Inc. and CleanTechnica contributor, take’s Zach Shahan’s place as host to talk with Mark Z. Jacobson, professor at Stanford University and cofounder of The Solutions Project, about transitioning the world to 100% renewable energy.
• WoodMac: Global Offshore Wind Capacity to Rise Sevenfold by 2028, Greentech Media
• What BP Can Learn From Orsted: The Route to Low-Carbon Profits, Greentech Media
  By 2025, Ørsted will be carbon-neutral.

 Previously Posted

• Global 100 Index: Ørsted Is the World’s Most Sustainable Company, Ørsted News Release, CSR Wire
• Ørsted to Build Wind Farm in Nebraska, Ørsted News Release, Business Wire
• “Red” Nebraska Is Ready For Its Wind Power Closeup, CleanTechnica
• Ørsted buys US firm Lincoln Clean Energy, Windpower Monthly