By Matt Olberding, Lincoln Journal Star
NextEra has signed a lease for 2,500 acres in Pierce County with brothers Ryan and Aaron Zimmerman, who have a 345-kilovolt Nebraska Public Power District power line running through their land. The brothers told the Energy News Network website that they previously had an agreement with a smaller solar company a couple of years ago. Read more here.
Photo Credit: American Public Power Association
NEWS FROM OTHER STATES
FPL brings online 298 MW of solar parks in Florida, Renewables Now
The company, which is a unit of NextEra Energy Inc, last month unveiled plans to add over 30 million solar panels totaling 11,000 MW in Florida by 2030 and said it will make “unprecedented new investments” in energy storage projects.
- Facebook data center opening only days away, KOAT Albuquerque
Facebook said the center will have a $2 billion impact on the state. - Ann Arbor awards grant to elementary school solar program, The Michigan Daily
- Experimental sustainable neighborhood in Grand Rapids gets battery storage, Michigan Radio
- New report lists steps for Boston to become carbon neutral, Smart Cities Dive
A report commissioned by the city of Boston, Carbon Free Boston, lays out steps the city can take to meet its long-term goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. - Nine laws that helped Nevada solar applications grow 450%, PV Magazine
- Brown University offsetting all electric usage with solar, wind power, Providence Journal
INTERVIEW
Local leadership: A conversation with Jodie Van Horn of Sierra Club’s Ready for 100, by Christian Roselund, Americas Editor, PV Magazine
SOLAR IN SPORTS
Move Over Tom Brady, Solar Is the Real Super Bowl MVP, Solar Energy Industries Association
The Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia “hosts over 4,000 solar panels that produce more than 1.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to power more home games than the Falcons play during the regular season! It is the first sports facility in U.S. history to receive a Platinum LEED certification, the highest “green” rating a building can achieve.”
Check out SEIA’s Solar in Sports report to see if your favorite teams are taking advantage of solar.
SOLAR AS A SERVICE NEWS
The Time For Home Solar Is Now, Sponsored Post, CleanTechnica
Sunrun’s solar as a service model allows households to access clean solar energy from as little as zero dollars down, with no debt and no maintenance worries. The household simply pays for the energy at a low monthly rate — solar delivered as a service. We install the panels on the roof, monitor them daily, and maintain them.
SOLAR TECHNOLOGY
Aurora Solar raises $20 million in funding and will hire more tech professionals, Solar Power World
Aurora’s world-class engineering team has developed its patented SmartRoof technology, which is the only solution in the market that allows solar professionals to create a highly accurate 3D CAD model of a site in just a few minutes. Using these models, Aurora can forecast how many solar panels will fit on a property, calculate how much energy they will produce, and predict how much money the installation would save a property owner.
EV NEWS
Volkswagen floats opening up EV platform to competitors, Smart Cities Dive. It comes just a couple of weeks after VW and Ford signed a global alliance in which they pledged to cooperate on developing EVs, autonomous vehicles (AVs) and mobility services.