Headline News:

• A 1-MW solar array in Tres Piedras, New Mexico, started soaking in the sun and pumping power to the grid last week. Kit Carson Electric Cooperative announced plans earlier this year to eventually provide its 30,000 members with 100% renewable energy. The Tres Piedras solar array is the first of seven the co-op plans to build this year. [taosnews]

Solar array in New Mexico

• Records are being set in the UK. There was not a single major plant generating purely solar power in 2007, but now, there are 277. The current UK target calls for 30% of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2020, and according to provisional figures, the number for the first three months of 2017 was 26.6%. [domain-B]
• The clean energy standard, developed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, qualifies only zero-carbon producers that became operational after December 31, 2010, for clean energy credits. The Pilgrim nuclear plant is too old to get any subsidies. [SouthCoastToday.com]
• Norway’s plan to ramp up oil and gas production in the Arctic threatens efforts to tackle climate change, a study said. It says 12 gigatonnes of carbon could be added by exploration sites in the Barents Sea and elsewhere over the next 50 years. This is 1.5 times more than the Norwegian fields currently being tapped or under construction. [The Guardian]
• In Mahwah, New Jersey, a Ramapough Lenape Nation’s prayer ground now has electricity, courtesy of renewable energy technology donated by Princeton University graduates. The energy system, which arrived in a 20-foot metal shipping container, has solar panels, a small wind turbine ready to be raised, and energy storage. [NorthJersey.com]

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