Jeff St. John

Oakland

Chief Reporter and Policy Specialist at Canary Media

Director of News & Special Projects @ Canary Media, covering the transition to a zero-carbon economy and society. Proud parent of Lily the corgi. Views r my own

Articles

Texas finalizes $1.8B to build solar, battery, and gas-powered microgrids

2 weeks ago | grist.org | Jeff St. John

This story was originally published by Canary Media. The Texas Legislature ended its biennial session without passing a slew of bills that could have killed the state’s booming solar and battery sector, and by extension, the ability to keep the Texas grid running amid extreme weather and surging demand for electricity.
Texas finalizes $1.8B to build solar, battery, and gas-powered microgrids

2 weeks ago | ecotopical.com | Jeff St. John

Welcome to EcoTopical Your daily eco-friendly green news aggregator. Leaf through planet Earths environmental headlines in one convenient place. Read, share and discover the latest on ecology, science and green living from the web's most popular sites.
Sunnova and Mosaic bankruptcies highlight deepening rooftop solar woes

2 weeks ago | canarymedia.com | Jeff St. John

High interest rates and state policy headwinds have destabilized major rooftop solar firms. The GOP’s tax credit cuts could make a bad situation worse. U.S. companies that install and finance residential solar have been struggling for years with rising interest rates and unfavorable policy shifts in California, the country’s biggest rooftop solar market.
Texas finalizes $1.8B to build solar, battery, and gas-powered…

2 weeks ago | canarymedia.com | Jeff St. John

The state Legislature finally passed a proposal to fund backup power for critical facilities like nursing homes and fire stations. The Texas Legislature ended its biennial session without passing a slew of bills that could have killed the state’s booming solar and battery sector, and by extension, the ability to keep the Texas grid running amid extreme weather and surging demand for electricity.
Texas finalizes $1.8B to build solar, battery, and gas-powered microgrids

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Jeff St. John

The Texas Legislature ended its biennial session without passing a slew of bills that could have killed the state’s booming solar and battery sector, and by extension, the ability to keep the Texas grid running amid extreme weather and surging demand for electricity. It did pass a law that could strengthen the state’s electricity reliability by encouraging the construction of more microgrids — combinations of small-scale gas-fired power, solar, and batteries that can be built quickly.
California’s successful virtual power plant program faces big budget…

3 weeks ago | canarymedia.com | Jeff St. John

Companies tapping smart thermostats and solar-charged home batteries to help the grid say funding cuts could undermine their efforts and cost customers. California’s biggest virtual power plant is facing over $100 million in funding cuts due to the state’s ongoing budget crisis, threatening the long-term viability of a program that can act as a crucial release valve for the state’s overburdened power grid.
Massachusetts grid breakthrough could benefit customers while…

3 weeks ago | canarymedia.com | Jeff St. John

The state’s regulators and utilities are working out a mutually beneficial way to share the costs of the grid upgrades required to build more community solar. A pesky question has long stalled efforts to expand U.S. power grids in the face of growing demand and surging renewable energy: Who should pay for the upgrades? An under-the-radar breakthrough in Massachusetts may finally provide a template for answering that question.
Trump admin cuts $3.7B for industrial decarbonization and carbon…

4 weeks ago | canarymedia.com | Jeff St. John

The decision will devastate ambitious efforts to cut emissions from heavy industry ranging from food production to chemicals. The Department of Energy announced Friday that it is canceling over $3.7 billion in funding for projects that would cut carbon emissions and toxic air pollution from power plants and industrial sites, ranging from cement kilns to ketchup-processing plants.
A new, low-carbon way to make chemicals, without the big, dirty…

1 month ago | canarymedia.com | Jeff St. John

Startup OCOchem has built factory-assembled “artificial photosynthesis” cells to make formate, a widely used chemical now produced with fossil fuels. The global chemicals industry is big, and it’s dirty. Chemical plants consume lots of fossil fuels, both to power the high-temperature, high-pressure processes involved and often as a feedstock for the chemicals produced. And to maximize production, those plants are typically built to be as large as possible.
Can locally made green ammonia replace fertilizer from fossil fuels?

1 month ago | canarymedia.com | Jeff St. John

Startup Talusag says modular plants that make ammonia from green hydrogen could cut carbon and costs from fertilizer supply chains, in America’s heartland and beyond. Modern farming depends on massive amounts of ammonia fertilizer, almost all of it made from fossil gas in enormous chemical plants. These facilities use high heat and pressure to split that gas, mostly made up of methane, into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.