// renewable deployment

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Oct 2

Grid Location Trumps Cost in Renewable Procurement Strategy

The Philippines' renewable energy auctions reward the lowest bidder regardless of location. Projects win contracts in remote islands without transmission infrastructure to deliver power, leaving grid operators scrambling for costly workarounds while cheaper grid-adjacent sites remain unsourced. Procurement rules treat transmission access as a post-award problem rather than a cost component of the bid itself. This pattern likely repeats across emerging markets that mechanically favor lowest-cost bids without spatial constraints. The fix is to bundle transmission access or physical location into procurement rules, making grid integration non-negotiable before award.

theme-connected energy infrastructure renewable deployment grid modernization

Sep 26

Solar's US Growth Hits First Sustained Slowdown

Source: Ars Technica

After years of explosive expansion, the US solar market is facing genuine headwinds—not cyclical dips—driven by supply chain normalization, grid interconnection backlogs, and the expiration of IRA incentives for manufacturing. The sector needs 15-20% annual growth to hit climate targets and compete with natural gas. A structural slowdown would force it to solve harder problems—transmission bottlenecks, storage pairing, labor—rather than ride manufacturing subsidies. Utilities are simultaneously confronting peak demand from AI data centers and heat pumps, so stalled solar deployment directly impacts grid stability and decarbonization timelines.