Clean Energy Finance Forum

Residents in Springfield, Massachusetts question the "green" light for a biomass facility in an area where many live with asthma.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and EDP Renovaveis SA agreed to sell power from a wind farm they’re building in the Atlantic Ocean for a record-low price. The 804-megawatt Mayflower wind farm, located south of Martha’s Vineyard, will supply electricity to utilities in Massachusetts for $58 a megawatt-hour over the life of the contract.

"Policies to foster competition in energy are important especially in states like Michigan with regulated electricity markets. In Michigan, regulated investor-owned utilities are the only providers of electricity in the service territories in which they operate."

The MI Power Grid program will focus on three areas: customer engagement, integrating emerging technologies and optimizing grid performance and investments. Business groups and one of the state's largest electric utilities, Consumers Energy, applauded the move.

The Department of Energy Resources released its report on "the necessity, benefits and costs" of pursuing an additional 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power, which the Legislature last year authorized but did not mandate, and concluded that it would be a good bet for ratepayers, the environment and the economy.

Michigan regulators approved Consumers Energy's latest integrated resource plan, which will shutter its Karn coal-fired plant by 2023, setting the utility on a course to eliminate coal entirely and by 2040 reduce emissions from power plants by 90%.

Nevada lawmakers on May 23 passed legislation to modernize how electric utility rates are set, directing the Public Utilities Commission to develop regulations enabling a performance-based regime.