Bloomberg: Wind Power Now Cheaper Than Natural Gas for Xcel, CEO Says

Xcel Energy Inc., the biggest U.S. provider of wind power, expects long-term contracts for the technology to beat the cost of natural gas, another sign of the rapid transformation of the power market.

Xcel, the Minneapolis-based utility that serves eight states, is receiving bids for 20-year power-purchase agreements at about $25 a megawatt-hour for wind energy, Chief Executive Officer Ben Fowke said in an interview Friday at Bloomberg News headquarters in New York.

Los Angeles Times: Edison Faces $16.7 Million Fine Over Unreported Talks With Regulators

A state administrative law judge has proposed a $16.7-million fine against Southern California Edison for failing to report talks that utility representatives had with regulators over the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant.

The ruling by Administrative Law Judge Melanie Darling is subject to final approval by the California Public Utilities Commission. Maureen Brown, an Edison spokeswoman, said the utility was reviewing the ruling.

Edison has come under fire since revelations that officials, agents or attorneys at the utility engaged in 10 unreported communications with one or more commissioners or their personal advisors. The talks included a meeting at a swanky hotel in Warsaw, Poland.

New York Times: Energy Storage Industry Gaining Momentum

Despite decades of public and private research and investment, the storage industry has struggled to take off, though there are signs that may be changing.

As energy policies, technologies and markets shift to encourage the growth of renewable power plants, rooftop solar and decentralized systems like microgrids, storage is gaining more investment and interest while regulators are moving to require its inclusion in renewable energy developments and wholesale electricity markets.

Green Car Reports: Both Electric and Gas Cars Lose Range in the Cold; Electrics Just Lose More

When it comes to electric cars, one of the biggest fears for potential customers is range anxiety in general -- but for many, it's specifically their cold-weather range.

Batteries lose efficiency in colder temperatures, something that only heightens the range anxiety many potential buyers feel acutely. But, it turns out, internal-combustion cars also lose range in the cold.

PV Magazine: SunEdison to Use Solaria Technology to Manufacture 400 Watt Solar PV Modules

Many different approaches have been taken to pull more electricity off of PV cells, other than the standard three-busbar design. These range from moving the electrical contacts to the rear, to adding more busbars, to wire mesh interconnections to replace busbars.

Now SunEdison is taking a new approach and using technology developed by Solaria to remove the busbars entirely, in a new rethinking of the approach to stringing cells into modules.

This will be made possible with technology developed by Solaria, which on Monday announced a technology licensing and equipment deal under which SunEdison will manufacture its new 400-watt Zero White Space line of modules.