Tuesday, 13 October 2026

The Michigan Public Service Commission postponed its decision on Consumers Energy's proposed sale of dams to Confluence Hydro until November, while the two companies continue negotiating the details of the transaction, according to Our Midland and Manistee News.

The sale requires approval by the commission.

Consumers Energy officials said the company would begin the process of decommissioning its 13 dams if the sale is not approved, a process that would take several years.

India's non-fossil fuel energy capacity passed 300 GW in July 2026, more than half of its total installed capacity, according to an article carried by IANS.

The article said India crossed its 50% non-fossil installed power capacity target in June 2025, five years ahead of schedule.

It argued that Western countries continue to focus on India's coal-fired power plants in the climate change debate while overlooking the rapid pace at which the country is adding renewable capacity across solar, hydel, and wind power, according to IANS.

Distributed Energy Infrastructure (DEI) announced the harvest of two cranberry agrivoltaics projects in Massachusetts: the Black Cat project in Plymouth and the Ring Road project in Kingston.

DEI said the two sites produced what it described as the first-ever agrivoltaic cranberry harvests.

The Black Cat project carries 1 MW of capacity, according to DEI, paired with an energy storage system rated at 2,700 kWh of installed energy capacity.

The Ring Road project is larger at 4.4 MW and is matched with a 13.5 MWh battery energy storage system, DEI said.

China's Dashixia Water Control Project in Xinjiang has started generating electricity after its first two generator units were connected to the power grid, according to the Wilayah report carried via Event Registry.

In a separate development, production has begun in the sixth cascade at Urenco USA's National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico, bringing the facility's ongoing capacity expansion to 75% completion, according to World Nuclear News.

India's peak electricity demand is projected to climb to 459 GW by financial year 2035-36, from around 245 GW, according to an Anand Rathi research report.

The report ties the near-doubling of demand to a wider need for storage and stronger grids to support renewable generation.

Rising electricity demand is also driving consolidation among North American utilities, according to Kalkine Media.

Rooftop solar output across Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM) reached 17,488 MW at 12:00 AEST on October 11, 2026, a new record, according to RenewEconomy. The reading surpassed the previous high of 16,993 MW set on September 20, 2026.

The new mark was 495 MW, or 2.91%, above the record set three weeks earlier, RenewEconomy reported.

The Sunday peak capped a run of records over five days, from October 7 to October 11, 2026, with new rooftop photovoltaic output highs in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and across the NEM. New South Wales set its own record of 6,346 MW on October 9, 2026, following earlier highs in South Australia and Victoria that week, according to RenewEconomy.

Utility-scale renewables and renewable portfolio standards show no link to higher residential electricity prices across the United States, but rooftop solar does, according to a study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers reported by pv magazine.

The price effect tracks rooftop solar's cut of total generation. Where that share climbs 5 percentage points, residential power prices run roughly 16% higher, pv magazine reported.

Canada announced an investment of almost $270 million for clean and reliable energy in New Brunswick, according to Natural Resources Canada. Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, made the announcement.

The largest portion is a $219-million site development loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to NB Power for the Mactaquac Life Achievement Project, Natural Resources Canada said. The loan supports technical studies, regulatory reviews, First Nations engagement and planning activities.

Natural Resources Canada is also providing NB Power with $50 million for the Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) project at the Salisbury Terminal, intended to strengthen southern New Brunswick's electricity system.

Chinese researchers developed high-entropy molecular contacts that pushed inverted perovskite solar cells to a certified steady-state efficiency of 27.31%, according to pv magazine.

The champion device reached a power conversion efficiency of 27.50% under reverse-scan conditions, pv magazine reported.

The high-entropy molecular-contact approach also improves thermal stability by preventing molecular-contact degradation, according to pv magazine.