80 percent fear rising electricity costs

A recent poll by Sunrun, the nation's largest residential solar installer, finds that 81 percent of those surveyed have experienced power outages within the past year and 80 percent of U.S. homeowners worry data centers will drive up their electricity bills.

The company surveyed 1,000 homeowners nationwide. The findings point to a public bracing for a strain on the existing utility system and actively considering energy alternatives.

The survey reports 68 percent of homeowners doubt utilities can keep up with rising energy demand in their region

While homeowners expect things to get worse, they report that outages are already widespread:

• 81 percent experienced at least one outage in the last year
• 60 percent saw up to three
• 71 percent expect more outages over the coming year
• Only 11 percent felt "very prepared" during the most recent grid interruption

Enphase now supports fully off-grid system

Enphase added a new "Off-Grid" commissioning profile, enabling the system controller within their latest generation of products to operate without a utility connection - making it a true stand alone system. A few dozen homes are already running fully off-grid with Enphase hardware, the company disclosed this week.

The off-grid stack requires three things: the IQ Battery 5P with IQ8 series microinverters and a third-party standby AC generator. Together, the components form a microgrid that can power loads and recharge batteries while islanded, with software managing generator dispatch to avoid back-feed damage and fuel waste.

Historically microinverters require a signal from the grid to operate. IQ8 microinverters are capable of forming a grid signal independent of the grid when sunlight is present. If a site blackouts because the battery is empty and the generator is dry, the IQ8s are also capable of re-forming the microgrid when sunlight is available and recharge the bank directly from the solar array.

IQ System Controller 3G connects together the solar array, a battery and a backup generator that in combination can yield up to 46 kVA of off-grid power.

For isolated sites, the IQ Combiner incorporates a cell modem so that the system can transmit data to the cloud even without a local broadband connection.

Open AI warns White House of China's energy dominance

OpenAI warned the White House last Monday that China's commitment to building new energy generation could give it an edge in the AI race. The company recommended that the U.S. build at least 100 GW a year of new energy capacity.

Last year China "added 429 GW of new power capacity, more than one-third of the entire US grid, and more than half of all global electricity growth. By comparison, the U.S. added just 51 GW of new generating capacity.

In 2023, China accounted for 63 percent of global renewable energy expansion, according to the International Energy Agency — and it is expected to account for around 60 percent of global renewable energy expansion between now and 2030. 

"China's wind and solar generation capacity more than doubled in the three years to 2024, from 635 GW to 1,408 GW," according to a September report. "In early 2025, [China's] capacity of wind and solar combined overtook that of coal. Battery deployment tripled in three years, with China adding more new capacity in 2024 than the US and the EU combined."

Gas turbine prices soar

As power demand soars, a new report finds that installing gas-fuelled generating capacity is getting more expensive, and taking longer than ever before.

Years of low demand for gas turbines have resulted in a limited manufacturing capacity for new units. The three major global manufacturers of natural gas turbines: GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, and Mitsubishi Power, have all announced that orders placed today will not be delivered for five to seven years.

At the same time, projects slated for completion in 2030 or 2031 are now "routinely reporting price increases of as much as 75 percent for delivered turbines.

A combination of industrial electrification, changing federal energy policies, replacement of aging existing gas turbines, and data centers has resulted in a surge of demand by power generators seeking a limited supply of natural gas turbines.

Illinois legislature passes Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act

On Oct. 30, Illinois legislators passed the Clean & Reliable Grid Affordability Act. The bill that's now on the governor's desk aims to strengthen Illinois' energy grid and protect communities from rising energy costs.

As energy-intensive data centers expand and capacity prices spike further, Illinois is expecting to see significantly rising electricity bills for communities across the state. The Act is designed to address these challenges by strengthening the state's commitment to expanding renewable energy while at the same time keeping prices in check.

Key provisions of the act include:

• A mandate to procure 3 gigawatts of battery storage by 2030 and solidify funding for the continued development of new wind and solar power generating capacity.
• Expansion of energy efficiency programs and the creation of new programs to help customers install rooftop solar and residential batteries.
• Creation of "time of use" electricity rates by utilities which promote a more stable grid by charging less for power when demand is low, and more when there is higher demand.