ICAST has been tracking the rollout of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) dollars and helping our various customer segments access these funds to benefit low- and moderate-income communities. We are working on numerous community-scale solar PV and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects for Tribes, rural electric cooperatives, and municipalities. These include:

• a 2MW solar PV and 4MWh BESS for the City of Aztec in New Mexico,
• two 5MW solar and 10MWh BESS projects for the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona, and
• a 5MW solar and 10MWh BESS project for the City of Socorro in New Mexico, which is in the process of forming its own municipal utility.

In addition to increasing access to affordable, clean energy, these technologies can support energy reliability and resiliency. Read more here

A massive 12-ton 3D printer has arrived in Cairo to construct a duplex on vacant land behind the town’s city hall. The towering gantry system stretches into the sky as the machine, guided by a computer rendering, layers a specialty concrete mix like toothpaste squeezed from a tube. Read more here

Making chemicals, metals, glass, and cement often requires scorching levels of heat. Today, many of those industrial processes use planet-warming fossil fuels to reach temperatures rivaling those of lava. But dozens of companies are racing to deploy novel technologies that can harness clean electricity to help solve one of heavy industry’s thorniest climate problems. Read more here

Xcel Energy’s Clean Heat Plan for Colorado Moving Forward

Colorado’s largest investor-owned utility, Xcel Energy, should soon receive a written order from the state’s Public Utilities Commission to finalize and implement its “2024-2028 Clean Heat Plan.” The plan directs more than $440 million over the next three years towards electrification and energy efficiency, primarily through incentives that can be combined with federal electrification tax credits. One-fifth of the funding is reserved for low-income customers. Additionally, customers will receive higher rebates if they choose more advanced technologies, like high-efficiency cold-climate heat pumps. Read more here