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U.S. solar power expected to quadruple by 2030
The industry also saw fourth quarter installations jump 32 percent year-over-year, even with a massive backlog of projects awaiting interconnection, and as utility-scale projects rushed to meet an anticipated decline in the Investment Tax Credit rate, the report said. The two-year extension of the ITC, which was signed into law in the final days of 2020, has increased the five-year outlook for solar deployment by 17 percent, according to the report. The solar industry has grown quickly over the past several years, even expanding while Trump administration enacted trade tariffs and lease rate hikes and criticized the technology as expensive. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, entered the White House with plans to put the country on a path toward eliminating greenhouse gases from the power grid...
DOE’s first task for loan guarantees: Calming industry nerves
“I think my responsibility here is to prove to all stakeholders, including Congress, that we can put the money out the door and use the funds they entrust us with,” Shah told POLITICO. Loan guarantees enable the department to back companies seeking to deploy new technologies that are not yet established, like advanced geothermal, advanced battery storage, and, at least in the U.S., offshore wind. Companies use that stamp of approval from the government to attract funding in the capital markets. While Congress is laboring to put together a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill, DOE can start pumping dollars into the clean energy economy immediately, if it can generate excitement in the business community. But following a wave of approvals in 2010 and 2011 under the Obama administra...
EPA finalizes rule curbing interstate pollution from 12 states
Details: The rule, which updates ozone requirements under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and is largely in line with the Trump administration’s proposal, will require power plants in the 12 states to optimize their use of already-installed pollution controls for 2021. Plants may also have to install or upgrade their NOx combustion controls for the 2022 season. The rule lists emissions budgets for those states through 2024, with figures tweaked slightly from last year’s proposal. The 12 states facing additional requirements because of their contribution to downwind states’ air quality problems are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. (Some states, like New York and New Jersey, are both upw...
Fed sees U.S. economic growth surging to 6.5 percent this year
“The economic fallout has been real and widespread, but with the benefit of perspective, we can say that some of the very worst economic outcomes have been avoided by swift and forceful action — from Congress, from across the government, and in cities and towns across the country,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference after the announcement. All of this is welcome news for President Joe Biden, who signed a $1.9 trillion economic-relief package last week as part of his push to help the economy fully recover from the deep, pandemic-induced slump. Critics of the spending package have warned that it could overheat the economy and spark inflation. But despite the surge in growth, the Fed isn’t in any hurry to raise borrowing costs, projecting no interest rate increases through 202...
OnlyFans Launches Creator Fund For U.K. Music Artists
Over the past year, artists from Cardi B to The-Dream and Rico Nasty have all joined content subscription platform OnlyFans — and Beyoncé even gave the platform a shout-out during her verse on a remix of Megan Thee Stallion‘s “Savage.” Now, the London-based company is leaning further into the music world with the launch of a new creative fund for artists in the U.K., announced today (March 17). The fund will award four aspiring artists grants of £20,000 (roughly $27,800) each, plus mentorship from a “music industry professional,” to help them kickstart their careers in music. Artists can enter to win the funds online through April 13 using an application process that includes uploading a 90-second performance video. OnlyFans CEO Tim Stokely wil...
Meet the Nonprofits Feeding Thousands of Out-Of-Work Touring Staff
The live events industry breathed a sigh of relief when Congress passed the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant providing $15 billion to shuttered venues and independent promoters in December, but Espinoza says it’s “disrespectful” that no legislation passed to support event workers. While venues await their funding, Roadiecare is among several industry-adjacent nonprofits stepping up to feed and employ event workers who are without their usual income for the foreseeable future. Live event crew members were hit particularly hard by the pandemic due to complicated unemployment guidelines in the 2020 CARES Act. The pandemic relief legislation allowed for freelance workers to apply for Pandemic Unemploy...
Former England skipper wants brain tested for dementia signs
Former England striker Gary Lineker says he will get extra checks on his brain for signs of dementia. Research has found that former professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to die from a brain disorder than the general population. Already, an inquiry was launched by the UK parliament this month into sport’s link to dementia. Lineker, who has previously suggested a complete ban on heading in training, joined a radio programme for a Dementia in Football documentary. He revealed he and colleagues Alan Shearer and Ian Wright fear they could end up with a brain disorder. “I’ve had conversations with Alan Shearer and Ian Wright and others about the worry that, come 10, 15 years, that it might happen to one of us,” said the 60-year-old former England captain turned broadca...
Two school pupils crushed to death in Ogun
The accident which occurred around 9.05am this morning at Modupe Hospital Turning, Ifo, Ogun State, on the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, involves a containerised MAN DIESEL Truck with registration number EPE 514 XW and four TVS Tricycles with the following registration numbers; JBF 482 QJ, GBE 603 WZ, GBE 626 WU and one without a registration number. According to Ebunoluwa Akinkunmi, Ifo/Ewekoro Area Commander, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), said, “The truck which was on speed, lost control and rammed into other vehicles killing the two pupils in transit to their different schools and other five people, including, four males and one female who sustained several degrees of injuries. “The presumed dead bodies, have been deposited at Ifo General Hospital Morgue, while the inju...
National Assembly members agreed not to be hostile to Prudent Buhari’s government – Senate spokesman
The current 9th National Assembly members all agreed that they will not have an acrimonious relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, unlike the 8th Assembly under Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara. Spokesman of the senate, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, who represents Osun Central disclosed this in an interview published in newsmen on Wednesday while responding to claims that the current national assembly is a rubber-stamp that is always quick to do the bidding of the executive. He said “I don’t know the basis for your question, but what I do know is that at the inception, there was an agreement among the lawmakers that we do not want an acrimonious relationship between the Executive and the Legislature”. “All of us witnessed how such a relationship worked against the interest of...
Gani Adams: Pan-Yoruba Congress is work in progress
File Photo The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, on Wednesday, restated his beliefs in the unity and progress of the Yoruba nation, maintaining that with the success of the Pan Yoruba congress, there is no doubt that the unity of the Yoruba nation’s is a collective project and it is surely, a work in progress. Speaking at the Pan Yoruba Congress held at Mapo Hall, Ibadan, Oyo state, Iba Adams said the gathering is geared towards focusing the race’s energy and strengths in securing the Southwest against criminal race, and also strategise in bolstering southwest’s agric and economic prospects. The Yoruba generalissimo also added that Congress offered a bigger platform for all groups to meet minds and discuss the way forward for the Yoruba nation. His words: “Today’s event is a ...
Lin-Manuel Miranda to Chronicle 20 Years of ‘In the Heights’ in New Book
Readers will have a chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at In the Heights in a new book. Random House announced Tuesday that it will publish In the Heights: Finding Home, which will give a look at the beginnings of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2008 breakout Broadway debut and journey to the soon-t0-be-released film adaptation directed by Jon M. Chu. After working together on the New York Times best-seller Hamilton: The Revolution, Miranda and co-author Jeremy McCarter reunite here, with Quiara Alegría Hudes, the Pulitzer Prize–winning librettist of the book for the Tony-winning Broadway musical and screenwriter of the motion picture, also an author. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back powe...
UMG Signs Expanded Licensing Deal with African Streaming Service Boomplay
Under the deal, UMG content will now be available via Boomplay in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Guinea- Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Tchad, Togo and Zimbabwe. Markets covered under the 2018 agreement were Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. “Since our original deal with UMG, the African music industry has seen exponential growth and made huge strides towards being the next powerhouse that it should be,” said Boomplay dir...
