Sky is blue. Water is wet. PJM capacity auction hit its collar.

Disregarding the fact that the sky has most certainly not been blue in many parts of the U.S. lately thanks to Canadian wildfires, it was no surprise that the nation’s largest grid operator fetched top dollar across all zones in last week’s 2028/2029 Base Residual Auction. Nor was it shocking that PJM calculated a capacity reserve shortfall of more than 6.8 gigawatts (GW), its second-ever and second-straight, pushing its margin from a preferred 20% down to 14.7% for the 2028-2029 delivery year.

That doesn’t mean the system spanning 13 states and Washington, D.C. will be unable to serve load reliably, but if a 1-in-10-year event rears its ugly head, things might get hairy. That’s particularly problematic considering PJM just broke its demand record, and there’s no reason to think two summers from now it’s going to be cooler and less data center-y.

To its credit, PJM is very much aware of the ripple effects of its supply-and-demand imbalance and is trying to address the root causes with a whack-a-mole flurry of initiatives, including planning a Reliability Backstop Procurement and developing Connect and Manage frameworks and a temporary Expedited Interconnection Track. Meanwhile, electricity prices continue to climb in its footprint; an independent analysis estimates that since June 2025, annual customer costs in PJM have increased by $12.5 billion, skyrocketing from $2.2 billion in 2024 to $14.7 billion the following year. As Marlo Stanfield of HBO’s The Wire might’ve put it, the price of the brick is goin’ up.

PJM’s next power auction is in December, for 2029-2030. It’s the last one with a federally approved collar. I’m no Nostradamus, but it’ll hit that cap easily. It’s what happens next that could make or break America’s biggest grid.

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Grow Where You’re Planted

Clean energy asset manager Aligned Climate Capital has acquired an innovative community solar project called Armoracia in Collinsville Township, Illinois, through its Aligned Solar Partners (ASP) strategy.

Currently under construction, the 7.3 MW DC Armoracia ground-mount project combines community solar generation with continued productive land use by deploying Planted’s innovative power platform across 16 acres. Planted’s high-density terrain-following arrays require no grading and leave more room for agricultural activities, pollinator habitat, and other compatible uses within and around the array. Planted combines powerful software, terrain-following arrays, and field automation into a single system to deploy faster on the sites that constrain most community solar development: irregular parcels, moderate slopes, and limited acreage.

Armoracia will serve subscribers through the Illinois Adjustable Block Program on the Ameren Illinois grid and is expected to reach commercial operation later this year.

“This acquisition matters because it helps establish Planted’s platform as financeable infrastructure at commercial scale. Their platform is built for land-efficient deployment, making solar work on sites where conventional approaches would require significantly more land,” said Peter Davidson, CEO of Aligned Climate Capital. “Until now, developers have had a limited ability to commit a real pipeline to Planted projects without an institutional buyer prepared to finance construction and own the assets. Aligned’s acquisition of Armoracia helps solve that problem and creates a financing precedent for the technology at commercial scale.”

More in Store for MISO

Next-generation energy storage developer Spearmint Energy is jazzed over the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s recent decision to approve a Site Permit for the Midwater Energy Storage Project, a 150 megawatt (MW) / 600 megawatt-hour (MWh) standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) in Freeborn County, Minnesota.

Midwater will be sited on 10 to 20 acres of privately owned land adjacent to the Glenworth Substation off Minnesota Highway 65. The project is designed to support a more reliable, consistent, and affordable energy supply in MISO territory, bolster grid resilience in the region, and help lower electricity costs.

“As electricity demand continues to grow, projects like Midwater provide flexible infrastructure that supports grid stability, enhances affordability, and enables the integration of diverse generation resources. We are pleased to have achieved this major milestone,” said Peter Rood, chief development officer of Spearmint Energy.

Midwater is Spearmint’s second project to advance through Minnesota’s state permitting process, following the successful permitting of the Snowshoe Energy Storage Project in Olmsted County, which was the first stand-alone battery approved in the state. Spearmint, headquartered in Florida, currently operates 350 MW/ 700 MWh in ERCOT and has an additional 300 MW / 600 MWh of BESS under construction throughout the United States.

Starlight, Star Bright

Despite organized pushback efforts from some locals, the San Diego County Planning Commission has unanimously approved the Starlight Solar project, a two-phase 100 MWac solar photovoltaic and 217.3 MW BESS undertaking in southeastern unincorporated San Diego County.

Spanning approximately 588 acres, the solar + storage site would be one of the largest in the county and would transform the space between Old Highway 80 and the U.S.-Mexico border.

Supporting infrastructure includes inverters, transformers, an on-site collector substation, and a generation-tie (gen-tie) line connecting to the SDG&E Boulevard Substation. The gen-tie line would be mostly underground with one overhead crossing of Tule Jim Lane. The Project also includes an off-site biological open space easement on approximately 448 acres to protect sensitive vegetation communities, special-status species, and habitat. Photovoltaic (PV) modules would be mounted on single-axis trackers or fixed-tilt structures with a maximum height of 12 feet.

Boulevard community members voiced concerns about the project, particularly worried about fire hazards associated with lithium-ion storage. Boulevard is already in a CAL Fire-designated High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and fires have recently broken out at battery storage facilities in Otay Mesa and Escondido.

The project includes a fire protection plan, and its developers will consider relocating the batteries installed during the second phase of construction to keep them as far away from people as possible.

Four Phases Complete

Independent power producer Terra-Gen, jointly owned by Masdar and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, has reached commercial operations at Lockhart Solar PV IV.

The 80 MW solar farm in San Bernardino County, California, will provide enough electricity to power approximately 40,000 homes and businesses annually through a long-term power purchase agreement with an unspecified California load-serving entity. Construction of Lockhart IV created more than 220 jobs at peak activity, and crews completed over 122,000 work hours with no lost-time incidents. Cupertino Electric served as the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor.

“We are excited to bring the Lockhart IV project online and continue investing in projects that help meet the growing electricity demand and create economic, social and environmental positive impact,” stated John O’Connor, chief executive officer of Terra-Gen. “With more than 15 GW of projects in our development pipeline, we are well positioned to continue delivering reliable, sustainable energy at scale that can help satisfy the energy needs of today and tomorrow.”

The Lockhart IV project is the final phase of the Lockhart Solar and Storage facility. With all four now operational, the facility has a total capacity of 365 MW of solar generation and 173.7 MW of battery storage, enough to meet the annual needs of more than 350,000 homes and businesses.

Situated on approximately 4,000 acres of private land, the complete Lockhart Solar and Storage operational facility includes nearly 1 million solar modules and 248 battery enclosures. The project utilizes the existing gen-tie line connecting to Southern California Edison’s Kramer Junction Substation.