Spain Shuts 50% of Remaining Coal Plants

Spain shuts down nearly half its remaining coal plants; Four utilities in three states jump straight from coal to renewables & storage; PGE announces virtual power plant w/storage; Shell writes down $22 bn of assets

1) Spain announced it shut nearly half its remaining coal plants - taking 4,360 MW of capacity offline. Four add'l plants at 3,092 MW have also filed to close.

2) Four utilities in southwestern three states announced plans to move straight from coal plants right to renewables and batteries, without using gas as a bridge fuel.

3) Portland General Electric announced a pilot virtual power plant to connect & direct 525 residential energy storage systems and deliver up to 4 MW of grid services back to the utility. This isn't a new type of a program. Vermont's Green Mountain Power initiated a similar project years ago. It's expanded it with a tariff, enrolling 500 new customers every year.

4) Shell taking a $22 billion haircut, with the asset valuation updates reflecting "Shell's strategy to reshape and focus its refining portfolio to support the decarbonisation of its energy mix leveraging assets and value chains in key markets." My advice for Shell is to keep the write-down pen out. This process is far from over.