The Solar-Powered Future Is Being Assembled in China
On a recent morning in central China, workers in blue jumpsuits and white masks placed clamps around a bar of shiny metal and fed it into a powerful cutting machine. Continue Reading
Solar Windows Will Soon Become A Commercial Reality
Last year, the United Nations sent out a grim warning : The world has a very short 10-year window to act to avert catastrophic and irreversible climate change. Not surprisingly, Continue Reading
When Smoke Blotted Out the Sun, Rooftop Solar Withered
When deadly wildfires tinted Western skies a Martian hue this week, homeowners with their own rooftop solar systems were able to tell with great precision just how much useful sunlight Continue Reading
What Are Anti-Solar Panels?
Solar panels have been hailed as one of the most important energy technologies of our time for their ability to theoretically produce infinite energy. But solar panels only work during Continue Reading
World Added More Solar, Wind Than Anything Else Last Year
For the first time ever, solar and wind made up the majority of the world’s new power generation — marking a seismic shift in how nations get their electricity. Solar additions Continue Reading
India To Propose World Solar Bank
India will propose a World Solar Bank at the World Solar Technology Summit organized by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in September, the Business Standard reported. Stay up to date Continue Reading
Wind and Solar Double Global Share of Power in Five Years
Wind and solar energy doubled its share of the global power mix over the last five years, moving the world closer to a path that would limit the worst effects Continue Reading
How the Australia-ASEAN Power Link plans to make the island continent a solar superpower
Could Australia, one of the world’s biggest exporters of coal and natural gas, become a solar superpower? The island continent, distant from Asia’s megacities, plans to capture the plentiful Outback sun, Continue Reading
Australia aims to become renewable energy export superpower
Australia has shipped vast quantities of coal and gas to fuel Asia’s rapid growth for decades. But amid global concerns over climate change, investors and a previously skeptical conservative government Continue Reading
The World Is Facing A Solar Panel Waste Problem
Solar panel installations hit a total 629 GW last year–an increase of 12 percent from 2018. It was also a lot—really a lot—of panels. And in a few years, these Continue Reading
In the Future, Solar and Wind Will Be Everywhere You Look
To my four-year-old son, electricity must seem magic—this invisible stuff that comes out of the wall sockets to power the fridge, to light up the TV, or run his favorite Continue Reading
Chevron Powering Oil Pumps with Solar Panels
In California’s sun-drenched Kern Valley, Chevron Corp. has found a way to use one of the state’s clean-energy programs to cut costs. (Bloomberg) — In California’s sun-drenched Kern Valley, Chevron Continue Reading
New California Study Is Good News for Certain Solar Companies
California’s three investor-owned utilities have released the results of a study called for by the California Public Utilities Commission to assess the “effective load carrying capability” of various energy technologies—in other words, how Continue Reading
Home-Solar Companies Merge as Coronavirus Dims Growth
The two largest U.S. rooftop solar companies are merging as the coronavirus pandemic casts a cloud over the market to install panels on homes. Sunrun Inc. RUN 22.63% is acquiring Vivint Solar Inc. VSLR 38.19% in an all-stock deal, the companies Continue Reading
NREL researchers use adversarial training to super-resolve climate data; up to 50X higher resolution data
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a novel machine learning approach quickly to enhance the resolution of wind velocity data by Continue Reading
Solar-Power Costs Falling Even Faster Than Expected Due to Virus
The cost of U.S. solar power is dropping faster than expected as the coronavirus stifles demand, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie. Residential-system prices will fall 17% over the next five Continue Reading
Solar and Wind Cheapest Sources of Power in Most of the World
Solar and onshore wind power are now the cheapest new sources of electricity in at least two-thirds of the world’s population, further threatening the two fossil-fuel stalwarts — coal and Continue Reading
Solar-Power Costs Falling Even Faster Than Expected Due to Virus
The cost of U.S. solar power is dropping faster than expected as the coronavirus stifles demand, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie. Residential-system prices will fall 17% over the next five Continue Reading
U.S. Solar Set for Its Third-Best Year Ever Despite Coronavirus
This year was shaping up to be Sunnova Energy International Inc.’s best ever. California—already the biggest U.S. solar market—had started requiring most new homes to be powered by the sun. The rooftop Continue Reading
Plunging cost of wind and solar marks turning point in energy transition: IRENA
Plunging costs of renewables mark a turning point in a global transition to low-carbon energy, with new solar or wind farms increasingly cheaper to build than running existing coal plants, Continue Reading
Israel Is Betting Big On Solar Power
Israel, which hopes to become energy-independent with its huge natural gas fields, is aiming to significantly boost its solar power generation over the next decade under a new US$22.8 billion Continue Reading
Sunniest Spring Helps U.K. Hit a New Solar Record
The U.K.’s sunniest spring on record has boosted solar power’s share of the electricity mix to new heights. Clear skies throughout May, with low power demand during the coronvirus lockdown, helped the Continue Reading
Europe Needs a Solar Boom Now or Regret Missing Out in a Decade
Europeans need to urgently increase the solar power that their economies generate or face a reckoning with climate change they could regret. Those are the stark choices outlined by top European Continue Reading
Solar panels are more efficient than you’ve heard. This material could make them even better.
Renewable energy has been on the defensive recently. Following the release of Planet of the Humans , the controversial new climate change documentary executive produced by Michael Moore, fossil fuel–backed Continue Reading
Trump Administration Approves Largest U.S. Solar Project Ever
The U.S. Department of the Interior approved this week the biggest solar project in the United States ever—an estimated US$1-billion solar plus battery storage project in Nevada. Australia’s Quinbrook Infrastructure Continue Reading
Kobe team develops method for highly efficient hydrogen production using sunlight, water and hematite
A research group led by Associate Professor Takashi Tachikawa of Kobe University’s Molecular Photoscience Research Center has developed a strategy that greatly increases the amount of hydrogen produced from sunlight Continue Reading
Trump administration signals help coming for solar and wind energy amid pandemic
The Trump administration is signaling it is about to offer a lifeline to solar and wind projects battered by the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter sent to senators Thursday, the Continue Reading
Australia’s Biggest Solar Farm Gets Green Light After Power Deal
Neoen SA will start construction on Australia’s biggest solar farm after winning a power purchase agreement with Queensland state’s renewables company. The Paris-based company will invest A$570 million ($366 million) in the Continue Reading
Virginia climate law spurs significant clean energy push at Dominion
Dominion Energy updated investors Tuesday on medium-term clean power generation development plans resulting from recent Virginia legislation that includes spending $3.5 billion on developing 2.6 GW of offshore wind and Continue Reading
The Next Perovskite Solar Breakthrough Could Give Us Endless Energy By 2025
Harnessing the motherlode of the sun’s power is almost within our reach. The sun, our primary source of energy, bathes our Blue Planet in more solar energy than we can Continue Reading
Are Solar Windows The Next Big Renewable Breakthrough?
Windows that let in light and produce electricity at the same time: a recipe for a perfect life and an idea as fascinating as unattainable. At least until recently. Making Continue Reading
Solar and Wind Cheapest Sources of Power in Most of the World
Solar and onshore wind power are now the cheapest new sources of electricity in at least two-thirds of the world’s population, further threatening the two fossil-fuel stalwarts — coal and Continue Reading
The Energy Revolution That Started in 1954 Is Reaching Its Crescendo
We just marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and as I sat writing this column at home, I could gaze out the window at a day that would have made Continue Reading
Here Is How Covid Is Affecting Some of the Largest Wind, Solar and Energy Storage Projects
We already know that Covid-19 is leading to project delays and layoffs across the clean energy economy. Today, I’m going to zero in on what’s happening with some of the Continue Reading
Germany Breaks Solar Power Record as Smog Clears From Skies
Germany’s solar panels produced record amounts of electricity, exacerbating market forces that were already hammering the profitability of the country’s remaining coal plants. Gin-clear skies over central Europe helped photovoltaic Continue Reading
HyperSolar working with Suzhou GH New Energy to accelerate manufacturing of renewable solar hydrogen panels
HyperSolar, Inc., the developer of a technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and water ( earlier post ), is working with Suzhou GH New Energy Co. Ltd., a division Continue Reading
This Emerging Economy Bets Big On Solar
Egypt’s total of 1173 recorded Covid-19 cases and 78 deaths, as of April 5, places Africa’s third-most populous country significantly below the global per capita averages for both counts as Continue Reading
GCL System Plans to Build World’s Biggest Solar-Panel Plant
GCL System Integration Technology Co. plans to build the world’s biggest solar-panel manufacturing plant, with capacity to meet half of global demand. The Chinese manufacturer plans to invest 18 billion yuan Continue Reading
U.S. Solar Industry Wants Government Bailout As Bankruptcies Loom
Coronavirus is hitting the energy industry hard. First, it instigated a breakup between the OPEC+ countries of Saudi Arabia and Russia, leading to an oil price war which then led Continue Reading
Coronavirus creating solar industry ‘crisis’: U.S. trade group
(Reuters) – The spreading coronavirus is threatening project schedules in the booming U.S. solar industry following a year in which the sector topped natural gas as the nation’s top new Continue Reading
China Could Start A New Solar Price War
The solar market is becoming supersized, with the size and scale of solar projects soaring and some of the biggest names in the tech industry getting behind the renewable energy Continue Reading
Supersizing The Solar Industry
There’s a new trend in solar energy projects, and it seems to be the staunch belief that bigger is better. As the pressure mounts around the world to decarbonize the Continue Reading
Solar Power Just Miles from the Arctic Circle? In Icy Nordic Climes, It’s Become the Norm
For years after northern Finland’s largest printing plant blanketed its facility’s eight roofs with solar panels, the curious beat a path to the extraordinary spectacle. There were skeptics who doubted Continue Reading
Big News For U.S. Solar As Job Growth Returns
After two underwhelming years of solar job contraction in the United States, the solar industry’s employment returned to growth in 2019, thanks to an expansion in U.S. solar installations. The Continue Reading
Alliant eyes 1,000-MW solar buildout on top of active wind installations
Alliant Energy said Friday it is likely to file in the second quarter with regulators its rate plan covering the first tranche of a 1,000 MW solar buildout that will Continue Reading
Solar energy expands quickly in Brazil, attracts Chinese firms
Beside the green pastures and sugarcane plantations surrounding the farming town of Porto Feliz is the strange sight of hundreds of blue, silicon panes turned towards the sun. This solar Continue Reading
The Solar Sector Is Suffering From Coronavirus Contagion
While analysts and international agencies are already assessing the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak on global oil demand, the damage to the energy industry is extending well beyond oil. Promising Continue Reading
Cash-strapped farms are growing a new crop: Solar panels
The Kominek family farm is a green expanse of hay and alfalfa in northern Colorado. The family has planted and raked crops for half a century, but as yields declined Continue Reading
Can Solar Power Compete With Coal? In India, It’s Gaining Ground
In a dusty northwest India desert dotted with cows and the occasional camel, a solar-power plant is producing some of the world’s cheapest energy. Built in 2018 by India’s Acme Continue Reading
New Breakthrough Makes Solar Cells More Durable
Last month was the hottest January in all recorded history. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), land and ocean temperatures across the globe were higher last month Continue Reading