The world’s most prominent energy forecaster will raise its outlook for wind and solar installations following a decade of underestimating growth in the renewables industry. The International Energy Agency, which Continue Reading
The provincial government of Alberta said it was looking at whether solar power could replace expiring contracts to power its buildings. Alberta’s government issued a request for information on the potential Continue Reading
Asian Development Bank lends India a hand to help advance rooftop solar power programs. Photo by Craig Russell/Shutterstock After depositing its signature to the Paris climate deal, India’s low-carbon objectives Continue Reading
The United States on Wednesday unveiled a long-awaited plan for desert renewable energy development that the solar and wind industries said unfairly favors land conservation and severely limits the ability Continue Reading
Solar panels The record-breaking installations of solar panels in the U.S. continues with an eye-popping 2 gigawatts installed in just the second quarter of this year, according to new data Continue Reading
North Carolina surpassed states with more favorable solar resources to become the state with the second-highest amount of installed utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity owned by independent power producers in Continue Reading
Solar panels Like many Americans, I am an avid listener to American Public Radio’s Marketplace Show. As their website proudly proclaims: Marketplace [is] the most widely heard program on business Continue Reading
SunPower, First Solar shift focus to rooftops and panel sales Utility solar to decline 11% as tax extension delays deals The top two U.S. solar manufacturers are shifting away from Continue Reading
China has installed 20 gigawatts of new solar power just in the first half of this year. This achievement beats analysts’ expectations by a wide margin. China wants to add Continue Reading
Oil is enduring a tough month, as further worries about the ongoing supply glut and declining demand push prices to their lowest point in three months. Yet as fossil fuels Continue Reading
Advanced imaging technology reveals a bumpy surface of tiny, faceted grains on perovskite solar cells. A big step in helping perovskites reach their potential as the basis for far cheaper Continue Reading
Solar power is on pace for the first time this year to contribute more new electricity to the grid than will any other form of energy – a feat driven Continue Reading
Floating solar panel arrays are increasingly being deployed in places as diverse as Brazil and Japan. One prime spot for these “floatovoltaic” projects could be the sunbaked U.S. Southwest, where Continue Reading
The leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico will pledge on Wednesday that by 2025 half of their overall electricity generation will come from clean power sources, according to Continue Reading
Solar Power Cells Several years ago, when I was working on my book Power Plays , I spent a lot of time thinking about the future of energy. One thing Continue Reading
Saudi Arabia is seeking to revive its stalled solar-power program, scaling back more ambitious targets it set four years ago after making little headway in transforming the energy supply of Continue Reading
The cost of installing solar energy in the United States is down more than 50 percent since the start of a federal support program, the Energy Department said. The federal Continue Reading
Solar Roof Installation In February, the millionth solar installation was completed in the United States. That momentous number has taken forty years to arrive. Fortunately for renewable energy advocates everywhere, Continue Reading
10 years ago making solar power cheaper than coal seemed like a very long term goal. Now it is reality. I wonder if the dudes at Google who gave up Continue Reading
The U.S. Energy Department said it has $25 million in funding to help software developers and utility provides better integrate solar power to the grid. “Our ongoing grid modernization work Continue Reading
Workers install massive racks that will hold solar panels at the Alamo 6 solar farm… A few years ago, Sean and Stormy Fravel were riding the oil and gas boom Continue Reading
Many U.S. states are considering dialing back solar-power incentives amid growing pressure from local electric utilities, potentially dealing a blow to the companies that install home solar systems around the Continue Reading
Even as it pumps near-record quantities of oil, Saudi Arabia is getting ready for a time when the world will no longer need its biggest export. The world’s largest crude Continue Reading
Rooftop solar is casting a $2 billion shadow over power generators across the eastern U.S. With more than a million U.S. houses set to have solar panels by the end Continue Reading
Driving forward in the race for highly efficient solar cells, First Solar says it has converted 22.1 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity using experimental cells made from Continue Reading
Crescent Dunes Solar Energy, a 110 megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) electricity plant, began full operation in February, according to its press release . Crescent Dunes uses an energy Continue Reading
Driving forward in the race for highly efficient solar cells, First Solar says it has converted 22.1 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity using experimental cells made from Continue Reading
A top Texas power regulator, a grid operator and two corporate executives focused much of their panel discussion Thursday at IHS CERAWeek on distributed generation, agreeing that a “wave” of Continue Reading
The United States has slightly more than 20,000 megawatts (MW) of solar generating capacity, which includes utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal installations, as well as distributed generation solar Continue Reading
Your Dec. 29 editorial “ Nevada’s Solar Flare ” targets the solar-leasing companies, calling them “overgrown solar babies,” and there is some truth to that. But many of us bought Continue Reading
Utility-scale solar and distributed solar both have an important role to play in reducing greenhouse emissions, and both have made great strides in the past year. Utility-scale solar, the focus Continue Reading
Solar and wind companies scored a major victory when U.S. lawmakers voted to extend lucrative federal subsidies for renewable energy late Tuesday night. The tax credits for new power projects Continue Reading
Saving the world isn’t going to be cheap. If you sell oil, coal or old-fashioned cars, that threatens disaster. For makers of stuff like solar panels, high-tech home insulation, and Continue Reading
Yosef Abramowitz, the developer of the Ketura solar field. After struggling to grow citrus trees on a stretch of parched desert, Israel’s Kibbutz Ketura instead devoted the land to harvesting the country’s most abundant resource: sunshine. Yet as the kibbutzniks seek to expand their solar installations, the government is proving almost as formidable an obstacle as the scorched soil ever was. “Israel has the technology and plenty of sunshine, but the government is completely ignoring the renewables industry,” said Yosef Abramowitz, a solar energy advocate who helped found Arava Power Co., the developer of the Ketura field. With more than 300 days of sunshine per year and a world-class tech sector, Israel should be a hotbed of solar, but it has lagged behind places such as cloudy Germany and the rainy Netherlands. That’s because in recent years, geologists have discovered huge gas fields just off Israel’s coast, making the […]
U.S. solar industry report finds more residential use and momentum spreading across more U.S. states. Photo by Craig Russell/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 (UPI) — With development spreading, the U.S. residential solar power market set a record during the second quarter with new installations, an industry report said. A report from the Solar Energy Industries Association with support from green energy market adviser GTM Research finds second quarter residential solar capacity grew 70 percent year-on-year to 473 megawatts. The report finds that 10 states have installed more than 10 MW of solar power during the second quarter, up from the four reported during second quarter 2013. The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab published a survey in August of about 80 percent of all U.S. residential and non-residential photovoltaic systems installed through 2014 and found national median installed prices declined 9 percent year-on-year for residential systems, 10 percent for small-scale, non-residential systems, […]
German energy company E.ON said it aims to expand its development across the U.S. solar power sector. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI DUSSELDORF, Germany, Sept. 2 (UPI) — German energy company E.ON said it was working to expand its footprint in the U.S. utility sector through its activity in large-scale solar projects. The German company said it started construction on the 20-megawatt Maricopa West solar project in southern California. With 89,000 panels, the company said it’s the second such large-scale project built by E.ON in California. In May, the state became the first in the nation with more than 5 percent of its total annual utility-scale electricity generation coming from solar power. California’s full-year 2014 solar power generation of 9.9 million megawatt hours was more than all other states combined , according to data from the federal Energy Information Administration. The German company’s first California project, the 20-megawatt Alamo […]
The DeGrussa copper and gold mine in Australia’s sun-scorched outback is getting a solar farm, the latest example of the industry embracing clean energy. The plant will replace about 5 million liters (1.3 million gallons) of diesel a year, a fifth of the mine’s energy needs. Energy generated by the system may eventually cost about half that of diesel-generated power, according to Sandfire Resources NL, the deposit’s owner. Miners including Rio Tinto Group are installing new solar plants from Chile to South Africa, betting they’ll deliver long-term savings even as tumbling oil prices cut power costs. The global solar-power market for mining companies may grow to about $2 billion a year by 2022 from about $42 million in 2013, according to Navigant Consulting Inc. “Solar-power providers are specifically targeting mines right now and it’s about replacing diesel,” Dexter Gauntlett, a senior research analyst at Navigant said by phone from […]
FORT STOCKTON, Texas—A new energy boom is taking shape in the oil fields of west Texas, but it’s not what you think. It’s solar. Solar power has gotten so cheap to produce—and so competitively priced in the electricity market—that it is taking hold even in a state that, unlike California, doesn’t offer incentives to utilities to buy or build sun-powered generation. Pecos County, about halfway between San Antonio and El Paso and on the southern edge of the prolific Permian Basin oil field, could soon host to several large solar-energy farms responsible for about $1 billion in investments, according to state tax records. On a recent day, contractors for OCI Solar Power LLC erected posts for a solar farm that will be the size of more than 900 football fields. First Solar Inc. FSLR -5.51 % was negotiating to lease an adjacent property, its second project in the county. […]
Arizona, the epicenter of a nationwide fight between solar companies and utilities, is introducing new rules for firms that offer solar panel leases, which consumers increasingly prefer to buying the rooftop systems outright. But some solar companies call such rules unnecessary, contending that there have been few complaints. Instead, they say, the regulations are a new effort by traditional utilities to try to stop the spread of residential solar in the state. Claims about consumer protection are camouflage for opposition to solar power among utilities and some government officials, said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity Corp. SCTY 2.64 % , which has sued the state and a Phoenix-area utility over measures the company says are meant to deter customers from adopting rooftop systems. These fights, and proposals from four other Arizona utilities to change their policies in ways that would hurt the solar industry, make Arizona “the most […]
Let’s be clear from the outset: I’m no fan of conventional desalination. The idea of using climate-altering fossil fuels to drive an energy-intensive de-salting process that threatens coastal environments in order to produce drinking water that, in most cases, could be secured more cheaply through conservation and efficiency improvements, simply fails to pass the bar of economically sensible, environmentally sound solutions to our water problems. But now desalination of a very different stripe is under way – not by the sea, but in California’s drought-stricken Central Valley farming region. The project is turning salty, contaminated agricultural drainage into fresh water that can be re-used to irrigate crops. Powered not by fossil fuels, but by the sun, the technology has the potential to shift the way water is used and managed in parts of the west, where agriculture accounts for 70-80 percent of water use. Developed by a San Francisco-based […]
Israel signed a deal to build a 4 billion shekel ($1.05 billion) thermo-solar power plant in the country’s south, aimed at boosting electricity production from renewable energy sources, the Finance Ministry said on Sunday. The 121 megawatt plant, which will also be able to store electricity, will be built by a consortium of Israel’s Shikun & Binui and Spain’s Abengoa in Ashalim in Israel’s southern Negev desert near another solar plant. The plant, to be built under a build, operate and transfer program, is expected to come online in the first half of 2018, the ministry said. Both plants – along with a planned photovoltaic power plant nearby – will provide 2 percent of total electricity production in Israel, which has a target of 10 percent coming from renewable sources by 2020. They will be financed by the European Investment Bank and the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp. The […]
The Obama administration on Tuesday announced an initiative to help low- and middle-income Americans gain access to solar energy, part of a series of steps President Obama is taking to Continue Reading
Chart: German Wind Power Peaks Germany’s drive to harness wind and solar power is producing so much electricity that it’s spilling over into neighbors’ grids and increasing the threat of blackouts. Poland and the Czech Republic are spending $180 million on equipment to protect their systems from German power surges, while Austria is curbing some trading to prevent regional networks from collapsing. On a windy day, the overflow east can exceed the output from four atomic reactors. Germany’s fivefold increase in green energy in the past decade has outpaced investment in power lines to move it across the country. Electricity is looping through Poland and the Czech Republic to reach southern Germany, where supply is constrained as Chancellor Angela Merkel shuts nuclear plants after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. The disruptions show the limits to the European Commission’s vision of a single power market. “A huge accumulation of […]
TARABIN, Israel—The residents of this village in the Negev desert have everything they need to build a solar-panel field: construction permits and loans, a contract with a company to build the field, and plenty of sun. But Tarabin village doesn’t yet have permission from the government to sell its solar power to the national grid—a crucial prerequisite for making the project economical. Dozens of communities across Israel are in the same situation, and executives and backers of the solar industry here are blaming an unlikely culprit: natural gas. Two big offshore gas finds in 2009 and 2010 shifted priorities and resources away from solar projects, they say. Shortly after, the government stopped approving the hookup of new solar projects to the grid. That has left villages like Tarabin waiting. It has also devastated the small, once-promising solar-power industry here. The proposed site for the field outside of town here […]
Solar is taking over the Gobi Desert in China’s Gansu province. China is a difficult solar market to track from the outside. Government subsidies are opaque and bureaucratic, interconnection problems run rampant, and non-Chinese businesses often have a hard time getting into the country. There’s no doubt that the Chinese PV market is growing at unprecedented speed. But determining its overall health is more of an art than a science. So perhaps the scientists can help. NASA recently published a fresh batch of satellite images of China’s utility-scale solar boom in Gansu province. While they don’t tell us much about market conditions on the ground, they do illustrate the boom underway in the country. With ample sunshine and a wide-open desert, Gansu is ideal for PV project development. Last year, more than 5 gigawatts of projects were installed in the province, making it a leader. Below are two satellite […]
Japanese companies are building some of the world’s biggest battery systems to address one of solar power’s biggest problems–its volatility. Handling the surges in power when the sun shines and storing that energy for use when it is cloudy or dark is a major headache for solar power producers and the utilities they supply. Mitsubishi Electric Corp.6503.TO +0.79% and NGK Insulators Ltd.5333.TO +1.68% are assembling a 50,000 kilowatt battery system for Kyushu Electric Power Co.9508.TO +0.41% to study ways to better accommodate solar power. A slightly smaller, 40,000 kilowatt battery system is under construction in Minami Soma, north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, for Tohoku Electric Power Co.9506.TO +0.52% to conduct similar research. The government is financing both projects at a total cost of ¥31.7 billion ($257 million), a government official said. Power companies have cited the volatility of supply as a reason for refusing to accept […]
Power grids across North America and Europe have been on high alert all week as two massive solar storms have battered Earth, threatening to disrupt electricity supplies to millions of Continue Reading
The renewable-energy boom is here. Trillions of dollars will be invested over the next 25 years, driving some of the most profound changes yet in how humans get their electricity. That’s according to a new forecast by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that plots out global power markets to 2040 1 . Here are six massive shifts coming soon to power markets near you: 1. Solar Prices Keep Crashing The price of solar power will continue to fall, until it becomes the cheapest form of power in a rapidly expanding number of national markets. By 2026, utility-scale solar will be competitive for the majority of the world, according to BNEF . The lifetime cost of a photovoltaic solar-power plant will drop by almost half over the next 25 years, even as the prices of fossil fuels creep higher. Solar power will eventually get so cheap that it will outcompete new […]
Decreasing prices in solar power could provide opportunities for oil-poor countries “Costs have halved in just three years,” energy consultant Robin Mills noted last week , “meaning solar can now beat all conventional generation apart from the very cheapest gas.” Mills cited the bids in Jordan’s recent solar auction, which were just over 6 US cents per kilowatt-hour. These were just slightly above the record 5.84 cents from Acwa Power last November for the 200 MW second phase of Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park. It could be Egypt’s turn next, Mills suggested, as the North African country struggles with a gas and power crisis and is reportedly working on 6,500 MW of solar deals. “Petroleum-poor countries such as Jordan should seize the opportunity now to boost their economic and energy security,” Mills, the head of consulting for Dubai-based Manaar Energy, urged in an article for Abu […]
