CleanTechnica

Fossil Fuel Really Beginning To Hate Renewable Energy: Graphs

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Giles Parkinson

This article first appeared on RenewEconomy This article follows on from our story yesterday on Alinta, and the complaint by CEO Jeff Dimery that wind energy is “undermining the running regime of exiting thermal generation assets”. There is no doubt that it is. But while some could argue whether this is a good thing (early retirement of ageing polluting assets in a clean energy transition) or a bad thing (stranded assets, loss of value), it seems that … Read More

Wind Industry Declares It’s Had Enough Of Anti-Wind Nonsense

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Giles Parkinson

This article first appeared on RenewEconomy. These are strange times in the renewables industry. There is no doubt there is an enormous push back against renewables by the fossil fuel industries and pro-nuclear lobbies who fear an opportunity lost and a decades-old business model eroded. What is truly stunning, however, is the traction that some of the most idiotic nonsense about wind energy is gaining at the political level. Finally, the wind industry is declaring that it has … Read More

Forecast: Cost Of PV Panels To Drop To $0.36/Watt By 2017

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Nicholas Brown

The cost of photovoltaic solar panels is expected to drop another 36 cents per watt by 2017, according to new research by cleantech market research firm GTM Research. While this drop in solar panel prices will help to make solar affordable to more people, which will increase the size of the solar market, this ongoing cost reduction means much more than that. Currently, solar panels are backed up by natural gas and various other types of … Read More

Germany Opens Another Hybrid Wind Power Plant

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Karl-Friedrich Lenz

This article first appeared on the Lenz Blog From this tweet by the always excellent Energiewende Germany I learned about an article titled “Hydrogen plant starts storing wind energy in Germany“. As is clear from the title, this is another project to use wind energy in times where demand can’t keep up with supply to make some hydrogen from water. That is the future for storage of surplus renewable energy, since the existing infrastructure can store massive … Read More

Lifesaving Solar Power For Army’s “Firefly” Sniper Detection System

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Tina Casey

Army solar power reduces troop casualties

The Department of Defense has been aggressively pursuing alternative energy both as the key to future national security and as a means of reducing troop casualties in the field, and a new Army solar project provides a perfect illustration of the two entwined goals. The project involves integrating solar power with the Army’s new “Firefly” sniper detection system, which somewhat ironically has been exposing Soldiers to enemy fire when they have to install fresh batteries … Read More

PlanetSolar, World’s Largest Solar Boat Arrives in New York

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Amber Archangel

Planetsolar, the world’s largest solar-powered boat, arrived safely in New York on June 17, 2013. She has been transformed into a scientific platform as part of the “PlanetSolar DeepWater” expedition, and has joined by a team of researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), led by Professor Martin Beniston, climatologist and director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva (UNIGE). Even though the crew and scientists aboard had to adjust their schedule … Read More

Smart Grid Market Revenue Will Hit $73 Billion Annually By 2020

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Silvio Marcacci

The global smart grid market will nearly double by 2020, reaching $73 billion in annual revenue and $461 billion in cumulative profit, predicts Navigant Research.

Top US Electric Car City Could Soon Be… (You’re Never Gonna Guess It)

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Nicholas Brown

The top electric car city in the US… San Francisco? LA? New York? Portland? What do you think? Indianapolis, the capital city of the US state Indiana and home to approximately 800,000 people, is interested in having all of the city’s fleet of cars replaced with electric and plugin hybrid (PHEV) ones. This could soon make it the #1 electric car city in the US. After hearing about the announcement, this gave the CEO of … Read More

Interview With Maxwell Technologies: Ultracapacitor-based Energy Storage System

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Guest Contributor

This post first appeared on San Diego Loves Green by Roy Hales A week ago, Maxwell Technologies announced they had been “been awarded a $1.39 million contract by the California Energy Commission’s Research and Development program to fund design and integration of an ultracapacitor-based energy storage system with Soitec’s CPV system located on the campus of University of California, San Diego—one of the nation’s greenest universities— and a second commercial scale system at Soitec’s solar power plant in … Read More

Three Key Features Of Los Angeles’ New Local Solar Program

Posted on June 18, 2013 by John Farrell

Los-Angeles-FIT-Program-capacity-and-price-320x250

Officially launched in January after years of development, a new CLEAN (feed-in tariff) program from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (the city’s municipal electric utility) promises 100 MW of new local renewable energy by 2016. In absolute size, the program will be among the largest CLEAN programs in the US, but compared to the size of the population it serves, the new LA program ranks behind national leaders like Gainesville, FL, or Vermont … Read More