La Niña to Help U.S. Wind Industry

la nina wind speed energy 2010

La Niña is expected to continue and increase in strength this winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently reported. Among other things, this means that wind speeds and wind energy production are also expected to increase. At the request of its wind energy clients, 3TIER®, “the global leader in renewable energy information services,” [...]

Largest Solar Farm in Northeast U.S. Under Construction

solar panels

Con Edison Development and Panda Power Funds started construction on a 20-megawatt solar electric generating station in Pilesgrove, NJ last week. This solar farm will be able to power over 5,100 homes and will be the largest solar farm in the northeastern U.S. upon completion. The farm will include 71,400 solar panels and operation is [...]

Passive Solar Glass Roofing Tiles

solar glass roof

Interested in re-roofing your house? Or building a home and wondering what roofing system to go with? Check this out… Swedish company SolTech Energy has developed some cool-looking, award-winning solar glass roofing tiles. (Note: these are not active solar tiles but a passive solar roofing option.) The glass tiles can be installed using traditional roof [...]

San Antonio Gets the Scoop on First Commercial Biogas from Municipal Sewage

san antonio water system partners with ameresco on first commercial sewage-to-biogas facility

Leave it to larger-than-life Texas to lead the U.S. into a new energy future. While the state is  most closely associated with oil, it has also been an early pioneer of wind power, and is beginning to embrace solar energy along with armloads of new green jobs. Now the San Antonio Water System has set [...]

California’s Oldest Trade Organization Comes Out Against Proposition 23

IEP claims proposition 23 will eliminate thousands of clean energy jobs

The Independent Energy Producers Association is a leading non-profit California trade organization and the oldest of its kind in the state. Together, its members represent about one-third of California’s generating capacity, so when IEPA speaks, people listen.  Yesterday IEPA Executive Director Jan Smutny-Jones spoke. He issued a statement declaring that “Proposition 23 will undo the [...]

Solar Homes Sold 20% Faster, and for 17% More, NREL Study Finds

solar_homes

In by far the most exhaustive and detailed study to date, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that solar homes sold 20% faster, for 17% more than the equivalent non-solar homes, across several subdivisions built by different California builders. When Shea Homes put solar PV and solar thermal systems on half the homes in [...]

Gigantic New Solar Installation Gilds the High Speed Rail Lily

Enfinity will install 16,000 solar panels on a high speed rail tunnel in Belgium

In a first-of-its-kind melding of solar technology with high speed rail facilities, the clean energy company Enfinity will install 16,000 solar panels on the two-mile long roof of a rail tunnel in Belgium. If the name Enfinity doesn’t ring a bell it soon will. The Belgium-based company has trained its sights on the U.S. energy [...]

World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Begun by China

Chinese_offshore_rig_equipment

China, which shot to world leadership in turbine production after passing renewable energy legislation (together with local construction mandates) in 2005, has begun building the world’s largest off-shore wind farm in Bohai Bay, a few hours from Beijing. The engineering design and construction of what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm at 1,000 [...]