Author Archives: Zachary Shahan


About Zachary Shahan

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.

Anti-Renewable North Carolina Bill Defeated!

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Image Credit: North Carolina flag via Shutterstock.

As solar and wind power grow, rich but out of date industries such as the coal and nuclear industries are beginning to quiver. Naturally, with buildings full of money, they’re also fighting back and paying others to fight back. They’re struggling to survive. One way they are doing so is by attacking every incentive for clean, renewable energy that they can. State renewable energy policies have been a particular focus of attack as of late. … Read More

Tesla Pays Off Government Loan 9 Years Early

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tesla-supercharger

Tesla Motors announced late in the day yesterday that it has now completely paid back its Department of Energy loan. It also noted that it is the only American car company (of any kind) to have fully repaid the US government. It’s been somewhat sad and somewhat hilarious watching anti-EV (i.e. pro-oil) media companies, politicians, and their followers try to bash and belittle the electric car revolution and its prime pioneer, Tesla. As Tesla succeeds … Read More

Eos Energy Storage Raises $15 Million, Gets Funding From NRG Energy

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The Eos Aurora battery is projected to cost $1,000/kW or $160/kWh. The cycle life is 10,000 full cycles (30 year life). And the storage system has a 75% round-trip efficiency. As such, the LCOE is very competitive. (Click to enlarge.)

Eos Energy Storage has released its second big announcement of the month, a funding boost that includes funding from NRG Energy, a major US energy company. I just featured a long post on Eos Energy Storage less than a month ago, followed soon after by a post on its first pilot project (with Con Edison). Click that first one above for all kinds of details on the company’s energy storage technology. The essentials, however, are … Read More

Solar Energy Industries Association Responds Regarding China Trade Dispute

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solar energy industry association

The solar trade dilemma seems far from over, but things are moving forward. The question remains exactly where they will move. Here’s an announcement put out by the Solar Energy Industries Association last night regarding what it and its allies have been doing: WASHINGTON, DC – Reacting to published reports that the United States and the European Union are trying to settle a lingering trade dispute with China over anti-dumping and anti-subsidy allegations, John Smirnow, vice … Read More

Tesla Plans To Pay Off DOE Loan Early, Issues 2,703,027 Shares Of Common Stock + $450 Million Of Convertible Senior Notes

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tesla-service

We previously reported on Tesla’s aim to pay back its Department of Energy (DOE) loan 5 years early. The company has made some strong steps in that direction this week with a couple of major fundraising announcements. As part of that, Elon Musk himself is investing a good chunk more money ($100 million) into the company. Naturally, these positive announcements (on top of all the others Tesla has been making in recent weeks) have helped … Read More

New DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz Gets Support From Cleantech & General Green Organizations

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Image Credit: MIT

With Dr. Ernest Moniz officially confirmed at the next US Secretary of Energy, leading cleantech and green groups are getting their statements out regarding what they think of this. Here are a few I thought were worth publishing, followed by some of my own thoughts: EDF President Fred Krupp: Today’s unanimous Senate vote to confirm Ernest Moniz as our next Secretary of Energy is great news for America. It shows that when Congress puts politics aside, … Read More

Nearly 100% Of New California Electricity To Be Solar In 2H 2013

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Image Credit: California ISO

Herman Trabish of Greentech Media has happened across a pretty interesting find — 97% of new electricity generation capacity in line to be added to the California grid in the second half (2H) of 2012 is from solar power projects. This is according to the California Independent System Operator (the ISO), as published in the 2012 Annual Report on Market Issues and Performance. In total, 1,633 megawatts of generation capacity are in line to be added to the grid in … Read More

Bicycle Friendly Community Infographic

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BFC-infographic

This article was originally published on Bikocity. Several years ago, I was the director of an organization in the Charlottesville, Virginia region that got Charlottesville designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community (BFA). There were great guiding documents that the League of American Bicyclists supplied as part of the application process, but it certainly would have been nice to have this infographic* below that the League just created to delineate the differences between Bronze, Silver, Gold, … Read More

Maryland vs Virginia On Solar Power (Infographic)

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virginia maryland solar infographic

A Twitter friend recently tweeted me the infographic below (or, to be specific, the Renewable Energy Corporation webpage where it was posted). It’s quite interesting; though, in this “solar smackdown,” the beautiful state where I lived for one year (Virginia) doesn’t compare to Maryland when it comes to solar power, solar jobs, etc. Maybe some Virginians could spread this around enough to stimulate better solar policies (hint: share this infographic). … Read More