US Home Solar Nearing 1 GW (+ Other Solar News)
Aside from our extensive solar energy coverage, here are some more solar energy stories from around the interwebs that I wouldn’t want you to miss. Just adding a note regarding the first one, I’d just add that it’s almost shocking to me how far we’ve come in recent years. I started covering the solar industry in 2009 — it has changed so dramatically since then, and I think you’d have to be a lunatic to not realize that we are on the cusp of a massive distributed energy revolution. It’s especially great to see home solar power nearing 1 gigawatt of capacity. The revolution is beginning!
Solar (In General)
US Home Solar Approaching 1 Gigawatt
Solar Investment Platform Wunder Provides Investment Opportunities To Individuals
Rooftop Solar is Just the Beginning; Utilities Must Innovate or Go Extinct
If You Could Build a Solar-Friendly Grid From Scratch, How Would You Do it?
Cheap Solar Power Just Became An Employee Benefit For More Than 100,000 People (We actually covered this, but I thought this piece from Climate Progress also deserved attention.)
How Groundbreaking Is DOE’s New $53M Solar Investment?
New Jersey Solar: NJ May Triple Its Solar Net-Metering Capacity
PACE Program Promotes Energy Saving Upgrades In Texas
SolarCity, Nest to Energy Regulators: Open the Grid
Specific Projects & Such
41 MW Of SunPower Solar Panels Going To France
Panasonic & Powertree To Construct 68 Solar Charging Stations
Patagonia Invests $13M in Hawaiian Rooftop Solar Projects
Munich Re Continues to Back Desert Based Solar
Solar Panels Offer Learning Opportunity for Students
Large CPV Plant In Asia Enters 2nd Phase
First Solar Puts 1st Panel Into South America’s Largest Solar PV Power Plant
135 MW California Solar Project Gets Green Light
Yahoo Signs PPA With OwnEnergy
Renewables (In General)
How Competitive Are Renewables With Conventional Power?
The Future of Energy: How to Transition to a Renewable Economy
Germany’s Energiewende Proves Electricity Can Be Clean And Reliable
Lessons From Germany: Can the US Succeed With Its Own Energiewende?
Storage
Enphase Charges Into the Energy Storage Market
Remarkable Energy Storage Progress
Liquid Metal Batteries Promise to Transform the Grid
Iran Builds Its First Lithium-Ion Battery
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Today’s residential use of electricity amounts to about 1,400 TerraWatt hours per year. If we assume an equivalent 5 full sunshine hours per day, that would mean 767 GW of solar panel power needed, and we are just passing 1 GW capacity, supplying a mere 0.13% of residential demand. It means that the market potential is really huge for residential alone!
All in all, about 3,700 TerraWatt hours of electricity are used in the US. Residential, about 1,400 TWH, industrial about 950 TWH, and commercial, about 1,350 TWH.
Source: EIA: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=14291#
“market potential is really huge for residential alone”
Exactly, also for the money to be made in the conservation programs like the Texas PACE program from the negawatts. The big benefit will be for the homeowners and contractors, while allowing the investors to make a profit.
What people really need to do is use skylights.
We can have ALL the solar power we want sure — but are we **REALLY** going to continue to use fluorescent lights everywhere?
Why not just use the Sun? it’s so simple, at least I hope it is.