Intermittency may be the Achilles Heel of solar energy. Since the Sun doesn’t always shine and utility-scale energy storage isn’t available yet, grid operators have to rely on dispatchable generation like natural gas or when clouds cover up solar farms. But that may be about to change in a big way…
UK’s Lincolnshire county council has set an ambitious target to reduce its energy costs and carbon emissions over the next five years. The council has already achieved a reduction of 9% in its carbon emissions and now plans to cut the emissions further, by 22% by 2018. The council hopes … [continued]
Increasing numbers of Australians are finding their desire to add to the amount of rooftop solar they have blocked by rules that were originally meant to help solar power expand. While nearly a million Australian households have benefited from these policies, increasing numbers of Australians are in the unfortunate situation … [continued]
A new statewide public opinion poll has produced data showing most of Ohio voters agree there should be laws requiring some portion of local energy to be generated from clean sources, such as wind and solar. To be more specific, the poll found almost 80% of voters support legally requiring … [continued]
This article was originally published on Solar Love: A simple solar photovoltaic (PV) system consists of the following basic components: A solar cell: A solar cell is a solid-state electrical device (p-n junction) that converts the energy of light directly into electricity (DC) using the photovoltaic effect. A solar cell is categorized as a … [continued]
Solar innovator First Solar has just announced a new word record for solar cell conversion efficiency, for its cadmium-telluride (CdTe) thin film solar cell. That’s significant because CdTe solar cells can be made more quickly and cheaply than conventional silicon solar cells, bringing down the cost of solar power. The … [continued]
India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) revealed that they have assigned 1172 megawatts (MW) of grid-connected solar power plants, and of these so far 369 megawatts (MW) have already been commissioned. The total number of plants include one 2.5 MW solar thermal plant and 131 photovoltaic plants, of … [continued]
I’m not so sure how practical this is compared to solar carports or “solar trees” (or simple solar roofs), but these little solar panel car covers certainly are pretty! Here’s a brief summary of this solar-powered EV charging technology from Jo Borras of Gas2: Industrial designer Hakan Gürsu calls this … [continued]
The solar power industry just got a little more interesting this week, with the announcement that Solar Junction and Amonix have signed an agreement to work together on the next generation of low cost, ultra-high efficiency concentrated photovoltaic systems. If you’re expecting another long slog through the R&D phase, guess … [continued]
I’ve got a problem. I want you to read every important cleantech story that I see, or at least the headline or summary. (Yep, I’m one of those guys — be careful if you go to see a movie with me that I love.) This root problem creates a couple … [continued]
