July 27th, 2019 | by Michael Barnard
Wind covering Delaware is like the patch of solar panels in the Sahara. All primary energy will be supplied by renewable sources in a few decades. Petroleum, coal and natural gas won't be used as primary energy sources except in rare and tiny cases
July 22nd, 2019 | by Steve Hanley
NextEra Energy told investors last month it expects 50% of all US electricity will come from renewable energy resources by 2030. That is 20 years sooner than the latest prediction for the Energy Information Administration.
July 15th, 2019 | by John Farrell
Four years have passed since ILSR’s initial report on utility-owned rooftop solar, and this 2019 update shows small growth but some potentially large repercussions. This update rehashes the costs and benefits, updates the progress of the four initial programs, highlights a few new programs, and discusses the wider implications
July 5th, 2019 | by Tina Casey
US solar industry cheers new programs that will help cut the cost of solar energy and create more jobs, as the US coal industry continues to shed jobs.
May 23rd, 2019 | by Charles W. Thurston
French floating solar specialist Ciel et Terre has begun installation of 1.78 megawatt floatovoltaic technology system at what it calls the largest floating solar system in California. To finance this project, the company has utilized a 25-year power purchase agreement for the first time, providing a lifetime savings of $4 million for the Town of Windsor
May 23rd, 2019 | by Guest Contributor
Energy innovation is both time- and capital-intensive and heavily regulated. Because investors tend to be risk-averse when it comes to technological development, cleantech startups face a broad array of challenges that can impede their technology from making it to the marketplace. According to one prominent venture capitalist in the energy space, “If I have to put in $30 million to find out if the technology will work, it’s a no-go.”
May 10th, 2019 | by World Resources Institute
Access to reliable electricity is essential for improving human livelihoods and is a prerequisite for economic development. Yet hundreds of millions of people lack access to a stable supply. While access to electricity is essential, the sector is also the leading driver of greenhouse gas emissions globally
May 10th, 2019 | by Steve Hanley
ExxonMobil will invest $100 million over 10 years in the NREL and other federal labs to research carbon capture and low emissions fuels. Is that a good thing?
April 30th, 2019 | by Tina Casey
A new US innovation accelerator is changing the game on energy storage and power systems, and now it's gunning for fast charging and grid control, too.
April 23rd, 2019 | by Guest Contributor
The cutting-edge research at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will one day go to waste—but not into a landfill
April 11th, 2019 | by Tina Casey
In yet another bad sign for coal (and natural gas), the US Energy Department is building the case for putting more solar panels on farmland
March 30th, 2019 | by Guest Contributor
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which regularly publishes a chart of the world’s most efficient solar cells, has introduced a new chart of record-efficiency solar modules
March 20th, 2019 | by Steve Hanley
An international team of researchers claims that cleantech startups file more patents and raise more money when they collaborate with government research agencies. Their findings are relevant to the Green New Deal and carbon reduction research.
March 3rd, 2019 | by Steve Hanley
Researchers at NREL have devised a way of using discarded single use plastic to make new products. It could keep much of the world's plastic trash out of landfills and the world's oceans.
February 18th, 2019 | by Charles W. Thurston
The National Renewable Energy Lab is building the first national database of albedo, or reflected light values, to help model the performance of bifacial solar panels, the highest-yield type of panel in the industry thus far. The database is an outgrowth of a large field test of bifacial panels at the lab, which includes a variety of fixed-mount and tracker systems and a mix of bifacial panels from different manufacturers
January 26th, 2019 | by Tina Casey
Brace yourself for a flood of new activity in the electric vehicle-to-grid field as new bidirectional EV chargers finally hit the market
January 25th, 2019 | by Joshua S Hill
Installing floating solar solar PV projects on the more than 24,000 man-made US reservoirs could generate approximately 10% of the national annual electricity production, according to a report published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
January 18th, 2019 | by Charles W. Thurston
San Diego has an untapped 500 megawatt solar potential at commercial sites within the city, with parking lots representing three-quarters of the total, according to a new survey by the Clean Coalition.
January 17th, 2019 | by Tina Casey
Falling costs will eventually make the rooftop solar issue moot in many communities, but the challenges to social equity will remain
January 7th, 2019 | by Charles W. Thurston
Hawaiian electric utilities have been forcefully de-linking residential rooftop solar generators at peak hours for several years, but the installation-discouraging practice may fade as refocused utility-scale solar+storage contracts come into effect. Beyond Hawaii, these new contract types, which shift curtailment risk away from the solar owner, also may help California avoid an increase in the curtailment of solar flowing onto its grid
December 19th, 2018 | by Charles W. Thurston
Researchers at Stanford University have managed to create a map of almost every solar rooftop in America, pulling together satellite images and extracting the information. The DeepSolar data, based on Google’s Inception V3, is the first publicly available, high-fidelity solar installation database in the contiguous United States, the researchers say
December 2nd, 2018 | by Tina Casey
President Trump promised to save coal jobs, but a new DOE energy storage R&D program aims at accelerating the renewable energy transition
November 30th, 2018 | by Charles W. Thurston
Advances in thin-film and other new solar technologies are expected to be driven by the demand for lightweight, high-power solutions in the EV, aerospace and wearable solar markets, reckons Matthew Reese, the author of a new study on the evolution of the technology
October 29th, 2018 | by Steve Hanley
Deep water offshore wind turbines are coming to the coast of California. Figuring out how to secure the platforms to the ocean floor will be an engineering challenge.
