A proposed “Solar Zone” could be coming to California, if the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has it’s way. According to PV-Tech, the US BLM just released its last Environmental Impact Statement and Proposed California Desert Conservation Plan Amendment, and suggested creating a solar zone in Imperial County, … [continued]
SunPower Corporation, along with Japanese electronics giant Toshiba, are extending their mutually beneficial solar panel deal until 2018. With the expanded partnership, SunPower will give more than 100 megawatts (MW) of its highest efficiency residential solar panels to Toshiba to sell in the Japanese market, a news release stated. … [continued]
Mobile technology and cleantech seem to go hand in hand very well. Recently, we have seen apps devoted to electric vehicle chargers, smart grids, bike sharing, carbon emissions, and solar power. Now you can add another solar mobile app to the list. Ingeteam has come out with a mobile app … [continued]
Soft costs can be pretty tough. The cost of solar installations can be generally separated into “hard” costs — representing primary components such as modules, racking, inverters — and soft costs including legal, permitting, and financing. While the former group — particularly modules — have dropped dramatically over the last several years, the latter have not. According to a recent NREL analysis, these costs represent roughly 30% of both residential and utility installations (slightly less for commercial-host systems). See Figure 1. […]
Ascent Solar Technologies was selected for the Air Force SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) Phase 2 award to demonstrate its next flexible lightweight photovoltaic technology built upon its existing flexible, monolithically integrated, thin-film CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide) one. The Air Force SBIR Phase 2 program is expected to … [continued]
Critics of solar and wind power often point out they are intermittent power sources, and they are correct about that. Cloudy and still days mean low or no energy and that is the major drawback of solar and wind power. However, new hybrid solar and wind power systems in … [continued]
During the last few days of the election, when politicians scramble to make promises about jobs and the economy, only a fool would ignore this statistic: employment in the solar industry has grown 13.2 percent over the last year. […]
US thin-film panel provider First Solar has signed a memorandum of understanding with PT. Pembangkitan Jawa Bali Services (PJB Services) for the development of 100 MW of utility-scale solar PV power plants in Indonesia. “Indonesia has an increasingly urgent need for reliable, cost-effective energy resources. The agreement with PJB … [continued]
The first solar cell with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) that exceeds 100 percent for photons with energies in the solar range has been created. With these new solar cells, every blue photon that is absorbed can generate up to 30 percent more current than with current technologies. The … [continued]
Someone is considerably more likely to install solar panels on their home if others in their area have already installed them, according to new research from Yale and New York University. The research was done by studying different clusters of solar panel installations in California from January 2001 to … [continued]
