Last week Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released their annual Tracking the Sun report on the cost of going solar across the U.S. The research team found that solar’s price tag has never been lower, and the most significant opportunity for continued price reduction has nothing to do with panels – it’s all about non-hardware “soft” costs like local
The U.S solar industry keeps putt-putting along instead of moving full steam ahead. Why? The go-to answer is soft costs. But that doesn’t tell us much.
The term “soft costs” doesn’t even have a universally accepted definition. What does it mean? We can say for sure it doesn’t mean hardware or mounting
As solar energy installations spring up on rooftops and major power plants across the U.S., the average cost of going solar continues to fall, according to a report released today by the research gurus at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
A national “cool” roof campaign could save some 5.7 quad of net primary energy valued at $33 billion over the 20-year lifespan of an average roof, according to researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Heat Island Group.
The Case for Cool Roofs recommends a no-cost cool
Just across the bay from Vote Solar HQ, the team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has been busy as ever cranking out detailed reports of valuable information on clean energy markets, policies, costs and benefits. We found two recent reports particularly illuminating:
State RPS Policies are Key to U.S. Solar Market Growth
Developing genetically modified trees and plants could capture billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually and reduce the impacts of global warming, a new U.S. study says. In the study, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory explore methods of enhancing the processes by which plants sequester
Does the word ‘audit’ give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? Not likely. Yet it’s typically the first service an energy efficiency contractor offers to a prospect. Sometimes the audit is even free, much like the unwelcome kind we receive from the IRS.
Use of words like ‘audit’ ‘retrofit’ and ‘weatherize’ turn off customers. Unless the
Four U.S. states generated more than 10 percent of their in-state power production from wind energy in 2009, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. New wind power plants were built in 28 states, led by Texas, which added 2,292 megawatts of new power capacity, according to the annual Wind
The folks who install insulated windows, efficient factory motors and energy saving lights apparently missed the memo about the economic meltdown.
As US gross domestic product slipped to under 1% in 2008, the $4.1 billion energy service industry grew 7%. Jealous? Just wait. That was nothing compared to the expansion predicted over the next couple of years, according to a new report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The widespread adoption of energy efficient light bulbs, fans, refrigerators, air conditioners, and irrigation pumps can overcome India’s electricity shortage by 2013 and significantly reduce the country’s rapidly growing carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report. The study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said such simple energy efficiency measures could add $608 billion to India’s gross domestic product by 2020 because they would eliminate the chronic energy shortages that frequently force businesses and factories to reduce production.
Clean technology and energy efficiency leaders from Google, the California Public Utilities Commission, McKinsey, the DOE, Kleiner Perkins, and many other green tech folks, will get together on May 20-21 at the inaugural Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency. The event is organized by UCSB’s Institute for Energy Efficiency and will explore the pipeline of new efficiency technologies as well as the current business, economic, and policy landscape and the obstacles and opportunities it presents. Preregistration has closed, but you can attend by registering at Corwin Pavilion at UC Santa Barbara, where the event is taking place.