California homeowners and businesses, taking advantage of a state rebate program that encourages the installation of solar panels, are now generating 1 gigawatt — or 1,000 megawatts — of electricity, roughly the equivalent of a nuclear power plant, state regulators say.
Launched in 2007, the $2.4 billion California Solar
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, in the second quarter of 2012, California again led the nation in installed solar capacity, with a total of 217 MW. The state is expected to lead the nation in the solar race again in 2013.
According to new research from the California-based
In case you missed it, Vote Solar presented a webinar last week on a new financing model that may help unlock the pent up demand for solar among small commercial property owners. Check out the recording of the webinar below.
Many would argue that the small commercial market
1.255 GW of solar power is now generated from more than 122,000 rooftops across California. The migration to solar by low- and middle-income homeowners is the main reason behind the popularity of solar power in the Golden State. The data is revealed in the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) 2012 California Solar Initiative
Introduction: Vote Solar’s Annie Carmichael recently sat down with Stan Greschner, Director of the Single-family Affordable Solar Homes Program (SASH) at GRID Alternatives. We learned some surprising facts about who’s going solar in California.
Annie Carmichael, VS: Can you tell us about GRID Alternatives and California’s SASH Program?
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week approved seven grants totaling up to $7.65 million in funding for the California Solar Initiative (CSI) Research, Development, Deployment, and Demonstration (RD&D) Program’s third grant solicitation. The latter’s primary focus is on grid integration of solar energy and a secondary focus is
Sunny California is prime real estate for solar energy, and a number of California rebates make home solar systems highly affordable for Golden State residents. The only downside to these programs is that some have limited funding. Homeowners interested in solar panels will want to act soon to take full advantage of all the savings.
For some, December probably meant eggnogs, football, relatives, etc. For the California solar industry, it meant a record month of rooftop, behind-the-meter solar. There were over 36 MW of customer-owned installations–the highest since the California Solar Initiative’s inception, and over 130 MW worth of incentive applications. Details on the California Solar
As the investigation of the federal government loan guarantee to now bankrupt Solyndra of Fremont, California lingers, with critics looking for the company to come clean, it is may seem odd that California’s solar industry is in a celebratory mood this month.
The fact is that California – the leading market for
For weeks now we’ve seen the Solyndra bankruptcy being used as a political punching bag. Now the overblown hype around one solar company is putting real industry growth and viable projects at risk. Enough is enough.
Last last week, SolarCity was informed that the DOE
The California Solar Initiative requires that solar systems that receive an incentive be sized to meet on-site load.
However, what if you install a solar system, then your kids go off to college?
Suddenly, without the hairdryers, radios, and extra
For decades California has lead the US solar industry, and is home to half of the installed photovoltaic solar capacity for the whole country. While California is known for its abundant sunshine, its affinity for solar power and its large solar market are based on far more than this. One of the biggest reasons why California
Inspired by the signing of SB 1, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Million Solar Roofs initiative, the state of California managed to add a whopping 3,000 megawatts of solar energy to rooftops since 2006.
It was good news. In fact, it was too good, because now the state is declaring a moratorium on rebates for non-residential
A couple of initiatives related to public transport involving solar power and hydrogen fuel bring alternative energy to commuters in two different cities.
Solar Bus Shelter
The City of Corona in California has installed solar bus shelters connected to the grid, writes Energy Boom. They feature