A theme that I have been writing and speaking about a lot recently is the obligation of industry CEOs to lead their companies in reducing heat-trapping emissions and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy – not only because of the essential societal benefits but because it’s good for business.
Each day, our industry sits down and whittles the unsightly knots off the tree we call solar energy. We, as a group, spend more time than we should pointing to one of a growing number of reasons why solar energy isn’t taking hold in America: that perhaps our government incentives were cut too quickly, that our state’s SREC program is broken, that the net metering
With the year nearly half done, here’s the solar scoreboard–updates from things we’ve been working on, and a selection of other notable solar victories.
New state solar programs
New York is our biggest market-building campaign in the East. Last month the Senate unanimously
As prices for solar energy continue to drop and reach grid parity in some regions, the ongoing battle over domestic sourcing of materials continues to grow. Ahead of the next round of auctions in India under the Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently announced that approximately 300 megawatts of the
Scientific breakthroughs often follow a collective focus on an issue or problem. When a tipping point is reached, the combination of small solutions across sectors spurs a giant leap forward. Renewable energy development has been a growing focus of international research over the last 3-4 decades and advances in clean energy technology have coincided
General Electric recently introduced a wind turbine equipped with a storage battery, creating a type of “hybrid” turbine that industry leaders hope will improve the integration of intermittent energy sources onto the grid and reduce the costs of wind power.
Here’s a lengthy but excellent article from The Atlantic: “What If We Never Run Out of Oil?”
It certainly is an interesting concept – one that I find quite credible. For instance, we have recently discovered untapped reservoirs of methane hydrate (think of it was combustible ice) that collectively is the volume of the Mediterranean Sea.
General Electric recently announced it had started testing the prototype of what it calls the world’s most efficient high-output wind turbine. The new 2.5-120 is being tested in Wieringermeer, Netherlands.
The 2.5-120 harnesses the power of the Industrial Internet to analyze tens of thousands of data points
Hawaii is one of the American states cracking ahead to make a switch to clean, solar power. We have reported several achievements Hawaiian Electric Co. reaching 20 megawatts of solar photovoltaic energy on the island of Oahu.
As usual, government incentives play a key part in
Annual investment in renewable energy is predicted to triple between now and 2030, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
In an analysis of several factors shaping the global energy future — including economic conditions, market demands, and the evolution of technologies
After spending $1 billion on renewable energy projects in the last few years, Google is no stranger to reducing their carbon footprint.
It’s common knowledge in the fuel industry that renewable energy sources are becoming more and more popular, thanks to their cost and energy efficiency. As more and more consumers choose to
Portugal generated more than 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources of energy during the first quarter of 2013, a record amount fueled largely by hydroelectric and wind energy sources, according to a report from the country’s grid operator.
Hydroelectric generation provided 37 percent of the
The combustion of fossil fuels are a huge health hazard as to a recent United Nations report, 3.3 million people died from outdoor air pollution in 2010. An additional 3.5 million people die early annually from indoor air pollution.
I had noted in a previous Cleantechies article that air pollution has a massive financial toll of up to 102 and 169 billion euros annually. These figures let you wonder how much they would be if they were accounting the global sum…
As the World Health Organization notes, going for cleaner energy sources – ie. renewables – could easily halve the amounts of deaths by 2030.
If this six million people figure makes you wonder for comparison, please note that there were about 1.7 million AIDS-related deaths in 2011 and malaria killed about 660,000 people in 2010.
So if we are making efforts to eradicate those two illnesses we should do a whole lot more to combat fossil fuels pollution.
So on top of solving the climate crisis, going for energy efficiency and renewable energy sources would also improve everyone’s health. This is another win.
Staying addicted to coal, oil and gas is a lose lose lose situation while going for solar, wind, hydro and others is clearly a win win win…
What are we waiting for exactly?
NV Energy unveiled its new NVision Plan last week, a policy initiative that proposes shutting down coal plants and investing in new renewable energy and natural gas generation. On the surface, that sounds great – shuttering coal plants, reducing carbon emissions, increasing investment in renewable energy and creating jobs. All good things, right?