Today the Vote Solar Initiative (Vote Solar) and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC) released our official 2012 findings for Freeing the Grid, a policy report that grades all 50 states on two key programs: net metering and interconnection procedures. Together, these policies empower American energy consumers to use rooftop solar and
Tag:
Solar
With more and more solar being built in California, new records of peak solar generation are being set and re-set. On September 5, the California Independent System Operator issued a press release (pdf) to celebrate how solar is helping meet the state’s energy needs: “California surpassed a major milestone during a recent heat wave that hit the sun-soaked state. More
Those of us who maintain optimism for a future than includes sustainable practices in energy generation place a great deal of hope in “distributed generation” – the concept in which the model of buying electricity from huge utilities becomes increasingly irrelevant, and in which individual users generate more – or all — of their own. Such a schema has many obvious
Financing issues remain a problem in solar market growth. While third-party PPAs have become widely accessible and transformed residential and larger commercial sectors, funding still remains a real bottleneck for the small commercial market niche. To explore solutions, Vote Solar commissioned a report looking at the problem in more depth, and exploring
First Solar Inc., the U.S.-based solar panel manufacturer, plans to expand its role in the global energy industry by developing solar power farms in India, where an emerging industrial sector is looking to shore up energy security in the aftermath of record blackouts.
The company aims to secure 20 percent of India’s
I’ve been thinking about my up-coming meeting with Dr. Raj Pachauri, who, among other things, serves as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Pondering this in advance of the meeting, I wonder what I would do, given the power, to deal with climate change.
Just over a month ago, the first SolarKiosk opened near Lake Langano, in Ethiopia. The project was conceived by Germany-based Graft Architects as part of a bigger move to bring clean power to people in regions of the world who live off the grid and rely on burning biomass for cooking and heating. As a consequence, their health suffers due to fumes they breathe in.
The municipality of eThekwini in Durban, South Africa, has greenlighted a new project of solar powered traffic lights. Funded by the state-owned power utility Eskom and implemented by ZRW Mechanika and Saint Gobain Solar, the project uses CIS solar modules to power lights at four intersections.
In a previous post, I wrote about the New Energy Symposium held last month in New York City. The first day of the event featured a startup quick pitch competition, and the three winners of the competition were recently announced.
They are, in alphabetical order, Dynamo Micropower,
California power utilities are now achieving more than 20 percent of the state’s electricity needs with renewable energy sources, state regulators say. In its latest quarterly report, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said that the state met 20.6 percent of its electricity demand with renewable sources — including wind, solar, and geothermal —
Great strides for solar occurred in Massachusetts last week with the passage of the 2012 Energy Act. This comprehensive energy bill expands an important solar program called net metering that gives customers credit for the valuable clean power they send to the grid.
Warning: This is not your standard data presentation. You won’t find any spreadsheets here.
What you will find is some of the coolest visual representations of solar data to date. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)’s OpenPV project is an incredible resource and visually astounding tool to boot.
And where does it source it’s information from? People like you. Help OpenPV gather critical data by adding your own info.
Check out some of these screenshots:
OpenPV is a free, open-sourced database of real American solar project info sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. It has data on over 160,000 solar systems across the country – where they are, how big they are, how much they cost, and more. It’s all illustrated in a snazzy Visualization Gallery with handy charts and graphs. From projects in your zip code to an overview of national market trends, OpenPV holds the answer to so many solar questions.
Do you have a solar system or access to data on solar systems in your area? Add your own info and help NREL build this free national solar information center.
Vote Solar is a non-profit grassroots organization working to fight climate change and foster economic opportunity by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.
Indian cell phone maker Micromax has announced the launch of a unit equipped with photovoltaic cells. The model is called X259 and the company describes it as “functional and efficient”. It features a 2.4” screen, camera, Bluetooth and the option to use two chips.
Today in America television has announced the launch of a new series dedicated to alternative and renewable energy. The educational program includes segments on alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and hydropower as well as the use of biofuels. The show is hosted by Terry Bradshaw, the former Pittsburgh Steelers veteran quarterback and game analyst on a