Renewable Energy News

Geothermal capacity additions are on track to top 100 MW in 2012, making this year one of the best for geothermal deployment in the last decade. This could be a tentative sign that conditions have been improving for geothermal finance (traditionally, finance has been one of the principal barriers to the technology's wider adoption). Projects coming online this year have demonstrated some creativity in leveraging financial opportunities. Here are some highlights.

Shares in Chinese solar companies soared after the government allocated a further 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) of subsidies for domestic installations this year, taking the year's total to 13 billion yuan ($2 billion), according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Recent talk about the upcoming fiscal cliff has caused many investors to reflect upon the real long-term threats to their own portfolios. It occurred to me that there are some striking similarities between the current rate of return on a solar investment and the rate of return one would have earned on a bond investment during the high-interest-rate

Update 12/20/12: This project includes battery storage. As community solar grows in popularity, an innovative solar project by the Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association in Minnesota highlights the opportunity of merging local ownership with locally assembled solar panels. Earlier this fall, this cooperative serving communities just north

In the wake of the financial crisis, global unemployment rates have hit 6% with no improvement projected until after 2016. Recent estimates suggest that the most severely affected are today's youth, with their global unemployment rate reaching 12.7%. Even the most educated generation in terms of higher degree attainment, the Millennial Generation born between early 1980s and mid-90s, are struggling to secure employment.

Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., China's largest wind-turbine maker, is studying new projects to take advantage of Australia's 2020 renewable energy target.

Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, announced today that she is resigning, effective January 1, to return to private practice as a tax attorney.

If you had informed Arthur Scargill that solar panels were to be fitted to a building connected with the coal mining industry twenty eight years ago, at the height of the national miner’s strike, the former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers would have, at very least, probably laughed at you. Well, that is exactly what has happened and the

Cellulosic biofuel companies will boost production almost 20-fold in 2013 as the first high-volume refineries go into operation, signaling a shift from an experimental fuel into a commercially viable industry.

Online sources are debating the topic of district heating as an increasingly important means of generating cheap sustainable energy for future generations. What exactly is district heating and why might it help to create an interesting future for the UK and Europe? What is district heating? District heating or energy is a heat-generating system tha

Following the ‘Small ZREC Tariff Program: Applicants Informational Meeting’ held on November 27, 2012, United Illuminating Company (“UI“) and Connecticut Light & Power (“CL&P“) initially announced that the small ZREC program was set to open on December 21, 2012. However, the December 21st date has now been officially changed to January 8, 2013, as

Top engineering, procurement and construction firms gathered to network, learn and do business with corporate-level project developers at the PGI Financial Forum, one of four co-located events that took place in Orlando, Fla. earlier this month. Richard Kauffman, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, gave the keynote address during a luncheon that took place during the conference.

Four energy developers agreed to sell power from 10 proposed wind farms in Brazil at the cheapest rates ever.

With 2013 poised to pounce, now’s the time for all forward thinking solar proponents to peer into that proverbial crystal ball to see what the new year holds in store. What will 2013 look like for global solar initiatives? How will this impact the creation of jobs? Here’s what some of the experts have to say about the outlook for the coming year.

In writing this blog, I generally try to keep my own views muted and focus instead on the latest news and what it means for the companies involved. But I'm making one of my occasional exceptions to that rule today to say that the US really should go ahead and approve the sale of bankrupt battery maker A123 Systems to a Chinese company, since this d

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which took place during Prime Minister John Key’s visit to Jakarta in April this year, has begun to actualize for geothermal energy in New Zealand. The MOU with state owned Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) presents a range of collaborative agreements, and on the 7th of December the Pertamina Learning C

China's solar panel industry is starting to look more and more like a beggar kneeling on the doorstep of Beijing, with the latest word that the central government is preparing to hand out an additional $1.1 billion in subsidies to the struggling sector. That news comes just after a government official was quoted saying Beijing is considering a plan

A look across the U.S. landscape reveals several rich markets for energy efficiency over the next year. Some emerge out of unfortunate natural disasters; others arise from the growing realization by state governments that it is typically cheaper to save energy than produce it. Superstorm Sandy leveled neighborhoods in New York, cracked coastal mans

The idea of giving the masses more access to solar energy has taken shape in a newly drafted bill in California that will allow renters to buy renewable electricity that is produced away from where they live and get credit on their utility bills.

Northern Mexico is considered to have the world's third greatest solar insolation potential, with areas estimated to have about 5 kWh/m2 per day. With resources 60% greater than those of Germany, less than 1% of Mexico's land area would need to be developed to power the entire nation, according to the Secretaria de Energia de Mexico (SENER), Mexico's energy ministry. Meanwhile, growth in the nation's electricity needs is expected to average 6%-7% year-on-year, with even higher growth rates in more populated areas. With such promising potential and a steadily growing need for power, why isn't the nation a solar front-runner?