Renewable Energy News

According to the latest "Energy Infrastructure Update" report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Projects, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for 24.93 percent of all new domestic electrical generating capacity installed in the first six months of 2013 for a total of 2,144 MW. That is more than that provided thus far this year by coal (1,579 MW - 18.36 percent), oil (26 MW - 0.30 percent), and nuclear power (0 MW - 0.00 percent) combined. However, natural gas dominated the first half of 2013 with 4,852 MW of new capacity (56.41 percent).

I’ve been helping behind the scenes on a new cleantech incubator recently launched in Vancouver, Canada called the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator. And in the process, I’ve been getting the opportunity to learn what other accelerators and incubators are doing well, and not so well, around the world. The first incubator launched in the U.S. in 1959,

With plummeting prices in the past few years, many upstream solar companies have expanded further downstream in the value chain to maximize their growth prospects and profits. But here's the Catch-22: in many cases this expansion of solar market exposure has multiplied the cost pressures from all directions in the market's relentless march to lower costs overall. Increasingly it's made more sense for solar cell and module companies to just procure the material rather than make it internally. The next big wave of industry consolidation might well start with vertically integrated manufacturers.

Over the past few years the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been called upon to investigate cases of domestic content rules (DCR, also known as local content rules or LCR) in renewable energy policy. In a more recent case, Ontario was accused of violating trade law by requiring renewable energy developers to purchase a designated amount of locally sourced materials for projects as part of its feed-in tariff (FIT) program. In December 2012, the WTO found these practices to be illegal and upheld its ruling in May after an appeal was issued. Meanwhile, many countries still incorporate similar rules in their incentive programs.

While municipal utilities in Los Angeles and on New York’s Long Island plod along with timid municipal feed-in tariff programs, Thailand plans to add another 1,000 MW of solar photovoltaics (solar PV) by the end of 2014.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is historically one of the greatest catalysts of technological innovation. Through its procurement power alone it has the ability to transform markets. In recent years, the Navy, Army, and Air Force each implemented clean energy targets that will drive 3 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy installations by 2025.

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The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has formally decided to levy antidumping duties on imported solar-grade polysilicon from U.S. and Korean suppliers, turning up the heat yet again in the broader trade disputes simmering between several key markets for solar energy.

More good news is coming from the battered solar panel sector, with mid-sized player ReneSola (NYSE: SOL) sharply boosting its revenue and margin forecasts for the current quarter in the latest sign of a sector rebound. ReneSola isn’t forecasting a return to profitability just yet, but the latest signs do seem to indicate the sector’s strongest pla

A joint programme from the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE in Boston, U.S., and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany, has published the first report from their PV Durability Initiative (PVDI).

Representatives of over 30 European solar photovoltaic (PV) companies travelled to Brussels yesterday to give evidence to the European Commission (EC) on the impact of preliminary and proposed definitive anti-dumping duties against China’s solar panel makers.

Geothermal heat pumps have long been on the fringes of modern day HVAC equipment. The latest estimates put market penetration at less than 1% of the overall housing market. This was easily explained twenty years ago. Oil was cheap, geothermal technology was still working out its kinks, and a wide ranging and professional installer network was just

There's a fundamental dichotomy in U.S. energy infrastructure. Power is mostly produced from resources inland, but most of the consumption is in the major population centers along the east and west coasts. Thus, we have a spiderweb of transmission and distribution (T&D) systems to get power from where it's generated to where it's consumed. As those load centers increasingly demand more energy, significant investments in transmission infrastructure are needed - but building out addition transmission creates congestion at the load centers, according to experts. Creating enough T&D to satisfy peak demand and avoid congestion would be like building a 32-lane highway to combat rush-hour traffic: for two hours a day it would be well used but the other 22 hours it would be overkill. And utilities dislike underutilized investments.

Those who equip photovoltaic installations with a storage system are mostly interested in increasing the on-site consumption of generated solar power. However, people often forget to consider that these kinds of battery systems only reveal their full potential through their multiple uses. In addition to allowing operators of photovoltaic installations to significantly increase on-site consumption, a storage system also enables them to reduce their dependency on utility companies and ensures that power will continue to be supplied without interruption should the public power grid temporarily fail.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Bayer AG (BAYN) and Linde AG (LIN) are among companies at risk of having to repay billions of euros in German aid as Chancellor Angela Merkel clashes with Europe’s antitrust regulator over renewable energy rebates to companies that use the most energy.

The cost of solar panels continues to plummet, but as concerns with panel quality begin to surface, more consumers are seeking efficiency and reliability over low panel prices. As panel prices have dropped about 80 percent over the past six years, the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the midst of a “fight for survival” with operating margin

New York has some of the highest electricity rates in the nation. But now more and more New Yorkers are turning to reliable solar to help manage their electricity costs.

Elon Musk, the billionaire chairman and chief executive officer of electric-vehicle maker Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), will release designs next month for a system he has said would be capable of whisking people from Los Angeles to San Francisco via a tube.

After finishing two rounds of its successful solar loan program, New Jersey’s Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) has received approval to offer a third round of loans to 97.5 MW worth of residential and non-residential solar projects and is expected to announce a start date shortly. Solar Loan III is similar to the previous two program

Rising fuel bills and security of energy supply are on the management agenda as never before. The recent media coverage about the very real risk of UK lights going out in 2016 brings an added urgency. At worst, manufacturing industry has less than three years to take more control by finding new ways of stabilising energy costs and securing supplies that don’t rely on the grid. With time fast running out, could now be the moment for manufacturers to start taking renewable energy far more seriously?