Renewable Energy News

Sunnier days ahead for Suntech? With only a week before a key deadline for a big debt repayment, solar panel maker Suntech (NYSE: STP) appears to have cleared a major hurdle for a rescue plan by settling a big dispute with one of its major partners. I suspect that settlement with GSF, a builder of solar plants in Europe, was a major condition by Su

A year has passed since Pacific Hydro started operation of its 111-MW Chacayes run-of river plant in Chile. The US$450 million hydroelectric facility plays an important role in the country's energy supply mix, as Chile is facing the need to increase its energy in the context of the country's development and economic growth.

Uruguay is about to offer contracts to buy power from 200 megawatts of solar farms at $90/MWh, which is barely half the cost of power in China and Germany.

Here we have a President who has been emphatic on green energy and has put money where his mouth is: $90 billion in the Stimulus Bill (ARRA), highest car mileage standards ever (CAFÉ, 50+ mpg), and the first Clean Air Act regulations for mercury from coal electric power generation plants.

Japan's wind power industry will see a boom in installations similar to an increase in solar capacity in the nation since last year, a lawyer advising domestic and foreign investors said.

UK energy minister John Hayes today said it was "detached and bourgeois" to suggest that cutting down trees to use as biofuel was counter-productive to following a green agenda.

Renewable energy journalist Osha Gray Davidson recently released a book called Clean Break, detailing the German Energiewende (translation: energy change).  It’s a story of how the Germans systematically shifted to clean energy, finding as they proceeded that the possibilities were greater, the costs lower, and the benefits for ordinary citizens mo

U.S. Geothermal Inc., a renewable- energy developer with projects in three Western states and Guatemala, received the balance of a Treasury Department grant of $11.8 million for a project in Nevada.

As China's national legislature opens up its annual meeting this week, issues of reducing carbon emissions and energy use are squarely on the table, perhaps signaling that incoming Premier Li Keqiang will push harder on environmental and energy concerns than his predecessor Wen Jiabao. China's State Council reportedly could spend 2.37 trillion yuan (US $380 billion) from 2010-2015 on such measures, and the nation plans to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 16 percent and carbon intensity by 17 percent over that period.

An interesting story was posted on the Guardian yesterday, saying that the UK government needs a “plan B” on nuclear power because of the danger that new reactors will not be built in time to avoid energy shortages. Many of the UK’s ageing reactors will be decommissioned and there is no clear strategy for their replacement, the paper says. “The amb

The U.S. sold more renewable energy and power management products to China in 2011 than it imported, contradicting wide-held views that the Asian nation is becoming the world's dominant supplier, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

As of March 1st, the potential impacts of sequestration on the solar industry have unfortunately become reality. On Monday the 4th, the Treasury released a “Message on Sequestration” clarifying its impact on Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009, more commonly known as the cash grant for the 30 percent investment ta

New developments in the battered solar energy space indicate the day of reckoning is fast approaching for embattled Suntech (NYSE: STP), even as the latest results from rival Yingli (NYSE: YGE) are showing early signs of a rebound for the battered sector. Industry watchers will recall that cash-strapped Suntech has nearly $600 million worth of bond

RWE AG will cut renewable-energy investment by half from next year as Germany's second-largest utility seeks to reduce debt and counter falling earnings.

It all comes down to a simple choice. Given technology and economic trends, the future of renewable energy is not a foregone conclusion, as states REN-21's new Renewables Global Futures Report 2013.

As more homeowners and business become interested in installing solar, a myriad of financing options have evolved. From third-party financiers to solar REITs, the options available to benefit the renewable energy industry and end users keep expanding. This article highlights what alternative energy investors should know about trends in creative financing for renewables, and which investments should profit.

Now that the Sequester has officially begun, people are wondering what the impacts will be, both long term and short term. The message from the two sides of the political spectrum could not be more opposite. Republicans are confident that the concern is overstated, and the wasteful federal government needs the motivation to start effectively managi

Contradictory trends are currently pushing the polysilicon industry to simultaneously restrict production volumes while continuing to add new capacity.

China will step up efforts to cut its emissions and improve energy efficiency this year after record air pollution in Beijing, where the national legislature opened its annual meeting today.

Bringing the concept of an "artificial leaf" closer to reality, a team of researchers at MIT has published a detailed analysis of all the factors that could limit the efficiency of such a system. The new analysis lays out a roadmap for a research program to improve the efficiency of these systems, and could quickly lead to the production of a practical, inexpensive and commercially viable prototype.