Renewable Energy News

The PJM Interconnection could save its customers $6.9 billion if it more than doubled the amount of wind energy it currently plans to build. This is according to a study by Americans for a Clean Energy Grid and Synapse Energy Economics.

All German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to do was pick up the phone and dial her people in Brussels. Had she done so before the European Parliament's (EP) key vote last month on April 19, her party's representatives could easily have saved the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), Europe's flagship mechanism for reducing carbon emissions. But the woman once hailed as "the climate chancellor," didn't make the call, a consequence of differences of opinion on the ETS within her ruling center-right coalition, she said. The impotent ETS is now withering on the vine, where it may remain until it is dead altogether.

A contested bill in North Carolina that would repeal the state’s renewable portfolio standard is moving forward despite what appeared to be committee that voted against it. The bill was moved out of the Senate Finance Committee by State Senators Bill Rabon and Bob Rucho, both Republicans, who co-chair the committee. The senators held a voice vote o

A unit of Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. plans to invest $1.9 billion to build additional wind farms in Iowa that would increase its wind generating capacity in the state by about half.

German scientists are betting that offshore wind farms can help replenish the North Sea's fledgling lobster population.

The recently released research in Geophysical Research Letters suggests that if 10 percent of the world's energy needs were fulfilled by biofuels from dedicated crops then the consequence would be that global greenhouse gas levels would increase. The foundation of their model is that deforestation, in order to make room for energy crops, eliminates CO2 absorbing forests. They also note that the increased release of nitrous oxide from fertilization will have GHG effects.

The European Commission has decided to recommend duties on Chinese solar panels up to 67.9 percent, according to reports from multiple sources.

At Wind Power 2013, the big question on many minds in the wind industry is what will the market look like if and when the production tax credit expires? Wind power experts tried to answer that question at the event held in Chicago this week.

After falling 15 percent in 2012, solar photovoltaic wafer production is forecast to grow 19 percent in 2013, passing 30 GW and recovering to the 2011 level, according to the latest NPD Solarbuzz Polysilicon and Wafer Supply Chain Quarterly. However, industry utilization is expected to remain below 60 percent, and while prices have stopped falling, no significant increases are expected, so profitability for wafer makers will remain challenging.

In our book Clean Tech Nation, which came out late last year, Clint Wilder and I offered up a Seven-Point Action Plan for Repowering America. One of our main action items was "Leverage Proven Investment Tools from the Oil, Gas, & Real Estate Sectors." Namely, level the investment playing field by opening up master limited partnerships (MLPs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) to clean-energy projects.

You know that experience, when you buy a new car, and suddenly you see the model everywhere? Since Superstorm Sandy I’ve had the equivalent experience with the term ‘microgrid.’ Policymakers and thought leaders in the U.S. Northeast started talking microgrid in earnest shortly after the October 2012 storm leveled swaths of their region. Lately, the

India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is seeking to defer penalties on about $1 billion of solar-thermal power projects that are delayed by a lack of water, financing difficulties and equipment shortages.

I’ve been trying to avoid writing about the latest punitive tariffs for Chinese solar panels that look set to come from the European Union this week, since the story has dragged on for more than a year now and the outcome was almost inevitable. But that said, it would be a bit remiss of me not to write at least something on this latest move, which

Hopes for Renewable Energy Source Development Measures (RESDM) in Russia's renewable power sector are high: if adopted and properly implemented, it will boost the renewable sector that is plagued with underfunding, often differing regional and federal legislation, other short-comings or simple ineffectiveness.

I know a lot of passionate people in the solar industry who don’t actually own a solar system, and I’m one of them. On the surface, that may appear hypocritical when you make a living telling people how affordable solar is. “If it’s so affordable, why don’t you own it?” they ask. When you explain that it’s (currently) not physically possible to own

The growing global demand for energy, combined with a need to reduce emissions and lessen the effects of climate change, has increased focus on cleaner energy sources. But what unintended consequences could these cleaner sources have on the changing climate?

Brazil, the second-biggest producer of hydroelectricity, is seeking to increase the use of fossil fuels after the worst drought in 50 years depleted reservoirs, underscoring a limit to renewable energy.

Dana Doran, Director of Energy Programs at Kennebec Valley Community College (ME), found his way to KVCC in 2007 to head up fundraising efforts for the college. A former high school history teacher and basketball coach, Dana felt KVCC was a good fit for his interest in energy and education.

It's always the same problem: You save energy but the electricity bills are still getting more expensive. Luckily, there is a solution: Solar power can be generated in Germany for 12 cents per kilowatt hour. In contrast, utilities currently charge an average of 25 cents for domestic electricity. What better reason to invest into your own photovoltaic system? Solar storage systems can increase on-site consumption by up to 70 percent. They absorb surplus solar power and pass on the energy as required — expensive grid power is hardly necessary. This makes the systems very attractive for consumers: According to an EuPD Research survey, almost 90 percent of solar operators are already thinking about buying an additional storage system.

Silicon wafer startup 1366 Technologies said it's teaming up with big Japanese silicon producer Tokuyama for a research and development deal that should boost 1366's sales after it starts mass production.