Renewable Energy News

Development banks worldwide lent a record $108.9 billion to renewable energy and energy-efficient technology last year as they scale back investment in coal-fired power plants, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.

Community renewable energy has significant political and economic benefits, but is often hindered by five major barriers.  Read on for a summary of the five barriers, watch them in a 17-minute presentation, or check out the illustrated slideshow below. Barrier one is tradition. Utilities are simply used to operating a grid in a 20th century model,

As kids we were told “don’t play with matches.” The reasoning was simple. But as adults, we ignore this warning and play with fire to heat our homes and office buildings and our laws and policies encourage it. It doesn’t have to be that way. We need to create paths to safer, cleaner and more efficient energy sources to satisfy the “thermal loads” of buildings and geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) are the answer.

Generaytor's NFL goes solar infographic celebrates the 2013 season’s kickoff by showcasing five solar-powered stadiums.   Which NFL teams are green on game day? There's more to it than just the uniforms and Generaytor set out to investigate. East coast teams have an early lead in solar production, but the new San Francisco stadium will be solar-pow

A plan for a 50-MW capacity pumped storage facility capable of generating up to 500 MWh of energy has been approved by the local council, the developer has announced. The facility will be built in the Glyn Rhonwy cluster of abandoned slate quarries near Llanberis in north Wales.

It’s amazing what a couple of lines of legislation can do. California law states that utilities would have to stop offering net metering at the end of 2014. With more residents and solar installed than anywhere else in the U.S., such an abrupt end could spell disaster for the residential solar market in the state.  In light of that legislation, AB

Australia’s standards body, Standards Australia, has published the world’s first solar cooling standard.

Carnige Melon University’s Climate and Energy Decision Making Center’s recent study, “Regional variations in the health, environmental, and climate benefits of wind and solar generation,” is a testimony to the difficulty of cost justifying renewable energy development.

Back when silicon prices were north of $400/kg, finding ways to use less material was seen as a keen opportunity, from different formfactors to thinner wafers. One group of efforts centered on "upgraded metallurgical-grade" (UMG) silicon, which was essentially a grade of silicon slightly less than the ultrapurity required by the electronics industry. Those efforts broadly lost their appeal, though, once silicon prices plunged to $20/kg and below, though prices have started showing signs of rising slightly.

An aging infrastructure and increasing demand for energy makes technology more important than ever in meeting and sustaining the power needs of the world. In its 2012 World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency said global energy dependency will grow by more than 30 percent between now and 2035. As the shift to more renewable sources catches on, questions are raised about how to make grids more flexible and better able to accommodate intermittent renewable generation. Alstom Grid believes high voltage, direct current (HVDC) technologies are part of the answer.

Only five solar-power vendors remain in a space built for 170 at a sprawling complex of offices stacked three stories high outside Xinyu city in China’s southeast. Locked doors and empty offices are what’s left of the government’s audacious plan to dominate the global solar industry. What happened in Xinyu is being replicated across China, which used subsidies and $47.5 billion of credit to wrest supremacy from Germany, Japan and the U.S., saddling an industry with losses for at least two years.

The wind energy industry has traditionally relied on hub-height towers designed for the communications industry. Built-up lattice towers required climbers to install equipment precisely at 60, 80 or even 100 meters in the air. In recent years, the wind measurement landscape has changed rapidly and the result is more accurate wind energy resource and power performance verification campaigns to reduce the financial risk associated with wind farms and boost accuracy in determining energy output from wind farms.

Fewer of China’s wind turbines are idle after investments in new wind farms slowed and developments shifted to areas with better grid access, aiding operators such as China Longyuan Power Group Corp.

Efforts to roll back rules that nurtured the corn-based ethanol industry threaten to stunt other promising biofuels, according to a developer working on one of the nation’s first commercial plants that won’t use the grain.

Ontario is putting its new feed-in tariff program out for public feedback -- just in time for a RenewableEnergyWorld.com road trip to the region. Last month the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) announced upcoming changes to the FIT program, including carving out large projects, adding enticements for municipalities, and adjusting domestic content prov

Supply chain investments that are critical for the growth of the UK’s renewable energy industry are at risk because of hit-and-miss government policies, according to a new report.

The second quarter of this year saw worldwide shipments of solar photovoltaic (PV) inverters decline by 5 percent year-on-year, according to new analysis from IHS Research.

Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has created strict requirements for residential property-assessed clean energy (PACE) programs, a few states and cities are continuing to develop programs and pass legislation.

All across the United States, rooftop solar panels are popping up on homes, businesses and schools like mushrooms in a forest, and utility-scale solar projects are bringing huge amounts of clean energy into our communities.  Why?  Well, among other things, consumer choice in America is something that we all hold very sacred. Today, smart policies —

Chile’s upper house of parliament has unanimously passed a bill revising its renewable energy targets upward, from the previous goal of sourcing 10 percent of the nation's energy mix from renewables by 2020 to 20 percent by 2025.