Renewable Energy News

Uncertainty around subsidies and the need to unlock new capital are holding back investment in European offshore wind, according to a new report that surveyed 200 senior wind industry executives.

The majority of public schools in Campbell County, Tenn. are going solar in a bid to make $960,000 over 20 years, without raising any additional taxes. That’s under a new partnership with residential and commercial solar installer Efficient Energy of Tennessee (EETN), which is installing solar at 12 of the county’s 21 schools.  The 12 schools in th

The Renewables Infrastructure Group Ltd. plans the biggest initial public offering of a U.K. clean-power company as developers turn to stock investors to pay for projects because utilities have less cash for acquisitions.

Another massive solar energy project in California is being abandoned, with K Road asking the California Energy Commission to drop its permit and subsequent amendments for the 294-MW Calico Solar Project after three years and as many redevelopment efforts.

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Texas A&M University-Central Texas (TAMU-CT) is opening the doors for what it claims will be the planet's biggest solar energy test facility, a 50-MW undertaking spanning both commercial demonstrations and testing, with an incubator program to shepherd newer technologies. The system also will produce all of the university's power requirements (achieved via net metering), housing enough renewable energy to power the entire TAMU-CT's campus.

Nordex SE, a German wind energy company that opened a U.S. manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas to great fanfare in 2009, today announced the closure of the plant. The company blames uncertainty in the U.S. market largely due to the last-minute (and only one-year) extension of the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) and the global overcapacity of wind turbines for the decision to close the plant.

As solar projects are becoming more prevalent in the U.S. and more people are interested in going solar at home and work, the U.S. needs to explore new strategies for financing solar. Chief among them is getting more private capital into investing in solar. That’s the focus of a new study from the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE), Calif

During March, several companies focused on developing low-carbon innovations were announced as winners of GE’s first ever ecomagination Challenge in Australia and New Zealand. The five winners, each awarded a total of AUD$100,000, will develop innovative renewable and smart energy applications in fields as diverse as wave power and engine technology. So, how do the new technologies work? And what are the prospects for future scale-up and commercialisation?

As a proven and highly effective way of generating energy from waste, anaerobic digestion offers great potential to farmers for converting waste into biogas that can also be used to generate electricity. It produces a nutrient-rich digestate that can be used as a fertiliser into the bargain. It has the support of the coalition government. Both small and large scale AD plants are now up and running in many parts of the country. There’s a great untapped potential for the wider use of the technology. And yet it’s being held back by planning policies – both nationally and sometimes at a local level.

President Barack Obama nominated Ron Binz to serve as the next chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee. If Binz is approved by the Senate, he will replace FERC's current chairman Jon Wellinghoff, who announced his intent to step down when a successor is found in late May 2013.

For two years wind industry observers have been following U.S. component maker AMSC’s (formerly American Semiconductor) suit against the world’s second largest wind turbine manufacturer, China’s Sinovel. The suit alleged theft of intellectual property – software code for AMSC’s PM3000 control system, which works with its low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) to regulate the flow of electricity to the grid – and use of the stolen software in Sinovel’s wind turbines. AMSC had filed a suit with a US federal court in its home state of Massachusetts, and corresponding ‘cease and desist’ civil actions in the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court and the Hainan Province No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in China.

The residential solar market continues to ride a wave of mounting success as Sunrun announced that it’s secured financing to support more than $630 million in solar rooftop installations across the U.S. It received funds in three separate transactions from investors that include JPMorgan and U.S. Bank.

Today, I testified before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing & Trade on behalf of the American workers and businesses in the U.S. solar industry about India’s restrictive and unfair trade practices. India is a country with some of the best solar resources in the world.  With the cost of solar continuing to decline, India’s solar sect

I know times are tough for solar PV manufacturers, but if you want consumers to actually ask for your panel by name, you ought to copy this guerrilla marketing move by…Nivea. Yes, Nivea. Not a panel manufacturer, but a sunscreen and cosmetics company. And what exactly did Nivea do to promote solar PV?  Take a look for yourself: For those too excite

Are utilities friends or foes when it comes to promoting solar energy generation?

The UK government today revealed the strike prices for renewable energy that it proposes to pay under its contracts for difference scheme.

On Tuesday, I had a chance to tour one of the most exciting cleantech projects around — the 370-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System near Ivanpah, California in the Mojave Desert. This project, owned and operated by NRG Energy with technology designed and developed by BrightSource Energy, and more than 92 percent complete as of late Ma

Renewable energy may supply more electricity than nuclear reactors or natural gas by 2016, spurred by declining costs and growing demand in emerging markets, the International Energy Agency said.

Most efforts at improving solar cells have focused on increasing the efficiency of their energy conversion, or on lowering the cost of manufacturing. But now MIT researchers are opening another avenue for improvement, aiming to produce the thinnest and most lightweight solar panels possible.