Renewable Energy News

Japan will begin operating two offshore wind turbines this year as it tries to diversify its energy mix and develop turbine technologies.

Wind turbine noise is an issue fraught with emotion. Noise often comes up as a complaint from local wind turbine opposition groups and it is clearly something that wind turbine manufacturers, designers and developers alike must face up to, even if a vast body of exists to show that there are no effects on human health from wind turbine noise.

The European Union should phase out support for land-based biofuels that displace food production and indirectly boost emissions, eight lobbies said in a letter to the bloc's energy ministers.

New reports that major car maker Dongfeng Motor (HKEx: 489) is bidding to buy a struggling US hybrid car maker are casting a spotlight on China's emerging role as scavenger for global new energy companies struggling to stay in business. A number of factors are driving this budding trend, led by the fact that many of these Chinese suitors are relati

The Roen Financial Report closely covers the universe of almost 30 alternative energy Mutual Funds (MFs) and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). We use a proprietary ranking method to pick the best funds, looking at measures that include fees, risk, tax liability, and the financial health of individual holdings within each fund.

The Alliance to Save Energy's Commission on National Energy Policy included financing as one of the central recommendations in its recent report, "Energy 2030: Doubling U.S. Energy Productivity by 2030." The commission consists of some of the key leaders in energy policy and business in the United States.

With huge swaths of flat desert surfaces and tons of sunlight, Mexico is a prime location for solar power, even though potential financial backers are struggling to adequately understand the advantages of solar PV or risk evaluation.

United Utilities Plc and Severn Trent Plc, Britain's biggest publicly traded water companies, are increasingly feeding waste into tanks of bacteria whose methane emissions generate electricity.

No company has done greater damage to the image of the American solar industry than Solyndra. It was therefore a source of great delight to me last week as I drove along Interstate 880 through Fremont, CA for what I didn't see. The signs on the old factory were gone. Those persistent thorns in the side of American solar, had finally vanished, closi

In the search for renewable alternatives to gasoline, heavy alcohols such as isobutanol are promising candidates. Not only do they contain more energy than ethanol, but they are also more compatible with existing gasoline-based infrastructure. For isobutanol to become practical, however, scientists need a way to reliably produce huge quantities of it from renewable sources.

The Delaware Public Service Commission (DE PSC) approved the Delaware Procurement Program's 2013 solicitation on January 22, 2013. The 2013 Program for Procurement of Solar Renewable Energy Credits was developed by the Renewable Energy Taskforce on behalf of Delmarva Power & Light Company. Following the DE PSC's approval, it was announced that appl

SolarCity Corp., the solar-power provider led by billionaire Elon Musk, is partnering with Honda Motor Co. to finance $65 million worth of rooftop projects for car buyers and dealers.

According to the latest "Energy Infrastructure Update" report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Projects, 1,231 MW of new in-service electrical generating capacity came on line in the United States in January 2013 — all from wind, solar, and biomass sources.

For developers trying to monetize the federal tax benefits for a given project, finding a tax equity partner can be a lonely process. Tax equity investors consist of a limited pool of suitors—investment bankers and a few other firms — who can tolerate the array of risks associated with this type of investment, including:

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG will harness winds whipping across eastern Germany to secure power -- and defend profits -- as costs rise due to Germany's 550 billion-euro ($740 billion) shift away from nuclear energy.

What do LendingTree, Kelly Blue Book, TrueCar, and Orbitz have in common? They present a single source of standardized sales quotes to consumers. That's what EnergySage says its new online platform, launching this week, does for solar PV: comparative shopping for solar PV consumers, matching them with installers bidding for their business.

Recent developments in renewable energies might overthrow the diesel generator as the technology of choice for off-grid mobile base stations.  Renewable energy has evolved considerably over the last couple of years. So much, in fact, that solutions recently deemed to be unfeasible might now warrant a second look. Take mobile telecom operators, for

After over 30 years of struggle solar industry participants cannot be blamed for viewing the lucrative feed-in-tariff incentive model as the best hope for a stable market. Focusing on the photovoltaic industry, the market (in Europe) for PV systems seemed to move overnight from megawatt levels of demand to gigawatts with many believing that terawatt shipment years were soon to come. The accompanying shortage of polysilicon led to high levels of investment in thin film technologies as well as metallurgical grade silicon, CSP and CPV technologies — all focused on answering the cost piece of the PV conundrum.

Solar — and renewable energy in general — just got a step closer to mainstream with a recent announcement that the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and PacifiCorp, a utility serving 1.7 million customers in 6 western states, entered into a memorandum of understanding to create what's known as an Energy Imbalance Market by October 2014.

I recently tendered my shares of Western Wind Energy (TSX-V:WND, OTC:WNDEF) to Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners' (TSX:BEP.UN, OTC: BRPFF) with an extended offer for Western Wind at C$2.60 a share. This is despite the fact that I think (and was even quoted in a Western Wind press release) Western Wind is worth more than C$2.60.