Renewable Energy News

From strategic plans to comfortable shoes The cleantech and power industries have countless conferences and trade shows that offer networking, business development and educational opportunities. I’m not exaggerating. At Tigercomm, we maintain a database of conference opportunities that expands nearly every day. But tight budgets and competing prior

Worlee-Chemie GmbH, a family-owned company that has produced resins in the city of Hamburg for almost a century, is trying to escape the spiraling cost of Germany's shift to renewable energy.

Take a moment to think about where your electricity comes from and what comes to mind? Perhaps natural gas pipelines and railcars filled with coal -- or maybe solar farms spread across acres of land. Adding to this mix is a newcomer to the field. With advancements in technologies, Americans will soon be able to tap into energy derived from the ocean.

A flurry of new solar-cell efficiency records — including a quiet surprise — are putting thin-film solar PV technologies tantalizingly close to silicon rivals.

During the bustle of the holiday season, many may have missed a rare occurrence — a CPV module manufacturing plant opened its doors in the U.S. Soitec, known for manufacturing semiconductors, acquired the facility in December 2011, and it is now equipped to produce its Concentrix technology modules. I’ll be headed to the plant in February for a tou

The Roaring Forties gales off Tasmania, where Hollywood swashbuckler Errol Flynn was first smitten with sailing, are luring Chinese investors with a different passion -- harnessing wind to generate electricity.

It’s a well-known story in the renewable energy scene: President Carter installed solar panels on the White House in 1979, and just seven short years later, his successor President Reagan removed them. It’s been more than 20 years since a U.S. President displayed solar on the famous roof, but in 2010 President Obama gave solar advocates some hope:

Novozymes A/S, the world’s biggest maker of enzymes used in laundry soap, may get 90 percent of its revenue from biofuel makers by 2030 if more governments start promoting renewable energy, the company’s next CEO said.

Growing speculation that the wind market in Western Europe is currently hitting a growth plateau has gathered weight in recent months. The EU as a whole has suffered significant reductions in forecast wind capacity growth as a result of the ongoing economic crisis.

The UK and Ireland today pledged to work together to secure economic benefits for both countries through renewable energy trading.

Two multiyear projects now being undertaken in Europe aim to improve the technology behind wind power generation: one seeks more efficient and cheaper ways to make the blades, and another wants to swap in a new generator to make the turbines smaller and lighter, and able to be scaled up in power output.

OneRoof Energy announced today that South Korea's Hanwha Group invested an additional $30 million in its company to help OneRoof expand into new markets, develop new proprietary technologies and strengthen dealer support. Hanwha Group was among the first investors of OneRoof Energy's Series A funding in 2011.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain's biggest government-owned lender, may channel as much as 400 million pounds ($631 million) into clean energy this year with a focus on biomass.

Ormat Technologies Inc., a U.S. developer of geothermal energy, will record a charge of as much as $230 million because its North Brawley plant is producing about half as much power as expected.

Here’s another example of a non-solar company taking a small guerilla marketing risk and getting a 9-million viewer pay-off on YouTube. I repeat: Nine million people watching a five minute video made by an international bank that few Americans have ever heard of…until now.     Industry pros often tell me that it’s the installers that choose solar P

A recent study by Ceres — "Practicing Risk-Aware Electricity Regulation: What Every State Regulator Needs to Know" — concluded that the least cost and least risk for future energy resources is energy efficiency. Indeed, the lowest cost unit of energy is one that is not used.

A San Francisco startup may win approval as soon as this month to become the first firm allowed to raise money for solar-power projects as a REIT, the financing vehicle used in $637 billion of U.S. property ventures.

Alta Devices Inc., a U.S. maker of thin-film solar cells, expects military applications from drones to gadget-charging tents and backpacks will generate about 80 percent of its revenue this year. After that, Chief Executive Officer Christopher Norris is aiming at the global mobile-phone market.

Brightsource's 500-megawatt Rio Mesa solar thermal project is being shelved after multiple delays, but the company is forging ahead with two similar projects that are further along in development. A Brightsource spokesperson confirmed the power purchase agreements (PPA) with Southern California Edison (SCE) for both Rio Mesa 1 and Rio Mesa 2 have been cancelled, and the permitting process for both sites have been suspended with the CED, though the company hopes to keep them available for future project consideration.

Ikea Group, the world's biggest furniture retailer, will double its investment in renewable energy to $4 billion by 2020 as part of a drive to reduce costs as cash-strapped consumers become more price sensitive.