Renewable Energy News

Arizona-based First Solar Inc. said Monday the company is playing to lay off 150 North American workers over the next few weeks as it restructures its global operations, according to a report from The Arizona Republic.

Kicking off the AWEA Windpower 2013 event in Chicago, the new leadership of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) took to the stage and underscored a five-point plan to build a viable and sustainable industry centered around developing a unified message backed by personal contributions.

Global expectations for hydrogen are currently sky-high. Transport applications stand at the threshold of commercialisation, while ahead lies an investment boom in the hydrogen distribution network. The changeover to hydrogen based on natural gas would already mean a potential saving of billion in Finland's balance of payments. If hydrogen could then be produced from domestic renewable raw material, our car and bus traffic would eventually be practically self-sufficient and leave a significantly reduced carbon footprint. The above was revealed in the Finnish hydrogen roadmap published recently.

In light of recent at-sea power failures on major cruise liners, smaller vessels are tuning into the need to ensure their own systems are dependable and won't strand crews and passengers at sea. Reliable and efficient power is vital on any size or type of boat or ship, but it's too often overlooked in efforts to keep costs down. Installing power redundancy and marine-grade power systems safeguards boaters from discomfort, danger and marred reputations that can result from on-board power outages.

Feed-in tariffs, the terminology at least, has come of age. The term can now be found in a prolific English novelist's most recent book. Jasper Fforde's use of the words in fiction is an open acknowledgment that the term and the idea it conveys have become mainstream in the English language.

It looks like Colorado is set to expand the amount of renewable energy in the state once again now that Colorado Senate Bill 252 passed Colorado’s House of Representatives. The bill passed through the House on Monday, April 30 and was passed again by the Senate. It now heads to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) desk. The bill would expand the amount of

Last week, a solar energy standard moved one step closer to passage in the Minnesota state legislature, with an innovative new approach to financing solar power.  It’s a powerful first step for what would be one of the more robust policies to support distributed, local solar power in the country. The policy has three key pieces, outlined below. A S

After the extension of the Production Tax Credit on January 1, 2013, GE (NYSE: GE)'s renewable energy unit said it has signed 1 GW of U.S. wind turbine orders as of May 6. GE also debuted its newest wind turbine product during the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)'s Windpower 2013 conference and exhibition in Chicago.

Europe's program to halt climate change is in disarray with lawmakers in the region expressing concern the drift is undermining the planet's most significant effort to combat global warming.

While the sun was shining on most clean energy stocks in April, my ten clean energy picks for 2013 (introduced here) got relative showers. The Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW) was up a sunny 14.1% for April to 19.6% for the year, rising quickly past my picks, which inched up a relatively meager 0.7% to 7.5% for the year so far. Meanwhile, the broad universe of small stocks gained 2.6% for a year to date gain of 15.1%, as measured by my benchmark the iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM).

A recent Navigant Research report anticipates that the world will add 220 new gigawatts of distributed solar photovoltaics by 2018 as solar comes into parity with other energy sources, creating $540.3 billion in revenue in the process. That’s a significant jump in the amount of solar that is currently installed throughout world, which the European

Just like any country, Nigeria in the 21st century faces enormous challenges, and one of its most crucial is power. Nigeria has been confronted with incessant electricity problems ranging from power generation to its transmission and distribution. The main sources of its electricity are gas and hydropower, but for many decades, homes, businesses an

Biofuels scientists are asking more complex questions about how molecules spin, bond, and break when enzymes attack plants — all in the name of quickening the process of turning biomass into fuels for the sake of cleaner air and better energy security.

The 1-MW Habanero pilot plant now producing electricity in South Australia near Innamincka is a big step for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). The company operating it, Geodynamics, has made some remarkable discoveries at the site that contribute to its value for the EGS world.

The gap between PV supply and demand narrowed slightly in 2012, but overcapacity will continue to weigh on the industry for the next several years, even with optimistic outlooks, according to new industry analyst reports.

Solar panel makers are finally seeing signs that the clouds could be lifting from their embattled sector, sparking a stock rally for their volatile shares. Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) led off the upbeat news, releasing preliminary results that included better-than-expected first-quarter sales and margins. But perhaps more importantly, other repor

Methil port north of Edinburgh, once the focus of Scotland's coal exports, is set to tap a greener kind of energy as Samsung Heavy Industry Co. constructs the world's biggest wind turbine in the town's faded harbor.

On April 18th, Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (NYSE:HASI) IPOed on the New York Stock Exchange. HASI is one of only two publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) dedicated to sustainable infrastructure.

Japan has been experiencing an enormous boom in solar energy development over the past year. More than 6.7 GW of PV projects have been approved between July 2012 and January 2013, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and more than 47 percent of these projects are over 1 megawatt (MW), which is locally known as Mega Solar.

Iowa ranks third in installed wind power capacity in the U.S., it's 5,500 megawatts behind only Texas and California (and much higher per capita).  But like many windy places, the turbines sprouting from the Iowa prairie are often owned by multinational corporations, taking advantage of the local resource and sending the electricity revenue out of