Renewable Energy News

Why is Ontario intent on squandering its "first mover" advantage in the renewable energy field? Huge steps on developing offshore wind are being made globally and by our neighbours to the south and yet in Ontario we are, at best, stuck in neutral. Why are the Americans aggressively committing to new offshore projects on the east coast of the US and

Chevron Corp. helped write the first-in-the-nation rule ordering reduced carbon emissions from cars and trucks. Its biofuels chief spoke at the ceremony where California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the executive order in 2007, the same year the oil company pledged to develop a gasoline replacement from wood.

According to The Solar Foundation's (TSF) recently released interactive map, California has more solar workers than actors; more Texans work in solar than ranching; and the U.S. solar industry has more workers than the coal mining industry. Those findings and many more were discovered by The Solar Foundation team, led by Andrea Luecke, as they put together comprehensive solar job data about all fifty U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Wind power surged to a new record in 2012 with nearly 45 gigawatts (GW) of new installations, a 10 percent increase from 2011, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC)'s Annual Market Update. Global installed capacity increased roughly 19 percent to 282.6 GW, which is slightly below the 22 percent average annual growth rate over the last 10 years.

Lockheed Martin Corp. and China's Reignwood Group will build a plant to generate electricity from differences in ocean temperatures, using technology the U.S. defense company previously worked on in the 1970s.

Imagine this: You’re in a developing nation with little access to electricity. In fact, you don’t have access to a grid, or enough electricity to keep a refrigerator and a light on and water filtered in your home. Or, if you have a generator, you can barely afford to pay for the expensive diesel that keeps it running. Now imagine that you’re in the

Today in New Delhi the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed the latest figures from its annual report on global progress towards a low-carbon future. The agency addressed its report to a meeting of the Clean Energy Ministerial, a group of ministers representing nations that collectively emit four-fifths of global greenhouse gases.

Solar has the potential to reinvent the way the world powers itself. Already a $100 billion industry, solar must be considered a key element in the world's response to climate change and the global need to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Global trade issues, however, threaten the ability of the solar industry to make a major contribution to the most pressing issue of our time. While countries try to fine-tune and engineer fair trade policies, the world grows warmer. We need to find a way through the current crisis and mobilize all stakeholders in the industry — and that includes just about everyone — to help resolve trade conflicts and remove trade barriers that thwart the rapid adoption of renewable energies. If we're serious about solar energy adoption, we need solutions to the world's current trade conflicts.

Only months after the world's largest electricity blackout, which left over 600 million people in the dark, the energy supply gap in India has reached a level that jeopardizes the country's economic growth prospects and national security. Last July, average peak demand exceeded supply by 10.5 gigawatts (GW), or roughly 8.1 percent, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). In January, demand exceeded supply by 8.4 GW, or roughly 9.9 percent. In 2006, India's Integrated Energy Policy developed by the country's central Planning Commission estimated that installed energy capacity in the country would need to reach 960 GW by 2031-32 in order to support 9 percent annual GDP growth. As of January 2013, India's installed capacity base stood at only 213 GW, implying that almost 37 GW of new generation capacity (the equivalent of 37 nuclear power plants) would need to be commissioned each year for the next two decades in order to meet this target.

Clean energy investments worldwide slid 22 percent in 1Q13 to $40.6 billion, their lowest level in four years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The biggest declines were in the U.S. (54 percent), Europe (25 percent), and China (15 percent), while investments in Asia were robust: $8.2 billion in Japan, and the rest of Asia ex-India and China increased 47 percent to $10.1 billion. Asset finance (equity, debt, and balance sheet funds) for utility-scale projects dropped off 34 percent to $19.3 billion. VC and private equity (PE) funds fell 29 percent year-on-year to $1.3 billion.

Louisiana's Public Service Commission (PSC) will vote this Wednesday, April 17th on whether to preserve or dismantle net metering in the state. The vote will answer the central question in the net metering docket (LPSC Docket number: R-31417) – how valuable is the solar energy produced from net-metered solar systems?

The Internal Revenue Service explained today what developers must do this year to be considered to have started construction of new renewable energy projects.

In Washington DC, at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA is extending for five years its agreement to work with the Federal Aviation Administration and other partners to help develop a viable biofuel for the aviation industry.

A recent European Commission Green Paper seeking views on the development of intermediate renewable energy and climate targets for 2030 has prompted calls from the industry to adopt a three part approach, targeting renewable energy, energy efficiency and emissions reduction. Formally opening an ongoing debate, the consultation — the Commission says

For the sixth year in a row, the U.S. Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) has ranked utilities across the nation in terms of how much solar energy they have incorporated into their user base. This year's report shows that solar is spreading quickly across the country with new entrants from North Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio joining the old standbys.

A major challenge for the geothermal industry is reducing the risk of its exploration and drilling phase – there is a 40-60 percent chance that each $5-7 million well is ultimately deemed unproductive. But that statistic may soon change. In what many in the industry are calling a game-changer, the nation's first enhanced geothermal system (EGS) to supply electricity to the grid came online last week. ORMAT's Desert Peak 2 project is producing an additional 1.2 megawatts (MW) of power to its existing nearby power plant.

A new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) puts some hard numbers to the benefits realized when U.S. cities streamline their solar PV permitting processes.

Just north of Delavan, Wisconsin, is Dan Osborne’s nursery farm. Where there was once a bean field now sit 80 solar panels on 100 tracking towers, generating renewable power for over 125 homes. It’s a small, but successful community-owned energy harvest.  The solar farm was developed by Convergence Energy of Lake Geneva, WI and has owners from all

Recent findings in two NPD Solarbuzz reports, covering the Middle East & Africa and Emerging Asia-Pacific & Central Asia, indicate that both of these areas are set for considerable growth in 2013 with annual demand projected to hit 1 GW in each region.

Iceland became the first European country to sign a free trade agreement with China in a bid to sell its expertise in geothermal energy to the $7.3 trillion Asian economy.