Industry news

Mayors often say they’re “where the rubber meets the road” between government policy and actual action, and it looks like that saying’s especially true when it comes to emissions reductions and climate resilience across America. More than two-thirds of U.S. cities that have pledged to cut carbon dioxide emissions are reporting quantifiable reductions as a result of their action in

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Driven by an explosion in photovoltaics, the U.S. solar sector has emerged “from a relatively small contributor to the nation’s total electric capacity into a one of comparative significance,” the Energy Information Administration reported this week in its latest Electricity Monthly Update. Since 2010, EIA said, U.S. solar capacity increased 418 percent from 2,326 megawatts, accounting for 0.2 percent of

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I’ve written about UK solar schools initiatives for years (see some links on bottom of page). Some have made quite notable progress. However, there are still a lot more British schools without solar power than with it. Now, Abundance Generation has launched a project that allows people to not only donate to solar panels for their local schoolhouses but to

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I have to give my congratulations to new energy car maker Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) for creating the kind of buzz and excitement this week that only names like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and smartphone sensation Xiaomi have typically been able to muster. In the last 2 days, the company and its charismatic founder Elon Musk were all over the Chinese headlines

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Under favourable atmospheric conditions any elevated structure can generate upward lightning flashes. Even aircraft can do so — in fact, height and movement are two of the factors that contribute to this phenomenon. The tips of wind turbine blades move at speeds of several tens of metres per second. However, no one had previously demonstrated the relationship between this movement

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The Fiat 500e — the best electric car of 2013, according to Road & Track — will soon be available somewhere other than California, according to recent reports. The “cute” little EV will be offered for sale in (at least) a couple of key Oregon markets starting sometime this summer. Given that the Fiat 500e is essentially just a compliance

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The Big Island For the past five years, home for me has been on the northern end of the island of Hawaiʻi. For those unfamiliar with the Hawaiian islands, they consist of eight major islands. The biggest of these islands is the island of Hawaiʻi, also known as the “Big Island.” The Big Island has a land area of 4,028

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Figuring out how often to wash solar panels is more complicated than it might seem. Washing arrays too often can be a waste of money; washing them too infrequently results in soiled modules that reduce electricity production, and thus, the value of the project. Operators typically follow a simple, low-risk policy of washing once a year just before the summer

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Over the next four years, distributed solar penetration will increase by more than 300 percent in the United States, straining local distribution infrastructure in more than a quarter of the country.  According to GTM Research’s latest report, Advanced Grid Power Electronics for High-Penetration PV Integration 2014, secondary distribution grid control equipment, including power-electronics-based solutions, represents the most cost-effective technical solution

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After a two-year overcapacity phase that left a trail of crashing prices, financial losses, market exits and severely eroded balance sheets in its wake, the global PV manufacturing sector finally showed signs of recovery in 2013. As robust end-market growth out of China, Japan and the U.S. came into contact with a fitter, leaner supplier landscape, pricing stabilized, inventory levels

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