Apr. 7, 2024 -The Roman city of Pompeii is one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world. It’s visited by millions of people who want to see the still intact elements of architecture from Roman times. But for all this, you need electricity and lighting. Conventional lighting systems are pretty expensive for such a large area and they also take away some of the charm of the site. So instead, the team managing the site is opting for a new solution: photovoltaic (PV) tiles that look just like the Roman ones.

Click now to learn how the problem was addressed.

Mar. 28, 2024 -The Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $90 million to a company that has promised to build what would be the largest solar project in the state on a former coal mine in central Pennsylvania.

The 402-megawatt solar farm would be the largest in the state. The award goes to Delaware-based Mineral Basin Solar LLC, a subsidiary of the Boston-based clean energy developer Swift Current Energy. The energy produced would be enough to power 70,000 homes, the DOE said in a press release.

Mar. 27, 2024 - Two small solar manufacturers on Wednesday said they are joining forces to make panels that will enable their customers, U.S. solar project developers, to collect on a lucrative new federal subsidy for American-made clean energy equipment.

Biden administration sees evidence that Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies are succeeding in building a domestic solar manufacturing industry to compete with China.

Mar. 18, 2024 -Energy Dome, a start-up based in Milan, runs an energy-storage demonstration plant that helps to address a mismatch in the local electricity market. “In Sardinia during the day, everyone goes to the sea,” Claudio Spadacini, chief executive of Energy Dome, said. “They don’t use electricity, but there’s a lot of supply,” he added, referring to the Italian island’s abundant sunlight.

Click now read the whole story.

(POWER Engineering), Mar. 8, 2024, Kohler Power Systems, part of Kohler Energy, has collaborated with Toyota Motor North America to develop and install a hydrogen fuel cell power generation system at the Klickitat Valley Health in Goldendale, Washington.

The fuel cell power system, which combines Kohler’s power generation control platform and system integration expertise with a fuel cell module from Toyota, can be used as a prime or back-up power source or as part of a distributed network.

Mar. 7, 2024 -Manufacturers and 24 states sued the Environmental Protection Agency oChina unleashed the full might of its solar energy industry last year. It installed more solar panels than the United States has in its history. It cut the wholesale price of panels it sells by nearly half. And its exports of fully assembled solar panels climbed 38 percent while its exports of key components almost doubled.

Get ready for an even bigger display of China’s solar energy dominance.

Mar. 7, 2024 -Britain’s under-pressure green power industry has received a surprise fillip after a renewables developer pledged to plough £10bn into what would become the largest portfolio of battery storage projects in the country.

Click now for the full story.

Feb. 27, 2024 -U.S. utility-scale renewable electricity generation fell in 2023 due to weather patterns that reduced output from wind farms and drought that affected hydropower. Data released by the Energy Information Administration shows a decrease of 0.8 percent compared to the prior year.

This is a stunning result, considering that utility-scale renewables have been a fast-growing part of the electricity mix and are a crucial resource for the country’s transition away from fossil fuels.

Feb. 13, 2024 -In the early 198os solar thermal panels were installed on roofs in Florida. They resembled portals into the future. The device, essentially a glass box with metal water pipes running through it, converted sunlight into hot water. By trapping solar energy like a greenhouse, it heated the water to a scorching 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Click now for the rest of the story.

Feb. 9, 2024 -Solar street lamps are becoming increasingly popular in rural communities due to their numerous benefits. These street lamps use solar energy to provide lighting, making them cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

Explore some of benefits of solar lighting in rural communities and why it may be worth the initial investment in the long run.

Feb. 8, 2024 -Solar energy has long been championed as a clean, sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, with traditional rooftop-mounted silicon panels dominating the landscape. However, a lesser-known technology, thin-film solar, is quietly revolutionizing the field, offering unique advantages and venturing beyond the familiar rooftop panels.

This article delves into the unexpected uses of thin-film solar, exploring its potential to transform diverse sectors and reshape our energy landscape.

Feb. 8, 2024 -If you were teleported back in time some 700 million years ago inside a spaceship overlooking our planet, the sight would be shocking. Instead of a marvelous blue marble, you’d see a glistening white ball.

During this highly dramatic episode of Earth’s geologic history, scientists think that ice smothered the entire planet — from the poles to the equator. Temperatures were far below freezing virtually at every point on the globe.

Click now for the rest of the story.

Feb. 2, 2024 -India’s solar industry doesn’t only have ambitious plans to install solar panels, it wants to make them too.

The world’s most populous nation already manufactures some solar PV. But the process is largely that of an assembly line, where imported components are fitted together into modules.

POWER Engineering, Feb. 1, 2024, Baker Hughes recently announced several milestones including advancements in the company’s hydrogen-enabling technologies, as well as progress in executing several customers’ hydrogen projects and new collaborations in the sector.

POWER Engineering, Feb. 1, 2024, Duke Energy has provided a resource plan update to regulators this week, calling for new generation additions in response to the Carolinas’ rapid growth.

In a filing to the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC), the utility forecasted even greater electricity demand than projected in the proposal last summer.

Duke said “new economic development wins, including manufacturing and technology projects across the Carolinas” make up the primary driver of the increased electric demand. The utility said annual demand expects to increase 22% by 2030 and 25% by 2035 from 2022 planning cycles — driven by significant additional economic development activity that took place during 2023.

Jan. 24, 2024 -Converting the world to renewable energy such as solar might be a linchpin to tackling climate change, but it comes with a mighty big footprint.

In the U.S. alone, solar panels could cover land equal to Maryland and Delaware combined by 2050 if the country meets climate and renewable electricity goals.

By one estimate, as much as 80% of future solar sites could be built on agricultural land.

Jan. 24, 2024 -Through four years of work and a “massive” data set, National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) researchers say they have discovered that extreme weather can have small but noticeable effects on photovoltaic (PV) system performance, but not enough to suggest that PV is inherently unreliable or vulnerable to extreme weather.

With PV systems designed to operate for decades, even small losses in production can lead to a system becoming unprofitable, the NREL noted, but small changes in production can be hard to measure.

Jan. 23, 2024 -Picture a solar panel field and you probably end up with a lot of black panels on brown soil. Maybe there’s a lot of concrete — definitely, there’s not too much vegetation. But what if we did things a bit differently and let nature take over?

Click now for the rest of the story.

Jan. 22, 2024 -SolarEdge Technologies, a provider of DC-optimized inverter systems, announced a restructuring plan to reduce operating costs that includes laying off 16% of its global workforce, or about 900 employees.

Approximately 500 of the affected employees work at the company’s manufacturing sites.

Jan. 18, 2024 -Despite national polls showing broad support for utility-scale solar among rural Americans, solar developers now report that community opposition and restrictive siting ordinances are leading causes of project delays and cancellations.

Residents living near proposed and existing utility-scale solar sites have voiced a number of concerns, including its possible impacts on farmland and agricultural production, biodiversity, stormwater runoff, home, and property values, as well as concerns about solar panels’ toxicity and safety.

Jan. 18, 2024 -The Department of the Interior announced an updated roadmap for solar energy development across the West, meant to expand solar energy production in more Western states and make renewable energy siting and permitting on America’s public lands more efficient.

The Bureau of Land Management also announced the next steps on several renewable projects in Arizona, California, and Nevada, representing more than 1,700 MW of potential solar generation and 1,300 megawatts of potential battery storage capacity.

Jan. 17, 2024 -Long-duration energy storage provider ESS Technology is to demonstrate its system at the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Contingency Base Integration Training Evaluation Centre in Missouri.

ESS Technology’s ‘Energy Warehouse’ long duration energy storage is a containerized turnkey solution for commercial and industrial and utility-scale users with an iron flow battery that can deliver up to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity.

Jan. 17, 2024 -Sinovoltaics, a Dutch-German provider of quality assurance for the Solar photovoltaic (PV) and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) industries, is expanding into the United States and establishing offices.

Fueled by the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) solar and energy storage manufacturing boom, the company aims to target the solar module quality assurance market with its “Zero Risk Solar” quality inspection service that uses AI-driven Electroluminescence (EL) analysis to review every module and prevent orders from shipping with microcracks and other defects.

Jan. 17, 2024 -The British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro) has released its 10-year capital plan, which it says will lead to an “unprecedented” level of construction to build new transmission, build or upgrade substations, and add renewable generation.

BC Hydro’s updated 10-year capital plan includes almost $36 billion in community and regional infrastructure investments throughout the province between 2024-25 and 2033-34. This represents an increase of 50% over their previous capital plan ($24 billion), and includes an increase in electrification and emissions-reduction infrastructure projects (nearly $10 billion, up from $1 billion).

Jan. 16, 2024 -In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that wind and solar energy will lead the growth in U.S. power generation for the next two years.

As a result of new solar projects coming online this year, the EIA forecasts that U.S. solar power generation will grow 75% from 163 billion kWh in 2023 to 286 billion kWh in 2025.

Jan. 16, 2024 -Sources of renewable energy such as solar and wind power are highly variable, not only over time (the sun doesn’t shine at night) but also in space (some places are just windier than others). This variability poses a major challenge to shifting to a 100% renewable electric grid. But according to a new analysis, zipping electricity back and forth over high-speed power lines at a continent-wide scale could enable renewable sources to easily meet all the world’s power needs.

Click now to read on.

Jan. 11, 2024 -The Kapolei Energy Storage facility on Oahu, Hawaii is now operational, according to Plus Power. The company is calling it the most advanced grid-scale battery energy storage system in the world.

“This is a landmark milestone in the transition to clean energy,” said Brandon Keefe, Plus Power’s Executive Chairman and co-founder. “It’s the first time a battery has been used by a major utility to balance the grid: providing fast frequency response, synthetic inertia, and black start.

Jan. 11, 2024 -The number of households and businesses installing rooftop solar panels has reached its highest level in 12 years, while heat pump installations climbed to record highs in 2023, according to the industry’s official standards body.

Click now to learn more.

Jan. 11, 2024 -In 2023, the annual increase in global renewable capacity surged by nearly 50%, reaching almost 510 gigawatts (GW), marking the swiftest growth rate witnessed in the last twenty years. According to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), this is the 22nd year in a row that renewable capacity additions have broken a new record.

Click now for the rest of the story.

Jan. 5, 2024 -Arcadia, a clean energy software and data analytics firm, has announced it now manages 2 GW of community solar capacity, with more than 223,000 subscribers across 15 states.

Approximately 22% percent of Arcadia’s community solar subscribers qualify as low-to-moderate-income households, the company said. In 2022, it announced it had surpassed 1 GW of community solar capacity under management, an industry first and milestone for the startup founded in 2014.

Jan. 5, 2024 -Badger Hollow Solar Farm, billed as the largest solar project in the state of Wisconsin, is now operational.

On Friday, Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and We Energies announced the 300 MW project had been completed and the final panels are now in service.

Badger Hollow Solar Farm is located near the communities of Montfort and Cobb in Iowa County, Wisconsin. The project came online in two 150-MW phases. The second phase began powering homes and businesses across Wisconsin last month, while the facility’s first phase came online in December 2021.

Jan. 3, 2024 -Iberdrola Spain has obtained environmental approval for the first hybrid plant in the country that combines a photovoltaic with a hydroelectric installation, with the publication of the Environmental Impact Declaration (DIA).

Called HIDRO Cedillo, the project will be located in Cedillo (Extremadura) and will have a capacity of 86.4 MW, with more than 160,000 photovoltaic modules and a type of fixed structure.

Jan. 2, 2024 -They say good things come to those who wait. Clean energy customers in the Southwest are about to put that adage to the test.

After more than 17 years of navigating permits and approvals, Pattern Energy Group has closed $11 billion in non-recourse financing and started full construction of SunZia Transmission and SunZia Wind. The tandem is being billed by the company as the largest clean energy infrastructure project in U.S. history.

(Heat Map News), Mar. 15, 2024, Senators Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Mike Lee of Utah, and James Risch of Idaho have found themselves crossing party lines, working together on a bill to encourage more production of geothermal energy, which the unique contours of this area make (potentially) especially abundant.

The Geothermal Energy Optimization Act, introduced last week, is a kind of test case for how a bipartisan energy policy could work.

Mar. 12, 2024 -With November’s presidential election looming large, the Biden Administration is highlighting the successes of its climate policy. In a sprawling fact sheet, the White House says “President Biden has delivered on the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history—taking bold action to reduce climate pollution across every sector of the economy, protecting more than 26 million acres of lands and waters, and restoring the vital role of science in guiding federal decision-making.”

Click now to read on.

Jan. 5, 2024 -An initiative that sounds a lot like Jules Verne‘s Journey to the Center of the Earth might mark the first time humans have tapped into magma, the molten rock liquid flowing beneath Earth’s crust. In 2026, Iceland’s Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) project will drill into a volcano’s magma chamber, seeking to tap into its super-hot fumes to generate geothermal energy at a scale that has never been attempted before.

Click now for the whole story.

Dec. 14, 2023 -E2E Energy Solutions and the municipality of Rainbow Lake, Alberta are announcing what they call a first-of-its-kind pilot project meant to power and heat the community using only geothermal renewable energy sources by 2028.

This project relies on E2E’s patent-pending Enhanced Geothermal Reservoir Recovery System (EGRRS)...

Nov. 30, 2023 - Geothermal energy has been right under our nose, speakers at Enlit Europe say. Or perhaps more appropriately, under our feet.

A diverse lineup of panelists made up the final session at the conference in Paris. The panel took an optimistic and forward-looking tone, with moderator Kristina Hagstrom-Ilievska comparing geothermal’s potential in the context of the climate crisis to the race to put the first man on the moon.

Nov. 28, 2023 - An advanced geothermal project has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada grid to power Google data centers there, Google announced Tuesday.

Getting electrons onto the grid for the first time is a milestone many new energy companies never reach, said Tim Latimer, CEO and co-founder of Google’s geothermal partner in the project, Houston-based Fervo Energy.

“I think it will be big and it will continue to vault geothermal into a lot more prominence than it has been,” Latimer said in an interview.

Nov. 9, 2023 -Here’s the deal about geothermal energy: Digging is expensive. It’s why most of our electricity and telephone wires are aboveground, even though this leaves us vulnerable during storms and wildfires.

So to take advantage of the constant temperatures below the Earth’s surface, we need to figure out a way to make tunneling far cheaper.

Sep. 13, 2023 -If you read about the energy industry in the ’00s and ’10s, you probably caught some excited, hopeful stories about geothermal, the renewable energy source that harnesses heat hundreds of meters below the earth’s surface. “Enhanced geothermal” — a novel approach in which fluids are poured deep underground, heat up, and then are recovered for their steam heat and used to generate electricity — got particular attention, because it promised a geothermal technique that could work most places on earth, not just in volcanic areas like Iceland or Indonesia.

Click now for the whole story.

Sep. 5, 2023 -Geothermal District Systems can provide an efficient, cost-effective, carbon-free approach to heating one or more buildings.

Before investing in a detailed engineering design study, however, a high-level benefits and costs analysis can be performed to assess how a geothermal heat pump system might compare to alternatives. As there are many potential ways to modernize energy systems to achieve net-zero emissions goals and reduce costs, an up-front estimate regarding which decarbonization projects are the best options from environmental, economic, social, and financial perspectives can avoid a potentially costly path forward.

Aug. 31, 2023 -Clean energy has become synonymous with wind and solar, and with good reason. Thanks to improved technology and declining costs, wind turbines and solar panels are producing a rapidly growing share of the world’s electricity.

But there are many other sources of clean power that could provide abundant, emissions-free energy and help replace fossil fuels. This week, we took an in-depth look at one of those tantalizing technologies:geothermal power.

Aug. 22, 2023 -Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the first cohort of geothermal interns in the NSF INTERN program.

Through this collaboration—the first activity coordinated under the NSF-DOE Memorandum of Understanding—a diverse group of 14 students will work with geothermal companies, national laboratories, or state agencies on projects that advance geothermal technologies. Work conducted under this new internship program will support the goals of DOE’s Enhanced Geothermal Shot™, which aims to bring enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to Americans nationwide and reduce the cost of EGS by 90% by 2035.

Aug. 14, 2023 - Eversource started drilling this week on approximately 90 boreholes that are an essential component of its networked geothermal pilot program in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Once completed, the energy company’s geothermal “loop” will connect 140 customers across nearly 40 buildings – including residential homes, a cabinet store, a fire station, Framingham Housing Authority buildings, and the community college – to provide a sustainable heating and cooling system regulated by the earth’s natural temperature.

July 21, 2023 -A startup based in Texas has announced a key milestone in geothermal energy. This new technology could finally bring large-scale geothermal energy to the masses. The company, Fervo Energy, successfully completed a 30-day test at its pilot plant in Nevada. The team drilled 2.3 kilometers into the Earth’s surface in order to pump water and obtain clean energy reliably.

July 13, 2023 -Summers are famously humid in New York State, but life in the Maioli household has gotten more comfortable since the couple installed a new heating and cooling system — one that isn’t well known yet in the U.S.

“My wife is pretty happy because in the summer we can keep it to as cold as we like,” typically 69 or 70 F, said Joe Maioli, in Ontario, New York. In 2021, the couple installed a geothermal or ground source heat pump.

July 12, 2023 -The dusty town of Naivasha sits within the Great Rift Valley, where the African continent is being divided into two. About 90 kilometers northwest of Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi, Naivasha welcomes gaggles of tourists each year trekking to Hell’s Gate National Park.

The forces that are splitting apart the African tectonic plate have sculpted the area’s steep cliffs, plummeting valleys and undulating hills — a rugged landscape that inspired the backdrop of Disney’s The Lion King.

June 22, 2023 -The country’s first geothermal well was drilled there in the 1950s. By 1981, Kenya had its first geothermal power plant, harnessing a renewable resource that taps into heat generated deep within the Earth. Today, Naivasha’s Olkaria geothermal power project plus a small facility at another site are capable of generating 963 megawatts of electricity when running at full power.

At the end of last year, Kenya ranked seventh on the list of top geothermal energy countries in the world. Geothermal accounts for 47% of the country’s total energy production — a percentage that’s growing. The only other geothermal energy producer in Africa, Ethiopia, started production in 1998 and has an installed capacity of just 7.5 megawatts.

May 17, 2023 - In tiny Gerlach, just outside the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, residents have watched the Burning Man festival grow over the last 30 years to a spectacle of nearly 80,000 countercultural hippies and tech billionaires, offering an economic lifeline for the unincorporated town. Now, Burning Man and Gerlach are more tightly aligned, joining conservationists and a Native American tribe in an alliance against a powerful adversary: Ormat Technology, the largest geothermal power company in the country.

Both Burning Man and Ormat share a vision for a greener future, yet neither can agree on the road to get there.

Apr. 19, 2023 -Fervo Energy is one of the first geothermal companies to drill and successfully complete a horizontal well pair for commercial geothermal production. It used technologies, skills, and processes that Devon uses for oil and gas production.

Mar. 28, 2023 -There’s a lot to like about geothermal energy. It’s clean, it’s renewable and it generates electricity 24/7. It taps heat from Earth’s interior that, in theory, will last billions of years.

Japan, is a country that sits atop the third-largest geothermal resources of any country by some measures. Chang W. Lee, a photojournalist at The Times produced an article about geothermal power and why it hasn’t taken off there.

Jan 31, 2023 -Wind and solar supplied more of the EU’s electricity than any other power source for the first time ever in 2022, new analysis finds.

They together provided a record one-fifth of the EU’s electricity in 2022 – a larger share than gas or nuclear, according to a report by the climate thinktank .

SOLAR UNITED NEIGHBORS], Aug. 21, 2023 -The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) offers federal grants and loans to help farmers and rural small business owners go solar. REAP grants have helped thousands of these business owners across the country reduce their energy costs and improve their energy security with solar. Download our guide, Your Rural Business Can Go Solar: A Guide to Applying for a Rural Energy for America Program Grant, to learn more about how your business can go solar with REAP today.

July 3, 2023 -Most individuals are fine with just knowing that the panels are made of a special material that’s able to absorb and use the power of the sun, even storing it for use during periods when the sun isn’t shining, such as cloudy days and, of course, at night.

But if you really want to know more about solar panels and the materials that are used to construct them, click now to learn more.

May-June 2023 Issue *by Bill McKibben- The United States is on the brink of its most consequential transformation since the New Deal. Read more about what it takes to decarbonize the economy, and what stands in the way, here.

Click now to learn more about these Microgrids.

May-June 2023 Issue *by Michael Mechanic- The transition to clean power will require massive solar expansion—not just home rooftop arrays but photovoltaic installations near population centers. Where to mount all the panels? One answer seems obvious: over parking lots, which also bake during the summer, contributing to dangerous “heat island” effects. Shading Walmart Supercenter lots with PV canopies, for instance, would generate loads of power and allow stores to entice shoppers with free EV charging and cooler lots. And a cool customer is a happy customer.

May-June 2023 Issue *by Michael Mechanic- The transition to clean power will require massive solar expansion—not just home rooftop arrays but photovoltaic installations near population centers.

Where to mount all the panels? One answer seems obvious: over parking lots, which also bake during the summer, contributing to dangerous “heat island” effects. Shading Walmart Supercenter lots with PV canopies, for instance, would generate loads of power and allow stores to entice shoppers with free EV charging and cooler lots. And a cool customer is a happy customer.

May-June 2023 Issue *by Michael Mechanic- Microgrids are poised to take off. If you’ve never heard of them, you will soon. “A microgrid,” as journalist Lois Parshley explains in her accompanying story for our Electrify Everything package, “is basically a relatively small, local system that can generate, store, and/or distribute electricity, and can function off of the main grid if need be.

They can be public or private, and consist of anything from a couple of neighbors sharing a solar panel to a bitcoin mine powered by its own wind farm.”

Mar. 21, 2023 -Manufacturing all silicon solar panels to be deployed in the United States domestically would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 23% and energy use by 4% compared to outsourced manufacturing, according to a new analysis. The findings suggest that “reshoring” solar panel production could help the country decarbonize faster.

Sep. 27, 2022 -You can still have all the benefits of solar power in your home without disfiguring it. Thanks to advances in solar technology over the last decade or so, there are now alternatives to traditional solar panels.

Specifically, building-applied photovoltaics (BAPVs) are a discreet way of installing solar technology in your home – no one will even be able to detect them.

Oct. 29, 2022 -Table of Contents:
Solar Myth #1: Solar panels are too expensive.
Solar Myth #2: Solar panels are not reliable.
Solar Myth #3: Solar panels require a lot of maintenance.
Solar Myth #4: Solar power doesn’t work in cold climates.
Solar Myth #5: Solar panels take up too much space.
Solar Myth #6: Solar power is unreliable because it depends on the weather.
Solar Myth #7: Going solar will cause my energy bills to go up.
Solar Myth #8: Solar energy is not safe

Pager Power, Oct. 6, 2021 -Agrivoltaics is the practice of using the same area of land for both solar photovoltaic power as well as for agriculture, which implies that solar panels and crops will share sunlight.

This type of co-development is not new to the industry. Often terrain used for agriculture purposes is also used by wind developers to harness the power of wind, or animals grazing in farms help controlling the height of the grass in solar photovoltaic fields.

Mar. 17, 2022, (The Conversation) -The UK government is reportedly considering a £16 billion proposal to build a solar power station in space.

Yes, you read that right. Space-based solar power is one of the technologies to feature in the government’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. It has been identified as a potential solution, alongside others, to enable the UK to achieve net zero by 2050.

But how would a solar power station in space work? What are the advantages and drawbacks to this technology?

March 26, 2022 - The solar industry has come a long way in just the last few years. The latest developments and breakthroughs in solar technology include longer-lasting solar cells, solar cells that you can print onto flexible surfaces, solar panels that track the sun from east to west throughout the day, and solar power plants that work at night.

Mar. 28, 2022, (gtm)-Policymakers looking to speed up renewable energy deployment have a best-practice case study to look to: Australia is rolling out renewables 10 times faster than the global average, offering lessons as to what factors can improve the uptake of clean energy.

Mar. 21, 2022, (orbitalmarine.com)-Manufactured and launched in Dundee earlier in the year before being towed up to Orkney, the O2 is Orbital’s first commercial turbine and represents the culmination of more than 15 years of world leading product development in the UK.

The 74m long turbine is expected to operate in the waters off Orkney for the next 15 years with the capacity to meet the annual electricity demand of around 2,000 UK homes with clean, predictable power from the fast-flowing waters. In a further ground-breaking element of the project, the O2 is to provide power to EMEC’s onshore electrolyzer to generate green hydrogen that will be used to demonstrate decarbonization of wider energy requirements.

Dec. 1, 2021, (POWER)- The vision sounds far-fetched: If a kilometer-scale satellite could be outfitted with a hybrid array of photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) panels and launched into orbit 22,400 miles above Earth, it could continuously harvest 3.4 GW of solar power and beam it down to Earth via microwave radiation for grid consumption, potentially delivering 2 GW of dispatchable and baseload power.

But according to a “whole systems” set of detailed engineering and economic feasibility studies conducted by systems, engineering, and technology-oriented Frazer-Nash Consultancy for the UK government, this concept of a typical space-based solar power (SBSP) system is both technically and economically feasible—and it can be achieved within the next 18 years.

October, 2017, (THE VERGE)The wings of a butterfly have inspired a new type of solar cell that can harvest light twice as efficiently as before and could one day improve our solar panels.

Solar panels are usually made of thick solar cells, and are positioned at an angle to get the most amount of light from the sun as it moves throughout the day. Thin film solar cells, which can be only nanometers thick, have a lot of potential.

June 18, 2021 (Scientific American) -Restrictions on land use for greenfield solar projects, roof orientation, and inherent technical advantages, may prove floating solar, or floatovoltaic to be a viable energy alternative.

When it comes to large-scale solar projects, the most common alternatives to rooftop solar panel systems include ground mounts or solar canopies. There’s a newer alternative that’s making quite the splash in the solar industry: floating solar.

Floatovoltaic is defined as solar panels arrayed to float on the top of a lake or reservoir, placed on a buoyant sub-structure, and anchored with a measure of flexible movement. The technology is relatively-new starting in 2008 with China, Japan, and the U.K. as the early adopters.

-Studio Solarix makes coloured solar panels and facade systems by doing this we can make buildings more sustainable, both in new construction and redevelopment. To this end, it designs, researches and develops aesthetic, sustainable and energy-generating facade elements.

It originated from a joint ambition of Reinier Bosch (product designer, artist) and Marloes van Heteren (architect). With a great deal of substantive knowledge, they are the initiators of Solarix in the market of architecture, product development, design and sustainability; a beautiful facade panel that provides energy to people.

July 27, 2021 (CleanTechnica) -A hydrogen fuel cell is an electrochemical power generator that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with water and heat as by-products. Simply put, hydrogen fuel cells form energy that can be used to power anything from commercial vehicles to drones.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology offers the advantages of a clean and reliable alternative energy source to customers in a growing number of applications – electric vehicles, including forklifts, delivery vans, drones, and cars – primary and backup power for a variety of commercial, industrial, and residential buildings; and more futuristic-sounding applications like air taxis.

Click now to learn the 5 things.

1. Is your location’s climate suitable for solar?

2. Is your home suitable for solar panels?

3. Do you have access to solar financial incentives?

4. How much do you pay for electricity?

5. Have you found a solar installer?

Chris Lord’s FREE Site Lease vs. Buy Modeling Calculator allows users to compare a lease rate against a potential purchase of a solar PV site where the lease rate (including escalator) is known.

Mar. 31, 2021(INHABITATs), -France keeps making green headlines lately… the Eiffel Tower’s wind turbines, the tree-shaped wind turbines being installed in Paris, and now an exciting new law that is sure to have a huge environmental impact in urban centers.

Every new commercial building in France must meet a new building requirement; the roof must be at least partially covered in either solar panels or plants.

Environmental activists had originally called for all for all rooftops to be 100% green, but the Government limited the scope of the law to include commercial buildings only. In an effort to make it less onerous for businesses, the rooftops will also only have to be partially green.

(AE News), Apr. 13, 2020 -German Architect Andre Broessel believes he has a solution that can “squeeze more juice out of the sun”, even during the night hours and in low-light regions. His company Rawlemon has created a spherical sun power generator prototype called the beta.ray. His technology will combine spherical geometry principles with a dual axis tracking system, allowing twice the yield of a conventional solar panel in a much smaller surface area. The futuristic design is fully rotational and is suitable for inclined surfaces, walls of buildings, and anywhere with access to the sky. It can even be used as an electric car charging station.

Click now for the story
with photos and videos.

(The Guardian), Dec. 8, 2020 -The race is on to find a steady source of lithium, a key component in rechargeable electric car batteries. But while the EU focuses on emissions, the lithium gold rush threatens environmental damage on an industrial scale

Click now for more.

(greener ideal), Oct. 19, 2017 -After solar power, solar water heating is often the next step that homeowners take to make their home more sustainable.

A solar water heating system works by converting sunlight into heat using a solar thermal collector. This heat is then used to heat water in homes and swimming pools.

If you plan to install a solar water heating system in your home, make sure to include domestic hot water as well. There’s little point in installing a solar water heating system if you can’t benefit from domestic hot water which is a necessity all year round.

Jan. 31, 2020,(SAGE journals) -Over recent years, few areas of international development research have seen as much transformation as those relating to energy access and low carbon transitions. Ghana, amongst other African economies, has seen an increase in energy demand surpassing the supply of energy in the last decade. The incorporation of the incorporation of renewable energy into the mix is, therefore, seen as a significant role in addressing the energy needs by replacing conventional fuels with clean and reliable domestic electricity with the advantage of local economic opportunities.

The country has adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG); SDG goal 7 targets ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. This target presents a formidable challenge to Ghana because the country still relies mainly on non-renewable energy sources. The country has a huge potential for renewable energy that remains underexploited. This study, therefore, seeks to assess the current renewable energy resource situation, examine the trend in Ghana’s energy consumption and undertake a comprehensive review and critical evaluation of Ghana’s renewable energy drive and policies.

April 1, 2020 (AENews)-Since 2011, French Company Ciel & Terre has been developing large-scale floating solar solutions. Their innovative Hydrelio Floating PV system allows standard PV panels to be installed on large bodies of water such as: drinking water reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals, remediation and tailing ponds, and hydro electric dam reservoirs. This simple and affordable alternative to ground-mounted systems is particularly suitable for water-intensive industries who cannot afford to waste either land or water.

The main float is constructed of high-density thermoplastic (HDPE) and is set at a 12 degree angle to support a standard 60 Cell PV solar module. A secondary non-slip HDPE float is then used to link the main floats together and provide a platform for maintenance and added buoyancy as illustrated when you click on the link to the story.

Dec. 16, 2019  (ScienceDaily)- Artificial Intelligence may be just the thing to accelerate spray-on solar cell technology, which could revolutionize how consumers use energy.

It's a stunning example of how 3D printing is not only a viable and affordable construction method of the future but also a revolutionary system that can help reduce plastic waste.

A research team at the University of Central Florida used Machine Learning, aka Artificial Intelligence to optimize the materials used to make perovskite solar cells (PSC). The Organic-Inorganic halide perovskites material used in PSC converts photovoltaic power into consumable energy.

Sept. 18, 2019 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)-In 2018, about 4,178 billion kilowatthours (kWh) (or 4.18 trillion kWh) of electricity were generated at utility-scale electricity generation facilities in the United States.1 About 63% of this electricity generation was from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases). About 20% was from nuclear energy, and about 17% was from renewable energy sources. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that an additional 30 billion kWh of electricity generation was from small-scale solar photovoltaic systems in 2018

Bright Hub -One of the most beneficial ways of increasing the efficiency of a wind turbine is to modify the design of the turbine blades. Although there are already many types of blade designs already in the market, only a few designs have turned out to be useful.

Whalepower, a Canadian company that uses bio-mimicry, a concept of adapting the designs of nature into developing mechanical machine, has changed the design of the conventional turbine blades from flat smooth blades to a ridged design similar to that of whale fins. The blades of whale power turbine features a series of ridges just like the tubercles or bumps found on the humpback whale fins.

Apr. 4, 2019 (Power Technology) —How are modern stadiums using renewables as a source of energy and which are the best stadiums for renewable energy in the world?

Sports stadiums require a huge amount of power, in particular on match-days when lighting, air-conditioning and video screens all electricity, along with a vast multitude of other energy-intensive demands. Even when not in use, stadiums and other sporting arenas need large amounts of power for maintenance.

The possibilities for incorporating renewable energy technology into stadiums and the surrounding areas provide a huge opportunity for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This can include placing solar panels on roofs and on the roads leading towards the arenas.

In the U.S. several landfills have already been converted into solar farms. The project also provides the opportunity to convert an unusable land and turn it into something that can become the asset of the community.

Water is a finite resource, as water wars in California can attest. Reducing our water footprint is essential to conserving this life-giving substance.

Solar Thermal Magazine Feb.10, 2019 -You would think that a state that refers to itself as the sunshine state would be rushing to install solar power technology. I mean with all that sunshine ( not to mention wind, wave and tidal energy) available why buy electricity from out of state.

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), already a self proclaimed leader in solar energy, has announced a groundbreaking “30-by-30” plan to install more than 30 million solar panels by 2030 and make the state of Florida a world leader in the production of solar energy.

Jan. 7, 2020 (Arcadia Blog) -One of the most popular clean energy sources in North America, solar power, has skyrocketed in use in the U.S. over the last decade. Current estimates show that the volume of solar energy generated across installations nationally is enough to power 12-million American homes, and that number is only expected to grow.

They’re limited to generating energy during the day — but function less efficiently the cloudier it is outside, collecting an estimated 10 to 25 percent of their typical output on cloudy days.

But recent research from Soochow University in Suzhou, China, stands to change this. In 2018, a research team from the Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials crafted a solar cell that simultaneously generates electricity from sunlight and rainfall — allowing solar panels to continue to collect energy at full capacity during storms and subsequently expanding the duration of time at which a panel can function in any given day. Unlike typical solar panels, these panels would continue working on cloudy days and crucially, could even work at night.

January, 2019 Arcadia Power Blog -The fight against climate change is a fight for everyone, from individuals to businesses, national and local governments.

Among many leaders driving change towards a 100% renewable energy future, find these 156 major global companies—each of whom have pledged to go 100% renewable in the near future.

Look for your trusted bank, service, or a favorite brand, and see when and how each of them are working to meet their goals. Click to read on.

Around the world, cities, states, countries, and companies (and people just like you!) are making the switch to clean, renewable energy to help confront climate change – and because it just makes good economic sense.

Renewable energy is both a clean alternative to the fossil fuels driving the climate crisis and an engine for job creation. What’s not to love? But like any new technology, as it starts to take hold, there are bound to be questions.

While it’s hard to miss a massive solar array or a field full of wind turbines, so much of the action with geothermal energy happens out-of-sight that it tends to not generate as much love as its buzzier brothers in the renewable energy landscape.

And that’s too bad, because geothermal energy is pretty awesome. It takes the natural functions of the Earth and puts them to great use heating homes, creating electricity, and helping to propel the global shift from the dirty fossil fuels driving climate change to renewables.

Dec. 22, 2022 -Dec. 23, 2022 -No matter how sustainable, eco-friendly, and clean sources of energy they are, conventional solar panels require a large setup area and heavy initial investment. Due to these limitations, it’s hard to introduce them in urban areas (especially neighborhoods with lots of apartment blocks or shops). But thanks to the work of ingenious engineers at the University of Michigan, that may soon no longer be the case.

The researchers have created transparent solar panels which they claim could be used as power-generating windows in our homes, buildings, and even rented apartments.

Mar. 21, 2022, (Echo Wave Power)-Eco Wave Power (EWP) (Nasdaq US Stock Symbol: WAVE) developed an innovative technology for production of clean electricity from ocean and sea waves.

Echo's aim to generate clean & affordable electricity, using a simple but smart design, allowing our floaters to be attached to existing man-made structures, and thereby simplifying installation and maintenance as well as accessibility.

EWP’s innovative technology has been recognized as a “Pioneering Technology” by the Chief Scientist of the Energy Ministry of Israel and received an Efficient Solution label from Solar Impulse Foundation.

Renewable energy is energy generated from ongoing natural processes like wind or sunlight that are not depleted when used. Unlike fossil fuels, these types of energy are theoretically unlimited. In contrast, fossil fuels like oil and gas are finite resources formed in the earth ove hundreds of millions of years from the remains of plants and animals.

Importantly, and unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy is clean and doesn’t release carbon pollution into the atmosphere (which drives climate change). Burning fossil fuels does.

Nov. 9, 2021, (Washington Post)-Ocean boosters like to compare the kinetic energy stored in the sea to a ginormous oil reserve that’s never going to run dry.

It doesn’t matter if the sun shines or the wind blows. The tides turn. You can set your watch to them. The trick is how to generate cost-effective, renewable electricity from that limitless, ceaseless motion. They’re working on the problem here on Scotland’s Orkney Islands.

Mar. 20, 2018 -Months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is still struggling to become fully energized. A number of grassroots efforts think solar energy can speed the recovery and prevent a total blackout when the next storm hits.

Feb. 27, 2018 -Are you passionate about green energy and protecting our planet? Are you looking for a career you can be proud of that offers possibilities we aren’t even aware of yet? Look no further than the renewable energy industry.

You could be working in wind or solar power in no time with the right education and tools to get you set on this exciting path. Here are some of the best degrees to pursue and the career choices that may come your way.

Here’s a quick primer on what a hydrogen fuel cell is…
Simply put, it’s an electromagnetic cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (for our purposes, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (oxygen) into electricity through a chemical reaction.

Arcadia's Solar Energy Is available to both renters & homeowners - without solar panels. Get renewable energy at home without switching providers or installing any equipment •easy to use dashboard •wind sources •experts on hand.

July, 2020 (NREL)-A floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) system is an emerging technology in which a solar photovoltaic (PV) system is placed directly on top of a body of water, as opposed to on land or on building rooftops. An NREL blog post from Jan. 24, 2017 discussed FPV and was based on forward-thinking state energy offices inquiring about the technology through NREL’s state technical assistance programs. The blog post introduced the technology and discussed the benefits of FPVs, as well as different examples of pilot FPVs in the United States.

Jan. 2, 2018 - From Clean Technica : Not too long ago, the mention of hydrogen, or concentrating solar power, or both at the same time, would be met by a roll of the eye from alternative energy insiders. Hydrogen is an abundant and clean-burning fuel, but the primary source of hydrogen is natural gas. Concentrating solar power has a built-in energy storage element, but it is more complicated and expensive than other solar technologies. Et cetera, et cetera, and so on and so forth.

From Natiional Geographic: There are many benefits to using renewable energy resources, but what is it exactly? From solar to wind, find out more about alternative energy, the fastest-growing source of energy in the world, and how we can use it to combat climate change

Dec. 15, 2017 - From Renewable Energy World: It is easier to believe in the future of solar today than it was decades ago. This article honors eight of the women who believed and persevered and pioneered the PV industry of today and without who it might be a very different industry indeed.

Each woman has in her own way championed the cause of climate change as well as the cause of the solar industry and has worked tirelessly educating, conducting research and deploying solar technologies to ensure the future of the industry.

July 6, 2020,(4C Offshore) -Transmission System Operator (TSO) 50Hertz has launched an economic and climate initiative for the grid area the company is responsible for: the eastern German states as well as the city states of Berlin and Hamburg. With the slogan “From 60 to 100 by 2032: for an economy with prospects”, 50Hertz has set itself the specific goal of getting the electricity demand in its grid area covered – and securely integrated – with 100 percent renewable energies by 2032. In 2019, the annual average share of renewables attained about 60%.

0Hertz stated it will align its entire corporate strategy with this new objective and use all its know-how to that end in the scope of its statutory duty to operate the grid securely and reliably. This involves new approaches to system operation, a consistent digitization of the integration of an increasingly volatile electricity supply as well as the participation in innovative models of sector coupling to generate heat and produce hydrogen from “green” power.

From Wageningen University: Experiments have proven that plants can serve as a source of clean and renewable energy.

As part of the European project PlantPower, researchers are studying whether this technology is suitable for large-scale applications.They are also examining the technical feasibility and the economic profitability.

Scientists all over the world are looking for alternatives to fossil fuels. Plant materials are already used as an energy source through bio-fermentation. Now it appears that living plants can also contribute to energy production. In a plant microbial fuel cell, living plants work together with micro-organisms to create electricity.

This results in clean and renewable energy, while the plant remains alive. The first practical tests have been very promising. In projects supported by the EU and Agentschap NL (an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs), European and Dutch institutes, universities, and businesses are cooperating to gain more knowledge about this technology and its applications.

Sept. 1, 2019 (Union of Concerned Scientists)-Innovative programs around the country now make it possible for all environmentally conscious energy consumers to support renewable energy directly by participating in the "green" power market. The willingness to pay for the benefits of increasing our renewable energy supplies can be tapped within any market structure and by any size or type of energy consumer.

Environment Florida, May 31, 2019  - Solar power is expanding rapidly. The United States now has over 60 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed — enough to power nearly one in every 11 homes in America. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have invested in solar energy and millions more are ready to join them.

America’s major cities have played a key role in the clean energy revolution and stand to reap tremendous benefits from solar energy. As population centers, they are major sources of electricity demand and, with millions of rooftops suitable for solar panels, they have the potential to be major sources of clean energy production as well.

View a chart showing all of the reported projects in North and Central America that have 100% renewable energy goals, including some you would not have expected.

Feb. 14, 2017 - Here is a vision of the future in a warming world without fossil fuels.

No switching on the air conditioning because your roof re-radiates the sun’s heat back into space.

You don’t have to worry that the current from solar energy will turn off at night, because the same sunlight that powered the refrigerator has also turned two greenhouse gases into hydrocarbon fuel that serves as battery back-up.

The new Solar Farmhouse contains everything the quintessential home possesses -- the quaint front porch, the white wood siding, the gabled roof, and the simple lines -- updated with a slew of net-zero features, including a passive solar design, air-tight building envelope, and open plan.

In 2017 renewable energy represented 17.5 % of energy consumed in the EU, on a path to the 2020 target of 20 %.

The share of energy from renewable sources used in transport activities reached 7.6 % in 2017.

These stats will be updated in Feb. 2020. Stay tuned.

Gardens by the Bay will be Singapore's largest garden project and is central to their continued development of Marina Bay.

There are various incentives being offered. The article explains it in detail.

The world needs widely available reliable, affordable, carbon-free energy. New tools are needed to power the world.

Bill Gates, George Soros and others are behind this.

Affordable, lightweight, and versatile, batteries made of porous materials could soon transform energy storage.