Alternative Energy HQ solar power for homes, wind energy, and bio fuel issues

Marc Lopata says his job is to uncover the dark side of microgrids. And that’s just what the president and principal engineer for Microgrid Solar is doing in a project that combines energy storage and solar energy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). The project is located at the “Solar Village,” which consists of multiple houses built by …

Light-absorbing, water-repellent material could quell neighbors’ solar panel spats   All that’s gold does not glitter, thanks to new work by UC Irvine scientists that could reduce glare from solar panels and electronic displays and dull dangerous glints on military weapons. “We found that a very simple process and a tiny bit of gold can turn a transparent film black,” …

RGS Energy, a nationwide leader of turnkey solar energy solutions for residential, commercial, and utility customers, and GRID Alternatives, the nation’s largest non-profit solar installer, have launched a new partnership to help bring solar power to low-income communities across the country. RGS Energy employees will volunteer throughout 2014 to install solar for 10 low-income families in California, Colorado, New Jersey and New York, while …

Geothermal power potential in California still largely untapped, says industry group As the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is examining their new scoping plan for implementing the state’s ambitious climate law, the leading geothermal industry group has issued a status report on California’s geothermal resources that says they are still largely untapped. Geothermal power is “a viable, cost effective, and …

Image Caption: By placing colonies of E. coli engineered to produce pinene into test tubes containing glucose, researchers were able to determine which enzyme combinations produced the hydrocarbon most efficiently. Credit: Georgia Tech/Rob Felt John Toon, Georgia Institute of Technology Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene, a hydrocarbon produced …

Asia Drives Global PV Installations to 46 GW, IHS Predicts Global solar photovoltaic (PV) installations will grow by a robust 22 percent in 2014, largely as a result of recent policy changes in the two largest markets, China and Japan, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS). Worldwide installations in 2014 will rise to 46 GW (gigawatts), 5 GW higher than …

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) announced last week that March 26 saw a new wind power record: 10,296 MW at 8:48 PM. This represented close to 29% of the nearly 36,000 MW of electricity on the power grid at that moment, and smashed the record set only weeks ago by 600 MW. No issues concerning integration were reported. According to the …

This chart shows the production tax credit at its most recent level (dashed lines). The credit is currently worth 2.3 cents per kWh for ten years, or about 1.6 cents per kWh when levelized over the 20-year life of a typical wind contract.    The costs of using wind energy and natural gas for electricity are virtually equal when accounting for …

New Energy Unveils Company?s Largest and Highest-Performance See-Through SolarWindow? Capable of Generating Electricity on Glass New Energy Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: NENE), developer of see-through SolarWindow? coatings, capable of generating electricity on glass and flexible plastics, today made public never-before-seen images of the Company?s largest area, high-performance SolarWindow? arrays.  These SolarWindow? arrays measure over 232 cm2 ? a significant achievement for …

Environmental Advocate Shares Affordable Gadgets that Shrink Your Footprint – and Your Bills   Just as intended, the 44th annual celebration of Earth Day on April 22 will be surrounded by talk of our environment, our impact on it and what we can do to better live in harmony with it. “We’re seeing more and more people who realize that, …

Hydropower – Powerspout Generator How would you like to create power for your home or work space with the energy of that water flowing on or near your property already? We found this Australian built power generator and thought our readers would like to know more about this sort of option. If you live off the grid or would just …

 Latin America Leads Manufacturing Capacity Growth With capital expenditures for the photovoltaic (PV) industry set to bounce back in 2014, a new round of solar spending will commence that will reach $3.8 billion by year-end, according to IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS). PV capital spending has been rising notably over the past two quarters, en route to a third straight increase with the …

News about the world of Wind Power development. China is trying to expand wind power energy production, a new report on wind farms and how they can provide a surplus of power, and finally the efforts in Argentina to fund wind power for their country. Fresh Breeze for Wind Power in China – TheStreet.com http://news.google.com Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:32:21 …

RENEWABLE SOURCES PROVIDE 92% OF NEW CAPACITY FOR FIRST TWO MONTHS OF 2014    According to the latest “Energy Infrastructure Update” report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, wind and solar provided 80.9% of new installed U.S. electrical generating capacity for the month of February. Five new “units” of wind provided 99 MW while 12 units …

  The age of solar being used to generate energy on the roof tops of commercial buildings now seems to be coming into its own. No longer just the domain of rooftop household solar or large solar power stations, commercial building owners can now see the benefits of using solar on their large commercial roof space. This report give the …

Phoenix Marketing International’s Recent Research Shows Luxury SUV and Non-Luxury Car Consumers Continue to Lead in Alternative Fuel Vehicle Consideration Year-over-year Data Show Increase in AFV Consideration among Non-Luxury SUV Consumers  Phoenix Marketing International’s Automotive Practice has released the latest findings from its ongoing tracking of alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) purchase consideration. In its Syndicated Automotive Brand and Advertising Audit, …

Californians consume the least electricity per-person of any state in the country, according to new 2014 state energy rankings from EnergyTrends.org. Behind California, Hawaii, Rhode Island and New York used the least electricity per person. Meanwhile, Californians consumed the fifth-lowest total energy per person of any state. This ranking has remained unchanged in recent years – and shows California’s residential …

Guide To Electric Car Etiquette [Infographic] by the team at uAuto Insurance  

Microgrids, Money and the Utility ‘Death Plunge’   This is the second part of our coverage on microgrids from last week’s Northeast Sustainable Energy Association BuildingEnergy 14 conference in Boston. Read Part I here. If distributed generation is accelerating the utility death spiral – as some say – will microgrids cause a total utility plunge? That’s the question Galen Nelson, director …

Next-Generation Photovoltaic Technologies to Take Center Stage as Solar Expenditures Rebound Advanced photovoltaic (PV) technologies such as diamond wire and n-type substrates will increasingly find their way into mainstream solar manufacturing, especially with capital expenditures set to bounce back this year, according to IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS). In a move that will coincide with the launch of a new spending …