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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 …

Mexico Boosts Its Global Solar Appeal, Now No.3 Behind South Africa and Turkey Mexico in the first quarter raised its attractiveness profile in the global photovoltaic (PV) market to close in on reigning leaders South Africa and Turkey, while the Philippines is now in the top 10 among the most appealing PV markets for the first time ever, according to …

New White Paper Report on Racking Reliability for Residential Rooftop Solar Released Today Report Highlights How to Scale Residential Solar While Minimizing Potential Pitfalls and Rooftop Damage Today, Solar Marketing Group announces the release of a new white paper on improving quality control in residential rooftop solar installations. The white paper entitled: “The Importance of Reliable Solar Mounting Systems” was …

Why Insiders are Bullish on Microgrid   Microgrids are coming to the US, but they face some significant roadblocks. What’s driving the sudden upswing in their development? And what’s getting in the way? A panel of microgrid experts tackled these questions last week at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) BuildingEnergy 14 conference in Boston. Ed Krapels, founder of Anbaric …

It seems hard to believe that we have come so far in the adoption and acceptance of solar energy in our country both on the commercial power development side and on the home solar power side that a dispute like the one brewing the St Louis area could still be happening. CLARKSON VALLEY • The fuss over the solar panels remains …

High-Concentration Solar Photovoltaic Systems to Reach Greater Efficiencies, Boosting Appeal Against Conventional Solutions Consistent improvements in technology and gradually lower costs will drive high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) systems to superior efficiencies, making HCPV an increasingly viable rival to conventional solar-generating solutions, according to the latest analysis from IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS). The cell efficiency of HCPV systems, currently at 40 to 42 percent, …

WELTEC Optimises Wastewater Plants In the future, the anaerobic fermentation and utilisation of sludge from wastewater plants will play an increasingly important role. To ensure an economically and ecologically sustainable solution, more and more municipalities decide to optimise the energy potential of their sewage plants. For a plant dimension of 20,000 to 30,000 PE (population equivalent), biogas plant manufacturer WELTEC …

UPDATED FUKUSHIMA CIVILIAN PANEL REPORT HIGHLIGHTS LARGELY UNADDRESSED “HUMAN FACTORS” AS IMPORTANT AS EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI IN 2011 REACTOR DISASTER Lessons Unlearned? As Third Year of Anniversary Nears, Expanded Version of Fukushima Review Panel Report Published in English in Book Form by the Bulletin of Atomic the Scientists. An extensively updated and expanded version of the Independent Investigation Commission on …

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) Visualizes Smart Grid with Space-Time Insight’s Situational Intelligence Software Correlation and Analysis of Smart Meter, Distribution, Outage, and Environmental Data Leads to Faster, Smarter Decisions Space?Time Insight, the leading provider of next?generation situational intelligence solutions, today announced that the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has implemented Space-Time Insight’s geospatial and visual analytics software. The software facilitates faster and …

It’s always hard to make the argument that things could have been worse. But that’s the reality in Connecticut as it emerges from a brutal winter State regulators are fielding complaints from consumers who have seen their electricity prices skyrocket this winter. The state is investigating what happened. But for anyone who has followed New England’s energy markets, price spikes …

 Slowed by Birds, Bombs, Sharks Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg A boat passes between wind turbines at the London Array project, the world’s largest… Read More Birds, sharks and unexploded bombs from World War II are being blamed for holding up offshore wind farms, raising doubts about the costs of the technology. Three utilities yesterday scrapped an expansion of the world’s biggest offshore …

Did I Just See Energy History Made in Atlanta? Every once in awhile, after  a lot of humdrum news, something really cool comes along, the kind of thing that can reshape the energy industry. That’s what might have happened last week in Atlanta at the 27thAnnual Campus Energy Conference of the International District Energy Association (IDEA). IDEA members formed a …

99% OF NEW U.S. ELECTRICAL GENERATING CAPACITY IN JANUARY FROM SOLAR, GEOTHERMAL, WIND, BIOMASS According to the latest “Energy Infrastructure Update” report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, non-hydro renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, wind) accounted for more than 99% of all new domestic electrical generating capacity installed during January 2014 for a total of …

Still Largely Untapped, Industry Group Tells CARB As the California Air Resources Board is examining their new scoping plan for implementing the state’s ambitious climate law, AB 32, the leading geothermal industry group has issued a status report on the state’s geothermal resources that says they are still largely untapped. Geothermal power is “a viable, cost effective, and plentiful renewable energy …

World’s Largest Fuel Cell Park Completed in South Korea FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq:FCEL), a global leader in the design, manufacture, operation and service of ultra-clean, efficient and reliable fuel cell power plants, today announced a series of updates about the Asian market including completion of the world’s largest fuel cell park in South Korea, the sale of 3.7 megawatts of …

Excess Wind Power Turned into Gas in Denmark Using Hydrogenics Technology Hydrogenics Corporation (NASDAQ:HYGS; TSX:HYG),  a leading developer and manufacturer of hydrogen generation and hydrogen-based power modules, today announced that it will be a participating partner of the Power-to-Gas Biological Catalysis (“BioCat”) Project in Denmark. The “BioCat” installation will use hydrogen made ??from excess wind power to convert biogas from sewage sludge …

There is nothing like a blast of frigid weather – and an energy shortage – to wake up the US consumer to the economic value of energy efficiency. We were caught almost napping this winter, drowsy in the confidence that we are awash in plenty of oil and natural gas. True, the US is in the middle of an energy …

 AMERICA’S NATURAL GAS SYSTEM IS LEAKY AND IN NEED OF A FIX   The first thorough comparison of evidence for natural gas system leaks confirms that organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have underestimated U.S. methane emissions generally, as well as those from the natural gas industry specifically. Natural gas consists predominantly of methane. Even small leaks from the natural gas system are …