Tag Archives: solar energy

Here is a novel idea. In some areas of the USA homeowners, renters, and business owners might have a choice of who they buy their electricity from and there could be savings in the mix. While many parts of the country remain locked in with communities and homeowners having no choice as to where they get their utilities from, some …

  We think of renewable energy as a modern invention. All over the world there are huge wind turbines and hydroelectric dams generating electricity to power our computers, televisions and increasingly – cars. Today we take a whirlwind look at how our ancestors harnessed both wind and water as an energy source all those thousands of years ago. Wind Energy …

Martifer Solar has connected a new solar PV rooftop plant on rooftop in San Salvador, El Salvador, which represents the company’s commitment to grow the market in Central America The PV plant was developed Martifer Solar’s local partner, DESENI and was built for one of El Salvador’s leading distribution companies, DISZASA Martifer Solar, a subsidiary of Martifer SGPS, has completed …

LA’s SOLAR INITIATIVES ARE HAMPERED BY UNNECESSARY DELAYS; SOLUTIONS WOULD ENABLE LADWP TO CREATE LARGEST LOCAL SOLAR PROGRAM IN U.S.   View image | gettyimages.com Utility could create enough local solar energy in next decade to power 355,000 homes, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate thousands of new jobs in “solar equity hotspot” areas  As LADWP transitions from its reliance on …

  WELTEC BIOPOWER Builds 500-kW Biogas Plant for Vegetable Producer In January 2015, WELTEC BIOPOWER started building an anaerobic digestion plant in Loughgall, Northern Ireland. The customer and operator of the 500-kW plant is the vegetable producer Gilfresh Produce. The enterprise produces numerous field-grown products and processes them into food. „For WELTEC, this is the third plant in Northern Ireland …

Do you know who the international leaders are in terms of solar power generation? Well this infographic shares the results and lets you know which countries are leading the way with solar power energy in 2015.   source: http://www.halfpriceshutters.com.au/solar-panels

MADISON, Wis. — In a study published March 9 in Nature Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry Professor Kyoung-Shin Choi presents a new approach to combine solar energy conversion and biomass conversion, two important research areas for renewable energy. For decades, scientists have been working to harness the energy from sunlight to drive chemical reactions to form fuels such as hydrogen, …

Photovoltaic System Provides 75 Percent of the Winery and Restaurant’s Total Energy Consumption Nestled in the verdant Valle de Guadalupe winemaking region and with an eye on sustainability, El Cielo Winery in Baja California now offsets approximately 75 percent of its energy needs with a new Kyocera solar installation. El Cielo, which translates as “The Sky,” has installed 220 high-reliability …

Total module revenue of the top 20 global solar PV suppliers in the fourth quarter reached its highest level since 2011, despite the effect of negative exchange rates on average selling prices BEIJING, China (February 10, 2015) — IHS (NYSE: IHS), the leading global source of critical information and insight, today announced that quarterly solar photovoltaic (PV) module revenue (excluding …

 A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has developed a new tool to help plot the future of solar fuels. In a paper recently published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, a team led by chemical and biological engineering Professors Christos Maravelias and George Huber outlined a tool to help engineers better gauge the overall yield, efficiency and costs …

  Microgrids are among 15 opportunities that can fix some big, world problems. That’s the word from DNV GL in a new report that looks at five global threats and the doors they open for innovators. One of the threats is our reliance on fossil fuels, says Global Opportunity Report 2015. Microgrids or “energy autonomy” offers an alternative path. “This …

With the flip of a switch, PermaCity Solar and American fashion retailer Forever 21, powered-up a massive 5.1-megawatt (DC) high efficiency SunPower solar power system, crowning the construction project that employed many local workers. The system at Forever 21’s headquarters in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles is now the largest single-rooftop solar power system in Los Angeles County …

SolarCity Installing Projects at Walmart Facilities Over the Next Four Years SolarCity  today announced it has entered into contract with Walmart for the installation of new solar projects at facilities in up to 36 states over the next four years. SolarCity has completed more than 200 solar projects at Walmart locations since 2010. SolarCity has also installed and tested energy storage …

The United States’ solar market hit a major milestone in the second quarter of this year, with more than half a million homes and businesses now generating solar energy. According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) Q2 2014 U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, the U.S. installed 1,133 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaics (PV) in the second …

A funny thing happened to Urban Green Energy (UGE) on the way to becoming a small wind turbine manufacturer. The New York company discovered that demand was limited for its product on a stand-alone basis. But combine small wind turbines with solar, storage and some intelligence – into a remote microgrid – and the market is vast. This is especially true …

New SolarCity Product Makes it Possible for Businesses to Significantly Increase Solar Output From Each Rooftop Incredibly Lightweight, “Snap Together” Mounting System Allows Businesses to Fit 20-50 Percent More Solar Panels on Each Roof, Promises to do for Commercial Solar What Zep Has Done for Residential SolarCity (Nasdaq:SCTY) unveiled a new product in its Zep Solar line of solar products today–a flat roof solar …

Solar is experiencing over-the-top popularity among US homeowners; energy efficiency not so much. But what if state programs made solar a subset of energy efficiency? That’s the recommendation of an intriguing paper released August 19 by the Center for Sustainable Energy. The California non-profit tried to tease out what it takes to motivate solar customers to pursue energy efficiency.  Homeowners run the …

What if we could take all that carbon dioxide that we have too much of and turn it into a clean energy source? Sound far-fetched? Well, it isn’t really. After all, plants do it every day. That is much of the rationale behind biofuels. Let the plants store the solar energy as sugars, starches, etc., which we then convert into …

By Travis Hoium  It may not have gotten a lot of media attention, but a recent eight-day race across the country may be laying the groundwork for vehicles of the future. The American Solar Challenge pits universities against each other in a challenge to make the fastest and most efficient vehicle powered only by the sun. The course weaved from Austin, …

By Travis Hoium A decade ago, the solar industry was almost nonexistent in the U.S. There was a large solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert that was completed in 1984; but between then and around 2008, there was almost no solar activity in the U.S. That all changed as costs quickly dropped for solar energy, and solar panel prices …