Have you ever wondered how sunlight can travel 93 million miles from the Sun to the Earth, and still have enough oomph in reserve to burn your light bulbs? That, in a nutshell, is the miracle of solar energy. As for how solar panels work, that’s a little harder to fit in a nutshell but […]
Originally published on CleanTechnica. Two new studies conducted by Berkeley Labs have concluded that the median installed price of solar in the United States fell by 5% to 12% in 2015. The conclusions are part and parcel of the latest editions of two recurring “state of the market” reports published by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence […]
A joint NOAA/CIRES research study has found that greenhouse gas emissions from electric power production could be cut by 78% below 1990 levels by 2030. The National Energy with Weather System (NEWS) simulator model was used for the study, which is a tool used to simulate the electrical power sector. The model is used to […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) published a special report in late August of 2015 about a 4-year investigation into Solyndra’s application process that led to the thin-film solar company’s securing of a huge DOE loan. The report is here, if you prefer to go directly to it. The inquiry found that Solyndra did not apply to the […]
A new report was just released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), on behalf of the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, exploring and illustrating US + global energy statistics over the 2013 calendar year period. The report — the 2013 Renewable Energy Data Book — provides data on renewable electricity generation + development, […]
Two Best Project awards have been given by Engineering News Record (ENR) Southwest to SolarReserve, a developer of utility-scale solar power for a particular solar project it designed for Nevada called Crescent Dunes. The construction phase of the project has been completed, and now the project is in the commissioning phase, which means the plant […]
Milpitas, California-based thin-silicon solar company Solexel has obtained a round D funding of $31 million. The company now has secured just over $200 million in venture capital funding. The latest round is for helping it go into commercial production. The official press release says, “Investors in Solexel include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Technology Partners, […]
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz this week announced $30 million of support for 12 more unique, hybrid solar projects through the ARPA-E program. Actually, it’s through a program within that program — the Full-Spectrum Optimized Conversion and Utilization of Sunlight (FOCUS) program, “which is aimed at developing new hybrid solar energy converters and hybrid energy storage systems that […]