Europe installed a total of 6.9 gigawatts of new solar power in 2016, a 20% decrease over the previous year’s figures, a decrease which flies in the face of a global increase in installations of more than 50%, according to new figures from SolarPower Europe.
Originally published on CleanTechnica by Zachary Shahan Renewable energy costs have been falling through the floor — they have fallen so fast that even cleantech enthusiasts have been shocked several times in the past year by increasingly low prices. We’ve been shocked dozens of times in the past 5 years. I would bet that even most members […]
European utility companies are forging alliances with solar panel manufacturers to sell integrated rooftop solar systems in Belgium and Switzerland.
SunPower has announced the launch of a remote operations control center for monitoring and controlling large-scale solar power plants. The remote operations control center (ROCC) is designed to monitor and control large-scale solar power plants that SunPower is currently operating throughout the United States (including those projects owned by its joint-yieldco company, 8point3 Energy Partners), as […]
(Originally published on Planetsave.com) Several months in advance of the March 20, 2015 total solar eclipse, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) began evaluating the risk to Europe’s energy grid. Because the European energy grid incorporates significant solar generation, the risk of negative impact during a solar eclipse needed to be […]
One of the largest solar PV companies in the world, SunPower, is going to be undergoing a restructuring process that will see 85–115 jobs cut, mostly in the company’s European operations, according to recent reports. The process will cost $15 million to $25 million — which will be accounted for in the fourth quarter financials. […]
The newest edition of the Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme report was recently released by the IEA — detailing a huge quantity of different aspects of the global solar PV market as well as country- and region-specific solar PV markets. This 19th edition of the report provides a number of highly interesting/useful graphs, some of which are posted below. Providing […]
Zurich-based bank UBS sent a briefing paper to some its clients saying that conventional power plants could become irrelevant within two decades. Instead, they say clean energy could replace them and that means home and business owners may generate their own power, rather than rely on conventional fossil fuel plants. If it seems dubious that such […]
Generally speaking, I don’t think solar-powered cars are very practical. They are fun and do highlight how far we’ve come. They may help to advance certain electric car technologies and designs. However, except for certain niche situations (like a hospital car for rural Zimbabwe), they have serious limitations. For one, solar panels aren’t cheap — […]
Solar photovoltaic systems purchased for household use within the European Union will no longer be subject to any VAT (a type of consumption tax) — even if they don’t produce a net surplus of energy that is then fed back into the grid — as per a new ruling by the European Court of Justice. […]