Solar Energy

Rooftop Solar Forms An Alternative To Monopoly Utility Models

March 6, 2021 John Farrell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Create! climate crisis, Energy Democracy, Monopoly, Solar Energy

Since rooftop solar became possible, electric utilities have struggled to incorporate it into their outdated business model. In recent years, this lag in utility recognition has become increasingly problematic, risking the health, environmental, and financial impacts of over-investment in large fossil fuel power plants. In over 30 states, monopoly utilities submit plans for new power plants to public regulators without adequately considering how customers will serve themselves. However, a new modeling approach from Vote Solar and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) might finally put distributed solar on the same footing in grid planning as the large power plants that utilities prefer. Our method, first filed in a resource plan in early 2021 for Minnesota-based Xcel Energy, showed that the utility could cost-effectively add nearly 2,000 megawatts more distributed solar than it plans to, saving customers billions of dollars.

Cheaper Solar Power Means Low-income Families Can Also Benefit

January 24, 2021 Galen Barbose, Eric O’Shaughnessy, and Ryan Wiser, DeSmog Blog. Create! Energy, Housing, Low Income, Solar Energy

Until recently, rooftop solar panels were a clean energy technology that only wealthy Americans could afford. But prices have dropped, thanks mostly to falling costs for hardware, as well as price declines for installation and other “soft” costs. Today hundreds of thousands of middle-class households across the U.S. are turning to solar power. But households with incomes below the median for their areas remain less likely to go solar. These low- and moderate-income households face several roadblocks to solar adoption, including cash constraints, low rates of home ownership and language barriers. Our team of researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory examined how various policies and business models could affect the likelihood of people at all income levels adopting solar.

Solar Accounts For 40% Of U.S. Electric Generating Capacity Additions In 2019, Adds 13.3 GW

March 19, 2020 Staff, Seia.org Resist! Electricity, Solar Energy

WASHINGTON, D.C. and HOUSTON, TX – Solar accounted for 40% of all new electric generating capacity in the U.S. in 2019, its highest share ever and more than any other source of electricity, with 13.3 gigawatts (GW) installed. Despite policy challenges and a second year of the Section 201 tariffs, the U.S. solar market grew by 23% from 2018, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight 2019 Year-in-Review report...

Europe Fails To Keep Up On Solar Power

February 8, 2020 Paul Brown, Climatenewsnetwork.net Create! Clean Energy, Europe, Solar Energy

Once a world leader in the technology and manufacture of solar panels, Europe now lags far behind China and other Asian countries. It faces shortages of supplies and disruption to them, according to the annual PV status report of the European Commission’s Science Hub. The report says the installation rate of panels has to increase “drastically” − more than five times by 2025, and double that again if Europe is to convert to electric cars and fuels like hydrogen.

New Laws Require All New Roofs To Contain Solar Panels Or Green Space

November 29, 2019 By Rose Adams, Brooklynpaper.com Create! Brooklyn, Infrastructure, New York (NY), Reform, Solar Energy

Two laws requiring new property owners to build solar panels or green spaces on their roofs went into effect on Nov. 15 — marking a major step towards Brooklyn’s environmental sustainability, according to local green thumbs. “It’s important and very valuable,” said environmental activist Pete Sikora from the New York Community for Change, a local nonprofit. “It’s a critical step for New York City to meet the Green New Deal goals.” The legislation — which Councilman Rafael Espinal (D-Bedford Stuyvesant) first introduced to the City Council in July of 2018...

Excluding Nuclear, Fossils With Carbon Capture, & Biofuels From The Green New Deal Makes Financial & Climate Sense

January 27, 2019 By Mark Z. Jacobson, Mark A. Delucchi, Clean Technica Create! Green New Deal, Solar Energy, Wind

The Green New Deal and multiple proposed laws and resolutions in the U.S. House and Senate call for the United States to move entirely from fossil fuels to clean, renewable electricity and/or all energy. A new bill was just introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), calling for the U.S. to produce 100 percent of its electric power from renewables by 2035. Recently, though, some vocal advocates have pushed back, claiming that the only way prices will stay low with large amounts of renewables on the power grid is to use nuclear power, fossil fuels with carbon capture, and biofuels, which they claim are “zero carbon.” Here is why nuclear, fossils with CCS, and biofuels should be excluded.

This Co-Op Solar Project Will Be Owned By The Community Members It Benefits

November 14, 2018 Eillie Anzilotti, Fastcompany.com Create! Cooperatives, New Economy, Solar Energy

In Sunset Park, a waterfront neighborhood in central Brooklyn, nearly 30% of residents live below the poverty line. The neighborhood has dealt with a history of environmental burdens, particularly due to an expressway that runs above one of its main streets. For residents, high energy costs compound the air quality concerns produced by passing traffic and the presence of three nearby fossil fuel plants. A new initiative, though, is working to bring renewable energy to the neighborhood–and following a cooperative ownership model that’s helped stabilize energy prices in rural America. Across rural America, it’s not uncommon for people to own their energy sources.

Wave Of Renewable Energy Resistance Puts Solar Panels In Path Of Tar Sands Pipeline

October 4, 2018 Staff, Gofossilfree.org Resist! Pipelines, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy

Keystone XL is a proposed tar sands pipeline that would connect Alberta, Canada with Gulf Coast refineries carrying around 800,000 barrels per day of tar sands oil across the United States. President Obama rejected the federal permit for this project in 2015 because of the impact Keystone XL would have on our climate. One of Trump’s first moves in office was to reverse Obama’s decision and give TransCanada the federal permit for construction. In November 2017, the Nebraska Public Service Commission voted to give a “conditional” approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, mandating TransCanada use a different route. TransCanada is now scrambling to buy out politicians to move the project forward.

U.S. Utility Solar Contracts ‘Exploded’ In 2018 Despite Tariffs: Report

September 14, 2018 Nichola Groom, Reuters.com Create! New Economy, Solar Energy, Utilities

(Reuters) - Procurement of solar energy by U.S. utilities “exploded” in the first half of 2018, prompting a prominent research group to boost its five-year installation forecast on Thursday despite the Trump administration’s steep tariffs on imported panels. A record 8.5 gigawatts (GW) of utility solar projects were procured in the first six months of this year after President Donald Trump in January announced a 30 percent tariff on panels produced overseas, according to the report by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and industry trade group the Solar Energy Industries Association. As a result, the research firm raised its utility-scale solar forecast for 2018 through 2023 by 1.9 GW. The forecast is still 8 percent lower than before the tariffs were announced. A gigawatt of solar energy can power about 164,000 homes.

How Much Damage are Trump’s Solar Tariffs Doing to the U.S. Industry?

August 21, 2018 Dan Gearino, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! New Economy, Solar Energy, Tariffs, Trump Administration

The tariffs on imported solar panels imposed by the Trump administration six months ago have done little to dampen the booming solar market in the United States. Company executives and industry analysts say that the effects of the tariffs—increased prices for installations that could depress demand for solar projects and lead to thousands of job losses—have largely been cancelled out by other factors. Many developers had stockpiled cheap panels in anticipation of the import fees. China slowed the pace of domestic installations, creating a surplus of cheap panels that could spill into global markets. And U.S. consumers have a big incentive to install solar panels in the next 18 months, before U.S. tax incentives begin to phase out. So far, there's not enough data to tell how much the import fees are altering project costs, although it is clear that there has not been a dramatic shift.

Navajo Nations First Solar Project Now Producing Electricity For 13,000 Homes

July 12, 2018 Staff, Whitewolfpack.com Create! Indigenous Peoples, Solar Energy

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which owns the solar plant, touted the project as a major clean energy advancement on a reservation long known for fossil fuel development. A giant array of solar panels near the famed sandstone buttes of Monument Valley has begun producing electricity for the Navajo Nation at a time when the tribe is bracing for the loss of hundreds of jobs from the impending closure of a nearby coal-fired power plant. The Kayenta Solar Facility is the first utility-scale solar project on the Navajo Nation, producing enough electricity to power about 13,000 Navajo homes. The plant comes at a time when the area's energy landscape is shifting. The coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page is set to close in December 2019, leaving a site that both tribal and private entities say has the potential for renewable energy development.

Solar Investment Down Nearly 20% From The First Half Of 2017

July 11, 2018 Emma Foehringer, Greentechmedia.com Create! Investment, Solar Energy

Despite the drop, overall investment remains stable, with wind and other clean energy technologies picking up the slack. New data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows a 19 percent reduction in solar financing in the first half of 2018, compared to the same period last year. Continued declines in project costs, along with a policy shakeup in China, drove the drop. BNEF expects the ramifications from both to build in the second half of the year. But where investment in solar faltered, other clean energy technologies made up the difference. Wind saw a particularly sharp 33 percent increase in investment over the first half of 2017, rising to a total of $57.2 billion. While lower relative to previous years, solar investments still outperformed wind so far this year at $71.6 billion. Overall, clean energy investment dropped just 1 percent and totaled $138.2 billion in the first half of 2018.

Solar Is Saving Low-Income Households Money In Colorado. It Could Be A National Model

July 3, 2018 Dan Gearino, Insideclimatenews.org Create! Affordable Housing, Colorado, New Economy, Solar Energy

Low-income households in Colorado are getting a new question during visits from energy assistance agencies: Have you considered solar panels? It's an innovative approach to solving two challenges at once: reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the effects of climate change appear across the state, and lowering low-income families' electricity bills. The results can make a big difference for residents like Joe Anderson, whose power bills have been cut by two-thirds since 13 solar panels were installed free-of-charge on his ranch-style house under one Colorado program. "I felt like I kind of got the luck of the draw," he said. Colorado is emerging as a national model for how to expand renewable energy to low-income homes. The state has been pursuing low-income solar programs since 2015, and it's on track to have 20 megawatts installed by the end of 2019 as those programs ramp up.

Cooperatives Lauded As ‘Trailblazers’ In Community Solar

May 23, 2018 Michael W. Kahn, Electric.coop Create! Cooperatives, New Economy, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy

Looking for community solar? Your best bet is in electric cooperative territory. “In terms of the number of community solar programs, cooperative utilities have been trailblazers,” states a new report from the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). The report finds 160 co-ops have a program, though NRECA puts the number at nearly 200. “This far exceeds the total in investor-owned utilities (31 programs) and public power utilities (37 programs) combined,” SEPA noted. Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association in Rockford, Minnesota, is among the co-ops offering community solar, and CEO Tim Sullivan said it’s a big hit. “We have almost 400 kilowatts of community solar in four different arrays and our members love it.

How Solar Panels On A Church Rooftop Broke The Law In N.C.

May 15, 2018 Dan Gearino, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Law, North Carolina, Solar Energy

A North Carolina environmental group that tried to challenge the state's utility monopoly by installing solar panels on the roof of a predominantly African-American church and selling the church cheap, clean power has lost its appeal to the state's highest court. Advocates say they are disappointed in the ruling, but they aren't giving up the fight to lift restrictions on clean energy. The case involved an attempt to bust through restrictions that solar advocates face in much of the Southeast. The region has a history of maintaining strong utility monopolies while other states have opened their markets to competition. The result, advocates say, limits rooftop solar in a region with some of the strongest solar power potential.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources