October - 2017

Amazon Battles Google For Renewable Energy Crown

BLOOMBERG — Even in the age of coal enthusiast President Donald Trump, clean-energy developers are finding plenty of interest in wind and solar power from businesses with sustainability targets, especially technology companies. That was on display in a video tweeted Thursday by Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, as he christened the 253-megawatt Amazon Wind Farm Texas in Scurry County. Amazon has bought more than 1.22 gigawatts of output to date from U.S. cle

NRDC Report: Clean Energy Revolution Shatters Records & Projections

Just how fast is the U.S. clean energy revolution unfolding? America’s 2016 solar energy capacity was 4,500 percent higher than government experts predicted 10 years earlier while the nation’s wind supply was 350 percent above their forecast, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report released today. NRDC’s fifth annual energy report, America’s Clean Energy Revolution, confirms the massive shifts in the nation’s energy landscape, dominated by clean energy

In 5 Years, Batteries Will Blanket The U.S., Duke Executive Says

FORBES — "There's going to be a lot of excitement around batteries in the next five years. And I would say that the country will get blanketed with projects," said Spencer Hanes, a managing director of business development with the Charlotte, North Carolina-based utility. "With the way that the cost curves are coming down it's a big opportunity for all of us to deliver what customers want." What customers want, it seems, is solar-plus-storage. They want it enough that homeown

Solar Costs To Fall Further, Powering Global Demand

Solar power costs will fall by another 60 percent over the next decade giving an already booming market another boost, the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) said on Monday. Solar power is in the midst of boom because of sharp drops in costs and efficiency improvements, pushing global capacity from virtually zero at the start of the century to 300 gigawatt (GW) by the end of 2016, a figure expected to rise again by 2020. Irena expects 80 to 90 GW of new

Target Announces 100% Renewable Energy Target

CLEAN TECHNICA — Target published its new climate policy and goals on Tuesday, created with the Science-Based Target initiative “in mind” in an effort to “keep making progress” on its existing global and local environmental efforts. As Target highlight in their announcement, the company is a two-time ENERGY STAR partner of the year, and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) 2016 top corporate solar installer in the US. Target’s new climate policy opens by simply st

The "War" On Coal Is Over. Coal Lost.

Last week, Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced, “the war on coal is over.” If there ever was a war on coal, the coal industry has lost. According to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, many old American coal power plants are being retired or converted to natural gas, and new coal power plants aren’t being built because they’ve become more expensive than natural gas, wind, and solar energy: "The share of US electricity coming from coal fell from 5

Solar's Remarkable Survival In The Most Extreme Weather

As the Atlantic continues to churn out some of the deadliest storms on record, the repercussions continue to rock the South and southeastern U.S. Whether it is the physical impact of the recent storms on solar projects or the economic impact throughout energy markets, how do these events affect the solar industry, and to what extent? Braving the Elements When storms of the magnitude we’ve seen this summer approach operating solar assets, there are many measures taken to prepa

Paris Officially Says It's Phasing Out All Non-Electric Cars

FUTURISM — Soon, drivers will only have the option of using electric cars in Paris as authorities in the French capital have announced plans to remove all gas- and diesel-powered cars by 2030. “This is about planning for the long term with a strategy that will reduce greenhouse gases,” transport official Christophe Najdovski told France Info radio, according to a report from Reuters. “Transport is one of the main greenhouse gas producers…so we are planning an exit from combus

How Solar Panels Increase Your Home's Resale Value

Houses with solar panels have been proven to have a higher resale value. Even if you sell your home before you’ve had the opportunity to use solar power over a long period, the panels are still a great investment. After 8 years of research on U.S. home values, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs concluded that houses with solar power sell for more. For a house with about 3kW of solar power– the average amount in the study– the sale price was about $17,000 more tha

What Happens To Solar Panels In A Hurricane?

Solar is Built Strong Solar panels are like any other product. The good ones are built to last, while the cheap ones can be pretty flimsy. The above image comes from a promotional video for SolarWorld’s excellent panels, which undergo extensive testing. The video shows the panels withstanding hail at 262 mph, and even a truck parking on top of them. If a weaker solar panel is battered around by wind-blown debris in a hurricane, you might see some damage, and it might not be

Hurricane Nate Shuts Down About 90% Of Gulf Of Mexico Oil Production

CNBC — More than 92 percent of crude output was offline in the nation's offshore production hub as of Sunday morning, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Energy companies also "shut in" nearly 78 percent of natural gas production, the bureau estimated, based on reports from companies. The storm developed into a hurricane on Friday night and strengthened as it passed through the central Gulf of Mexico, before making landfall near the mouth of

How Solar Energy Saved A Puerto Rican Farm From Hurricane Maria

BARRANQUITAS, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - The U.S. territory is in a near blackout, its electricity grid shredded by the storm that slammed into the island on Sept 20. But Santiago’s decorative plant and poinsettia nursery, set amid the jagged peaks of the Barranquitas farming area, has kept working thanks to the $300,000 he invested in 244 solar panels six years ago. “Everybody told me I was crazy. Now I have power and they don‘t,” said Santiago, whose flowers are sold in Puer

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