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Green Blog: The Quest for 'Hydricity'
Hydrogen fuel cell technology, like other clean energy alternatives, is gaining fans but still faces technical obstacles.
Read more [New York Times Energy/Environment]
Apple Tips Plans For Solar, Biogas Systems at NC Data Farm
Last year Apple commissioned its new 500,000 acre data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The facility, costing an estimated $1 billion facility to build, is the company's biggest data center several times over, aimed to support everything from iTunes to its iCloud services to the Siri voice functionality in the iPhone 4S.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Investing in Dragons and Tigers: The Allure of China and India
China and India are the ideal markets in which to realize clean technology, both from their government's stated goals and their economic, political and social needs.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Will Italy's FiTs Survive the Fall of Berlusconi?
Never one to do anything by half-measures, a somewhat surprising legacy of ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has been to send installed capacity in Italy's photovoltaic (PV) market soaring through the roof. Reacting to a resounding public vote against nuclear power in 2011, a fourth edition of feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) was announced for the sector and though somewhat reduced, they were still high enough to keep Italy's "PV counter" ticking faster than ever.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Trina Launches New Solar Advocacy and PR Campaign with Patrick Dempsey
The "Power Behind the Panel" is getting more in front. Last week, Trina Solar invited me and about 100 other guests to a private Beverly Hills home where Mark Kingsley, Trina’s Chief Commercial Officer (pictured below), and Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey unveiled “15 Minutes,” a new solar PR and advocacy campaign.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Chinese Tier-2 Modules Offered Below $1/W
Prices for crystalline-silicon (c-Si) solar photovoltaic (PV) modules fell below the $1/W mark in January 2012, and in some cases well below even that, marking the first time that global average prices have fallen below this milestone, according to IMS Research.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Finding Talent the Creative Way: Are Your Race Horses Pulling Plows?
When it comes to hiring, the biggest issue renewable energy employers face today is finding the right engineers with the right skills for their businesses. This can be identified as "talent mismatch," or an imbalance in the labor market between the people applying for positions and the skills required. The very nature of the renewable industry, with its constantly evolving technologies, presents great challenges for employers when it comes to finding the right matches for their mission-critical positions. But there are progressive actions that renewable energy employers can take to secure the right talent for future productivity. In fact, there are three simple considerations: identifying transferrable skills from other industries, using creativity to put people in the right positions, and offering dual-ladder career paths.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Tribal Renewable Energy Projects: Balance Opportunity with Caution
In my 20-plus years of dealing with economic development on tribal lands, I have found that few people are familiar with federal Indian law or tribal law, governments and dispute resolution systems, which reflect each tribe's sovereign status and unique culture, language, laws, mores and traditions. And it is from this lack of familiarity that problems arise.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Innovation and Diversification Are Key for Kenya's Renewable Energy Industry
Decentralizing and diversifying renewable energy power generation technologies could be the panacea to save Kenyans from unreliable and expensive power supplied by hydro and thermal power generation, a recent study has found.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Dot Earth Blog: NASA Provides Stunning View of Solar Twisters and Plasma Rainbows
A NASA satellite captures astounding closeup views of solar storminess.
Read more [New York Times Energy/Environment]
National Briefing | Washington: Suit Seeks to Block Nuclear Plant
Environmental and clean energy groups filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday to block the building of the first nuclear power plant in the United States in more than 30 years.
Read more [New York Times Energy/Environment]
California Utility Scales Back Rooftop Solar Program To Save Money
Southern California Edison has won approval to modify a photovoltaic program that won praise for its intent to promote distributed, rooftop generation when it received the initial thumbs-up from state regulators in 2009. With the changes, though, the utility will look for larger and more ground-mounted projects and scale back the plan to build some of the projects on its own.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Russian Oil Industry Set to Capitalize if Embargo Hits Iran
With a grade of oil closely resembling Iran’s, Russia could reap windfalls from European customers willing to pay premium prices.
Read more [New York Times Energy/Environment]
NLP Solar Sales Training Live Webinar February 22nd & 23rd
Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards Winners: Project of the Year and Readers' Choice
Winners of the Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards for Project of the Year Award represent facilities that signified excellence in five technologies: Solar, Wind, Biomass, Geothermal and Hydro.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Comments On Spain's Recent Renewable Energy Policy Decisions
Spain’s recent decision to stop subsidizing new renewable energy projects as part of managing its debt crisis has been hitting the headlines. Renewable energy skeptics will surely spin this as added proof that renewable energy is simply not economical, as they’ve been warning us all along. But we believe that conclusion is misguided and
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Ground-truth: Do We Need To Destroy the Desert To Fight Climate Change?
There are two holes the size of bulldozers in the argument made by Johanna Wald in "Clearing Up the Record on Solar Energy on Public Lands", that opening public lands to large scale industrial solar development is a necessary "sacrifice" to fight climate change (see similar arguments from The Wilderness Society and Climate Progress).First, I'm remi
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
DOE Offers $12 Million to Spur Solar Energy Innovation
DOE announced more than $12 million in funding to speed solar energy innovation from the lab to the marketplace. The funding, which will be made available through the agency's SunShot Incubator program, will support advancements in hardware, reductions in soft costs, and the development of pilot manufacturing and production projects. Each awardee will make significant cost-share commitments.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards Announced! Check out Video Coverage of the Winners Here
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/video?categoryId=62
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards Winners: Leadership
Great industry achievements happen when dynamic visionaries step up and spearhead efforts to bring about the changes they envision. Whether it is pioneering the development of solar power training networks, creating a financial vehicle that will vastly speed up the adoption of solar energy, or working tirelessly to integrate renewable energy onto the grid, these leaders know that it takes years of hard work to move an industry forward.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
More than 1.1 Million People Employed in EU's Renewable Energy Sector
More than 1.1 million people have jobs in Europe's renewable energy sector, according to new figures released from EurObserv'ER, a renewable energy tracking project supported by the European Commission.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Clearing Up the Facts About Solar In Germany
On January 18, 2011, the German magazine Der Spiegel published an article titled “The Solar Subsidy Sinkhole,” which paints a distorted picture of the German solar story. The following summarizes the misleading statements made - and facts to correct them.
SPIEGEL: “As is so often the case in winter, all sola
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
Energy Dept. Loan Program Needs Oversight, Audit Finds
Stricter supervision and standards would help the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program avoid a Solyndra repeat, a government report said.
Read more [New York Times Energy/Environment]
Solar PV Equipment Replacements To Ramp from 2013-2016
After a punishing 2011 and expectations of a tough 2012, look for a surge of demand to upgrade solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing equipment over the next few years, says IMS Research.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
California PUC on RPS: Renewable Energy Procurement Up in 2011, Costs Falling
In a report to the state legislature released Feb. 3, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said that in 2011, the state recorded its largest increase in renewable generation since the beginning of its ambitious Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), and that the cost of electricity from new renewable energy projects is dropping.
Read more [Renewable Energy World - Solar]
