Forward Solar Renewable Energy Credit prices have slumped recently; we believe this is a result, at least in part, of market concerns over potential oversupply for Reporting Year 2012.
A recent New Jersey Board of Public Utilities report indicates that the RY 2012 mandate of 442,000 Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) may potentially be exceeded. Keep reading →
GE is diving head-first into renewables generation. Keep reading →
The sun shines strong on hot summer days and soon the US may be capturing much of its power for electricity.
Solar markets have picked up in activity in recent days, both on the production and consumption side, aided by strategic boosts from the US government. Keep reading →
On April 12, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a new renewables portfolio standard (RPS) that set a goal of 33% power from renewables by 2020.
This move has paved the way for developers to construct wind and solar project like never before. More megawatts of renewables are currently under construction in California than have been constructed in the past decade. Keep reading →
I hear a lot of talk about a great desire to include renewable energy into the national energy mix, if it weren’t for the issue of intermittency. Sure, we can control the costs to build a wind farm or a solar plant, but the fuel supply is truly in the hands of Mother Nature whenever she decides to make the wind blow or the sun shine.
As the CEO of a renewable energy company with more than 500 MW of wind and solar installed in North America, I know we only build renewable energy projects in areas with the best wind or solar capabilities within a given market. But still, it is not possible to know exactly when Mother Nature will smile on us. Unfortunately, this challenging characteristic of renewable energy has become the foremost excuse for utilities to restrict or block the addition of renewable energy resources to our energy mix. I would argue that intermittency itself is not the immediate issue for utilities, but rather how they are looking at the larger energy pool in total. Instead of focusing on intermittency roadblocks, utilities need to consolidate into more modern and broader markets that diversify management of the intermittency issue and ensure competitive access to the power grid. Keep reading →
Nestled deep in Israel’s Negev desert, just several miles from the Gaza Strip on one side and Jordan on the other, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is a multinational education center whose aim is to use environmental projects to scale back more than just carbon emissions.
“We live in a very small region: I’m talking about a few kilometers in distance” Director of Arava’s Center for Renewable Energy, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed told Breaking Energy. “We have the same climate, the same problems, the same air pollution, the same water scarcity, the same food, the same traditions, but we have this border that we made.” Keep reading →
The electricity grid of the future needs to be flexible in order to integrate growing use of renewables, a new book from the International Energy Agency (IEA) says.
In Harnessing Variable Renewables: A Guide to the Balancing Challenge, the agency uses case studies of eight geographic regions, each facing unique energy challenges, to develop a four-step Flexibility Assessment (FAST) method. Keep reading →
Recently I was attempting to help my six-year old assemble a puzzle. I suggested that he start with pieces that have smooth edges and work from the outside, in. As usual, he ignored me and promptly began force-fitting pieces into places where they were not going to fit without the help of a sharp instrument.
Our society takes a similar approach when it tackles complicated problems like the energy puzzle facing the nation. We start with our minds made up as to what the completed picture should look like and we coax and argue the pieces of the puzzle into place–usually with the same outcome as my son who, after repeated failed attempts to get a meaningful picture, gives up in frustration with a partially solved puzzle. Keep reading →
This video is basic for those already in the solar business, but for those who talk solar economics without ever understanding the science, this is a helpful guide for when you need to talk at a basic level with the engineers who do understand the science.
This video comes from the US Department of Energy, which is working to bring its high-level understanding of energy science to the general public as part of an effort to build support for still often-confusing clean energy technology push. Keep reading →
Efforts to spread the production and use of clean electricity production as part of job creation are global.
This video outlines a project from the World Bank in the politically volatile Middle East, where the bank’s funds are helping build solar energy. The bank has begun investing millions in concentrated solar projects (CSP) that will not only capture the desert heat for electricity production, but also help temper the region’s sky-high unemployment rates. Keep reading →
