Utility Scale Solar

A Sunny Future For Utility-Scale Solar

solar installation

Utility-scale solar and distributed solar both have an important role to play in reducing greenhouse emissions, and both have made great strides in the past year. Utility-scale solar, the focus of this article, is reaching “grid parity” (i.e., cost equivalency) with traditional generation in more areas across the country.  And solar received a major boost… Keep reading →

Apple Borrego

The commercial and industrial solar power sector has not yet taken flight in the same way that residential and utility-scale solar has in recent years. But to many in the solar industry, that just screams opportunity. The C&I solar market is a strange animal for several reasons, but changing economics, regulations and technology appear to… Keep reading →

Schwarzenegger Tours Solar Panel Roof Of A Sam's Club

2015 is gearing up to be a very interesting year for the United States’ solar Market. The US installed 6.2 GW of  solar in 2014, that’s a 30% increase over installed capacity in the previous year. All available indicators point to even more capacity added this year. Solar modules and installation costs have decreased dramatically,… Keep reading →

SunEdison Inc Seven Sisters

  In a state dominated by a coal-centric utility and with no real renewable portfolio standard, Utah is a surprise candidate for a utility-scale solar boomlet. But it’s happening, thanks to SunEdison, big solar’s tiny price tag, the continuing impact of the federal investment tax credit and – here’s the unique Utah twist – an… Keep reading →

Government Report Cites Solar Industry Supports More Jobs Than Coal Industry

Actually, California Got 7.4 Percent of Its Electricity from Solar in 2014   Federal energy number-crunchers reported on Tuesday that in 2014, California became the first state to generate 5 percent of its electricity from utility-scale solar power. A decade ago, in 2005, solar’s contribution in California was just 0.26 percent of generation, so ramping… Keep reading →

southern_machosprings-crop

Two years ago, before it was even built, the Macho Springs Solar Facility in New Mexico made headlines thanks to a 20-year, 5.7-cents per kilowatt-hour power purchase agreement with El Paso Electric. The 30 percent federal investment tax credit and a generous New Mexico production tax credit helped make that price possible, but another factor… Keep reading →

shutterstock_136608821

Conventional hydropower fell from its perennial perch as the source of the majority of U.S. renewable energy in 2014, yet another sign of the rise of a new wave of renewables – wind and solar, especially – on the U.S. electrical grid. Data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed hydropower with net… Keep reading →

Travel Destination: Zermatt

US renewable energy sources continued to grow in 2014, as reported by Breaking Energy, with data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission showing that “15,384 megawatts of new generation went into service in 2014, and 49.9 percent of [all that capacity] came from wind, solar and other renewables.” According to the International Renewable Energy Agency… Keep reading →

<> on January 27, 2015 in San Francisco, California.

Is that massive Apple solar play that made news on Tuesday burnishing the tech titan’s green cred? It might be, but environmentalists aren’t thrilled about the whole thing. Not that they’ve got anything against Apple – or solar power, they say. Kim Delfino is California director of the group Defenders of Wildlife, an organization that has… Keep reading →

jewel solar 15

Desert Sunlight is online and the U.S. Department of Energy has dropped the mic. The world-record-tying 550-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant in Southern California, formally dedicated on Monday, is the last of the big PV plants supported through the DOE’s loan guarantee program, the one that Republicans love to malign but which keeps showing solid results.… Keep reading →

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