US solar giant SolarCity today announced the launch of a microgrid product with built in energy storage capability. SolarCity is going after the commercial market, targeting municipalities, which is a segment the company views as underserved. Extreme weather events have been increasingly disruptive for municipalities in recent years. See Hurricane Sandy as an example.… Keep reading →
Now it’s solar’s turn. Just as wind energy has used reports of industry success as a platform to argue for a production tax credit extension, the U.S. solar industry is now playing the investment tax credit card, saying record-breaking growth – 6.2 gigawatts (DC) installed in 2014, a 30 percent increase over 2013’s total, according… Keep reading →
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 →
The geothermal industry’s efforts to grab a bigger slice of the growing renewable energy pie met with some success in 2014, though that wasn’t reflected in the United States, where questions remain as to when – or if – geothermal might become more than a relatively small, regional player. Previewing its latest annual report, the… Keep reading →
Crescent Dunes will be generating electricity before the end of March, and SolarReserve’s south-central Nevada solar project won’t stumble out of the gate the way power-tower forerunner Ivanpah did, CEO Kevin Smith said in an interview with Breaking Energy. It would be an understatement to say there’s a lot riding on him being right. Crescent Dunes,… Keep reading →
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 →
First Reserve announced late last week it will acquire the 298 MW Kingfisher Wind power project located in Canadian and Kingfisher Counties in Oklahoma from Apex Clean Energy. The wind farm is expected to be completed this year. “First Reserve believes the project benefits from a strong, consistent wind resource. In addition, the firm expects… Keep reading →
The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is arguably America’s most important solar policy. This 30 percent tax credit spurred 1,600 percent annual growth since implementation began in 2007 and turned solar into an economic engine. But the ITC is only authorized at 30 percent through 2016 before falling to 10 percent thereafter (for non-residential systems), and… Keep reading →
Who wants to plunge deep into the dreary details of tax law, especially when doing so might get in the way of slapping a scarlet “B” for bailout on a renewable energy project? So it was that in the wake of our reporting on lower-than-expected production levels at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in… Keep reading →
Although the 30% business investment tax credit (ITC) for installing solar expires at the end of 2016, the window for taking advantage of the ITC is actually much sooner. Unless Congress extends the ITC – which is an open question at this time – business owners should begin planning now for solar projects to be… Keep reading →
