February 6th, 2012

Maybe it was because Seeking Alpha did not carry my annual list of 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2012 this year, but no one seems to have noticed that there were actually 11 stocks in the list. Call it the Spinal Tap of top-ten lists.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
Posted in Blog
February 6th, 2012

What triggers you to press one of those share buttons above, or email this post — or any website link — to a colleague or friend? Think about it. Because the keys to knowing why people share things are the keys to so-called "viral" solar marketing.
Before we get to why we share, let's talk about how we used to share and how we share
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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February 6th, 2012

The year 2011 may be remembered in clean energy circles as the moment when India became a major player across several industries.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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February 3rd, 2012

It's easy to think about modules as singular units of power output, but the reality is that they are a collection of diverse components, each with influence over the end system's total cost and performance. For DuPont, its focus is of course on the materials side, from metallization pastes used to form contacts on the solar cell, to backsheet materials that protect the panels themselves.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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February 3rd, 2012

The Obama Administration's $60 billion Loan Guarantee Program (LGP) for renewable energy is considered a failure because of Solyndra, Beacon Power, and potential 2012 bankruptcies. What is not well known is that 75 percent of the program's deployed funds went to relatively low risk power plants that will catapult the U.S. to a leadership role in the utility-scale solar sector. This is hardly the hallmark of a "failed program." The program is akin to Shakespeare's King Henry V, who said as a delinquent Prince: "I'll so offend as to make offense a skill, redeeming time when men think least I will."
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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February 2nd, 2012

Miasolé says it has created a 17.3 percent "champion" thin-film copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar photovoltaic device, results obtained in its own labs and not (yet) independently verified.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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February 2nd, 2012

By late February the renewable energy industry should have direction from the Ontario government on some of the major changes ahead for the province’s landmark feed-in tariff program. “I am hoping we will have an announcement then with the megawatt (MW) targets and pricing, then new rules and contracts in March, and application processi
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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February 2nd, 2012

You may have heard it before, but it is worth mentioning again: In residential communities, solar is contagious. But a recent study, "Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Panels," conducted by Bryan Bollinger of the NYU Stern School of Business and Kenneth Gillingham of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, published in December sheds some new light on the phenomenon.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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February 2nd, 2012

Renewable energy in the United States is at a crossroads. With several federal tax grants set to expire by the end of 2012, utilities are trying to decide if the falling prices of solar and wind technology makes renewable energy competitive enough to invest in despite vanishing federal aid.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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February 1st, 2012

Two reports out in the past week examine Europe's solar PV market in 2011, indicating slowing growth in the flagship countries and promise in some smaller regions for 2012 and beyond. Note that the data that follows is preliminary; final 2011 numbers won't be known until later in the first quarter, including some likely revisions thanks to a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter in several key regions (more on that below).
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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February 1st, 2012

A recent report has generated lots of buzz by finding that as many as 50,000 jobs could be lost over the next three years if a 100 percent tariff is placed on Chinese solar panels. Yet from where I'm sitting, I see a far different number from the same report: The industry could add 15,000 jobs by 2014.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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February 1st, 2012

Twenty years ago, international leaders descended on Brazil to lay the groundwork for what would eventually become the Kyoto Protocol. This summer, a 20-member United Nations panel will once again head to Rio de Janeiro with an even more ambitious agenda.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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February 1st, 2012

Due to growing urbanization and resulting environmental threats, China has invested nearly US$50 billion annually into its renewable energy sector since 2009. China's five-year investment in environmental protection is on track to reach 3.1 trillion yuan (US$454 billion). By 2015, its environmental protection industry is expected to top 2 trillion yuan (US$317 billion).
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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February 1st, 2012

Concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) is an upcoming renewable market that promises to provide cost-effective power generation at high levels of efficiency. The performance of a CPV system is dependant on the direct normal irradiance (DNI). Because of this major performance parameter, the number of regions ideal for CPV system installations is limited. According to Prof. Humayun Mughal, the potential market destinations based on DNI for the CPV technology are Southwest US, Mexico, Chile, Southern Peru, Southwest Bolivia, Northwest Argentina, and Mediterranean countries, Australia, North Africa, Middle East, Western India and Western China.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 31st, 2012

Earlier this month, I attended EUCI’s Utilizing Clean Power Development Conference in Philadelphia. The conference attracted a variety of large institutions (hospitals, municipalities, universities, etc.), developers, and financers to discuss the opportunity and challenges surrounding deployment of on-site renewable energy. Instit
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Green Power, Hydrogen - Fuel Cells, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 31st, 2012

What if electricity cost more when the sun was shining?
Many utilities are using new electronic "smart meters" to adjust the price of electricity as often as every hour, to reflect supply and demand. And charging more when electricity is in short supply can be good news, increasing the value of solar by 33 percent or more.
Time-
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 30th, 2012

A big energy-related disaster doesn't just leave horrible marks on people's lives; it also can propel better and quicker policy and technology adoption. Kyocera on Monday said it plans to start selling a system that pairs solar panels with lithium-ion batteries for the residential market in Japan starting this summer.
Tags: energy, Green Power, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 30th, 2012

The volatile swings seen in the upstream part of the solar PV supply chain, from silicon to cell/module pricing, have been well documented. End-market demand and associated policies supporting it is also a roller coaster, with many key regions currently embroiled in what to do for 2012 and beyond.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 30th, 2012

Solar players on both sides of the Pacific have been warily anticipating the Feb. 13 deadline when the Department of Commerce was set to announce whether it would impose duties on solar cells and modules coming in from China.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech, Wind Power
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January 27th, 2012

I have no idea why people love time-lapse videos. Our eyes are certainly attracted to things that move quickly, and for some reason it’s fun to see people in hardhats and machines building a solar project from nothing, condensing days or weeks into minutes.
Below are two recent time-lapse solar videos that I saw on Twitter. Both are large
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 27th, 2012

System-level monitoring, continued adoption of string inverters for large PV installs, and improvements by Chinese suppliers are among the trends gleaned from a survey of inverter buyers & sellers.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 27th, 2012

One dollar per watt: that's the mark the solar industry is hoping to hit in order to become cost-competitive with conventional energies. In a bid to reach this magic number in the next two years, various Asian manufacturers are striving to reduce costs by increasing volume production. An alternative direction that will benefit the industry in the long term is to target increased efficiencies primarily through new manufacturing processes, new higher-quality materials for metallization and changing the structure of the cell. Nanotechnology companies have developed these new materials and processes that enable manufacturers to both increase quality and lower-cost production, bringing the era of solar grid parity closer than ever before.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 27th, 2012

The New England solar market is extremely strong. But even with these strong existing players, there is still room for more competition and new players enter every day. With that said, there are number of opportunities and risks that have the ability to impact industry growth and profits.
In December and January, I spent a lot of time talking with
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 26th, 2012

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has a tradition of accelerating technological advancements, serving as early adopters and impacting the broader commercial market in such areas as aviation, computing and GPS. For the past several years, the DoD has been playing this same role in the renewable energy space.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 26th, 2012

Asia-Pacific markets together added 2.8-gigawatts (GW) of solar PV installations in 4Q11 on the way to a total of 6GW for the entire year, an eye-popping 165% growth, thanks in large part to a massive run-up in China's domestic sector, according to calculations from Solarbuzz.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 26th, 2012

During the fourteen years that I've lived in Switzerland, the Germans have been the world's staunchest supporters of green power and alternative energy. Their aggressive development of wind power was breathtaking, as was their warm embrace of photovoltaic power.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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January 25th, 2012

2011 was "a breakout year" for CIGS solar PV as suppliers continued to trim production costs, increase module conversion efficiencies, and widen adoption in commercial rooftops. But while CIGS (and thin-film brethren CdTe, thanks to First Solar's market leadership) continue to press on, the solar PV industry is still very much dominated by silicon, which has more standardized manufacturing on the one end and far more installed capacity on the installation side -- and all-important bankability thanks to both.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 25th, 2012

In his Jan. 24 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reinstated his commitment to renewable energy. Despite the demise of solar manufacturer Solyndra looming over the past year of his term, Obama said that he “will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.”
Obama called for a commitment by the Defense Department
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech, Wind Power
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January 25th, 2012

Chinese solar module makers should not fear India tariff or trade barriers that could restrict or affect exports to the fast-growing market.
Chinese manufacturers slowed marketing efforts in India due to the growing wave of module import opposition in the U.S., fearing that the Indian government would also impose import duties.
In
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 25th, 2012

Securitizing renewable energy networks from cyber-attacks is not complicated by their oft-cited operational headache of intermittency, but rather by their separation from a utility's control system, said smart grid executives at the Gridwise Global Forum in Washington, DC in early November. Though renewable intermittency adds to the challenge of stabilizing a grid, the forum revealed new evidence of real-world smart grid load shifting that continues to chip away at the tired argument that renewable energy cannot successfully integrate into a legacy grid.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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January 24th, 2012

The use of gallium nitride for solar power electronics and light emitting diodes (LED) holds a lot of promise, but the material is expensive and difficult to make. Here comes Soitec and Sumitomo Electric Industries, which announced Tuesday that they have completed their lab work on producing gallium nitride wafers and are moving into pilot production.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 24th, 2012

The U. of Buffalo (NY) says adding quantum dots into solar cells could increase their efficiency by a whopping 45%.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 24th, 2012

The increase in residential and light commercial project funding from leases and PPAs is a boon to the solar industry but comes with unique risks that require careful management. With financiers and investors holding these smaller assets for 10 to 20 years, their risk now must be managed more seriously, like that of industrial and utility scale projects. Quality of equipment, field-level workmanship and ongoing performance will be critical for investors to appropriately assess the risk in financed systems. These risks are manageable, but will have severe consequences for the entire industry if not addressed. Several of these risks are discussed below, along with potential means of limiting them.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 24th, 2012

Earlier this month, New York Times reporter Matt Wald had a piece on the role of energy storage in supporting the expansion of renewable energy. However, his specific focus on solar thermal power generation overlooks the potentially high costs of relying on solar thermal power as well as the potential for distributed “storehousin
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 24th, 2012

1) Go to events where your customers are. And by customers, we mean your apartment building owners, hospital administrators, laundromat owners, hotel owners, nursing home owners, and all of the other businesses that use a lot of hot water. And where are they?
They’re at their own trade shows, talking about their challenges. Solar therm
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 23rd, 2012

So far, the complaint by American wind tower manufacturers against their competition from Asia has mirrored the solar industry petition filed in October.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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January 20th, 2012

Europe may be the big end-market for solar PV demand (at least for now), but from a manufacturing standpoint Asian firms are beginning to dominate.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 20th, 2012

The concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) industry tenaciously pushed through these last four years, and now has 33 megawatts (MW) in the ground, with 60 more expected by mid-year 2012 and about 700 MW more in the pipeline.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 20th, 2012

One reason why solar companies don’t blog regularly — or at all — is that they believe that it can be a lot of effort for a small audience that may just happen upon the post. Wrong, wrong, wrong, in so many ways, wrong. People don't happen upon blogs accidentally. Most often, you have to go to where your customers a
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 19th, 2012

"Desperate" installers rushing to complete installations ahead of FiT reductions in key end-markets caused a 7% spike in PV module prices in December, but look for a return to familiar pricing pressure within just a month, according to IMS Research.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech
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January 19th, 2012

In January 2011, I plotted the size of state solar markets against their average installed cost and found surprisingly little correlation. When Lawrence Berkeley Labs put out their 2011 version of Tracking the Sun (IV), it was possible to update the chart, which I did in two stages.
The first chart simply overlays the 2010 average insta
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 18th, 2012

Chile is built for renewable energy. The seemingly unending coastline that runs the length of its boundary is prime real estate for wind development, and eventually the offshore wind projects, that could power the cities found along its spine. The nation's solar resources, especially in the northern regions, are among the best in the world. And its place along the ring of fire means its geothermal potential is vast, yet untapped.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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January 18th, 2012

A top GE executive is calling the political battle between economy and environment "nonsense."
In a video interview at an international clean energy investment conference last week, Mark Vachon, vice president of GE's successful Ecomagination program, hailed "environmental performance" as a key driver for business.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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January 17th, 2012

Researchers at MIT and Germany's RWTH Aachen U. have devised a new way to set up a concentrated solar power (CSP) project that both increases the system's efficiency and reduces the land footprint -- all thanks to inspiration from Mother Nature.
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 16th, 2012

If there was one key takeaway from the most recent RenewableEnergyWorld.com and Solar Power-gen webcast it was that the year ahead will be difficult for large-scale solar power development due to poor access to capital, an uncertain policy landscape, the pending trade case against China and module prices that are too low to support a healthy indust
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal Energy, Green Power, Hydrogen - Fuel Cells, Hydropower, Ocean Energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Solar Tech, Wind Power
Posted in Blog
January 16th, 2012

Weeks after the end of the U.N. climate talks, international leaders from across the world are meeting again on the world stage to discuss fossil fuels, nuclear energy and the growth of renewables.
Tags: Bioenergy, energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy, Wind Power
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January 16th, 2012

While solar is making steady progress towards the main stream, it ain’t there yet. Many consumers are still suspicious of solar because it’s unfamiliar. They’ve seen panels and solar homes in pictures, but it’s not like buying or selling a car… or is it?
Making analogies to something familiar can be very helpful fo
Tags: energy, Green Power, Other, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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January 16th, 2012

Utilities worry about a lot of things, such as keeping the lights on, earning a return for investors, and making regulators and customers happy with their service.
Now there is a new worry: How can they protect customers from what one utility refers to as “mental fatigue?”
In this particular case, the utility raises the issue as it pr
Tags: energy, renewable energy, Solar, Solar Energy
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