This year has brought a significant shift in the generating cost comparison between renewable energy and fossil fuels, according to an analysis by technology and region published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Driven by lower installed costs, improved project performance, and a race to build projects ahead of a reduction in a key federal incentive, utility-scale solar project developers have been negotiating power sales agreements with utilities at prices averaging just 5 cents/kWh.
Aldelano Corp. has announced its Solar ColdBox™, an industrial-grade, portable, solar-powered cold storage mini-warehouse that provides refrigeration, freezing capacity, water, ice, and a renewable auxiliary power source, designed for developing nations.
Dominion Foundation has presented the University of Maryland (UMD) with a $50,000 educational grant to support its project, “Design of Efficient Solar Cooling System with High Coefficient of Performance.”
The United States solar industry surpassed 20 gigawatts (GW) of total operational solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity during the second quarter of this year, according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) Q2 2015 U.S. Solar Market Insight Report.
SolarCity has announced a smart energy homes demonstration project in partnership with the SunSpec Alliance and Southern California Edison, where SolarCity will install rooftop solar PV, batteries, controllable thermostats, and smart inverters on 50 homes in the Southern California Edison territory.
The Veteran Asset, a nonprofit whose mission is facilitating solar training and placing its graduates into jobs within the renewable energy industries, has announced its first female graduate.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that its Loan Programs Office (LPO) will make up to $1 billion in loan guarantees available to support commercial-scale distributed energy projects, such as rooftop solar with energy storage and smart grid technology.
Installed prices for residential and small nonresidential systems completed in 2014 were $0.40 per watt (W) lower, and prices for large non-residential systems were $0.70 per W lower, than in the prior year.
An innovative large scale heat pump system from Star Renewable Energy and E.ON will work with a solar energy installation to supply E.ON’s community energy center in Cranbrook to the east of Exeter, with renewable heating and hot water.