Sign up | Login with →

Solar Power

The Art of PV War

May 18, 2012 by Nigel Morris
with 299 views
0

Sasilssolutions/Shutterstock

The U.S. Department of Commerce today handed down it’s preliminary report on alleged dumping by Chinese solar manufacturers in the US market.The landmark findings handed down concluded that Chinese manufacturers were guilty of dumping solar cells and panels into the U.S. market, and imposed preliminary margins of 31.14 %... [read more]

Are Dye-Sensitized Cells The Future Of Solar?

May 17, 2012 by Nino Marchetti
with 256 views
0

image via AlphaGalileo Foundation

Researchers in Finland are claiming a form of solar cells that can be applied to surfaces as a coat of paint could herald the future of solar energy. They are inexpensive to produce compared to the complex and expensive clean-room manufacturing processes associated with current silicon-based solar panels. [read more]

Are solar subsidies unnatural but unavoidable?

May 14, 2012 by Alex Chapman
with 378 views
5

Wind energy has become the favourite whipping boy in the renewable energy world. However, solar energy has its critics as well. Wind energy opponents are usually current or prospective neighbours of turbine installations. Solar energy naysayers are typically actual or would-be economists. [read more]

exclusive

Saudi Arabia to Unleash Solar by Investing $109 Billion

May 14, 2012 by Rhys Clay
with 825 views
7

cofkocof/Shutterstock

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil plans to install a solar capacity of 41,000 megawatts by 2032. Critics have noted that to achieve this, Saudi Arabia would need to produce and export approximately half of the world’s total annual installed capacity of solar. Can the country achieve this ambitious target? [read more]

Getting to Cost-Competitive Solar Energy

May 11, 2012 by Clifton Yin
with 429 views
2

Wikimedia Commons

SunEdison founder and former Carbon War Room CEO Jigar Shah took to the pages of The Huffington Postand GigaOm recently to downplay the need for aggressive clean energy innovation. “We actually have all of the cost-effective technology [we] need” to mitigate climate change, he says in the former piece, singling out Bill Gates’ and writer... [read more]

Emerging signs of health in the global PV industry?

May 11, 2012 by Nigel Morris
with 177 views
0

Mona Makela/Shutterstock


Although most pundits agree that 2012 will be a very tough year for the PV majors, some good news has finally started emerging.The first story is about the price of silicon, the raw material that feeds our industry and is the source of so much opportunity and at times, so much pain.Although the days of an almost monopolistic... [read more]

Renewable Revolution: Don’t Worry, It’s Coming

May 9, 2012 by Nino Marchetti
with 2,014 views
4

image via Abengoa

California currently has just 524 solar projects over 1 megawatt (MW) — but  an incredible 17,707 such solar projects will be on the grid by 2017 [PDF]. This is a huge change! And California is not the only state with such massive change coming.The U.S. is about to go through an incredible metamorphosis when it comes to energy... [read more]

Interview with Australia’s largest PV Retailer: TrueValue Solar

May 8, 2012 by Nigel Morris
with 176 views
0

In April 2012, SolarBusinessServices met with TrueValue value Solar CEO Suren Chandrajit to discuss the phoenix like rise of the company he now heads up.The following is a summary of the key topics discussed.TVS has grown very fast to become arguably, the largest PV retailer in Australia. What would you say are the top 3 keys to your... [read more]

Current and Projected Costs for Biofuels from Algae and Pyrolysis

May 7, 2012 by Robert Rapier
with 323 views
0

Can algal biofuel actually be competitive with petroleum? Recent DoE studies suggest it will. [read more]

Fossil Fuel Subsidies Blocking Clean Energy?

May 4, 2012 by Nino Marchetti
with 321 views
1

Shutterstock

A study just published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that fossil fuel subsidies in some developing nations stand most in the way of clean energy. For a livable climate, developing nations must bypass the fossil age as they grow their 21st century economies.The paper, Assessing the costs of photovoltaic and wind... [read more]

New Solar Collector Heralds New Era in CSP

May 4, 2012 by Antonio Pasolini
with 394 views
2

 

 

Solar thermal energy technology has taken an important step further with a new collaboration between 3M’s Renewable Energy Division and Gossamer Space Frames. The companies yesterday unveiled a new parabolic trough solar collector technology designed to reduce costs and equipment for Concentrated Solar Power systems. CSP is a solar... [read more]

exclusive

After Fukushima, will a new feed in tarriff solve Japan's energy issues?

May 3, 2012 by André Semmler
with 471 views
9

Ko.Yo/Shutterstock

A quick update on the status of Japan's FIT talks and its possible implications for the expansion of renewables. [read more]

Are Solar Subsidizers Making the Same Mistake as Oil Producers in the 30's?

May 2, 2012 by Alex Chapman
with 477 views
4

esbobeldijk/Shutterstock

Short-term thinking is the bane of the energy world. It has been so since the early days of the oil business, and it remains so with today’s market for solar photovoltaic power generation. In the former case, oil producers were guilty of the flawed thinking. In the latter, it is the producers of public energy policy.An oil reservoir is... [read more]

What does Q Cells insolvency tell us about the market for quality PV?

April 27, 2012 by Nigel Morris
with 313 views
0

Although Q-Cells current issues are not driven by the added costs of a “pure quality” play, it does prompt me ask the question – is the market ready enough to pay for real quality? [read more]

India's Solar Sector Has Grown Rapidly, Driving down Costs and Slashing Pollution

April 26, 2012 by Frances Beinecke
with 331 views
2

India has dramatically expanded its reliance on solar power over the past two years. Solar installations have sprouted across the nation and costs for this clean energy have dropped, according to a new report, Laying the Foundation for a Bright Future, released today by NRDC and our New Delhi-based partner Council on Energy, Environment... [read more]