News & Articles on Solar Energy
While I have primarily worked with wind energy, I have long been a proponent of renewable energy in the broadest sense. This includes solar energy. My work in Canada, especially Ontario, stressed inclusion of solar energy because it had been previously overlooked. At one time Ontario was one of the leading jurisdictions in North America developing solar photovoltaics due in part to the programs I and others pushed. The political winds changed and these policies were abandoned and with it Ontario’s progress toward a renewable energy future.
Why Minnesota’s Community Solar Program is the Best
By
John Farrell
Why? Because there 10 times more community solar projects in the queue—400 megawatts—in Minnesota than have been built in the history of community solar in the United States (40 megawatts).
Solar Charging an Electric Vehicle—on the Road
By
Paul Gipe
John Rowell likes to push boundaries. Rowell, the man behind EVSEadapters.com pushed his Nissan Leaf, a mass-market electric vehicle (EV), to the end of Mineral King National Park and had to coast back down to the San Joaquin Valley to regain enough charge to make it home. That’s how I came to know him.
How the sun can heat up your bank account
By
Installing solar panels has been paying off for these Ontario homeowners.
Solar energy at Hamilton Ontario landfill
By
Elizabeth Hall
Hamilton is moving forward with a solar energy plan. The city wants to use the undesirable land on the Glanbrook landfill site to to produce green energy.
Exponential Growth and the Renewable Surprise
By
Paul Gipe
Critics of renewable energy have a full quiver of objections of why we shouldn’t bother developing wind and solar energy. One of my favorites is when they say, “Well renewables are nice, but they can’t scale.” That is, we can never develop enough wind turbines and solar panels to ever make a difference, so we shouldn’t bother.
PV crosses two symbolic milestones in UK and Germany
By
Craig Morris
Solar has trickled across the 40 GW threshold in Germany, while the UK now has 10 GW, according to data just published in each country. But both markets are slowing down.
The Real Cost of Leasing vs. Buying Solar Panels
By
Josh Garskof, Consumer Reports
Buying your solar electric system outright is best. . . Most systems pay for themselves in five to seven years.
What Does Britain’s Solar Record Tell Us?
By
Paul Gipe
Damian Carrington reported in The Guardian this week (UK solar eclipses coal power over month for first time) that solar photovoltaic (solar PV) plants in Great Britain generated more electricity than coal in May.
The future of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme in Europe: The case of photovoltaics
By
Andri Pyrgou
This work discusses the FiT scheme implementation for photovoltaics (PVs) in four case study countries – Denmark, Germany, Cyprus, and Spain
An energy miracle? But we already have it!
By
Ugo Bardi
I think that we’ll stay with silicon for a long, long time. Surely we will improve the technology, but don’t expect miracles. That silicon works so well is already a miracle!
