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.
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!
Solar surprise, revisited
By
Matthew Lockwood
But the solar PV story shows that when tipping points are reached, things can change very quickly. It is not inconceivable that what happened with solar PV will also happen with electric vehicle
German and UK PV markets slow down
By
Craig Morris
Germany added a mere 50.4 megawatts of solar in February, but much of that was simply newly registered, not newly built. The UK market, Europe’s biggest last year, also slowed down considerably.
5 maps that show where the action is on solar policy
By
Herman K. Trabish
Sometimes one stat is all it takes: 46 of the 50 states had solar policy debates going on in 2015. That makes solar literally the talk of the nation.
