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.
Renewables International: Small Czech Republic is solar success
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Yesterday, Czech authorities announced that the country had reached an installed photovoltaic capacity of 1,999 megawatts as of September 30. The country’s performance is especially impressive if we consider its population and overall power consumption. In other words, to assess the impact of an installation volume, we need to move beyond absolute numbers and make comparisons in relative terms. . .
Renewables International: German solar power up 50% year over year
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Yesterday, the BDEW announced power production figures for the first three quarters of 2012. Most notably, the share of solar power grew from 4.1 percent to 6.1 percent – an increase of nearly 50 percent. Other renewables also continue to grow. . .
Renewables International: Fast increase in PV capacity and power production in 2012 in Germany
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Solar PV is already a fast developing and major energy technology in Germany, not only in terms of MW but also in TWh and in the percentage of annual electricity demand. . .
Lenz Blog: Monster Growth Rates in Chinese Solar Market
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In terms of produced electricity, China has grown 540% from last year. And in terms of capacity, 2.71 GW of capacity added in the first nine months of this year are already a 4.2 fold increase on last year. . .
Renewables International: Grid parity still the goal?
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Craig Morris
That quote comes from a presentation given by an IEA representative at the 27th PV-SEC in September, where the keynote address was “What is a fair price for PV electricity?” and a number of presentations focused on the “post-FIT” era. None of the presentations explains why feed-in tariffs for solar should disappear when they fall below the retail rate even though the ones for small biomass and wind have long been below the retail rate. . .
SolarServer: If solar covered one percent of the UK it would meet the country’s entire power demand-
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The installations would take up roughly 2,635 km2; the UK is 244,820km2. Therefore, only one percent of the UK’s total land area would be required to install enough solar to cover our entire electricity needs. The Eco Experts also note that if larger commercial installations were used as the basis for the calculation that space required would be even smaller. . .
Europe leads the world in solar panel installations
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Two-thirds of worldwide solar panels installations in 2011 were in Europe totalling 18.5 GW, according to a report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. . .
SolarServer: California Governor Brown signs multiple bills to advance solar policies
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California Governor “Jerry” Brown has recently approved a number of bills to support the adoption of more solar photovoltaic (PV) generation and other sources of renewable energy, including a bill to require the state’s large private utilities to implement feed-in tariff programs by July 1st, 2013. . .
Renewables International: German PV market shrinks in August
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Energy expert Bernard Chabot takes a look at the PV installation data released on Friday by Germany’s Network Agency for August, which shows that both the market volume and average system size decreased considerably. . .
