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.
Germany Installed 1,150 MW of Photovoltaics in 2006 Says Magazine
By
Paul Gipe
Photon magazine is reporting that 1,150 MW of solar photovoltaics were installed in Germany in 2006. If confirmed this another world record for the German solar industry and the first time that annual installations in any one country exceeded the gigawatt level.
Solar for Energy Hogs: The California Example by Steven Letendre, Prometheus Institute
By
Steven Letendre
Today, the important link between solar use in the home and energy conservation and efficiency is being lost. While many well-intentioned system integrators preach the virtues of energy efficiency, grid connected solar by its very nature does not necessitate a rigorous assessment of the trade offs between a larger system and investments in energy efficiency.
Brief Summary of World Solar PV Market Stats 2006
By
Paul Gipe
December 5, 2006 Total Market World PV 1,500-2,000 MW/yr $11-14 billion/yr Growth: 20-40%/yr Major Markets Germany: 600-750 MW/yr; $4-5 billion/yr …
Strom Rebels of Schönau: The Village That Built Their Own Solar Utility
By
Paul Gipe
Alt captured that rebellious spirit in his inspiring tale of the small town of Schönau and how residents built a solar utility in the deep recesses of Germany’s Schwartzwald–the Black Forest of legend. The story has all the elements of its own legend in the making. Small town Davids against electric utility Goliaths. Simple townsfolk with a bright, you could say “sunny”, outlook on the future. And a decades-long struggle to bring their dream to reality. There’s a movie script waiting to be written, or at least a documentary
Josef Pesch–Strom Rebel of Freiburg
By
Paul Gipe
Pesch was named a strom (electricity) rebel by Elektritzitätswerke Schönau (EWS) in 2005 and that was a good reason for …
Photon Magazine’s Model Solar Photovoltaics Feed-in Tariff Contract under Germany’s EEG
By
Related Files photon_magazin_german_model_solar_pv_contract_einspeisevertrag_eng-doc
Envisaging feed-in tariffs for solar photovoltaic electricity: European lessons for Canada
By
Ian H. Rowlands
The purpose of this article is to reflect upon this European experience with feed-in tariffs, to stimulate discussions regarding what promise they might hold for the development of solar photovoltaic electricity in Canada.
Design as if People Matter: Aesthetic Guidelines for the Wind Industry
By
Paul Gipe
Note: The graphics to this article were lost when my original web site crashed in the fall of 2022. For …
