By Dana Blankenhorn   |   January 14, 2011Re-printed from – http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/01/when-will-solar-be-truly-competitive?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-January18-2011 A lot has been written lately about the excellent Berkeley Lab report called Tracking the Sun, which describes cost trends in U.S. Solar production back to 1999. (The illustration is from the report.) John Farrell at the Institute for Self-Reliance  seems especially taken with the wide variation in costs on a state level, noting his state of Minnesota had the most expensive solar energy. His group is very interested in community solar projects and he sees little relationship between market size and installed costs. But there’s an issue with the data that the authors...
Read More »

By Dana Blankenhorn   |   January 10, 2011   Re-printed from – http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/01/solar-business-models-lead-to-customers-saying-yes If you’re trying to install solar systems for a living, getting the customer to say yes is a struggle. Business models can help by lowering the financial hurdle the customer has to jump. The two most popular models in the residential solar market this year will be solar leasing and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), sometimes called Solar-as-a-Service. REW.com editor, Stephen Lacey, provided a good history of them in November. Last month I wrote about one leasing company, Sungevity. The business model is powerful, I wrote. The execution looked good to me as well....
Read More »

By General Electric Company Thursday, January 6, 2011 Re-printed from – http://www.rdmag.com/News/Feeds/2011/01/manufacturing-blowing-in-the-wind-at-ces-smart-grid-home-turbin/ GEs first time appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas centers on smart grid technologies that will anchor the connected homes of the future from efficiently using power to making it. And on that power generation side is Southwest Windpower’s Skystream 600, which is making its own CES debut. The company, which is the world’s largest supplier of small wind systems, has residential-scale turbines already spinning everywhere from rural Kenya to the small island of Baththalangunduwa off of Sri Lanka to a Flagstaff, Arizona Chevron gas station that uses two....
Read More »

(December 30, 2010 – Asia Pulse) — China’s domestic photovoltaics firms have achieved remarkable performances in 2010, boosted by surging demand in domestic and overseas markets. But the boom is hard to continue in 2011 upon oversupply in domestic market and no further growth in international demand, says analyst group Wind Info. According to statistics from Wind Info, 58 solar companies listed on China’s A-share market achieved combined net profits of 12.1 billion yuan (US$1.82 billion) in the first three quarters of 2010, up 46% year-on-year from 8.29 billion yuan.  However, high expectations on the outlook for the PV industry have attracted a good...
Read More »

By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Anita Chang, Associated Press – Fri Dec 3, 4:18 am ET BEIJING – A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said. The Xinhua News Agency said it was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train. Other types of trains in other countries have traveled faster. A specially modified French TGV train reached 357.2 mph (574.8 kph) during a 2007 test, while a Japanese magnetically levitated train sped to 361 mph (581 kph) in 2003....
Read More »

Published: August 4, 2010 Minneapolis Back in October 2008, Xcel Energy started an innovative study in which it installed a 1-megawatt (MW) capacity battery (20 50-kW NGK Insulator batteries) near an 11-MW wind farm owned by Minwind Energy, LLC. The battery was supposed to store, when possibly, the wind energy and release it to the grid when necessary. For the past 21 months the utility has been collecting data and this week it released preliminary results. The bottom line? It works. The test was the first use of the technology in the United States for direct wind energy storage. The preliminary test results are...
Read More »

Terri Steele – INMAN SOLAR The design flexibility, aesthetics and superior energy output of SANYO’s HIT® Double solar modules are creating a new design vernacular for architects, building owners, hoteliers, restaurateurs and public gathering places across North America. And it’s an improvement with multi-faceted revenue potential. One case in point is the solar canopy solution Inman Solar created for Bob Marshall, co-owner of the 18,000-square-foot Edgewood at the Beltline building in Atlanta’s historic Martin Luther King, Jr. District. Despite the fact that it was one of the newer buildings in the district, it featured an industrial design begging for improvements. Its vast third floor...
Read More »

By Udi Paret The square footage available on building rooftops, car parks, or other structures is not sufficient to allow for enough on-site electricity generation to get us to the holy grail of creating net zero energy buildings—or buildings that generate as much energy as they consume. If, as a society, we want to generate significant amounts of on-site renewable power without using up large swaths of land, as required by ground-mount solar and wind or biofuel production, cost-effective solutions are required for using the building envelope (and, in particular, windows) for both energy generation and energy efficiency. Over the last decade, the adoption...
Read More »

GSHPs are a cost effective, energy efficient, and environmentally friendly way of heating and cooling buildings. Both the DOE and the EPA have endorsed the technology. GSHPs reliably deliver quality air-conditioning and heating, on demand, in every season. GSHPs are appropriate for new construction as well as retrofits of older buildings. Their flexible design requirements make them a good choice for schools, high-rises, government buildings, apartments, and restaurants–almost any commercial property. Lower operating and maintenance costs, durability, and energy conservation make Ground Source Heat Pumps the smart choice for commercial applications. Ground Source Heat Pumps offer great benefits: Simultaneously heat & cool different parts...
Read More »

SEOUL, June 16, 2010 LG Electronics (LG) today announced Korea’s first eco-friendly residential hybrid air conditioner that utilizes solar energy as part of its power supply. By combining power generated through the solar cell module attached to the top of the outdoor unit, this 28,000BTU (76 square meter) standing-style air conditioner (model F-Q232LASS) can produce up to 70 watts of power per hour, providing enough energy to run the unit’s air purification process *1). As a clean, renewable energy source, solar power is drawing ever-more interest both from the environmentally conscious and average consumers looking to make long-term savings in their energy bills. Not...
Read More »