Category Archives: Energy Boom
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First Solar Sells Desert Sunlight and Antelope Valley Solar Farms $FSLR
First Solar has sold two California solar farms that combined will generate 780 MW. The company has come to terms with GE Energy Financial Services and NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE:NEE) subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources for the purchase of its 550 MW Desert Sunlight Solar Farm near Desert Center, Calif. First Solar also announced that Exelon [...]
Another One Bites The Dust: Stirling Energy Files Bankruptcy
Stirling Energy Systems Inc., founded in 1996, succumbed last week to a variety of pressures mounting industry-wide, beginning with a price war led by low-cost Chinese solar photovoltaics and topping out with a list of factors that led to bankruptcy filings for the once thriving solar thermal innovator. Of course it doesn’t help that Stirling’s [...]
Energy Star Certification: 25% Penetration in U.S Homes
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that 25 percent of all single-family homes built in the United States in 2010 earned the EPA’s prestigious Energy Star certification. This is up from 21 percent in 2009. Energy Star is a joint EPA, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program that helps consumers save money and [...]
U.S. Military: Leading Cleantech Innovation
Even as Congressional leaders continue to drag their feet on clean energy and many states keep renewables-related legislation on the back burner because of the still-sluggish economy, the U.S. military continues to invest money and research into green energy. The Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate said in a report released on Wednesday [...]
The Most Efficient Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cell of All Time?
Researchers from the University of Toronto, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia), and Pennsylvania State University have created the most efficient colloidal quantum dot solar cell of all time. An additional contributor was Huazhong University of Wuhan, China. Colloidal refers to those elements in liquid suspension — commonly metals, as in colloidal [...]
NREL: Bringing Innovation and Products to the Marketplace
A lot of the newest energy-saving or energy delivery products might not be available to businesses and consumers today if not for entities like the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL. The NREL, one of ten laboratories operating under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the only one fully vested in [...]
Intel Demos A Solar Processor $INTC
Shares of computer technology developer Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 2% Thursday after chief technology officer Justin Rattner unveiled the company’s latest technologies at the Intel Developer Forum. Included in the company’s list of new developments were the Near-Threshold Voltage Processor and the Hybrid Memory Cube. Intel claims that both technologies will consume significantly less [...]
ComEd Smart Grid Legislation Vetoed in Illinois
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) has vetoed legislation that would have authorized a multi-billion investment in modernizing Illinois’ electric grid while maintaining strict regulatory oversight and consumer protections. Along with fellow Democrat Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Governor Quinn formally axed the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (Senate Bill 1652) stating that the bill “puts too heavy [...]
The Effects of Clouds on Solar (via NREL)
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, recently published extensive data on the effect of cloud cover on solar power installations. NREL is one of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science, and is the only federal laboratory fully vested in the research, development, commercialization [...]