Tag Archives: demand
Supply and Demand in Solar Materials Market
An increased focus on quality will drive growth in the materials market that supports solar photovoltaic panel production, according to a report from Lux Research. Oversupply of solar modules is beginning to balance out and the demand is expected to equal supply by 2015, according to the report. That will drive growth in the PV [...]
Energy Benchmarking: $9 Billion Savings Potential
Energy benchmarking can unlock $9 billion in energy savings by 2020, suggests a recent report by the Institute of Market Transformation. Despite our lofty aspirations of energy independence and tackling global climate change, we are only beginning to implement the first step in the multifamily building sector – understanding our energy use. Multifamily housing has [...]
America Speaks: 57% Want Government to Address Global Warming
Four out of five Americans now believe A recent poll from AP-GFK poll on climate values reveals that four in five Americans believe that “climate change will be a serious problem for the United States if nothing is done about it.” And that’s not all! The poll also found that 57% of Americans think the government should do “a [...]
Sustainability and the Modern American Family
There is probably no other annual event in American culture that extols the concept of family more than Thanksgiving. I’ll be at my in-laws’ home, watching as much sports as possible while still being friendly. We romanticize family in our society: just watch TV commercials to confirm that. But does our storytale version of family life [...]
Why Natural Gas Prices Matter
U.S. natural gas prices have fallen to lows not seen in a decade and have stayed at the lowest levels we’ve seen in a decade. As I write this in late October 2012, the Henry Hub price is $3.43, which is at least half what was considered “normal” fall pricing in the last 10 years. [...]
Louisiana’s Solar Boom: Just Getting Started
Louisiana’s solar market presents a baffling study of what happens when market forces come face-to-face with ideology, geography and demographics. Like most of the country, Louisiana has benefited from the more than 40% drop in average PV panel prices last year. By most accounts, this trend will continue despite the US Commerce Department’s proposed tariffs [...]
The Princeton Satellite Systems’ SunStation EV Charging Station
Solar EV charging stations are hardly new – as regular readers of SolarChargedDriving.Com surely know. But every now and then something comparatively new comes along in the world of solar EV charging. Now is one of those times, at least according to Princeton Satellite Systems, which claims it will soon be producing “the first 100 [...]
Amonix Closes Nevada Factory
After the recent news of Amonix closing its North Las Vegas, NV factory and the other bad news from Amonix, I am returning to my practice of labeling concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) “The zero-billion-dollar market.” I had shelved that phrase, and in a rare instance of optimism, had tried to be patient and understanding with PV’s [...]
Germany Finalizes FiT Cuts; China Ready to Step Up
The long awaited decision on the final cuts to Germany solar feed-in tariff (FiT) has arrived. The federal government and states have agreed to cap the FiT when installed solar capacity reaches 52 gigawatts (GW), reports Reuters. And the cuts which were scheduled for April 1 will remain in force. Those cuts reduce payments for solar fed into the grid by 20-30%, depending [...]
Coming Soon: Solar Grid Parity
Solar energy is en route to grid parity within the next few years, according to a report from London-based business analytics firm Global Data. Grid-parity means the cost of solar energy will be on par with the cost of other more traditional energy sources. Solar panel prices have plummeted in the last two years, driving [...]
Business is Booming at Martifer Solar
Who says the solar industry is slowing down? Not Martifer Solar USA. The California-based subsidiary of the international Martifer Group has seen a sharp rise in its project pipeline for 2012 growing to more than 100 megawatts (MWs) of anticipated solar installations. That’s a significant jump from it’s work in previous years. For instance, “Our [...]
Solar Junction Can’t Keep up with Multi-junction PV Cell Demand
You don’t hear this too much these days with all the silicon photovoltaic manufacturers suffering from an overheated market, but Solar Junction may face shortages of its mullti-junction gallium arsenide PV cells for concentrating PV (CPV) systems even as the company ramps up production. Most recently the company received an order of 5 megawatts from [...]