Tag Archives: review
RECAP: Solar Market Insight 2012 “Google Hangout”
The Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA)’s and GTM Research’s “Google Hangout” on their new Solar Market Insight 2012 report just ended, and it was highly informative. If you missed it, here’s a quick recap. According to SEIA, “2012 was a historic and busy year for the U.S. solar energy industry,” in which PV installations “grew [...]
Review: The 2012 Solar PV Industry
The difficulties that the global solar industry experienced in 2012 were both clear and expected. Continuing excess solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing capacity spurred a collapse in prices across the PV value chain, creating consistently negative margins and negative profitability for upstream PV manufacturers. This led to a large number of bankruptcies, insolvencies and acquisitions, but [...]
Looking Back: Solar in 2012
Looking back on the solar in 2012, U.S. manufacturers have struggled to stay afloat amidst the solar trade issues with China, but it wasn’t as bad for the rest of the industry. Despite the attempt to promote U.S. manufacturing of PV by cracking down on Chinese dumping of solar products below fair market value, Chinese [...]
Review: GreenFest SF 2012
If you were in search of eco-friendly apparel, local-raw-vegan-organic snacks, free massages, live feel-good music, and signing petitions to prevent deforestation, then GreenFest SF was the place to be this past weekend. But don’t be fooled, it wasn’t all granola hippies. Technological innovation and alternative investments were a big part of the scene, attracting and [...]
My InterSolar 2012 Recap
We just returned from InterSolar North America 2012 and here are our reactions to the show, in no particular order, some good, some bad and one really pretty ugly… IS ? SPI This was our first exposure to InterSolar; previously we had passed up on the show in favor of Solar Power International (which we [...]
Review: Solarexpo 2012
Solarexpo 2012 was held in Verona, Italy, last week, and the Enphase team was there to spread the word about the Enphase Microinverter System to the world’s second largest solar market. The growing Enphase Italy team welcomed visitors to the booth, who came to learn about microinverters and enjoy refreshments such as fresh expresso, parmesan cheese and prosciutto. Over the three [...]
Powering the People 2.0 Review
Last week I attended the Edison Foundation’s Powering the People 2.0 conference to see AREVA Solar’s Bill Conlon speak about energy innovation. While I was there to listen in about solar energy’s benefits for electric utilities, I couldn’t help but notice a lack of solar in general. I heard a similar theme from an associate [...]
2012 U.S Solar Energy Forecasts
The solar sector will face some intense headwinds in 2012. Despite obstacles, the solar market may add at least 25 GW of new capacity in 2012. In North America the market for photo voltaic solar panels has a projected compounded annual growth rate of 42 percent between 2011 and 2015. Last year was tough for [...]
Review: The 2012 Toyota Prius C
It’s getting toward sunset and I’m lost, sitting behind the wheel of a cherry-red Prius C prototype, at the bottom of a very steep hill somewhere in the urban wilds of San Diego. My driving partner, Melissa Hincha-Ownby, looks over and flashes a big grin. In addition to being an auto-geek, the MNN blogger is [...]