Tag Archives: supply
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. [...]
Ed Dolan Discusses Affordable Energy
We were fortunate enough to speak with the well known economist Ed Dolan on various energy and economic issues. In the interview Ed talks about the following: • Why cheap energy is not vital to economic growth • Why high oil prices aren’t necessarily a bad thing • Why the U.S. Oil and gas boom is hurting [...]
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 [...]
Green Skills Needed to Become An Energy Contractor
Since 2005, the nonresidential green construction market has grown from two percent to 41 percent — or $48 billion — of market revenues. And electricians are amongst the highest in demand trades. Here is a look at skills (such as familiarity with LEED certification and energy auditing) that will help electricians ‘green’ their skill set [...]
In Focus: Off-Grid Renewable Energy
At the beginning of August 2012, the world’s biggest power outage hit India leaving 600 million people without electricity. India’s burgeoning electrical grid failed to meet the extreme demands of its growing economy. They simply did not have enough capacity to meet the high demand of electricity in cities. The power outage threw the urban [...]
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 [...]
Solar Polysilicon Capacity Expansion Slows Significantly
Polysilicon capacity has almost grown by 10x in the last 5-6 years as massive demand growth from solar panels made suppliers add capacity without thinking about future sustainability. OCI and GCL Poly which had no polysilicon capacity till 4-5 years ago added almost a hundred thousands tons of polysilicon capacity to become the top 2 [...]
Record High Solar Investment Growth Will Continue
Solar power projects broke a record in 2011 with more than $209 billion of investment in 2011, according to a report released this week by GlobalData. Solar power investment topped wind energy investment last year, capturing 49 percent of the global renewable energy investment, according to the report. And there is tremendous growth opportunity in [...]