Tag Archives: utilities
SolarCity Raises $500M
SolarCity (Nasdaq: SCTY), a provider of distributed energy, just announced a $500 million lease financing agreement with Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). That translates to more than 100 megawatts of solar power. The combined lease is the largest of its kind for U.S. residential rooftops. SolarCity allows consumers to get electricity from grid-tied solar rooftops at [...]
In Focus: The Post-Subsidy Solar World
Let’s start out with a fact: the free market for energy is a myth. Every country uses subsidies in some way to encourage production and dictate consumption of different forms of energy. According to the International Monetary Fund, global post-tax subsidies for fossil fuels (which includes the external costs of pollution) amounted to $1.9 trillion in [...]
NREL Gets 2nd Solar Canopy
The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) now has a second Envision Solar International Solar Tree array at its Vehicle Testing and Integration Facility. Envision completed the installation of the solar EV charging canopy at NREL’s Golden, Colo. facility in mid-April. “I’m proud that we have been chosen again by NREL. They are delighted the [...]
The Solar Rooftop Boom in NYC
Things move fast in the city that never sleeps and solar’s been keeping pace. By the end of 2012, the amount of rooftop solar photovoltaic installations in New York City had boomed to 14 megawatts from 5.5 megawatts at the end of 2011—an increase of 8.5 megawatts in a year. That’s according to recent data [...]
M2M Communications: Will it Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
Call it what you will — the “industrial internet,” the “internet of things,” or “machine-to-machine communications” (M2M) — the seamless connectivity of devices is becoming one of the core drivers of the clean energy transition. There are now 1.3 billion M2M devices in operation around the world. By 2020, there will be 12.5 billion in [...]
Should Utility Companies Fear Micro-Generation?
Utility companies, that’s who. David Roberts over at Grist has just posted a fantastic series stemming from a report by the Edison Electronic Institute’s that outlines how the success of small-scale renewables could make utility companies, as we know them, obsolete. Roberts doesn’t skimp on details about how utilities operate or why the Edison Institute’s [...]
Foxconn Goes Solar
Infamous Foxconn, best known for the deplorable working conditions for Chinese workers that make Apple’s iPod and other products, is intent on developing a strong presence in the solar industry. The company first announced this decision in 2011 at the height of overcapacity in the industry. The last thing that was needed was a big new player that would bring [...]
Renewable Energy and Utilities
Utilities in the US and Europe are having to take a hard look at their business model – will it continue to be viable in an era of rooftop solar and distributed energy? As people finally realize the value of solar – that it can make them independent energy generators that don’t rely on the [...]
NREL: CSP+Thermal Storage Adds Value for Utilities
A concentrating solar power installation with a six-hour storage capacity can add $35.80 per megawatt hour to the capacity and operational value of a utility, finds the United States Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “We’ve known for a long time that CSP with storage adds significant value, however, we are now able to [...]