solar

The Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, part of a hydro-solar integration in the high desert on the Tibetan Plateau, has helped the country move toward its ambitious targets for increasing generation from cleaner fuel

U.S. utilities continue to announce closures of financially troubled and older coal-fired power plants even as government officials work on a bailout plan to keep them operating. Owners of a coal plant in Montana that has only been online since 2006 informed the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week of plans to shutter the […]

ROCKLIN, Calif., November 14, 2017—SMA today announced that 13 Sunny Central Storage inverters are being used in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) Beacon Energy Storage System, a 20 MW battery storage project at the Beacon Solar Plant in the Mojave Desert. The new storage project will be owned and operated by […]

The U.S. House of Representatives on November 2 proposed a tax bill that would phase out the wind energy production tax credit (PTC), extend a tax credit for the nuclear power industry, add credits for geothermal and fuel cell programs, and end a tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles. Wind energy proponents decried […]

Ugandan officials said they want to double the country’s installed power generation capacity over the next two years, primarily with the construction of hydropower projects. However, those same officials

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the need for cheap electricity in Southeast Asia will drive global demand for coal for power generation through 2040, even as many countries continue to retire coal-fired plants and cancel projects for new coal facilities. IEA, which is set to release its World Energy Outlook 2017 on November 14, […]

Florida Power & Light (FPL), which recently sustained a blow to its nuclear expansion plans, on October 19 said it’s about halfway through an ambitious plan to add eight new solar plants in the state by early 2018, as it continues to increase its photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity as part of a larger strategy to […]

An analysis by the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute shows wind power generation capacity in Texas may already have surpassed coal-fired capacity in the state, and wind almost certainly will have leapfrogged coal by early next year, as wind farms continue to dot the landscape while more coal plants in the state are […]

Electricity from a 5.76-MW solar farm in Massachusetts will be stored in an adjacent energy storage system as part of a plan announced October 4 by ENGIE North America (ENGIE NA) and Holyoke Gas & Electric (HG&E). The project is part of Massachusetts’ Peak Demand Management Program. HG&E, which received a $475,000 grant from the […]

A joint venture of two Russian companies is building a solar power project in southern Siberia based on heterojunction technology (HJT), which is touted as a high-efficiency solar cell concept. Researchers

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on September 22 found that photovoltaic (PV) solar cells being imported into the U.S. are causing “serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic industry.” The decision comes in a highly contested case filed by bankrupt solar panel manufacturer, Suniva, and SolarWorld. The […]

Soltage LLC, a leading national renewable energy company, has completed the 4.75-megawatt (MW) Bird Machine Solar Farm on a brownfield in Walpole, Massachusetts. The new solar farm, built on the former Bird Machine industrial site, utilizes 14,600 panels to produce nearly 6 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year – enough to power roughly 623 homes […]

Egypt is rising to become the next solar hotspot. Part of the government’s ambitious sustainable energy strategy is the landmark solar feed-in tariff (FiT) program, which sees the utility-scale solar power plants taking off in the country for the first time. Made up of solar photovoltaic power plants with a combined capacity of 500 megawatts […]

Dubai’s government on September 16 said its state energy utility has awarded a $3.9 billion contract for construction of a 700-MW solar power plant at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The government said the project includes an 850-foot-tall tower that will receive focused sunlight, the world’s tallest such structure in a solar […]

The solar industry enjoyed its largest second quarter in history, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) announced, kicking off the annual Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Las Vegas. In the latest U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, GTM Research and SEIA found that in Q2 2017, the industry installed 2,387 MW of solar photovoltaics (PV), […]

U.S. utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems have achieved the targets set by the Department of Energy’s  (DOE’s) SunShot Initiative three years early, the DOE announced on September 12 at the Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Las Vegas. The average cost of utility-scale solar is now 6 cents/kWh. The original 2020 goal of the SunShot Initiative […]

Projects Add Solar Energy to Public Energy Provider’s Renewable Energy Portfolio (Rocklin, CA – August 31, 2017) When leading solar integrator Coldwell Solar and not-for-profit electricity provider Sonoma Clean Power break ground for a combined 2 megawatts of solar energy facility–generating enough electricity to power 600 homes–it will mark the next step in the journey […]

Canadian Solar Expands Solar Power in Japan. Canadian Solar in July started commercial operation of its latest group of photovoltaic solar power plants in Japan as it continues to build its solar presence in

The combination of solar power and water is in use around the world, with various solar arrays placed on lakes to provide renewable energy from the sun. However, a project in Portugal has found a new way to

Xcel Energy on August 29 said it wants to retire 660 MW of coal-fired generation capacity as part of a “Colorado Energy Plan” that also includes adding as much as 1,700 MW of renewable energy and 700 MW of natural gas-fired power generation to its portfolio in the state. A key element of the proposal […]

groSolar, CMS Energy, Dairyland Power Cooperative, and Price Electric Cooperative, are pleased to announce the commercial operation of the 3.4-megawatt (MW DC) Flambeau Solar project in Flambeau, Wisconsin. The Flambeau Solar Project features single-axis trackers that track the sun from east to west throughout the day, greatly increasing the efficiency of the project. Throughout the design and construction of the […]

If you’ve been paying attention to the power markets in recent years, you know that merchant coal and nuclear power plants are struggling to compete against natural gas-fired generation and renewable

In late June, Panda Green Energy Group Limited connected the first-ever panda bear-shaped solar plant to the grid. The plant, which is currently in its testing phase, is only the beginning. “This is the

The microgrid installation at the Ameren Illinois Technology Applications Center (TAC) near the University of Illinois campus in Champaign—designed, engineered, and constructed by S&C Electric Co. of

The challenge was to take a facility that was far off the grid, and move it forward as an energy self-sufficient complex while also turning an idea into a commercially viable product. That was the impetus

Self-contained, small islands of electric generation, storage and distribution inside the existing grid–microgrids–could be the next big thing in electricity. But some argue they may be just another

A long-shuttered Tennessee nuclear power plant project has been reborn as a solar farm, with the energy produced there made available for use by local residents and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Phipps Bend Nuclear Power Plant project in Surgoinsville was canceled by TVA in 1981, a victim of the negative sentiment toward nuclear […]

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO’s) geographic footprint extends down the middle of the U.S. Because of the structure of its market, MISO has artfully avoided some nasty policy and

Marking a significant milestone, power generation from the combined utility-scale and small-scale wind and solar installations in the U.S. surpassed 10% of the nation’s total power generation in March, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The news comes on the heels of an announcement last week by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) that […]

The company plans to build all of the new universal solar capacity cost-effectively – meaning that these investments will result in net savings for FPL customers over and above the cost of construction. FPL estimates the eight new plants will generate millions of dollars in net lifetime savings for its customers. “FPL is living proof […]