California Sets Winter Record for Solar Energy Production

"California has set a new record for the amount of solar energy it generates during the winter season. According to data from CalSO, the state reported 1,029 megawatts of solar energy being introduce into the California power grid. Moreover, the state came close to generating more than 1 gigawatt of solar energy on the Winter Solstice, which is the day when the state receives its least amount of sunlight. While the new record pales in comparison to the sheer amount of energy that the state needs, it does show that California continues to make significant progress in its solar energy endeavors."

The Fuel of Tomorrow Reported Today

The Permanent Advantage of Solar Power Stations: Free Fuel

"Rebranding is always a tricky exercise, but for one field of technology 2013 will be the year when its proponents need to bite the bullet and do it. That field is alternative energy. The word “alternative”, with its connotations of hand-wringing greenery and a need for taxpayer subsidy, has to go. And in 2013 it will. “Renewable” power will start to be seen as normal."

The Economist

750MW of Solar Energy in Riverside County to Power 200,000 Homes

“The 750MW project will represent one of the largest PV projects on public lands in the Californian desert and will be developed, owned and operated by McCoy Solar, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, on 1,780 hectares of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Riverside County.

As part of the array, a 14.5-mile generation tie-in line and 2-acre switch yard connecting with Southern California Edison’s Colorado River Substation will be built. During peak construction, McCoy Solar believes that the project will hire 600 workers and up to 20 workers during operations.

Output from the proposed project is estimated to be enough to power around 200,000 Californian households.”

PVTECH

Watch the Cincinnati Zoo Generate Solar Power in Real Time

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden  

Coal Mining Museum Saves Money With Solar Energy

The Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum in Wales

“In an ironic twist a coal mining museum has opted to install solar panels as a green energy alternative. The Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum located in Wales has installed 200 solar panels on its roof. The reason the famous coal museum chose this action was because it wanted to save some money on its electricity bill.

‘Coal is such an important part of Wales’ heritage, and yet green energy will play a major part in its future.  A solar powered coal-mining museum is a fantastic way to celebrate this national journey.’” 

The Inquisitr

Off-Grid Solutions | Clean Energy for Un-Electrified People

Solar Panel Installation in Ecuador

“A few months back Nancy Wimmer told us about Bangladesh’s solar success.  In one of the poorest countries on earth, a renewable energy company, Grameen Shakti, is busy installing nearly 1,000 solar home systems each day.  It turns out all that small solar has achieved something quite big. In November Grameen Shakti hit one million Solar Home Systems installed. The company’s milestone reinforces a lesson that is increasingly clear: Whether it’s Germany, the U.S., or even China, distributed solar installations are driving the solar revolution.

The Bangladesh story is particularly exciting because Grameen has single handedly shattered the energy ‘axioms’ on which the international policy community has relied for decades: ‘Renewable energy is too expensive.’  Wrong!  ‘Even if solar makes sense, the poor can’t afford it or they won’t pay.’  Wrong.  ‘The grid will come regardless so off-grid, decentralized energy is a waste of time, money and effort.’   Wrong, wrong, wrong. What Bangladesh does prove is that Carl Pope is right: deploying solar makes the most sense for off-grid areas where the economics are compelling and the need is great.”

EcoWatch

GM Goes Solar Outside USA

"The solar power installation is expected to produce renewable energy equivalent to the energy required to power 1,200 homes in South Korea for a year.  It is the equivalent of providing electricity to 221 homes in the U.S. for a year. Rob Threlkeld, GM's manager of renewable energy, said: 'This array will be the fourth-largest in our solar energy portfolio, joining our plants in Germany and Spain that house large solar capacities on their rooftops.'"

Justmeans

Third Generation Sunkist Grower Goes Solar

“As a third generation Sunkist grower, Nick Bozick has always understood the value of sustainability and as President of Richard Bagdasarian Inc., he is expanding that commitment with the launch of a leading-edge solar technology system at the company’s packinghouse in Mecca, California. The 300kW photovoltaic solar energy system will generate electricity for the Bagdasarian plant with no air emissions, no waste production and no water use.”

PerishableNews.com

Solar Energy | Higher Education Turns to The Perfect Marriage

Environmental
Plus
Financial Conservation

"Colleges and universities across the United States are increasingly using solar energy to power buildings and facilities in an effort to "go green" and save green. Some public institutions are facing budget cuts, and solar installations have proven to be a smart investment that leads to lower electric bills.

Specifically in California, schools are looking to solar energy as a way to deal with smaller budgets while still being able to afford teacher salaries and attract top talent. A recent Forbes article reported that many schools throughout the state are turning to low-interest loans for renewable energy systems, as well as state rebates available for PV installations, to make the projects a smarter choice. Money saved from lower energy bills as a result of the solar installations are easily used to pay back those loans, one expert said in the article.

“In California especially, schools are having budgets cut for the third, fourth, fifth year in a row and are looking for ways to make up shortfalls in their general fund budgets by using capital dollars," the article stated.

For example, at Laney College in Oakland, California, school officials expect a recently installed solar project to save the college about $20,000 every month on electricity costs, according to Forbes."

GetSolar.com

SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink to the Imperial Valley | Supplying Clean Energy & Jobs

“The deals are with Tallbear Seville LLC to purchase 20 megawatts from a facility under construction northwest of Brawley, and with 8minutenergy Renewables to buy the same amount of power from the Calipatria Solar Farm.

Both projects are expected to come online in 2015 and deliver power to SDG&E over the Sunrise Powerlink, a major energy transmission line connecting San Diego with the Imperial Valley.

’The Calipatria Solar Farm will deliver clean energy to over 9,000 households in SDG&E's service area and create more than 50 direct and 100 indirect jobs in the Imperial Valley,’" said Martin Hermann, CEO of 8minutenergy Renewables.

‘We would like to thank SDG&E for their continued commitment to the Imperial Valley, where the unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation,’ he said.

SDG&E reported that 20.8 percent of its sales last year were for renewable energy. In the last two years, the utility has signed contracts to add 1,879 megawatts of power from renewable sources.”

Fallbrook Bonsall Village News

Solar Power | Entrenched Energy Monopolies Bring On Standard Divide & Conquer PR/Media Blitz

“California Utilities Say Solar Raises Costs for Non-Users

Raising Caps

The growth is also driving efforts to raise net-metering caps. California revised the way it calculates its limit in May, effectively doubling to about 5 gigawatts the amount of solar energy that state utilities will eventually be required purchase.

California utilities oppose efforts to expand net-metering programs. Solar customers, who typically sell power to the grid when the sun is shining and use the income to offset charges for using electricity at night or on cloudy days, “are just using our system as a storage device,” said Jazayeri.  'They should pay something for that service.'

So far, regulators haven’t been sympathetic to utilities’ complaints about rooftop solar power. The California Public Utilities Commission rejected in January San Diego Gas’s request to impose a “network use charge” that would have added a fee to customers with rooftop solar panels.

Easing Stress

And solar developers say rooftop systems actually benefit the power grid by providing power during the hottest parts of the day. That eases stress on wires and transformers and helps utilities defer maintenance and upgrades, said Todd Pedersen, chief executive officer of Blackstone Group LP’s Vivint Inc., which installs residential solar.

‘We need an honest cost-benefit analysis of adding distributed solar to the grid,' Pedersen said in an interview in New York.  'It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve this now because I see no signs of slowing as solar becomes cheaper than the utilities in most states.'”

Bloomber Businessweek

Solar Manufacturing | Generating Jobs in San Antonio

San Antonio Alamo at Sunrise

"Nexolon America LLC says it plans to build a manufacturing facility at Brooks City-Base that will produce solar panels and create more than 400 manufacturing jobs at an average annual salary of more than $44,000.

The company plans to invest more than $115 million in a 10-year ground lease of some 86 acres of land on the Brooks City-Base campus. In addition, it will contribute $500,000 over five years to Alamo Colleges for solar energy workforce training programs.

The Nexolon America project is the result of a 400 megawatt Power Purchase agreement signed on July 23, 2012, between CPS Energy and OCI Solar Power. To secure the bid, CPS Energy required OCI to establishment an anchor facility to manufacture solar energy products, invest at least $100 million and create at least 805 solar energy-related jobs."

San Antonio Business Journal

Solar Energy | Who's thinking about the oceans of undeveloped rooftop space?

"Softbank Corporation is Japan’s Tokyo-based and third-largest cellphone carrier, but it has been getting into the energy game since the Fukushima disaster really shook up its CEO. In September, it was announced that Softbank and Mitsui would team up to build the largest solar power plant in Japan. Now, Softbank has announced that it intends to install solar panels on the rooftops of 1,000 homes in order to take advantage of the country’s incentive program for clean energy.

Softbank is using Sharp and Suntech solar panels for this project, and it will sell the electricity generated by them to utility companies."

Clean Technica

Solar Energy Farms Generate Electricity & Cash

Water utility expected to rake in close to $100,000 to benefit ratepayers

"Two solar energy farms owned by Marlboro’s Water Utility Division are expected to once again generate cash, in addition to electricity, for the municipally controlled entity.

While the two solar panel fields have reduced the cost of the water utility’s operations by about $150,000, the farms also yield SRECs, which can be sold to energy companies to satisfy state quotas related to the production of solar energy, township Business Administrator Jonathan Capp wrote in a memo.

'The impact of solar generation relative to water rates charged to customers has been substantial,' Capp said of the combination of monetary savings and SREC sales."

Spend Less. Create More.

News Transcript

High-Voltage DC Breakthrough Could Boost Renewable Energy

The largest power plant in the world: Three Gorges Dam, China

"Thomas Edison championed direct current, or DC, as a better mode for delivering electricity than alternating current, or AC. But the inventor of the light bulb lost the War of the Currents. Despite Edison's sometimes flamboyant efforts—at one point he electrocuted a Coney Island zoo elephant in an attempt to show the technology's hazards—AC is the primary way that electricity flows from power plants to homes and businesses everywhere.(Related Quiz: "What You Don't Know About Electricity")

But now, more than a century after Edison's misguided stunt, DC may be getting a measure of vindication.

An updated, high-voltage version of DC, called HVDC, is being touted as the transmission method of the future because of its ability to transmit current over very long distances with fewer losses than AC. And that trend may be accelerated by a new device called a hybrid HVDC breaker, which may make it possible to use DC on large power grids without the fear of catastrophic breakdown that stymied the technology in the past.  (See related photos: "World's Worst Power Outages.")

Swiss-based power technology and automation giant ABB, which developed the breaker, says it may also prove critical to the 21st century's transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, by tapping the full potential of massive wind farms and solar generating stations to provide electricity to distant cities."

National Georgraphic Daily News