Electricity Deregulation Blog

Original Solar Cell Inventor Scores $1.07M Millennium Prize

“Graetzel cells” could advance the renewable energy revolution

Scientist and professor of photonics and interfaces at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, Michael Graetzel, won the Millennium Technology Prize of $1.07 million for his dye-sensitized solar cells, also known as “Graetzel cells.”
These new dye-sensitized solar cells are low in cost, and can work on a broad scale. Graetzel cells [...]

State reveals plan to step up solar energy development

Nevada is serious about going solar.
The state already has more solar energy per capita than any other, but with its small population that hasn’t meant much to solar developers and manufacturers.
Enter the state Office of Energy.
It announced this evening plans to contract with solar photovoltaic installers and developers in the state to build solar installations [...]

Advocates of energy bill dismayed by Rell’s veto

 
Jason Ross makes his living installing solar power panels on homes and businesses. His Brookfield-based company, Ross Solar Group, has work lined up for the immediate future.
But Ross said the state’s Clean Energy Fund has only about $1.5 million to offer homeowners as incentives to add solar panels to their homes.
“That will pay for 20 or 30 [...]

Florida takes giant step with huge solar-power plant

Construction is ongoing at the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Indiantown recently. 
 
INDIANTOWN — Florida Power & Light Co.’s newest solar-energy plant will have enough mirrors to cover 80 football fields. But those mirrors will focus sunlight onto surfaces that add up to slightly less than the area of a single football field.
That [...]

SunEdison venture could lead to $1.5 billion in solar energy projects

SunEdison, a Beltsville firm that develops solar energy plants around the world, is teaming with one of the industry’s largest private-equity companies in a joint venture that could generate up to $1.5 billion in new projects.
The deal with First Reserve comes as the price of manufacturing photovoltaic cells has dropped sharply in the past 18 [...]

Solar panels are a hit at the Green Festival held at Navy Pier

Photovoltaic solar panels, solar thermal panels and solar shingles stole the show in displays all across the Green Festival. The human rights organization Global Exchange and Green America, a national environmental group respectively, jointly sponsored the show. .
But how does sustainable energy really work for a home, how much does it cost and is it really practical for [...]

NREL Study Shows Power Grid Can Handle Large Increase in Wind and Solar Generation

PHOENIX, AZ – The National Renewable Energy Laboratory released an initial study assessing the operational impacts and economics of increased contributions from wind and solar energy producers on the power grid. The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study examines the benefits and challenges of integrating enough wind and solar energy capacity into the grid to [...]

Entrepreneur looks to heat up solar

TORONTO – Up to now, the main impediments to powering your home with solar energy have been cost and a confusing sales process, but Dave Llorens wants to change that.
His San Francisco-based startup, One Block Off The Grid, operates as a kind of solar brokering middleman, gathering together large groups of homeowners to negotiate cheaper [...]

Could Solar Energy Provide 25 Percent of Global Power?

Watch it, coal: as a preferred energy source for human use in the next 40 years, the sun is on the rise.
A report from the International Energy Agency this week predicted that solar energy could provide 20 to 25 percent of global energy by as early as 2050, provided world leaders follow a pair of “roadmaps” for [...]

DOE funds to stretch solar power via salt storage

The Department of Energy is funding a series of projects that marry concentrating solar power with storage, which offers the potential of solar power plants that operate 18 hours a day.
The DOE said Friday that it has made $62 million available to 13 companies to test equipment and materials, such as molten salts, to add [...]