This post showcases the Impulse, a really cool solar powered car built by the CalSol student group of UC Berkeley and that has been entered to compete in the World Solar Challenge. Hats off to these young engineers and designers for putting together such a sleek racer that showcases the power of the sun and lightweight vehicle construction. Events such as these are also an important way to raise awareness of the potential of renewable energy.
Interview with Solar Fred, who is a well known voice in the solar social media marketing space. The interview provides the reader with some insight into effective social media marketing, for solar and how effective a tool it can be if used well. It makes the point that in order to be effective and build trust social media marketers need to provide good information to the communities that they are trying to reach.
In this post John outlines two developments in the thermosolar concentrated solar power (CSP) arena that are enabling CSP to fulfill the role of baseload suppliers. Molten salt energy storage is naturally suited for CSP facilities and is quite efficient as an energy store — both in terms of low loss and in terms of capital expenditures (compared with batteries for example). By storing power in this way CSP plants can continue delivering power even after the sun has gone down. In addition by pairing CSP with stand-by combined-cycle natural gas generators greater overall reliability can be achieved.
In this post Pamela Cargill advises small solar firms on various ways that they can develop a successful forward-looking marketing strategy and move beyond the trap of reactive marketing that drowns so many small businesses in a continuous struggle to keep up.
The DOE’s “SunShot” initiative which is modeled after the highly successful Apollo moon shot program aims to spur innovations and rationalizations that will together slash the total system cost of solar photovoltaic systems by three quarters within this decade. If it manages to achieve these goals then solar PV would become cost competitive with other […]
Streamlining the building code process for solar installation could help rooftop solar reach price parity with the average price for electric power on the grid. This key price point is also known as grid parity. Permitting costs will add $1 billion to the price structure of solar over the next five years. This article poses the following question: With widely adopted standardization of best practices in solar system construction/installation in place and the 10-20 years of performance certification on actual operating systems in the field, why then is the permitting process stuck in time and why is solar treated as if it were still an experimental niche rarity that needed to prove itself before the building code bureaucrats can give it their thumbs up.
After lagging behind the utility scale segment of the solar power renewable energy sector is really starting to take off in the US; it is is now on par with the commercial and residential segments in terms of market size and growing at a higher rate. This post summarizes AltaTerra Research’s newest report, “Utility Solar: U.S. Market Takes Off”.
While the U.S. government lavishes loan guarantees and expedites review of projects on public land for multi-megawatt and even gigawatt solar projects, it’s small-scale solar that’s turning sunshine into electricity.
Department of Energy (DOE) secretary Steven Chu announces $50 million in funding for solar energy grid parity demonstration program for innovative solar technologies leading to cost-competitive solar energy that helps solar reach this important milestone.
