By Tina Casey •
July 10, 2009
Dirt and reflection are no friends to thin film solar panel efficiency, and XeroCoat Inc. is on the way to solving both problems with a set of patented solar coatings that keep solar modules cleaner while cutting down on reflection. The Redwood City-based company has just won a U.S. Department of Energy grant to develop a method for applying its anti-reflective coating directly onto assembled thin film modules. A XeroCoat subsidiary is also working on a complementary coating that resists soil and dust, under a grant from the Australian government. Along with lowering production costs and boosting efficiency, the coatings could substantially reduce maintenance costs for solar energy, bringing it closer to true cost-competitiveness with coal and other non-renewable fuels.
75-megawatt solar plant would also create hundreds of new green jobs
Not all of the big solar projects coming down the pike in the West will be on public land. A team of private investors today announced plans to build a solar photovoltaic plant in the state of Washington that would be the largest of its kind in the world.
The 75-megawatt Teanaway Solar Reserve will be located on 400 acres of formerly-logged private property four miles north of Cle Elum, in Kittitas County, Washington. If built, the plant would generate enough power for an estimated 75,000 homes. Currently, the largest solar photovoltaic plant in the world is a 60-megawatt facility in Spain.
Teanaway has not secured power purchase agreements with the major electricity providers, but project developers are confident they will find a buyer. Howard Trott, Managing Director and principal investor for the Teanaway Solar Reserve, said “We’ve had very good meetings with local utilities.”
By Tina Casey •
July 8, 2009
It’s a match made in green heaven: the San Francisco Housing Authority has joined with the venerable affordable housing developer McCormack Baron Salazar to install more than 365 kw of solar panels on public housing properties. The project is supported by San Francisco’s GoSolarSF Initiative, the largest solar panel rebate program of any city in the U.S, and it’s shaping up to be a bellwether for solar-powered housing across the country, affordable or not.
By Danny Kennedy •
June 26, 2009
Editor’s Note: The is a guest contribution by Danny Kennedy, President of Sungevity. This is part of a series from the CEO’s of major solar companies. You can follow the complete series here.
Sometimes it is hard to contemplate what a good news story our industry – solar sales and installation – and the broader clean energy economy really represents. I was reminded on Monday at the graduation ceremony [...]
By Susan Kraemer •
June 25, 2009
Move — to Louisiana:
According to SolarPowerRocks! Louisiana has a state tax credit of 50% for solar roof installations, the most generous state subsidy for solar — Combined with the 30% Federal tax credit for solar that we all get now; (you knew about that, right?) so in Louisiana you can put a solar roof up, paying only [...]
Ohio state trooper cruisers are getting small solar panels to assist in the powering of their onboard equipment. 1,150 Ford Crown Victoria cruisers will get 5 watt solar panels to improve battery peformance and reduce fuel consumption.
The solar panels will help power the radio and other electronics when the cars’ engines are turned [...]
By Edward Fenster •
May 27, 2009
Editor’s Note: The is a guest contribution by Edward Fenster, CEO and co-founder of SunRun. This is the fifth post in a series from the CEO’s of major solar companies. You can follow the complete series here.
As solar power and other renewable energy sources grow, so does awareness and debate about the role of renewable energy certificates (RECs). As the CEO of SunRun, which is the [...]
By Ariel Schwartz •
April 29, 2009
Last week, we took a look at San Diego’s revolutionary solar plan, which will allow residents to pay for solar panels through property tax bills over a 20 year period. But don’t pack your bags for Southern California just yet. Annapolis, MD has a similar plan , dubbed the Annapolis (EZ) Energy Zone Program.
By Derek Markham •
April 16, 2009
PlanetSolar, when completed and covered with 1500 square feet of solar panels, will be the largest solar powered ship in the world. A ship with an audacious agenda: to be the first to circumnavigate the globe powered solely by solar energy.
“In 2010, the first round-the-world trip powered by solar energy will be realized, with stopovers, along the equator, where the maximum amount of sunlight is available. The over 40,000-km voyage will last 120 days, for an average speed of 10 knots. PlanetSolar’s two-man crew will cross the Atlantic Ocean, the Panama Canal, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and finally the Suez Canal, to return to the Mediterranean.”
By Amanda Peterka •
April 12, 2009
What’s the Pope been up to since the installation of solar panels at The Vatican? Not much, it seems.
By Dave Tyler •
April 8, 2009
The head of BP Solar International says his firm will install 100 megawatts of utility-level solar power projects on U.S. soil in 2009.
Reyad Fezzani
told Dow Jones in an interview published Monday that his company, a subsidiary of energy giant BP PLC, is seeing high demand, and strong financing interest from investors. BP expects to manufacture 320 MW of
solar panels in 2009, roughly double the amount it made in 2008. That will be split about 60/40 between large commericial and utility installations and residential sales, Fezzani said. That equates to about 192 MW of large scale installations, with 100 MW of that in the U.S., he said.
