As solar rooftop systems continue appearing in homes and businesses nationwide, A new issue is being posed: combining more distributed solar generation so that more customers can efficiently reap the benefits of this renewable, clean energy source. There is no place where this growth and the challenge are more evident than in Hawaii’s utility companies such as the Hawaiian Electric Companies – where solar power systems supply approximately 20 times more…
One year ago, I wrote an article on how the shared solar program is extending access to clean energy options for every American; instead of limiting the solar energy options available to those with ample roof space, Shared solar schedules permit tenants, neighbors, small-scale businesses, local non-profits, and various other organizations to profit from the solar energy produced by the panels. A key benefit to shared solar advantages is the…
This week, the Energy Department announced a new SunShot Technology-to-Market financing opportunity that will provide $45 million to companies and entrepreneurs to develop new solar technology for the market. We’re excited to see how these opportunities will help boost the solar industry’s growth. As President Obama stated in his last week’s State of the Union in the State of the Union address, every three weeks during 2014, we’ve installed nearly as much solar energy…
Last week the Energy Department announced an unprecedented hackathon to create software solutions that make it easier, faster, and cost-effective for Americans to use solar energy for their lives. More than 700,000 developers, coders, and data scientists will take part in this set of software-related challenges in the race to win the chance to win up to $500,000 worth of prizes. HTML0 is the SunShot Catalyst Prize program and a brand…
The cost of solar electricity continues to decrease, and it will become among the most affordable sources of electricity in 2030–and the market for solar jobs will continue to expand. The year 2014 saw just one of each 78 jobs created in the U.S. was solar-powered. The sector’s rapid growth must recruit competent workers to keep up with the demand. This is why the SunShot Initiative recently launched an opportunity for SunShot Training and Education Professionals (STEP)…
Solar energy has increased dramatically since President Obama began his presidency. Its share of energy linked to our nation’s power grid has grown by 20 times, and solar jobs have increased by 86 percent. All while supporting President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to help cut carbon emissions that contribute to climate change and meet the Clean Power Plan targets. Research supported by the SunShot Initiative aimed at improving technology and making it…
How do you define solar power as “soft costs,” and why are they important? This article explains how soft costs affect the price of solar power systems. We look at some new methods being developed to reduce the soft cost and maintain the rapid growth of solar energy across the United States. What are soft costs? Soft costs refer to the non-hardware expenses related to going solar. These include permitting the installation,…
A research project to develop an original solar sail made it to the last stage of the NASA project. The third phase of the Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC) will enable researchers to continue investigating and creating an innovative, diffractive solar sail for two years and receive a funding amount of $2 million, writes George Dvorsky for Gizmodo. The award could push the concept of a solar sail, an area of space exploration…
This week, President Joe Biden signed a new, ambitious bill that aims to tackle human-caused global warming in the coming decade. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the House and the Senate approved on parties earlier in the month, also tackles inflation, the deficit in the federal budget, prescription drug prices subsidizing health insurance and corporate taxes, and other issues. Biden returned from a brief holiday to sign the bill to law, writes…
Arable land is at a record high. Since the end of the ice age, humans have cleared over one-third of the planet’s forests and two-thirds of the wild grasslands, much of which is used for agriculture. As the global population of 8 billion as of November last year –continues to grow, there’s a growing demand on the land to produce more food and clean energy. In areas like Yakima County, Washington,…
