SolPad: A Compelling Foretelling Of Residential Solar’s Future

Last month, Silicon Valley startup Sunculture Solar unveiled its solar-plus-storage solution, to Jobsian fanfare. SolPad™ was all over the tech media on the morning of September 22 (here, there, and seemingly everywhere).

And while the iMac’s solar cousin hasn’t yet dented the universe, it seems that its effects were felt in Fremont. How else to explain Elon Musk tweeting at 10 am that same morning about the eventual unveiling of Tesla/Solarcity’s solar roof product? (He is known to be somewhat competitive, after all…) Or was that just one of the universe’s funny coincidences?

Owing to the comically belated nature of this article, most CleanTechnica readers have probably heard of the SolPad. (And wondered why CleanTechnica hadn’t covered it yet!) A combination solar panel + storage battery + microgrid generator that can be plugged directly into an electric outlet, it looks to be the world’s first all-in-one, off-the-shelf plug-and-play solar solution. SolPads can also be daisy-chained together to create bigger systems offering more power and storage, as required. Read more…

SolPad: A Compelling Foretelling Of Residential Solar’s Future

Yale-Led Project to Widen Access to Household Solar Receives Federal Grant

Over the past three years a Yale-led project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) yielded key insights into the kinds of incentives that will make solar more competitive in the household energy market and the valuable role of peer groups in influencing wider adoption.

A new $1.35 million grant from DOE will extend the project, allowing partner organizations to explore how to further broaden the appeal of solar power to a mass market — including low- and moderate-income households.

Led by Kenneth Gillingham, assistant professor at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES), the program will specifically examine the potential value of adding solar power in places where the power grid faces the greatest challenges to accommodating demand and strategies to make solar a more accessible option for lower income communities.

The project is funded by the DOE’s Solar Energy Evolution and Diffusion Studies (SEEDS) program. The Yale-led SEEDS-2 project will involve several partners, including: the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY); SmartPower, a social marketing firm; the Connecticut Green Bank; Duke University; and MySunBuddy, an online marketplace that connects solar owners with solar buyers. Read more…

Yale-Led Project to Widen Access to Household Solar Receives Federal Grant

India’s Rooftop Solar Power Capacity Crosses 1 Gigawatt Mark: Report

India’s Rooftop Solar Power Capacity Crosses 1 Gigawatt Mark: Report

All India | Press Trust of India | Updated: October 19, 2016 14:47 IST

  

by Taboola 

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Power generated by rooftop solar panels has crossed 1 gigawatt across India, a report stated.

New Delhi:  India’s rooftop solar energy capacity has crossed 1 gigawatt (GW) mark this year with 513 MW generation capacity added over the past 12 months, says Bridge to India report.

“As per the report, titled ‘India Solar Rooftop Map’, India’s rooftop solar capacity has crossed 1 GW mark this year,” said consultancy services provider Bridge to India.

India has added 513 MW of rooftop solar capacity over the past 12 months, growing at 113 per cent over previous 12 months, reaching total installed capacity of 1,020 MW, according to the report released today at Intersolar Mumbai.

Last year’s capacity addition is more than the addition of all previous years put together. 22 per cent of capacity added through PPA (power purchase agreements) based projects.

CleanMax, Amplus Solar, Cleantech Solar, Azure Power, Rays Expert and Hero Future Energies are some of the leading companies offering PPAs. Read more…

India’s Rooftop Solar Power Capacity Crosses 1 Gigawatt Mark: Report

Stanford University to go for solar rooftop energy

With one of the largest campuses in the country, the private research university in northern California announced the Stanford Solar Generating Station project last year.

US’ Stanford University is moving ahead with its goal that 50 per cent of its electricity will be powered by a new solar plant now in the final stages of construction. With one of the largest campuses in the country, the private research university in northern California announced the Stanford Solar Generating Station project last year. The plant, in Kern county of southern California, is scheduled to be functional by the end of November, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

After a testing period, according to a news release from Stanford, the plant located on a site of 242 acres, or nearly 1 sq.km, in the high desert region about 300 miles, or 483 km, southeast of Stanford is expected to be providing power to the 125-year-old school on a regular basis by the end of 2016. Read more…

Stanford University to go for solar rooftop energy

Energy Efficiency Is Key To Taking On Climate Change—Here Are The Numbers That Matter

Energy efficiency isn’t as sexy as inventing new, cleaner forms of power. But, if you care about climate change, you really ought to care about it. Efficiency will need to account for a third of emissions reductions by 2040 if we’re stay within relatively safe global warming limits, according to the International Energy Agency.

“Simply put, there are no realistic or affordable energy and climate change policy without a sizable and vigorous energy efficiency component,” the IEA says in a new report.

The good news is we are becoming smarter about energy use. Energy “intensity”—the amount of energy needed to generate a unit of global GDP—improved by 1.8% last year. That was higher than in 2014, even though energy prices have been falling, which normally encourages people to use more energy, not less. Read more…

Energy Efficiency Is Key To Taking On Climate Change—Here Are The Numbers That Matter

10 Myths About Solar Power — Busted

Despite the overwhelming growth of residential solar installations, many myths remain about solar power. Here are the top 10 solar power myths — and the facts that refute these myths.

Myth: Solar panels do not work well in cold climates.

Fact: Most solar panels actually work best in cold, sunny conditions. Conductivity increases in cold temperatures, making electricity flow more efficiently, while higher temperatures can reduce the panels’ efficiency. As solar panels get hotter, they produce less power from the same amount of light.

Myth: Solar power will get more efficient, so I should wait to buy or install.

Fact: While many companies are working to improve the efficiency of solar panels, the current technology for solar panels is well established — in fact, we’ve been using the same solar technology, more or less, since the 1960s. The potential efficiency gains of future panels are small compared to the panels ready for installation today, and the efficiency gains when measured in total dollars saved on your energy bills is miniscule.

Myth: I won’t live in my home long enough to make my investment in solar back.

Fact: Depending on your system and location, solar panel arrays can pay for themselves within6 to 15 years. Combined with the best state and federal tax credits and incentives, you could start seeing a return on your investment within 2 to 4 years. Solar panels also increase the resale value of a home by about $15,000, so even if you won’t be in your home for the next 15 years, you can still see a significant return on investment when you sell. Read more…

10 Myths About Solar Power — Busted

Paris Agreement on Climate Change to Take Effect November 4

The Paris Agreement on climate change will legally take effect November 4, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Wednesday after nine more countries ratified the pact.

The landmark agreement signed in Paris in April is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, most of which are generated by the use of fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal or natural gas. Most scientists say the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere is responsible for the climate change that has accelerated in recent years.

“I have visited communities on the climate front lines, from the Arctic to the Amazon,” Ban said Wednesday. “I have seen how climate impacts are already devastating lives, livelihoods, and prospects for a better future.”

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Paris Agreement on Climate Change to Take Effect November 4

Solar panels surpass coal-fired electricity in previously ‘unthinkable’ feat

Solar panels generated more electricity than coal in the past six months in a historic year for getting energy from the sun in the UK, according to a new analysis.

Research by the Carbon Brief website found that solar generated nearly 7,000 gigawatt hours of electricity between April and September, about 10 per cent more than the 6,300GwH produced by coal during the same period.

The figures represent a dramatic turnaround in the UK’s electricity supplies.

The first ever day when solar produced more than coal was only on 9 April – when there was no coal-fired electricity for the first time since 1882. But then May became the first ever month when this happened.

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Solar panels surpass coal-fired electricity in previously ‘unthinkable’ feat

Is New York Ready for Solar Power?

Solar power in New York City may finally be having its moment.

The number of residential projects across the five boroughs has risen to more than 5,300 this year from 186 in 2011, according to state officials, and there are another 1,900 in the pipeline. The solar boom has been prompted by a 70 percent drop in installation costs in recent years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, along with the streamlining of government approvals and incentives.

The upfront cost for installing solar panels on a single-family house runs between $20,000 and $50,000, but federal, state and city incentives and tax credits can cut that cost in half, said David Sandbank, the director of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s NY-Sun initiative, and homeowners say that once solar panels are up and running, monthly energy bills can fall by as much as 85 percent.

Most of the city’s existing solar projects are on single-family houses on Staten Island, but townhouse owners in Brooklyn are getting on board, and owners of apartment buildings in the Bronx and Queens are also starting to consider ways to harness the sun’s power.

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Is New York Ready for Solar Power?

Buffalo Steel Plant Turned Into Solar Panel Factory Indeed ‘a Symbol of Everything We’re Doing’

When New York’s Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomogushed over SolarCity’s new solar panel factory in Buffalo, New York, the audience, likely, didn’t grasp the recently-revealed meaning of his words: “It is such a metaphor—a symbol of everything we’re doing.”

The 1.2 million square foot building, being built by the state of New York on the site of a former steel plant, is looking more and more like another political promise of help for one of the poorest cities in the state that ends up enriching cronies without ever achieving any potential for the people.

New corruption charges reveal the pay-to-play model linked to Cuomo’s upstate “Buffalo Billion” economic revitalization plan—and the promised jobs look they will never materialize.

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Buffalo Steel Plant Turned Into Solar Panel Factory Indeed ‘a Symbol of Everything We’re Doing’