Sunny California is prime real estate for solar energy, and a number of California rebates make home solar systems highly affordable for Golden State residents. The only downside to these programs is that some have limited funding. Homeowners interested in solar panels will want to act soon to take full advantage of all the savings. (more…)

2011 was a year of much political chest thumping but not much progress on the significant issues. Subsidies for wind energy are among the many unanswered questions and are likely victims of the challenging budget decisions. The industry has grown used to generous subsidies for wind generated electricity. The current subsides are going to expire at the end (more…)

Gehrlicher Solar America has announced the completion of two additional commercial solar energy installations in the United States. The company completed a 151 kW ground-mounted system in North Dartmouth, intends to add another 5 MW of projects in the state over the course of 2012. (more…)

CoolPlanet Energy Systems (CoolPlanet) is a Camarillo, California, company that is developing a “negative carbon” drop-in gasoline replacement fuel from biomass.

According to the company’s web site, the fuel is made using proprietary biomass fractionator (more…)

More than 9,600 megawatts of wind power capacity was installed in European Union member states in 2011, accounting for about 21 percent of all new power capacity installations, according to an industry report.

New offshore wind farms in the UK and land-based projects in Sweden and Germany pushed EU (more…)

Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., more commonly known as Al Gore, was the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under former President William “Bill” Clinton. While many know Al Gore for the 24 years he spent as an elected official, today he is more known for his work as an environmental activist. Al Gore has founded a number of non-governmental (more…)

A new record has been set by the high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar module industry. A module made by Semprius, a company in which Siemens invested as a strategic partner in June 2011, reached 33.9 percent, breaking the previous record of 32 per cent. The module was tested by the Instituto de Energía Solar at the Universidad (more…)

Amid all the negative publicity that Solyndra’s failure has brought to the Administration’s cleantech efforts, one cleantech program has received broad bipartisan support: DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-e). In 2012, ARPA-e will receive $275 million, a 53% increase from the prior year with both the House and the Senate supporting significant (more…)

Renewable energy investments in India increased by more than 52 percent in 2011, the fastest growth among major global economies, according to a new report.

More than $10.3 billion was invested in renewable energy projects in India last year, with about $4.6 (more…)

San Jose added more residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems last year than any other city in California, according to the latest PV Solar Report, a quarterly analysis conducted by solar company SunRun.

San Jose’s number of home solar systems in 2011 was up 45.4% from just the year before, a dramatic (more…)