Southern California Edison is asking regulators for approval of 75 new PV contracts, totaling 105.53 MW. All priced at the cost of building a new natural gas plant. Now can we stop saying that solar is too expensive?

Details in their Advice Letter, here (pdf). (more…)

Governor Cuomo just announced the first round of awards for the NY-Sun Competitive PV Program – and boy is it looking bright! The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) awarded $46 million for 76 large-scale projects totaling 52 megawatts (MW) of new solar capacity, enough to power nearly 9,000 New York homes. We’re excited (more…)

A city in southern California this week passed a zoning regulation that requires developers to install solar power systems on every new house they build. Beginning next year, all new homes built on lots at least 7,000 square feet in size in Lancaster, Calif. will be required to produce at least one kilowatt of solar electricity. (more…)

Egypt is a land of ancient mysteries. It is a desert country with one long river flowing through it. Desert means lots of sun. Egypt is preparing to build a billion dollar solar power plant with help from a suite of international donors. Construction of Kuryamatt, a 150-megawatt hybrid power plant that will use both solar energy and natural gas to generate electricity, (more…)

Renewable energy is the fastest growing sector of our national energy mix, yet a significant portion of Americans – including millions of residential and commercial tenants – are unable to generate their own power on-site from solar, wind, and other renewables. New shared renewables arrangements change that by allowing virtually any energy (more…)

A U.S.-based company that will soon finish construction of one of the world’s largest solar thermal power plants in the Mojave Desert, is now looking to build an even larger plant in Southern California.

BrightSource Energy, which is expected to begin producing up to 370 megawatts of electricity per day (more…)

Some bad news for PACE financing. As you may remember, after FHFA took action to stop residential PACE programs, a number of entities sued FHFA, claiming their action was not lawfully done. In a previous decision, the District Court for the Northern District of California forced FHFA to go through a rulemaking process on its PACE actions, and over (more…)

Our 2013 Utility Solar Champion Award goes to … drumroll please … The Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO).

Here’s why. The Hawaiian solar market is taking off. Just skyrocketing. Check this article out:

“In 2012, a total of 16,715 PV permits were issued [in Oahu], a figure more than 170 percent of the (more…)

Thin-film solar startup NuvoSun was recently acquired by Dow Chemical. Founded in 2008 by former MiaSole CEO Dave Pearce, NuvoSun designs PV cells and modules based on flexible Copper Indium/Gallium di- Selenide (CIGS) technology.

NuvoSun owns at least two pending U.S. patent (more…)

General Motors is not in the solar game just so we can tout it on our environmental blog.

There are very real benefits to using solar to power parts of our facilities, not the least of which is the fact that it’s better for the environment.

It can save money, too. (more…)