U.S.-based BrightSource Energy has shelved its second major solar thermal project this year as the company and Pacific Gas and Electric terminated the utility’s contract to buy power generated by the plant in south-central California.

In an email, a BrightSource spokesman said the $2.9 (more…)

Not sure if you’ve heard, but it’s summer here in Vancouver. By “summer”, I mean ‘it’s-been-mostly-terrible-weather-but-after-two-months-of-rain-and-cloud-we’re-finally-seeing-the-sun’. We’re not bitter…I swear. Ok, that’s a lie. We’re totally bitter about it. But, it’s out of our control, West-Coasters, (more…)

(Reuters) – California’s supreme court refused to consider a lawsuit filed by an influential environmental group seeking to delay construction of a solar plant because it might harm rare plant and animal species.

The state supreme court said it (more…)

California may be doing more than any other US state so far to reduce dependence on fossil fuel energy and emissions. This week California yet again took great strides toward a low-carbon economy, cracking down on carbon emissions while also moving to ensure fossil fuels are replaced with renewable power sources. Last week, as I’ve written (more…)

On Nov. 4, the Quechan Native American tribe filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, to block the Imperial Valley Solar Project.

Slated for 6,359.56 acres in El Centro, in (more…)

Commercial building owners, facility managers and real estate brokers throughout California will be challenged starting January 2011 when Assembly Bill 1103 goes into effect. The new energy performance rating system will provide energy consumption information on nonresidential buildings. (more…)

After years of delay, things are finally heating up for large-scale solar thermal power plants in California’s remote deserts. In the last month, a California Energy Commission (CEC) siting committee has recommended at least five solar plants for approval. Last week the first of these projects gained official go-ahead from the agency. The Beacon Solar Energy project (more…)

U.S. officials are expected to approve by this fall what would be the world’s biggest solar power plant, a 1,000-megawatt project in the California desert that developers say could power 800,000 homes. The Blythe Solar Power Project, which would use concentrated solar thermal technology, is to be built on 7,025 acres of public land in Riverside County, about 10 (more…)

We are not ones for pessimism, so we’ll call this the character-building period of the PACE campaign. The California Energy Commission has just announced that they are putting their PACE program on hold. (Read more here). We have scant time before the August congressional recess. This means time is short to get an immediate legislative fix to the PACE crisis. (more…)