Element Power, a company that develops renewable energy products, has just finalized its plans for a hybrid solar-wind farm. The Wildflower Renewable Energy Farm Project will be located in California’s Antelope Valley. The Antelope Valley, part of the Mojave Desert that lies in northern Los Angeles County, is (more…)

USGS scientists and academic colleagues have investigated how California’s interconnected San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Bay-Delta system) is expected to change from 2010 to 2099 in response to both fast and moderate climate warming scenarios. Results indicate that this (more…)

For weeks now we’ve seen the Solyndra bankruptcy being used as a political punching bag. Now the overblown hype around one solar company is putting real industry growth and viable projects at risk. Enough is enough.

Last last week, SolarCity was informed that the DOE (more…)

Assembly Bill 361, the bill that would authorize and regulate the formation and governance of a new form of corporate entity known as a benefit corporation, passed the California Assembly and is now on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk. The governor has 12 days to sign the bill into law or to veto it. (more…)

That is to say: ‘closer than it appears.’

Incentives for the residential California solar market are down to $0.35/W (down from $4.50), or about 4% of the average reported cost of a system.

June set a new record for the largest amount of new (more…)

Looking to build a more sustainable, secure and prosperous energy future for California, Governor Jerry Brown has called for the development of 12,000 MW of distributed renewables like rooftop solar. To put that impressive goal in perspective, it’s more than twelve times the amount of solar that’s (more…)

Each investor-owned utility in California has developed a program designed to use distributed generation photovoltaics as wholesale generators. The approved programs total 1.1 GW over the next 4 years–an amount equivalent to the daytime output of 2 mid-sized coal plants. The first (more…)

Warming temperatures could significantly impact some of America’s premium wine growing regions within three decades, including counties in California that produce some of the nation’s most expensive wines, according to a new Stanford University study.

In Northern California, researchers predict, the (more…)

For decades California has lead the US solar industry, and is home to half of the installed photovoltaic solar capacity for the whole country.  While California is known for its abundant sunshine, its affinity for solar power and its large solar market are based on far more than this.  One of the biggest reasons why California (more…)

A San Francisco judge ruled in March that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) must stop implementations of regulations under the state’s 2006 climate change legislation (AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) because the state didn’t adequately consider alternatives to a cap-and-trade plan for carbon emissions. In (more…)