Solar is really shining in Albany’s Earth Day activities this year. This week, the New York State Senate unanimously passed legislation to extend the successful NY-Sun program for 10 years and make New York a real solar powerhouse – on to the Assembly! Between the Senate vote and the Governor introducing similar legislation of his own earlier this week, there’s serious momentum for (more…)

The Heslin Rothenberg firm’s Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) 2012 Year in Review was published earlier this month. Always an interesting read, the CEPGI is a quarterly publication that tracks grants of U.S. patents directed to clean energy technologies.

The 2012 roundup reports that granted green patents hit an all time high of 3061 for last year, a (more…)

When I got started in this subject a few years ago, the efficiency of thin film solar (i.e., the percentage of sun’s radiant power that is converted into electricity) was measured in single digits. Here, we just achieved 16.1%, a huge increase from the former record holder at 14.7%. (more…)

Frequent commenter Cameron Atwood sent me this article describing Germany’s generous subsidies for solar PV and asked me to react to it.

Yes, the German program was overzealous; no one (no one I’ve come across, at least) disputes that. The program’s meteoric rise and fall over the past few (more…)

We hear a lot about grid parity, don’t we? That’s the point at which the cost of energy generated by solar, wind, and other renewables is the same as that generated from conventional sources. The author of this article on Sharp Electronics new 43.5%-efficient solar cell writes: “Sharp shattered the efficiency record with its concentrator triple-junction compound solar cell, (more…)

Now that the Sequester has officially begun, people are wondering what the impacts will be, both long term and short term. The message from the two sides of the political spectrum could not be more opposite. Republicans are confident that the concern is overstated, and the wasteful federal government needs the motivation to start effectively managing its (more…)

Frequent commenter Gary Tulie from the UK joins me in musing why the subject of clean energy is so politically divisive in the U.S. He offers the following:

I think it must only be in America that there is such an entrenched degree of animosity between the two camps. In Europe, it is not unusual for major traditional energy companies to also invest (more…)

The San Francisco 49ers just announced plans for a 400 kW solar array at their new stadium. Going solar and going to the Super Bowl – coincidence? At Vote Solar we think not.

In addition to beer, brats and overpriced memorabilia, stadiums across the US are delivering fans clean (more…)

Google kicked off 2013 with an announcement about a new, $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in west Texas. The wind farm can generate enough electricity to power 60,000 average U.S. homes.

The Spinning Spur Wind Project is located in Oldham County, which is about 35 miles from Amarillo. The 161 megawatt facility was built by (more…)

Legendary artist, singer, performer and activist Yoko Ono has lent her support to the anti-fracking campaign. On Monday Yoko placed a full page in the New York Times calling on Governor Cuomo to “Image There’s No Fracking … and give clean energy a chance.” The ad illustrates and describes how cement in wells at such great depths leaks, poisoning drinking water with (more…)