The launch of new “plug-n-play” solar panels has generated buzz in recent weeks. The manufacturer, Colorado-based Onyx Service & Solutions Inc., introduced the product earlier this month.

The new 330-W system will offer homeowners the option of purchasing a complete, pre-packaged solar (more…)

Just before Christmas day, Google announced it has made a new $94 million investment in a portfolio of four solar photovoltaic projects currently under construction by Recurrent Energy near Sacramento, CA.

“This investment represents our first investment in the U.S. in larger scale solar PV power plants that (more…)

The fastest growing solar market in the world is on pause as the Ontario government invites input from stakeholders on its two-year old Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program. Half way through the six-week FIT Program Review initiated by the new Minister of Energy, Chris Bentley, Ontario Solar Network is bringing industry (more…)

The solar thermal market has been showing steady growth, but I predict the U.S. industry is on the path for record growth on par with the solar photovoltaic industry. Let me explain why.

Based on the 2010 solar markets trends report, the solar thermal market is not showing fast growth. It (more…)

The use of on-campus solar power has increased 450% in the last three years. American colleges now have 137 MW of installed solar energy, said the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), which has created a database of hundreds of campus solar PV (more…)

Last week’s Get Some Sun webinar featured Galen Barbose from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab discussing the results of Tracking the Sun, an assessment of the changing cost of going solar across the U.S. This is the fourth edition of this annual report, and each year we eagerly await its release to see hard (more…)

Yesterday morning Paula Mints from Navigant Consulting shared her insights on the latest global solar PV market trends with us – a timely webinar topic given the highly publicized fallout from those very global market dynamics. Paula put a firm kibosh on assertions that the aforementioned Solyndra failure (more…)

I had such a great response to my recent commentary that I thought it would be worth the time to take an in depth look at the implications of such a massive undertaking.

Now that we know it’s physically possible for solar photovoltaics (PV) to supply all of the electricity (more…)

On Monday, the French Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (known here by her initials, NKM), presented new regulations for large solar installations.  (above 100 kWp, or more than a thousand square meters).

According to the Minister quoted by the French daily (more…)

Alta Devices, a Santa Clara, California solar PV company, recently announced that its gallium arsenide solar cells have set a new efficiency record of 28.2%.

The company’s press release quotes Alta co-founder Eli Yablonovitch, who says the trick (more…)