Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today in EGEB, a progress update on EU members hitting 2020 renewable targets. A Texas doctor aims high with his solar projects. Chinese regulators consider changes to solar subsidy policy. And a climate change prophet dies.

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Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today on EGEB, researchers at University of Texas’ Cockrell School of Engineering found a new way to integrate solar power production and storage into a single system. Rocky Mountain Institute reports that solar power will outperform fossil fuels on an economical basis to replace the U.S. aging power plants. A new University of Uppsala study argues Nordic countries could supply their energy needs using only green power.

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Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today on EGEB, U.S. oceans are about to get a little more crowded by wind turbines. China and India are the main players behind the massive expansion of solar power production. Scientists publish a new study that rebukes a previous one that claimed that powering a country only with renewable energy is impossible.

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Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today on EGEB, wind power producers are bound to be more competitive by using AI technology. Scientists want to create polymer that takes 10 times less energy to make. GE, in alliance with Arroyo Energy, has been awarded a new contract to build wind turbines for Chile. expand full story

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has significantly upped their global installation predictions of new solar power and other renewable energy technology through 2022. This updated growth prediction is greatly based upon the significant acceleration of solar power being installed in China and the abruptly falling prices of large installations. expand full story

In its latest ‘World Energy outlook’ report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that fossil-fuel subsidies dropped sharply by 35% last year – from almost $500 billion in 2014 to $325 billion in 2015. It’s a significant improvement, but the industry remains largely over-subsidized relative to the renewable energy industry, which receives about half the monetary value in subsidies – $150 billion. expand full story

Recent efforts by several large polluting nations have started to make a global impact in power capacity and now the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirms that renewable energy has overtaken coal as world’s largest source of power capacity as of last year.

The organization announced today that it is raising its 5-year forecast for renewable growth by 13% as it sees “stronger policy backing in the United States, China, India and Mexico.” expand full story

Solar Power now has more employees than either the Oil & Gas or Coal Extraction industries in the United States. The solar industry employed approximately 208,000 individuals at the end of 2015 versus 185,000+ in oil and gas, or 190,000 in coal extraction. Solar power employment is expected to grow an additional 15% in 2016 to almost 240,000 individuals. Globally, solar power now directly employs 2.8 million people as the largest renewable energy employer.

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Earlier this month SolarCity announced details of a new high-efficiency solar panel it plans on producing at its 1 GW module factory under-construction in Buffalo, NY. The company claimed that the module’s 22.04% efficiency was enough to make it the “most efficient rooftop solar module” ever made.  The claim apparently sparked a “war” of high-efficiency solar panels because in the week following the announcement two other solar panel makers claimed to have surpassed SolarCity’s record. expand full story