Solar power

California-headquartered green power solutions company Jackery is officially releasing the Explorer 1500 on April 5 – its largest solar generator yet. The company asked Electrek if we’d like to try it out, so Jackery sent me a review unit, and I happily put it to the test. Here’s what I found.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced yesterday that it intends to “cut the cost of solar energy by 60% within the next 10 years, in addition to nearly $128 million in funding to lower costs, improve performance, and speed the deployment of solar energy technologies.”

Singapore-based solar energy provider Sunseap says it has completed construction of a 5MW peak offshore floating solar farm in the Straits of Johor, between Singapore and Malaysia. It’s one of the world’s largest floating solar farms on sea water.

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

• New York City’s Community Power program creates solar installation jobs for housing authority residents and saves them money on energy bills.
• Los Angeles now has a road map for 100% clean energy with a new study from the NREL.
• UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

• A climate group report shows fossil-fuel financing continues to rise despite Paris Agreement pledges.
• The world’s largest coal mining company sets its sights on solar.
• UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.

Pennsylvania’s state government will source 50% of its electricity from seven new solar energy arrays. It will go into operation on January 1, 2023.

The Duane Arnold Energy Center in eastern Iowa, the current site of a now-idle nuclear power plant, will soon host a 690-megawatt solar farm. The new solar farm plus storage will replace the single-unit, 615-megawatt nuclear plant, which powered more than 600,000 homes.

Duke Energy Florida has announced that it will build two more new solar farms in the Sunshine State. This time, they’ll be in Citrus and Hardee counties.

The utility reported in February that it is investing an estimated $1 billion to construct or acquire a total of 700 MW of solar farms from 2018 through 2022 in Florida and will more than quadruple the amount of in-service solar on the system over the next four years.

The growth in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) – solar PV modules that are flush with the existing roof and perform the waterproofing function of shingles or tiles – since Tesla announced its solar roof in 2016 has been largely disappointing. Since then, BIPV has been a niche part of the residential solar industry, perceived as too expensive or experimental compared to the cost of separately installing solar on top of a traditional roof.

But big drops in solar cost and an increase in panel efficiency over the past few years, combined with innovation in business models, mean that BIPV could become the most popular residential solar option soon.

Electrek‘s Michelle Lewis spoke with Martin DeBono, president of GAF Energy, about BIPV and the future of residential solar. GAF Energy is part of Standard Industries and is a sister company to roofing manufacturer GAF, the largest roofer in North America.

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

• US solar will reach a total of 419 GWdc over the next 10 years, according to a new report.
• Global clean energy investment must increase by 30% to $131 trillion by 2050 to avert the climate crisis, says IRENA.
• UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.

There’s just something so natural-feeling about charging an e-bike from solar power. E-bikes are already such environmentally responsible alternatives to cars that they make me want to go the rest of the way and charge them in what feels like an environmentally responsible form too – with solar power that I generated onsite myself. 

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a 350-acre solar farm on agricultural land north of Livermore, California. This will be the Bay Area’s largest solar farm to date, once it’s built.

Boston-based Nexamp, Inc., a renewable energy generator and community solar provider, has closed a $440 million senior secured credit facility for a 380-megawatt portfolio of solar and energy storage assets. It’s one of the largest debt financing agreements of its kind.

The Biden administration is calling for action in order to stem climate change for a wide range of sectors, and that of course includes buildings and transport as major emitters. It’s going to require the rapid implementation of innovative new ideas and products.

Enter ready-to-roll – literally – “organic energy company” GO-OPV. All the products and applications are manufactured by GO-OPV from organic film printed by Brazilian company Sunew. The product is a thin film called ORENgE that can capture any light and convert it to clean energy in a more efficient way than traditional solar panels. The panels are thin, flexible, ultra lightweight, and can be used both vertically and horizontally.

Electric vehicle DC fast charging network Electrify America has opened 30 solar EV charging stations in rural California – and they’re free for customers.

Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) wants to fight Biden’s clean energy plan, despite being the No. 1 state in the US for wind power. Texas is also a rising star of solar power, not to mention the home of Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas. Yet, Abbott has issued an executive order to “protect” Texas’ energy industry from federal overreach, or in other words, President Joe Biden’s endorsement of clean energy. Or to put it another way, what Texas is already doing.

Sixty-six percent of registered US voters say developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress. That’s according to a study released last week by Yale University and George Mason University’s climate change communication programs.

Birds.ai, a Delft, Netherlands-based artificial intelligence (AI) company that specializes in visual inspections by “converting images into meaningful figures and numbers,” has debuted its newest product, View Solar, at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The addition of utility-scale solar capacity is expected to set a new record by adding 15.4 GW of capacity to the US grid in 2021, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced today.

A Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) research team published a paper in the journal Science earlier this month on the development of a perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell that achieved 29.15% efficiency. That’s a new world record.

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

• Considering installing rooftop solar panels? You now have more time to get the current tax credit.
• Here are some of the big green energy and climate change wins that came out of US Congress.
• UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.