Solar power

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

• Thailand is building one of the world’s largest floating hydro-solar farms.
• Hershey signs two solar PPAs in journey to cutting emissions by 50% by 2030.
• 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.

The US Department of Energy announced the winners of its collegiate competition, the Solar Decathlon, yesterday. The contest, which has been running since 2002, challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by clean energy.

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

• Award-winning Superclean Glass makes a transparent electrodynamic shield that repels dust from solar panels.
• Facebook has procured enough clean energy projects to meet 100% of its energy needs.
• 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):

• Xcel Energy has filed to replace its coal plants with what would be the largest solar farm in Minnesota.
• A Clean Cars Illinois program would create jobs and save money.
• 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 the early 2010s, Pat Collins, a 7th-grade life science teacher at Chisago Lakes Middle School — in Lindstrom, Minnesota, about 35 miles northeast of the Twin Cities — was having a discussion about solar panels with his students. One asked why they couldn’t just use solar power at the school, so Collins said he would look into it and see.

A few school board meetings that eventually included student speakers (one of whom made her grandfather, a longtime school bus driver, cry from pride), several inventive fundraisers that included janitors paying students by the pound for gum spit into a bucket rather than stuck under desks, and several years later, the Chisago Lakes School District is now 100% solar.

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

• The Navajo Nation will build two more solar farms that will create jobs, revenue, and electricity.
• Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan includes funds for capping oil wells, but who should pay?
• 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):

• Solar and wind led the record growth of renewables globally in 2020, according to IRENA.
• South Dakota wants to subsidize more EV charging stations.
• 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.

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.