Solar power

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.

Swedish electric off-road motorcycle manufacturer CAKE is preparing to help combat endangered wildlife poaching in Africa.

Michael Phillips, the CEO of Sense, a technology company that makes a home energy monitor (pictured above) to track efficiency, cost, and reliability, told us about his predictions for six 2021 home energy trends.

Researchers at the UK’s Lancaster University studied a crystalline material — a solid material with parts such as atoms, molecules, or ions that are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure — and discovered it has properties that allow it to capture solar energy. The energy can be stored for several months at room temperature, and it can be released on demand in the form of heat.

Vote Solar, the Coalition for Community Solar Access, and solar provider Sunrun (Nasdaq: RUN) conducted a study that found that if just a quarter of US households were powered by local rooftop and community solar and storage, Americans would benefit financially and environmentally overall in a very big way.

Aurora Solar, a San Francisco-based SaaS company that develops tools that enable solar professionals to design and sell solar remotely — rather useful in a pandemic, eh? — announced yesterday that it has raised $50 million in Series B, bringing the company’s total investment to more than $70 million. This round, which Aurora says is the largest single investment in this market, was led by ICONIQ Capital.

Invenergy, a Chicago-based global developer and operator of green energy generation and storage, announced a 1,310-megawatt solar farm in northeastern Texas on Wednesday. It will be the largest in the US upon completion.

Sonnen has released sonnenCore, a cost-effective, all-in-one home battery solution. Germany-headquartered sonnen, a subsidiary of Shell, is a global market leader in smart residential energy storage and virtual power plants.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) last week announced that two 100-megawatt solar farms are being built in the Tennessee Valley to supply green energy for Vanderbilt University in Nashville and Google data centers in Bridgeport, Alabama, and Clarksville, Tennessee.

The green energy industry is obviously delighted about Joe Biden’s US presidential win. Biden wants to rejoin the Paris Accord, rapidly accelerate green energy, and create millions of green energy jobs. Here’s what five CEOs had to say about the president-elect.

Wind and solar capacity will double over the next five years globally and surge past both gas and coal, according to a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report published today, “Renewables 2020,” which is an analysis and forecast to 2025.

Independent think tank RethinkX, which “analyzes and forecasts the speed and scale of technology-driven disruption,” has released a report that says that most of the world is technologically capable of achieving 100% wind, solar, and storage electricity grids in 10 years.

It looks as though the latest holder of the title, “world’s largest solar farm,” is set to be Newcastle Waters in Australia’s Northern Territory. The solar farm in the Outback will be capable of producing 10 gigawatts and will be so big that it will be able to be seen from space.

Want to charge your electric bicycle or e-scooter for free, using solar power? The startup Swiftmile is making that happen with hundreds of new charging stations in the US and Europe.

Eight out of 15 deaths in Hurricane Laura on the US’s Gulf Coast were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from portable generators, as NPR wrote in September. And that’s not an isolated incident — 85% of all carbon monoxide poisoning deaths in the US are caused by portable generators because people mistakenly run them indoors or in their garage when they lose power.

Mark Rabin is the CEO of Vancouver, BC-based Portable Electric, which manufactures emissions-free mobile power stations — green generators — that run on solar and li-ion batteries. Rabin spoke with Electrek via email about the role electric generators can play in natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes and how vital it is to switch to electric generators and off fossil-fuel-powered generators overall, as quickly as possible.

• Greenlight Planet, the largest solar home product provider in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, secures $90 million.
• World leaders make a 10-point pledge to save the planet ahead of a UN summit.
• Maryland becomes the first US state to ban foam food containers.
• Arcadia Power is committed to making clean energy work for the planet and your bank account — all without changing your utility company. Sign up to receive your $20 Amazon Gift Card.

• The Florida Public Service Commission met about solar net metering and didn’t change the rule.
• China says it will achieve a peak in emissions before 2030 and become net zero before 2060.
• The world’s largest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank, has ordered 190 13MW wind turbines.
• Arcadia Power is committed to making clean energy work for the planet and your bank account — all without changing your utility company. Sign up to receive your $20 Amazon Gift Card.

Net metering allows residential and commercial customers who generate their own electricity from solar power to sell the electricity they aren’t using back into the grid. That saves money on electric bills.

But electric companies perceive that they make less money as a result, and they’re not so keen on that. So in Florida, utilities want to roll net metering back — and there’s a hearing about it tomorrow.