Renewable Energy News

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/7/body-clean-break-inspires-americans-to-pursue-energy-change.jpg" /pRenewable energy journalist Osha Gray Davidson recently released a book called Clean Break, detailing the German Energiewende (translation: energy change).  It’s a story of how the Germans systematically shifted to clean energy, finding as they proceeded that the possibilities were greater, the costs lower, and the benefits for ordinary citizens mo/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/7/body-u-s-geothermal-receives-balance-of-11-8-million-treasury-grant.jpg" /pU.S. Geothermal Inc., a renewable- energy developer with projects in three Western states and Guatemala, received the balance of a Treasury Department grant of $11.8 million for a project in Nevada./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/6/body-asia-report-china-recommits-to-energy-emissions-goals.jpg" /pAs China's national legislature opens up its annual meeting this week, issues of reducing carbon emissions and energy use are squarely on the table, perhaps signaling that incoming Premier Li Keqiang will push harder on environmental and energy concerns than his predecessor Wen Jiabao. China's State Council reportedly could spend 2.37 trillion yuan (US $380 billion) from 2010-2015 on such measures, and the nation plans to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 16 percent and carbon intensity by 17 percent over that period./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/6/body-uk-government-needs-plan-b-on-nuclear-wind-energy-can-rise-to-the-challenge.jpg" /pAn interesting story was posted on the Guardian yesterday, saying that the UK government needs a “plan B” on nuclear power because of the danger that new reactors will not be built in time to avoid energy shortages. Many of the UK’s ageing reactors will be decommissioned and there is no clear strategy for their replacement, the paper says. “The amb/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/6/body-us-had-1-63-billion-clean-energy-surplus-with-china.jpg" /pThe U.S. sold more renewable energy and power management products to China in 2011 than it imported, contradicting wide-held views that the Asian nation is becoming the world's dominant supplier, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/6/body-treasury-issues-statement-clarifying-the-impact-of-sequestration-on-section-1603.jpg" /pAs of March 1st, the potential impacts of sequestration on the solar industry have unfortunately become reality. On Monday the 4th, the Treasury released a “Message on Sequestration” clarifying its impact on Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009, more commonly known as the cash grant for the 30 percent investment ta/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/6/body-suntechs-d-day-nears-yinglis-mixed-results.jpg" /pNew developments in the battered solar energy space indicate the day of reckoning is fast approaching for embattled Suntech (NYSE: STP), even as the latest results from rival Yingli (NYSE: YGE) are showing early signs of a rebound for the battered sector. Industry watchers will recall that cash-strapped Suntech has nearly $600 million worth of bond/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/6/body-german-utility-rwe-to-cut-clean-energy-spending-by-half-from-2014-to-curb-debt.jpg" /pRWE AG will cut renewable-energy investment by half from next year as Germany's second-largest utility seeks to reduce debt and counter falling earnings./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/6/body-from-the-editor20.jpg" /pIt all comes down to a simple choice. Given technology and economic trends, the future of renewable energy is not a foregone conclusion, as states REN-21's new Renewables Global Futures Report 2013./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-creative-financing-for-renewable-energy.jpg" /pAs more homeowners and business become interested in installing solar, a myriad of financing options have evolved. From third-party financiers to solar REITs, the options available to benefit the renewable energy industry and end users keep expanding. This article highlights what alternative energy investors should know about trends in creative financing for renewables, and which investments should profit./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-what-the-sequester-means-for-the-clean-energy-workforce.jpg" /pNow that the Sequester has officially begun, people are wondering what the impacts will be, both long term and short term. The message from the two sides of the political spectrum could not be more opposite. Republicans are confident that the concern is overstated, and the wasteful federal government needs the motivation to start effectively managi/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-more-polysilicon-plants-still-under-construction-despite-enormous-pv-overcapacity-why.jpg" /pContradictory trends are currently pushing the polysilicon industry to simultaneously restrict production volumes while continuing to add new capacity./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-china-boosts-energy-emissions-goals-after-record-pollution.jpg" /pChina will step up efforts to cut its emissions and improve energy efficiency this year after record air pollution in Beijing, where the national legislature opened its annual meeting today./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-mit-researchers-develop-solar-to-fuel-roadmap-for-crystalline-silicon.jpg" /pBringing the concept of an "artificial leaf" closer to reality, a team of researchers at MIT has published a detailed analysis of all the factors that could limit the efficiency of such a system. The new analysis lays out a roadmap for a research program to improve the efficiency of these systems, and could quickly lead to the production of a practical, inexpensive and commercially viable prototype./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-armenian-roadmap-for-renewables-addressing-development-challenges.jpg" /pSurrounded by countries with significant hydrocarbon stores, Armenia's own fossil fuel reserves are limited to a small number of lignite or brown coal mines. Some oil reserves exist, but they are too deep to be economically viable. As a result, electricity generation depends on imported nuclear fuel (44%) for the country's Metsamor nuclear plant, due for decommissioning between 2017 and 2021, and natural gas (29%). Hydropower contributes around one third of the total power generation, with large hydro adding 24% and small hydro making up 3%./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-vattenfall-says-french-plan-for-edf-gdf-hydropower-dams-may-contradict-law.jpg" /pA French proposal to allow GDF Suez SA and Electricite de France SA to extend their concessions to run hydropower plants by 25 years may contradict national laws on allotting contracts for public services, Vattenfall AB said./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/5/body-12-things-you-can-do-in-one-day-to-market-solar.jpg" /pThis Solar Fred marketing post is inspired by a recent Seth Godin blog post. I really think Godin captures the spirit of how small but consistent efforts can make a difference — without having a million dollar ad budget. Below is my adaptation of Godin’s one-day-effort bullet points for solar marketing and innovation. Each of these 12 ideas can be /p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/4/body-geothermal-energy-in-iceland-too-much-of-a-good-thing.jpg" /pIceland is named the land of fire and ice for a good reason. It is certainly icy: temperatures hover around 10-20°F (-12 to -6°C) in the winter. But underneath that frozen earth lies fiery hot rock and water — so much of it that 87 percent of the country’s heat and hot water demand is met with geothermal energy and 25 percent of its electricity dem/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/4/body-how-to-follow-renewable-energies-into-emerging-markets.jpg" /pLarge-scale deployment of renewable energies has so far been concentrated in Europe and in the U.S., but that is changing. Take wind energy, solar PV and CSP (Concentrated Solar Power), for instance: 44 percent, 35 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of new capacity for the next five years will be deployed in emerging markets (Exhibit 1). For Nor/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/4/body-building-an-african-market-solar-entrepreneurs-on-the-rise.jpg" /pCharities' early efforts to distribute clean energy technologies in Africa met with little success. Their use of donor funding to heavily subsidise products such as solar lighting kits would generally fulfil a programme's short-term targets, but in the long run the expertise and equipment needed to maintain the systems failed to be adequately developed or provided. Crucially, no new systems beyond a programme's target would appear in the area. But a new wave of investors and social enterprises has sprung up in the last decade, and they are increasing the availability of products tailored to off-grid domestic energy customers in Africa./p