Alternative Energy / Solar Energy

• Italy Overtakes Germany as the Largest Solar Market in the World

  According to Dr. Henning Wicht, director and principal analyst for photovoltaics at IHS (a global information and analysis provider), "propelled by residential and institutional investors who support green initiatives as well as sustainable funding, Germany has been the world's leading country for PV installations since 2009,” however, they may be about to lose that spot to the previous runner-up, Italy. The new PV solar systems installed in Germany are down 20% from 7.4GW last year to 5.9GW in 2011. Demand in Germany dropped due to high module prices at the beginning of the year, and although a mini-boom was seen…

• Perfect Storm Blows Another Solar Company Onto the Rocks

  “In the past few months, SOLON SE had engaged in intensive efforts to carry out a financial restructuring. It held talks with investors, the financing banks and the guarantors. Today, the negotiations on an amicable solution failed. SOLON SE will now use the opportunities for a restructuring within the insolvency proceedings.  An application for the opening of insolvency proceedings was subsequently filed for the following subsidiaries: SOLON Photovoltaik GmbH, SOLON Nord GmbH and SOLON Investments GmbH.” —Solon SE (S001) press statement That was the short sweet announcement that Solon SE, Germany’s first photovoltaic panel producer listed on the stock exchange…

• India Embraces Solar Power, Says Price Will Equal Thermal Power in Five Years

  Economic South Asian superpower India has firmly embraced solar power, advancing the target date by five years for selling solar-generated electricity at the same rate as electricity generated by fossil fuel plants, from 2022 to 2017. According to government officials, the reason for moving the date forward is plummeting tariffs in the latest solar development projects, a trend that they believe is likely to continue. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Joint Secretary Tarun Kapoor said, "The prices will come down further next year and will continue to fall. Earlier, our aim was that solar power will achieve grid-parity by 2022, but…

• Warren Buffet’s Sweet Solar Energy Deal - Funded by U.S. Taxpayers

  Yesterday, First Solar (FSLR) announced that it had sold its interests in a big solar project called Topaz. The buyer was MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. So Warren B. is behind the transaction. I think he got another sweetheart deal. This time, it’s the taxpayers who will be making Buffett richer. The transaction is between two companies. As a result there has been little disclosure of the actual terms and conditions. The following is my thinking on what is behind the transaction. If I have it wrong, the nice folks from Omaha can send me a note…

• Australia Going Solar - Gonna Cost Ya, Mate

  Green activists, take note – for Australia fully to embrace solar power, Canberra would have to spend $100 billion, with photovoltaic cells to generate the electricity covering an area twice the size of Sydney in order to replace Australia’s indigenous inexpensive coal-fired power plants with renewable energy sources.  This is not an insignificant figure, as Australian coal currently generates 80 percent of Australia's electrical energy output. The grim statistic was contained in the recent report, “Keeping the Home Fires Burning,” issued by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. So, who is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute? Tree-hugging, wallaby and kangaroo friendly ecological leftists…

• World's Largest Solar Storage Deal Could Herald a New Era For Solar Power

  On Tuesday, BrightSource Energy and Southern California Edison added storage capabilities to three of their power purchase agreements, which collectively represent the largest solar storage deal in the world and mark a fundamental shift in the utility-scale solar market. With these agreements, utilities are now explicitly placing a higher value on resources – like solar thermal with storage – that provide cost-competitive, reliable and dispatchable power to meet peak demand. By adding storage to its solar thermal power plants, BrightSource is able to further reduce the total cost of energy by increasing its capacity factor - how much power a…

• China Solar Manufacturers Decry U.S. "Dumping"

  The western press increasingly portrays China’s energy policies as omnivorous, circling the globe to acquire any and all energy assets to feed China’s booming economy. But this picture is overly simplistic, as authorities in Beijing are scouring the country to provide any and all exploitable energy assets, including those beloved of environmentalists worldwide – renewable energy resources. As an indication of the government’s seriousness, Beijing has recently committed an extraordinary $49 billion into national investments into solar power and wind, biomass and geothermal projects, assisted by government-backed stimulus packages. Current Chinese government energy policy legislates that non-carbon energy renewable resources…

• What Keeps Solar Energy Executives Up at Night

  I found myself stumbling across a lot of discussion about solar energy the past few days. There is both good news and bad news. San Francisco where I live is host to the U.S. Solar Market Insight conference which is officially sold out so conference organizer GTM Research has teased those of us not attending with online conference highlights. GTM is doing the event in collaboration with the solar industry trade group, the Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®). SEIA is crowing because it expects the US to install about 2,000 MW of new solar capacity in 2011 passing the 1GW…

• Will we Ever See Solar Powered Cars on the Road?

  If you like the sun, and you like cars, then I’m guessing you’d love to have a solar-powered car, right? This trick works well for chocolate and peanut butter, but not so well for garlic bread and strawberries. So how compatible are cars with solar energy? Do we relish the combination or spit it out? Let’s throw the two together, mix with math, and see what happens. What Are Our Options? Short of some solar-to-liquid-fuel breakthrough—which I dearly hope can be realized, and described near the end of a recent post—we’re talking electric cars here. This is great, since electric…

• Chu Defends Solyndra Loan Guarantee in Five-Hour Testimony

  The US Department of Energy (DOE) did not break the law when it restructured a loan guarantee for now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu said, even though he acknowledged the US government is unlikely to recover much of its investment in the failed company. Chu testified for nearly five hours during a contentious Congressional hearing about the department’s decision to issue the $535 million loan guarantee. Some Republican legislators contended the guarantee was made for political reasons and on behalf of George Kaiser, a major donor to President Barack Obama’s campaign who was an equity…