Solar Voltaic Power

EV + PV = ROI

SolarCity makes electric cars an even smarter investment 19
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago The real story behind California's "solar highway" is how the emerging electric vehicle industry will foster the adoption of residential and commercial photovoltaic systems.
Nuke it

Lamar Alexander loves the earth too much to support solar and wind 12
Posted 2 months ago
One of the few Congressional Republicans who talks about the need to address climate change makes an interesting argument against wind and solar energy. It's a bogus argument, but still interesting.
Caveman congressman attacks—watch out, solar family 0
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
On the faux mathematics of large decisions

Could we replace the nation’s pavement with solar panels? 30
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
A while back I mentioned Solar Roadways, a clean energy idea that appears kind of kooky, at least on the surface. (See what I did there?) The notion is to replace paved surfaces with rugged, specially built solar panels.

The Solar Road Panels would contain not just solar panels but LED lighting (to enable real-time communication with drivers), heating units (to prevent icing), high-voltage power transmission lines, and even electric vehicle recharging stations. It's transportation, power, and grid infrastructure in the same place.
Solar passes gas

RE less than G 8
Posted 5 months ago
The next time someone tells you solar is too expensive, send them here (PDF).

It's a contract PG&E signed for a 230 MW solar photovoltaic project, delivering 592 GWh/year. That’s a lot. But the best part? Look at the chart on the bottom of page 3. It won't tell you the price exactly, but it’s below 13 cents/kWh—which is the proxy price for a combined cycle gas turbine.

Solar cheaper than the fossil fuel alternative.
Something New Under the Sun

PG&E signs first-of-a-kind space solar power deal 0
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago
Not many people I know think space solar is a low-cost, scalable solution.

Certainly it is worth pursuing any genuine low-carbon baseload power source if it can be practical and scalable — and affordable, which I would put at $0.15 a kilowatt hour or less for. The problem with space solar is that, like hydrogen fuel-cell cars, there is little chance it could be affordable until it is massively scaled up ...
Sunny City Up

America’s first solar city, from a former NFL player 7
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
A Florida developer announced plans to build a 19,000-home solar-powered city near Fort Meyers, the housing collapse be damned.
Safe for now

Washington state renewable plan avoids watering down 2
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Washington state’s Initiative 937, the renewable energy bill voters approved in 2006, looks to be safe from the meddling of state legislators.
Technology to Solar’s Rescue 0
Posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago
The power of water

French government interested in solar because it uses less water than nukes 1
Posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago
A year or so ago, I spoke at a solar conference in France -- a country that produces 78 percent of its electricity with nukes. A couple of folks told me that the government's interest in solar stemmed from the fact that during the previous summer's heat wave, river levels dropped to the point that they didn't have enough water to cool the reactors.
The afterlife

Heaven is solar powered 0
Posted 8 months ago
If the Wall Street Journal says it, it must be true.
No, I said 'dessert.' I want more dessert

Does Sen. Feinstein get global warming, desertification, and California’s looming demise? 0
Posted 8 months ago
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) appears to like deserts so much that she wants them to stretch from Oklahoma to California and cover one third the planet.
Green:Net '09: San Fran will follow Berkeley

Newsom says San Francisco will adopt Berkeley green financing model 0
Posted 8 months ago
Solar blogging

This post brought to you via clean solar electricity 0
Posted 8 months ago
Hello sunshine?

Los Angeles rejects solar plan, still likes solar power 0
Posted 8 months ago
Los Angeles citizens voted on a citywide solar energy plan on March 3, but the very narrow results didn't become official until yesterday: It lost (by about 1 percent).
Sun rises

First DOE loan guarantee goes to solar 0
Posted 8 months ago
Today the Department of Energy announced its first energy loan guarantee. It's going to ... Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels.
U.S. left in the solar dust

Solar PV market doubled to 6 Gigawatts in 2008 0
Posted 8 months ago
After growing 19 percent in 2006 and 62 percent in 2007, world solar photovoltaic (PV) market installations exploded by 110 percent last year to a staggering 5.95 GW, according to Solarbuzz's Annual Report, Marketbuzz 2009:
Feed-in tariffs, Chu off-message, MPG v. GPM, and the prospects for solar PV 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
How a small Nevada town lures major solar investment 0
Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago
L.A. solar not dead, regardless of final vote on ballot measure 0
Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago