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Entries Tagged as 'Solar Energy'

Amid & After #Fiona, Solar keeps lights on in Puerto Rico (not that people would learn that from mainstream media)

September 22nd, 2022 · Comments Off on Amid & After #Fiona, Solar keeps lights on in Puerto Rico (not that people would learn that from mainstream media)

Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico’s power system hard enough that, for awhile, 100% of grid power services were cut off. Not a single utility customer was receiving power from the grid. That bleak reality doesn’t mean that 100 percent of Puerto Ricans (or, well, crypto buds avoiding taxes by residing in Puerto Rico) were without […]

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Tags: Disaster 4Rs · Distributed Energy · solar · Solar Energy

Apply Disaster 4Rs to New Orleans

August 31st, 2021 · Comments Off on Apply Disaster 4Rs to New Orleans

When it comes to the post disaster space, a major ‘lesson’ from the 1980s and 1990s U.S. military humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations is that effectiveness (protecting lives and property, reducing future risks, efficient resource use) requires coordination across organizations and coordination across phases. By ‘phases’, these can be summarized as the Three Rs: Relief: Life saving […]

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Tags: Solar Energy · sustainability

Solar Power: A Concentrated Path Forward

October 29th, 2018 · 2 Comments

Looking back a decade, solar photovoltaiic (PV) prices were over 20 cents per kilowatt hour (kwh), uncertainty existed as to polysilicon pricing (one of the reasons why Solyndra, potentially, seemed to make sense if silicon prices wouldn’t drop), and the future seemed extremely bright for concentrated solar power (CSP) leveraging solar power for heat to […]

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Tags: Energy · solar · Solar Energy

In light of shockingly low Mexican solar electricity prices, should Sunshot program change its targets?

March 31st, 2016 · Comments Off on In light of shockingly low Mexican solar electricity prices, should Sunshot program change its targets?

When Secretary Chu announced the Department of Energy’s SunShot program in February 2011, many (okay, most or nearly all) energy (related) analysts thought that the target of $0.05 per kilowatt hour for large-scale solar electricity delivery to the grid was beyond simply ambitious.  Great, perhaps, to have a stretch goal but I can recall multiple […]

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Tags: electricity · Solar Energy

Solar Price Decline Pause (The escalator version …)

April 7th, 2015 · 1 Comment

Around the world, solar prices are simply collapsing. With double-digit year-to-year growth rates and double-digit year-to-year price drops, solar electricity is reaching grid parity (and better) in new markets with virtually every passing day. For a long time, those fighting clean energy have argued PRICE! PRICE! PRICE! Those (including myself) arguing for the necessity for […]

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Tags: solar · Solar Energy

Tackling the renewable canard of ‘only X percent’

November 27th, 2014 · 2 Comments

There are a series of arguments used by fossil-fuel defenders / pollution promoters to dismiss the utility of renewable energy electricity options. One standard is to dismiss wind and solar by saying that it only delivers X percent of the electricity. The intent of playing to that number, with the emphasis on “only”, is to […]

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Tags: solar · Solar Energy

.@WhiteHouse makes clear that @EIAgov does lousy fossil fuel forecasting, ignores that its #Solar and #Wind forecasting even worse

May 30th, 2014 · 5 Comments

Weirdly, while spending many pages detailing how the Energy Information Agency (EIA) failed to predict accurately fossil fuel trends, the report’s authors failed to highlight that the real-world performance of renewable energy (notably wind and solar) has greatly outperformed baseline forecasts. With the President’s call for more solar energy, highlighting that renewables have been doing so well (in price reductions and speed of market penetration) would seem something strongly support of Administration objectives rather than for something to be ignored in a 42-page White House report.

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Tags: Energy · energy information administration · renewable energy · solar · Solar Energy · wind power

The Solar Photovoltaic Price Evolution Revolution

January 29th, 2014 · 1 Comment

This guest post comes from BruceMcF. In early December, the Guardian covered ALEC’s latest corporate-written attack on freedom, an effort to penalize households that place solar panels on their roof: An alliance of corporations and conservative activists is mobilising to penalise homeowners who install their own solar panels – casting them as “freeriders” – in a […]

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Tags: Energy · Solar Energy

Gov-Elect McAuliffe’s opportunity to turn dirty money to good

December 5th, 2013 · 2 Comments

The fundraising for the inaugural party for the incoming Virginia Governor, Democratic Terry McAuliffe, is seeing a serious lift due to donations from fossil-fuel dependent Corporations. Most notably, McAuliffe’s Inaugural Committee has received $25,000 from Alpha Natural Resources, an $8 billion coal company that gave $92,500 to Cuccinelli’s campaign. Dominion Resources, a Virginia-based coal, gas, […]

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Tags: dominion virginia power · solar · Solar Energy

Putting money where the mouth is … a(nother) solar edition …

July 6th, 2013 · Comments Off on Putting money where the mouth is … a(nother) solar edition …

At the Georgetown University climate speech, President Obama gave a tip-of-the-hat to the fossil fuel “disinvestment” campaign by commenting “invest, divest”. Convince those in power to reduce our carbon pollution. (Applause.) Push your own communities to adopt smarter practices. (Applause.) Invest. Divest.Remind folks there’s no contradiction between a sound environment and strong economic growth. Today, […]

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Tags: Energy · solar · Solar Energy