2020

New research describes an algorithm that can calculate the ideal characteristics for a quantum dot to maximize cell efficiency.

Utility regulators approved Xcel Energy’s plan to spend $102 million over three years to build charging stations, incentivize homeowners to install charging equipment and provide support for converting school buses, government and business fleets to electric.

Also on the rise: 8Minute upsizes its credit facility, an NREL-led team publishes a new guide to inverter-based power systems, and Altus Power adds to its portfolio.

The pair were working to design and build a refuse truck based on a zero-emissions battery-electric drive platform and body while also integrating multiple new systems into a new state-of-the-art vehicle.

Also on the rise: A solar firm helps neighbors in need, researchers show how to turn a ZEB into a PEB, and researchers correct a climate model error: the fix isn’t good news for California.

Five articles (well, six, since news about Tesla made it twice) that captured the imagination of our audience during 2020.

The strategy includes accelerating the transition of technologies from the lab to the marketplace, focusing on ways to  manufacture technologies at scale in the United States and ensuring secure supply chains to enable domestic manufacturing.

The tool allows users to collect data on single municipalities from a dataset of 3,500 places. Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have the country’s highest solar radiation levels.

Also on the rise: A simple safeguard for the growing danger of arc-fault events; EDF Renewables signs a PPA; Soltec will supply trackers to AES

The solar ITC would remain at 26% for projects that begin construction in 2021 and 2022, step down to 22% in 2023, and down to 10% in 2024 for commercial projects.