Texas retail choice design bests 13 other states in driving solar power
Retail choice is associated with lower retail prices for electricity, but only in Texas does it help drive more renewable power, says a Wind Solar Alliance report.
Can a transparent solar window harvest enough power to be practical?
Can an organic solar cell material finally be commercialized? Last year, Ubiquitous Energy claimed a world record for efficiency of a “transparent solar cell” with a “certified” 9.8% efficiency.
Energy storage roundup: If solar development was checkers, then storage is three-dimensional chess
Also in the roundup: Preliminary permit for pumped hydro in Nevada, solid-state batteries and a China battery slowdown.
Morning Brief: Saipem and Equinor to develop floating solar off the Indian Coast, Covid-19 is taking solar sales out of the home
Also in the brief: a lawsuit filed against the Spotsylvania solar project, West Virginia’s solar future sits at the governor’s desk, 16 MW for Richmond, Indiana and more.
Job moves at DOE, Enel, Trina, FERC, Engie, Sunpower, PG&E
Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy finance.
Panasonic suspending work at Tesla Nevada factory as California and New York gigafactories shut down
Tesla’s Nevada operation is still open for business. The EV and battery maker assures the market that its cash position is strong enough to weather an “extended period of uncertainty.”
Morning Brief: 350 MW project in Texas sold, Trina begins mass production of 500 W panels
Also in the brief: financing for a massive Texas project, distributed portfolio expansion in the DMV, Duke waives fees amid COVID crisis and more.
Forget toilet paper, Australians are panic-buying PV
Byron Bay-based solar retailer Smart Energy says it is seeing an unprecedented surge in sales and inquiries for solar and home energy storage as consumers look to shore themselves up in uncertain times.
Study of 100,000 arrays finds proactive O&M preferable
The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory examined five-year data to observe the most common system failure points and how to prevent them. Researchers considered residential, commercial and utility scale plants and found interesting results. While failures cannot be avoided completely, a key takeaway was that close monitoring and timely repair can effectively mitigate the financial effects of failures.
Morning Brief: Rare Utah earthquake knocks out power to 55,000
Rocky Mountain Power must respond to a natural disaster while social distancing. Plus, New York is good, but NIMBY about solar.
