California climate policy to kill fossil fuels, shining a spotlight on solar
The California Air Resources Board released its most aggressive climate plan to date, targeting net-zero by 2045 or earlier, and creating 4 million jobs along the way.
Solar company protects 215,000 acres of Mojave Desert
Avantus partners with BLM and wildlife services to retire grazing rights and permanently dedicate land to wildlife forage.
American Red Cross building goes net zero with New Jersey rooftop PV deployment
The Red Cross’ New Jersey rooftop solar system will produce roughly 2.7 GWh of electricity over the next 20 years, the equivalent of powering 19 homes.
EIA study finds high solar penetration states showed resiliency to major power outages
The EIA study found that increasing solar states experienced outages of less than 102 minutes, while states with prohibitive markets for solar saw outages of more than 19 hours.
Due to forced labor concerns, U.S. ports have blocked over 1,000 shipments of solar components
Panel shipments collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars are blocked from entering the U.S. market as they have failed scrutiny under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, said Reuters.
U.S. DOE offers $43 million to support communities in building resilience
Research projects in 19 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will help with energy planning, increasing grid resilience, and restoring power after disasters.
Wisconsin groups find 100% clean energy + electrification to be ambitious but feasible
100% clean power plus electrification in Wisconsin would cost the same, when counting health benefits, as continuing “business as usual,” and would achieve four times the emissions reductions as 100% clean power alone, found a study sponsored by two Wisconsin groups.
Algae could boost solar panel efficiency by 4%
A Swedish team has inaugurated a pilot facility to mass produce algae material that can potentially boost silicon solar module efficiency by 4% and thin film by 36%. The algae are added to the encapsulant in silicon-based modules or to the anti-reflective coating on the glass of thin film modules. The team estimates the resulting modules would be 3.9% cheaper.
Proposed regional clean hydrogen hubs to compete for $7 billion in DOE funding
Several teams plan to propose regional hubs in which large-scale clean hydrogen production would be paired with industrial and other end-uses for hydrogen. DOE gave examples of technologies that could meet its draft standard for “clean” hydrogen.
DC rooftop PV providing domestic hot water to residential building at 140 F
Domestic hot water, with a heating system powered exclusively by DC solar power, has now covered the needs of an apartment building in Linz, Austria, for a period of a year. The 14 residential units are each connected to their own 1.36 KW solar arrays.
