Technology

In the final part of our interview, Dan Shugar, goes into detail about a subject NEXTracker has studied in depth — static and dynamic evaluation of wind impacts on single-axis trackers. We include video of trackers (and a bridge) caught galloping in the wind.

To help safeguard residents’ health and comfort during an extended power outage, a new program will provide loan guarantees for solar+storage installations that could keep cooling systems, medical equipment and refrigerators running.

To integrate an increasing percentage of renewables, Hawaiian Electric has turned to a standard solar+storage framework, matching all new solar capacity with an equal capacity of storage with four-hour duration.

With tortoise-sized openings at the bottom of the fence, and improved growth of plants vital to tortoise survival, a solar farm in Nevada can provide better habitat than the surrounding desert. First Solar found similar habitat gains in California.

A team at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has come up with a new process that would reduce the production cost of highly expensive – and highly efficient – gallium arsenide cells.

Tesla shipped a record number of electric vehicles in the most recent quarter and started production at its new China factory. However, 2019 was not “the year of the solar roof,” despite Elon Musk’s aspirations. Your humble narrator tracked down some solar roof installations to witness Tesla’s solar glass in the wild. We’ve got pictures.

Is First Solar stalled in innovation and growth? Markus Beck, a thin-film solar expert and former chief scientist at First Solar, provides an industry perspective on the fate of thin-film PV in the U.S.

Venture capital is still flowing to energy storage startups and the march to improve a wide variety of battery chemistries continues.

Researchers at the American Institute of Physics have used the clear-sky irradiance model developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to measure the degradation rates of solar panels at a testing field in Germany over five years. The scientists say the model, when combined with real-world data, offers an efficient tool to evaluate the aging of PV technology.

DNV’s report sees federal policy as muddled, but individual provinces, states and cities are pushing electrification of buildings and transportation, significant per-capita efficiency increases, 30% less energy use overall, and coal going away in just over a decade.