American-Made Challenge gets five generals
NREL has chosen five companies to help administer the America-Made Solar Prize, a program whose stated goal is to develop U.S.-based solar manufacturing. These five companies receive contracts of $100,000 each for their services.
The solar sponge: shifting demand to soak up production
A new report by the Smart Electric Power Association argues that a process called reverse demand response can allow utilities to minimize curtailment of solar while simultaneously lowering power prices.
Employee owned engineering firm installing advanced electric vehicle charging on campus
Burns & McDonnell, a 6,000-strong engineering firm, is installing a Greenlots EV charging network and integrating it into the company’s campus network. The engineers hope to offer EV related services to their many electric utility customers.
How to install solar power strong enough for a hurricane
The 2017 hurricane season gave analysts at the Rocky Mountain Institute a broad dataset of storm-related solar power plant outcomes, from which they have delivered a list failures and specification for high wind speed survival.
Researchers propose doubling today’s solar panel efficiency using two weird tricks
By double stacking a perovskite-silicon solar cell and using the cell in a glass-on-glass bifacial solar module, scientists model that a 30-36% efficient solar module can be attained.
A plan for California to kick the gas habit
A set of analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists show distinct pathways for California to lower its total gas plants from 89 units today, down to 33 units. The analysis suggests a combination of 25 GW of solar, wind, storage and more.
32% tandem cell solar still competitive at triple the price
ASU researchers have determined that a 32% efficient perovskite-silicon tandem cell could produce electricity at the same price as cutting-edge 22% efficient panels in the most cost-competitive of situations.
84 gigawatts of community solar, and the plan to get there
GTM Research has delivered its vision for the future of community solar through 2030: delivering opinions on the policy, structure, finance and innovation needed to move the market forward.
California electric car culture to cheaply cook the duck curve
Analysis by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that California’s electric car mandate could relieve “duck curve” stress at much better pricing than new standalone energy storage, if properly utilized.
Senate proposes business-as-usual energy budget
The U.S. Senate has called for stable funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in 2019, with an emphasis on EVs, as well as increasing the budget for ARPA-E by 6.5%.
