Canadian Solar calls Solaria’s ‘shingled’ cell patent claim ‘meritless and unfounded’
The patent infringement claim concerns a process for separating photovoltaic strips from silicon solar cells for use in more-efficient tiled or “shingled” solar panels.
Massachusetts doubles the size of its SMART solar incentive
Dubbing the measure an “emergency regulation,” the incentive program’s capacity has been expanded to 3.2 GW of incentive blocks, with specific carve-outs for smaller projects and low-income community solar projects.
On the road to high-value recycling, storage is ahead of solar
Solar lags, at least in part, because the major components of panels — glass and silicon — while highly recyclable, are not as valuable as the lithium, cobalt and nickel in batteries.
Morning Brief: Satellites help predict cloud cover for solar plants, REC Group did not infringe Hanwha Q-Cells’ ‘215 patent
Also in the brief: Vistra is increasing the size of its Oakland battery energy storage project, a University of Arkansas professor researching solar project cybersecurity and more.
Amid layoffs, some residential solar firms are outsourcing solar design
Outsourcing makes sense for startups and medium-sized companies, according to the CEO of Three Line Design
106,000 American clean energy jobs were lost in March
The industry lost 3% of its workforce in March, erasing the entire jobs growth of 2019. A report projects that, without taking action, 500,000 more jobs could be lost.
The life of brine
Solar remains an interesting option to power water desalination despite obstacles to its widespread adoption. A recent study has highlighted the processing or dumping of brine waste as an important factor to consider.
Pandemic’s utility impacts are coming into focus
Since the beginning of February, there have been widespread electric load declines of 3% to 11% across the U.S.
Morning Brief: Nation’s last new coal plant proposal denied in Georgia
Also in the brief: Audubon is looking at how to build environmentally friendly energy projects without harming wildlife. And DSIRE is adding energy storage incentives and targets to its database.
Duke warns solar producers it may cut power purchases
In the face of exceptionally low demand linked to the lack of commercial and industrial energy consumption and mild weather, Duke Energy has warned independent power producers and state regulators that the company may stop purchasing power that it’s contracted to buy from solar plants.
