The global energy landscape continues to change as more and more renewable energy sources and diversified energy systems become a substantial component of the energy infrastructures across the world. Given the onset of these new energy systems, the overarching return of diverse energy sources will become a more and more important factor in the future design … Continue reading »
solar power
How To Build A Microgrid
While developed countries have enjoyed access to reliable electricity for nearly a century, energy access across the world remains one of the greatest challenges of our time. Globally, over 1 billion people still live without access to electricity today, putting them at a major developmental disadvantage. It has been shown that access to energy stimulates … Continue reading »
The Promise of Energy Storage
In spite of its critical importance to modern technologies and infrastructures, electricity has remained a transient resource that has virtually no shelf-life. Once electricity is generated from an energy reservoir, which can supplied by any type of energy sources, the electric current has to be used instantaneously by an electricity consuming device, or be lost otherwise. … Continue reading »
Atacama – The Sun of Chilean Energy
Chile’s Atacama desert provides some of the best natural conditions in the world for solar power. Long periods of horizontal solar irradiation create great natural conditions for solar power in Atacama, which ultimately translates into lower cost of generating solar energy. Chile has supplemented the favorable natural conditions for solar power with encouraging market conditions for … Continue reading »
Africa leaping off-grid
Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the least developed areas in the world. According to the World Bank, of the approximately 940 million people living in the region, roughly 600 million lack access to electricity. Moreover, the number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa without electricity has actually been increasing as the population growth has outpaced the rate … Continue reading »
Rate-design wars are the sound of utilities taking residential PV seriously
Imagine walking into your supermarket with a bag of zucchini from your garden and saying that you’d like to trade them straight up for an equal quantity of zucchini next month. The store manager would explain that they aren’t in the business of making wholesale purchases at such small scale, and that when they do … Continue reading »
The California Solar Initiative is ending. What has it left behind?
Nearly all the money has been spent, and the California Solar Initiative is winding down. The direct CSI subsidy for installing photovoltaic (PV) panels on your house, which started at $2.50 per watt (of installed peak capacity) is now just $0.20 per watt. As of last week, the program has spent about $1.68 billion on … Continue reading »