January 2017

I am no fan of musicals, but the creators of the Broadway hit “Rent” posed an interesting question: How do you measure a year? That show mentioned a year can be measured as five-hundred twenty-five-thousand six-hundred minutes (well, a non-leap year, that is), then suggested something about love. As the editor of a monthly print [...]

As executive director of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association, I spent much of my summer in corporate conference rooms at the headquarters of Xcel Energy, the utility serving about 60% of Colorado’s population. We had embarked on the most complex energy negotiations in state history and eventually reached a landmark settlement between Xcel and [...]

Tesla Closes Acquisition Of SolarCity Elon Musk’s “master plan” is coming to fruition, as Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity officially closed at the end of November. According to a Tesla blog post, the electric vehicle (EV) and battery maker’s  shareholders “overwhelmingly” approved the all-stock transaction: “Excluding the votes of Elon and other affiliated shareholders, more than [...]

Solar Market Benefits From Illinois ‘Nuclear Bailout’ Bill On the final day of its veto session, the Illinois General Assembly approved the Future Energy Jobs Bill (S.B.2814), controversial energy legislation that ultimately received support from environmental and solar advocates. Gov. Bruce Rauner, R-Ill., signed the bill on Dec. 7. The final legislation is the result [...]

NEXTracker Launches Storage-Integrated Solar Tracker California-based NEXTracker, a Flex company, has launched a solar-tracker-plus-storage solution. The new NX Fusion Plus solution integrates a tracker, battery, inverter and software. By incorporating battery storage technology into its product, NEXTracker says it will further increase the energy output and duration of solar power plants. “NX Fusion Plus is [...]

Chernobyl, Site Of Nuclear Disaster, To Get Solar Makeover Two Chinese companies plan to start constructing a massive solar PV project in Chernobyl, Ukraine – home of the infamous nuclear power plant disaster – in 2017. In a press release, GCL System Integration Technology Co. Ltd. (GCL-SI), a subsidiary of energy group GCL, says it [...]

The global movement toward a cleaner, more sustainable grid continues to gain momentum. In the U.S., we have seen tremendous growth in the clean energy sector, supporting millions of jobs and driving billions of dollars in economic activity. Policymakers are prioritizing clean energy, financial mechanisms are aligning with technology acceleration, and utilities and grid operators [...]

On Dec. 19, 2016, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published a final version of a rule that overhauls the agency’s regulations governing the permitting of solar and wind facilities on 245 million acres of federal public lands, most of which are located in the 12 Western states. The [...]

To the surprise of many, Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election in November. Some claim a Trump presidency will be a disaster for U.S. renewables and the environment; others say it won’t be so bad, if not actually good. With President-elect Trump slated to take office toward the end of January, should the U.S. [...]

Net energy metering (NEM), a policy under which utility companies are obligated to pay solar customers a state-determined rate for excess energy produced, has become central to the solar business model in many parts of the U.S. Although NEM clearly helps drive the growth of solar, several states have undertaken reform measures in an attempt [...]