While I have primarily worked with wind energy, I have long been a proponent of renewable energy in the broadest sense. This includes solar energy. My work in Canada, especially Ontario, stressed inclusion of solar energy because it had been previously overlooked. Today, Ontario is one of the leading jurisdictions in North America developing solar photovoltaics due in part to the programs I and others pushed.
You know solar photovoltaics (PV) has become mainstream when you can find a solar power plant in Frankton, Indiana. [more]
GlassPoint’s technology uses thin, curved mirrors inside a greenhouse to track the sun and focus heat on pipes containing oilfield water. It was developed in Kern County and piloted in 2011 at Berry...
Spain’s CSP blazed into operation in 2008 and put 2.3 GW of thermal solar generation on the 100 GW grid system in just five years. Most was parabolic trough and about one third included thermal...
In Regina, about 100 people packed the Artful Dodger for the Regina Solar Co-op’s first meeting in late October. The Regina co-op’s plan is to use group buying power to bring down solar panel...
Smart communities fueled by solar energy and the latest in advanced energy storage and smart microgrid technologies are taking root and beginning to expand in Japan, part and parcel of a national...
China’s solar industry continues to beat out expectations, and new analysis published this week suggests that continued strong demand for solar throughout 2017 will help push global demand over the...
Two area landowners are embarking on projects to build 1-megawatt solar arrays, which will be able to power 300 homes each. The projects are the first of their kind under a program from Sonoma Clean...
Is one of the most powerful books on the renewable energy revolution in decades. It’s a chronicle of the remarkable transformation underway in the world’s fourth-largest industrial economy.[more]
Rising prices of Chinese solar modules may arrest the sharp decline in Indian solar power tariffs and also put at risk projects that won licences betting on a continued decline in module prices.
While the market overall has rapidly expanded from the launch of the feed-in tariff (FiT) in July 2012, Teikoku Databank acknowledged that there has been a slowdown in deployment in the past couple...
Their recently published data on Japan shows that despite falling prices on gas in Japan (~$7/Mbtu in fiscal year (FY) 2016, -54% compared with FY2014 according to Japan Ministry of Finance), the...
Already since FY2013 solar electricity contributes more to Japan’s electricity supply than nuclear reactors.
It is important to balance supply and demand in the grid. In that sense, renewable energy can contribute to adjusting the demand-supply balance through curtailment. On the other hand, nuclear power,...
The country’s cumulative deployment stood at 84.63GW by the end of Q1, of which 72GW is utility-scale. Last year, China added 34.24GW.
The 26,929m2 concentrated solar power (CSP) plant now provides the city of Brønderslev with sustainable heating, but it will also enable power production as an add-on to a biomass-fuelled organic...
The Indiana Municipal Power Agency plans to invest up to $12 million for the installation of 30,000 solar panels. The electricity produced would be the equivalent of what's needed to power 1,200...
State guarantee helps private firm bid Rs 3.3 a unit for Madhya Pradesh plant.
Japan’s Renewable Energy Institute has published data on renewable energy’s contribution to the nation’s energy mix, using data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The METI data...
France’s environmental minister Ségolène Royale is rolling out 1,000 kilometers of a technology that will both be bad solar and bad road.
For every unit of energy invested, solar can now generate the same if not more energy than oil and gas.
As a result, we show a break-even between the cumulative disadvantages and benefits of photovoltaics, for both energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, occurs between 1997 and 2018, depending on...
Installing solar panels has been paying off for these Ontario homeowners.
Hamilton is moving forward with a solar energy plan. The city wants to use the undesirable land on the Glanbrook landfill site to to produce green energy.
Solar has trickled across the 40 GW threshold in Germany, while the UK now has 10 GW, according to data just published in each country. But both markets are slowing down.
Buying your solar electric system outright is best. . . Most systems pay for themselves in five to seven years.
Damian Carrington reported in The Guardian this week (UK solar eclipses coal power over month for first time) that solar photovoltaic (solar PV) plants in Great Britain generated more electricity...[more]
I think that we'll stay with silicon for a long, long time. Surely we will improve the technology, but don't expect miracles. That silicon works so well is already a miracle!
But the solar PV story shows that when tipping points are reached, things can change very quickly. It is not inconceivable that what happened with solar PV will also happen with electric vehicle
Sometimes one stat is all it takes: 46 of the 50 states had solar policy debates going on in 2015. That makes solar literally the talk of the nation.
Most of that are conversion areas (Konversionsflächen), which means areas formerly used for public purposes, most of them former military installations. At the end of 2014, 61% of projects were...
As the German PV market continues to grind to a halt, new rules that took effect on January 1 could slow things down even further.
If you want to stay hooked up to the grid, the utility controls your battery storage, and you get a feed-in tariff (currently around 10 cents) with a target six-percent return, which is fairer than...
Despite the UK government making moves to scale back the level of support given to solar technology, Scotland remains committed to boosting the technology’s deployment according to its Energy...
Here, we see that the price of a completely installed solar array has been and continues to be considerably cheaper in Germany than in the US. The gap seems to have been around two dollars all along....
Some Chinese Photo Voltaic modules producers have come at the receiving end of Canadian International Trade Tribunal, which slapped them preliminary anti-dumping and anti-subsidization tariffs.
On the surface, the solar lease or a solar PPA is bright and shiny, guaranteed to make you smile and soften those pesky energy bills and emissions. But buyer beware, every time we have looked under...
LA’s Department of Water & Power (LADWP), the biggest public utility in the country, has had a feed-in tariff program for a couple of years, with a goal of installing 150 megawatts of solar. However,...
“These latest statistics show that the FiT solar PV market is seeing healthy growth with plenty of solar going up on domestic and commercial roofs as well as small solar farms,” comments David...
We recently looked at Zooshare, an early-stage biogas cooperative selling bonds to get its facilities up and running to sell energy into the Ontario grid. Today, we're going to look at a Toronto...
Various legislative efforts have been made to encourage investors to make investments in power plants using renewable energy resources. The most important of these efforts has been the feed-in tariff...
This makes the UK only the sixth country to have more than 5GW capacity. Germany remains the undisputed leader with more than 36GW. China, Japan, Italy and the US each have more than 10GW installed.
Allowing projects located in abandoned land, ponds, lakes, etc. with
Germany is now focusing on the direct consumption of solar power, which remains prohibitively expensive. But a recent survey found that PV + storage could be competitive with power from the grid by...
In comparison, the German Chancellor’s office (Bundeskanzleramt) has a 150 kW installation. That’s at least by a factor 10 more than what Obama has installed.
The small feed-in tariff (FiT) markets remain buoyant, with the residential and sub-50kW commercial rooftop markets successfully navigating FiT degression phases.
The government may allow a bigger number of solar power facilities to enjoy tariff incentives on account of the large number of proponents of such renewable energy projects.
Japan installed 86 MW of residential and 483 MW of “non-residential” solar photovoltaics (PV) under its feed-in tariff in January 2014, according to statistics released by the nation's Ministry of...
It's safe to say that Bernard Chabot has just put together the most comprehensive, detailed overview of Germany's PV market – still the largest in the world historically, though it fell to fourth...
Germany's Network Agency has published PV installation figures for December 2013, showing that the country came in within its target corridor of 2.5-3.5 GW of newly installed solar capacity for the...
Kazakhstan has also adopted at the end of August 2013 a new feed-in tariff law – “On Supporting the Use of Renewable Energy Sources” – that will provide support to renewable energy producers. The...
The knowledge from Faust’s book was translated into an active solar building program in the 1820s through the 1850s in Lower Bavaria, Hessen and Prussia. . . Faust’s ideas were implemented in...
I’d already marked up my version of Matthias Willenbacher’s book My Indecent Offer to the Chancellor in the faint hope of some day posting a review from the German—it’s difficult and time consuming...[more]
“The Japanese feed-in tariff is one of the most lucrative in the world,” explained Adam James, GTM Research Solar Analyst for Global Demand. “As a result, there has been a gold rush. In the first...
Japanese solar photovoltaic “PV” installations have now passed 10 GW for cumulative PV capacity, only the fifth country to reach the mark.
French energy expert Bernard Chabot takes a look at the distribution of PV arrays in Germany by system size based on the latest data up to July 2013.
980 MW solar PV installed in 2013, bringing total Greek PV to 2,500 MW. Greece now ranks 5th worldwide with regard to per capita installed PV capacity.
Greece has been offering high feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) for PV since 2006. This has skyrocketed the market, especially during the period 2011-2013, and reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 2.5...
That in turn means that the solar panels not sold in the EU because of such a measure would need to be sold somewhere else, increasing supply on all non-EU markets. Which in turn means even lower...
Local shipments rose to 3,809 megawatts in the 12 months ended March 31 from 1,404 megawatts the previous year, the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association said today on its website. The increase was...
Now that grid parity has been reached in a number of areas, we can see what the future will look like – regulation will still be needed. In Hawaii, new obstacles were put in place at the end of 2011,...
Commercial and utility-scale projects will boost solar installations to a range of 6.1 gigawatts to 9.4 gigawatts in 2013, exceeding an earlier forecast of 3.2 gigawatts to 4 gigawatts, Bloomberg New...
To understand consumer behaviour it’s worthwhile firstly reviewing the rate of overall solar system installations in the last two years, as detailed in the chart below prepared by Green Energy...
Japan’s PV market currently benefits from a feed-in tariff (FIT) paying up to ¥42 per kilowatt hour, even though this is likely to be reduced by approximately 10 percent beginning April 1. . . “At...
Perhaps a more useful method of comparison is to look at the installed capacity as a function of population. This gives a better comparison than just the total amount installed, as it allows a...
While the Flemish market is relatively small in absolute terms on a global scale – it only made up around one percent of PV sales worldwide last year – the Flemish are nonetheless progressing quite...
Days after Ohio regulators set back the largest proposed solar power installation in the eastern U.S., the Canadian province of Ontario announced that it will shut down its last coal-fired power...
According to early estimates, in 2012 the electricity demand was met for 86.8% with the national production (of which 62.2% thermoelectric, 13.3% hydroelectric, 1.6% geothermal, 4.0% wind power and...
The measures will take place when a decree is published later this year. They are seen as being interim measures as the new government formulates a wider energy policy framework. . .
Germans installed 1.3 million solar systems last year and generated 28 TWh of electricity in 2012, setting a new installation record. . .
Thinking about starting a community solar project? No matter what your project’s stage of development, the Community Solar Tool (CST) can help you. . .
Although critics of renewable energy may claim that it isn't reliable enough to power a grid, a new study gives proponents of clean power – such as wind and solar – fresh ammunition to respond. A...
One day in the not-too-distant future — probably sooner than many expect — some parts of the world will have power grids that are completely powered by renewables. Eventually, the entire world could...
This is an open source spreadsheet on the economics of solar photovoltaics. The spreadsheet contains more than 50 individual tabs covering a multitude of topics beyond the expected cash flow...[more]
Yesterday, Czech authorities announced that the country had reached an installed photovoltaic capacity of 1,999 megawatts as of September 30. The country's performance is especially impressive if we...
Yesterday, the BDEW announced power production figures for the first three quarters of 2012. Most notably, the share of solar power grew from 4.1 percent to 6.1 percent – an increase of nearly 50...
Solar PV is already a fast developing and major energy technology in Germany, not only in terms of MW but also in TWh and in the percentage of annual electricity demand. . .
In terms of produced electricity, China has grown 540% from last year. And in terms of capacity, 2.71 GW of capacity added in the first nine months of this year are already a 4.2 fold increase on...
That quote comes from a presentation given by an IEA representative at the 27th PV-SEC in September, where the keynote address was "What is a fair price for PV electricity?" and a number of...
The installations would take up roughly 2,635 km2; the UK is 244,820km2. Therefore, only one percent of the UK’s total land area would be required to install enough solar to cover our entire...
Two-thirds of worldwide solar panels installations in 2011 were in Europe totalling 18.5 GW, according to a report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. . .
California Governor "Jerry" Brown has recently approved a number of bills to support the adoption of more solar photovoltaic (PV) generation and other sources of renewable energy, including a bill to...
Energy expert Bernard Chabot takes a look at the PV installation data released on Friday by Germany's Network Agency for August, which shows that both the market volume and average system size...
Official statistics released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show that the UK’s 1.38GW of installed solar capacity generated 0.5TWh of electricity in the second quarter of 2012 – an...
Most of those differences can be attributed to policy, either directly or indirectly. PV installations don’t pay sales tax in Germany. Rules governing permitting and interconnection are much simpler....
The nation of Bulgaria has introduced new, temporary feed-in tariff rates, including cutting the rates for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants above 200 kW by 5-39%. These rate reductions were decided at...
Huge interest for solar energy solutions has made the amount of solar cells multiply much faster than expected. This is made possible by favourable framework conditions. In fact the solar cell...
According to a monthly report from Italian grid operator Terna SpA, solar power provided 8.4% of total Italian electricity demand in August. It also revealed that electricity generated from PV during...
In the meantime, the example of Germany is worth keeping in mind when you hear utilities laud their cooperation with California's pilot feed-in tariff programs (while fighting their expansion in...
French expert Bernard Chabot analyzes and comments on the potential impacts on PV arrays size diversity of the PV installations in Germany from 2009 to the end of June 2012. . .
RenewEconomy has written before that the proliferation of solar PV in the mass market – reducing household energy costs and offering negative cost emissions abatement – has the potential to redefine...
From January to June 2012, data published on the EEX web site show that, if well balanced, PV and wind production can complement each other along the seasons, leading to an easier to manage...
French consultant and sustainable energy expert Bernard Chabot updates Germany's PV installation data in terms of system size vis-à-vis market share, compares it with the 2009-2011 distribution and...
here was 1.09GW of renewable power included under the UK’s feed-in tariff (FIT) solar scheme at the end of the first quarter, with an increase of 66 per cent from the previous quarter. . .
The drastic cuts in feed-in tariffs for solar power in the UK reduced installations by nearly 60 percent in April, putting the government far behind its target of 22 gigawatts of PV for 2020. . .
Reading Borough Council installed the 2,126 panels on schools, council offices, leisure centres, libraries, businesses and sheltered accommodation. The authority embarked on the project to take...
In California, solar proponents are happy about the clarification of what constitutes peak demand in legislation for net-metering, but the levels discussed in California are a fraction of what is...
A bill [PDF] before the California Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce this month seeks to equalize renewable energy installation in the state by promoting small-scale solar rooftops in the...
Here is a pair of graphs that demonstrate most vividly the merit order effect and the impact that solar is having on electricity prices in Germany; and why utilities there and elsewhere are desperate...
Residents and organisations including churches, who receive rebates for the electricity they put back into the National Grid, will see their Feed-in-Tariff payments increase by 4.8 per cent from next...
In an article published at Slate.com, Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg chimes in on how Germany is allegedly abandoning solar. He may not describe the situation in Germany well, but his...
Written by award-winning journalist Gar Smith, edited by Ernest Callenbach, with a foreword by leading Japanese anti-nuclear activist, Aileen Mioko Smith, Nuclear Roulette is a rigorously researched...
Video of Enbridge's 80+ MW solar PV plant near Sarnia .
Publisher Karl-Heinz Remmers takes aim at those who continue to label photovoltaics as the most expensive renewable energy source - particularly in context of the German renewable landscape. . .
December 9, 2011 December 16, 2011 edits: Corrected date. Added the expression "indicative" to describe the proposed tariffs. Added further paragraphs to explain the different assumptions between...[more]
The U.S. is projected to account for 84% of the market this quarter, and Canada (largely Ontario, because of its world-leading feed-in tariff and the “cool” or “contagion” factor), the other 16%....
By now, we are well above 11 gigawatts of installed capacity ... probably we will be at 12.0-12.5 gigawatts by the end of this year," Valerio Natalizia told a news conference. . . "Next...[more]
It could be the national capital's new look for the 21st century: A skyline dotted with 1,000 solar rooftops.
Though it has no government, Belgium has resolved to shut down its nuclear reactors, with the first three to be taken down in 2015 -- provided power supply is not endangered.
Now I can point to another shining example of how to develop renewable energy responsibly and transparently: SolarShare.[more]
The U.S. is projected to account for 84% of the market this quarter, and Canada (largely Ontario, because of its world-leading feed-in tariff and the “cool” or “contagion” factor), the other 16%....[more]
The Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (the German Solar Energy Association) graphs the rapid fall in the installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems in Germany.
The Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (the German Solar Energy Association) graphs the rapid fall in the installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems in Germany.
There are less than 1,000 souls in the town of Dardesheim. But the village and its 80,000 neighbors in the county of Halberstadt in the former East Germany have an expansive spirit. They want to...[more]
Results for the state of New York suggest that solar electric installations deliver between 15 to 40 cents per kWh to ratepayers and taxpayers. These results provide economic justification for the...
One powerful advantage of feed-in tariff policies for developing renewable energy is that they permit the participation of people from all walks of life. [more]
The Green Pathways Community Solar Cooperative Inc., along with its partner, Orangeville Hydro, approached Orangeville council at its April 4 meeting seeking a commitment from the town to lease the...
On March 31st, 2011, The Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade (MITyC) announced that it has approved 923 new solar photovoltaic (PV) plants for participation in the nation's feed-in...
The solar industry is booming. During the past decade PV shipments have grown by three orders of magnitude. In 2010 shipments were up over a hundred percent on 2009. How to account for this explosive...[more]
Worshippers at Richards Memorial United Church say they’ve always got their power from on high. Now they’re connecting their energy source to the grid.
Below are some sources on feed-in tariffs for renewable heat and solar DHW.[more]
Our family is one giant step closer to being part of Ontario’s innovative micro-FIT program, which is encouraging the growth of renewable energy production in the province by paying a premium to...
A Transatlantic Comparison on a Growing Business for Agriculture .
XOF1 and Jim White made history with the first ever Solar Power Skiing. The event took place over the frozen Arctic Ocean.
March 30, 2010 Total Market World PV 6,000 MW/yr 20,000 MW Total Worldwide Growth: 20-40%/yr ~90% of World PV from Feed-in Tariffs Major Markets Germany: 3,000 MW/yr Italy: 700 MW/yr Japan:...[more]
The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) reports that 40 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) contracts were in commercial operation by the end of 2009. This represents about 46 MW of installed DC capacity in the...[more]
Is another valuable tool for renewable energy advocates in building a case that "yes, even the US can" move to renewables--and the sooner the better.[more]
Photos of Freiburg's Solar Siedlung, Vauban, Heliotrope and others.
SolarShare was created by TREC Renewable Energy Co-op in January 2010 in order to purchase, own and operate solar PV installations across the Canadian province of Ontario. Through SolarShare’s...
The world's semiconductor manufacturers have now deliberately waded into the feed-in tariff policy arena. [more]
On a recent trip across Ontario to Indiana, I stopped by Sarnia to take some pictures of the large solar PV farm being installed outside town. When completed it will be one of the largest in North...[more]
Most contracts for solar PV, such as those under Ontario's Standard Offer Contract program and its new Feed-in Tariff program, are written in terms of AC kilowatts (kWAC).[more]
Barcelona's 444 kW Pergola solar del Forum was inaugurated May 4, 2009 at the site of Barcelona's World Forum of Culture.[more]
Barcelona's 444 kW Pergola solar del Forum was inaugurated May 4, 2009 at the site of Barcelona's World Forum of Culture.[more]
In 2007 the Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative proposed to senior executives at Toronto Hydro, Canada's largest municipal utility, the Toronto Solar Initiative. [more]
Of the 1,500 MW of Standard Offer Contracts awarded 50% of the wind contracts were granted to commercial wind developers, and 80% of the solar PV contracts were awarded to central-station plants.[more]
December 24, 2007 Lehr Brothers' Big L Packers installed this 119 kW solar PV plant on top of a shade structure in 2003. Big L, like other plants in Edison, California, packs citrus from the...[more]
A Community Power Photovoltaic Project Financial Model[more]
In response to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2007 visit to Toronto, the Ministry of Energy's call for increased renewable generation and the OPA's acknowledgement of the important role of...[more]
Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center dedicated 156-panel solar array on July 11, 2007.[more]
The following chart summarizes actual installed cost of solar PV systems mostly in California.[more]
South Australia has released a draft of a modest, some would say timid, solar PV feed-in tariff that will be introduced into the state's parliament.[more]
The following data is extracted from Tables of Renewable Tariffs or Feed-In Tariffs Worldwide. These tables are updated periodically. Always check the tables for current tariffs.[more]
For more than a decade, senior environmental leaders in North America have been waiting for Germany's renewable energy market to collapse, an expectation tinged with schadenfreude. However, it's been...[more]
The following tables calculate the revenue, expenses, and cash flow for a projected investment in a solar PV project. The tables also calculate various investment parameters.[more]
Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:08AM BST By Erik Kirschbaum BONN, Germany (Reuters) - It rains year round in Germany. Clouds cover the skies for about two-thirds of all daylight hours. Yet the country has...[more]
Below is a sampling of annual reoccurring expenses for three different solar investments in Germany. Note that these projections include a number of items often overlooked here in North America, such...[more]
The following spreadsheet calculator is a work in progress. The workbook, or notebook in Corel terminology, contains three spreadsheets: BSi Calculator, Chabot PI Method, and Rate Calculation. The...[more]
According to a recent article in Sun & Wind Energy (2/2007), Italy has launched new feed-in tariffs for Solar PV. The new tariffs replace a complex and bureaucratic system of net metering and feed-in...[more]
The following chart from New Energy's 1/2007 issue (page 48) shows the profitability of solar PV installations in Germany in 2006. [more]
Fesa's B31 Solar PV project went into service in mid 2006. The 365 kW project was financed by Fesa as a solar bürgerbeteiligung or investment fund. [more]
When announcing the Standard Offer Program, the Ontario Power Authority provided a simple RetScreen spreadsheet to calculate simple payback on solar PV.[more]
Using the principle established by first, the Aachen model, and subsequently that used in Germany's EEG (the Renewable Energy Sources Act), the Ontario Sustainable Energy Asscoiation held a pricing...[more]
The following spreadsheet calculator is a work in progress. The calculator determines the price or tariff per kWh(thermal) necessary to arrive at the financial targets given for a solar hot water...[more]
The following is a rough translation of the German interconnection procedure for small solar PV systems from a flyer produced by Novotech.[more]
Ecovision, a developer of solar investment funds in Freiburg, created an investment vehicle to install solar PV systems on the roof tops of several schools in Stuttgart.[more]
The following are links to web pages that log real time performance of solar PV systems.[more]
My thanks to Simon Boone of Generation Solar Renewable Energy Systems for calling my attention to a simple spreadsheet function for calculating the rate of return. [more]
The following table gives the typical yields (kWh/kW/year) that can be expected at various locations mostly in North America.[more]
In the early 1990s the city of Aachen (Aix-en-Chapelle) Germany set the world of solar energy on its ear. Until that time development of solar PV depended entirely on direct and substantial...[more]
Photon magazine is reporting that 1,150 MW of solar photovoltaics were installed in Germany in 2006. If confirmed this another world record for the German solar industry and the first time that...[more]
Today, the important link between solar use in the home and energy conservation and efficiency is being lost. While many well-intentioned system integrators preach the virtues of energy efficiency,...
December 5, 2006 Total Market World PV 1,500-2,000 MW/yr $11-14 billion/yr Growth: 20-40%/yr Major Markets Germany: 600-750 MW/yr; $4-5 billion/yr Japan: 300-400 MW/yr; $2-3 billion/yr USA:...[more]
Alt captured that rebellious spirit in his inspiring tale of the small town of Schönau and how residents built a solar utility in the deep recesses of Germany's Schwartzwald--the Black Forest of...[more]
Pesch was named a strom (electricity) rebel by Elektritzitätswerke Schönau (EWS) in 2005 and that was a good reason for paying him a visit. The good folks at EWS know strom rebels when they see them....[more]
