Renewable Energy News

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/12/body-geothermal-energy-capacity-expected-to-more-than-double-by-2030.jpg" /pGeothermal energy capacity will more than double by 2030 as developing economies including Indonesia, Chile and Kenya take advantage of natural resources, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/11/body-shared-solar-do-you-pre-qualify.jpg" /pChoose any of the following that may apply: A) Do you have a shaded roof or one that is not structurally designed to bear load? B) Do you rent or share your roof with other households or businesses? C) Is your home or business in an historic district or one with strict aesthetic building codes? D) Do you have little interest in maintaining an on-si/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/11/body-better-monitoring-and-diagnostics-tackle-algae-biofuel-pond-crash-problem.jpg" /pSandia National Laboratories is developing a suite of complementary technologies to help the emerging algae industry detect and quickly recover from algal pond crashes, an obstacle to large-scale algae cultivation for future biofuels./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/26/body-what-does-warren-buffett-see-in-solar.jpg" /pEveryone wants to see inside Warren Buffett's head. One of the world's most successful investors, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is a rock star among those who check the markets before their breakfast. His annual shareholder letters are famous, generating the kind of hoopla among his followers as a just-released Harry Potter novel does among children. Even U.S. President Barack Obama listens to Buffett, or at least he quotes him often. In fact, headline writers have come to call Buffett the 'Oracle of Obama', a play on the Nebraska native's nickname of the 'Oracle of Omaha'./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/23/body-new-turbine-technology-the-future-is-larger-offshore.jpg" /pWith annual market growth of almost 10 percent, and cumulative capacity growth of about 19 percent according to the latest figures from the Global Wind Energy Council, the wind sector continued to make robust progress in 2012. But while these figures suggest a relatively buoyant market for installations, perhaps a more accurate way to judge the health of the wind sector is to consider investment in RD, and more specifically the products of that research, development and testing./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/10/body-the-next-challenge-for-geothermal-turning-the-corner-towards-private-investment.jpg" /pEarly this year, the U.S. geothermal industry caught a rare win with the passage of a PTC provision that allows projects to qualify for the tax credit as long as they are "under construction" by the end of the year. Many had been hopeful that the provision would help kickstart geothermal development in the U.S. Today, however the industry is still waiting for a clear definition of what "under construction" means, which is making it difficult for investors to feel confident enough to pull the trigger on new projects./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/10/body-first-solar-acquires-tetrasun-announces-plans-to-target-rooftop-solar-market.jpg" /pFirst Solar Inc., the solar manufacturer that gets almost two-thirds of sales from building and selling utility-scale power plants, agreed to buy TetraSun, a startup developing photovoltaic technology for rooftops./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/10/body-rebuttal-faulty-or-incomplete-analysis-skews-numbers-and-conclusions-for-renewable-energy.jpg" /pMatthew Stepp's analysis of an NREL Renewables study appeared here and in The Washington Post on April 5th./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/10/body-buffett-to-rescue-suntech.jpg" /pIntriguing rumors that billionaire investor Warren Buffett might be eying bankrupt former solar superstar Suntech (NYSE: STP) are breathing new life into embattled solar shares, as traders bet that western investors could help to revive the sector. Such a move would indeed be a major vote of confidence in this tarnished industry, since most observe/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/10/body-london-array-getting-up-close-and-personal-to-offshore-wind.jpg" /pThink a fifty-year Crown Estate lease is a long time? Try just fifty minutes on the foredeck of the Smeaton Array, a high-speed ship operating in a strong swell, at the foot of a 3.6-MW spinning Siemens offshore wind turbine unit. In the snow./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/22/body-cost-modeling-for-offshore-o-m.jpg" /pSeveral European countries have defined targets to install and operate offshore wind energy as part of their renewable energy goals. According to these targets, more than 40 GW offshore wind power is expected to be installed across the region by the year 2020./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/10/body-biomass-in-the-us-finding-our-carrot-and-stick.jpg" /pOpening discussions at the International Biomass Conference Expo (BBI) in Minneapolis elicited some strong opinions about the big challenges facing biomass in the U.S., and what can be done to overcome them -- and where we can look for guidance to do it. Panelists comments could generally be defined around several key policy issues that need resolution: carbon tax, RFS, and tax credits./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/9/body-pace-financing-concept-provides-hope-for-renewable-energy-projects.jpg" /pSolar-energy installations are set to receive record loans this year through a U.S. municipal finance tool modeled after one that backed $17 billion of sewers and sidewalks in the past decade./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/9/body-utility-gets-ready-for-more-local-energy-in-hawaii.jpg" /pHawai’an solar advocates are celebrating after the island state’s largest utility, Hawai’ian Electric (HECO) filed a plan with the public utility commission to take a “proactive approach” to adding more distributed solar to their grid system. Utilities across the country typically use “conservative blanket limits” on the amount of renewable energy /p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/9/body-boosting-solar-cells-with-nanowires.jpg" /pSolar module makers are struggling even as cost points are at a bare minimum (and arguably unsustainably so) — and yet lower prices persist, especially in lower-end crystalline silicon (c-Si) modules. However, there is still improvement to be made in efficiency, says Dave Epstein, CEO of Sol Voltaics. More efficient panels can both be sold at higher prices and installed with fewer panels to reduce the cost profile of an entire project. The economics improves for everyone./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/8/body-asia-report-solar-in-emerging-asia.jpg" /pSolar PV demand from countries in "emerging" Asia and Central Asia will ramp at a 28 percent annual pace from 2013-2017 to 3 gigawatts (GW) of demand by 2017, up from just 723 MW in 2012, as the region reaches beyond solar lighting and residential schemes and embraces more large-scale ground-mounted PV installations, according to NPD Solarbuzz./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/9/body-poland-plans-to-cut-subsidy-for-renewables-as-deficit-grows.jpg" /pPoland plans to cut renewable-energy subsidies after an economic slump boosted the budget deficit, the deputy economy minister said./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/9/body-sunnovations-launches-monitoring-tools-for-solar-water-heating.jpg" /pA Virginia startup is launching a monitoring system that it says will not only enable homeowners keep track of the performance of their solar water heaters but also help states craft more effective incentives for installing those systems./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/9/body-americans-want-more-emphasis-on-solar-wind-natural-gas.jpg" /pNo fewer than two in three Americans want the U.S. to put more emphasis on producing domestic energy using solar power (76%), wind (71%), and natural gas (65%). Far fewer want to emphasize the production of oil (46%) and the use of nuclear power (37%). Least favored is coal, with about one in three Americans wanting to prioritize its domestic production./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/9/body-recruiting-amidst-the-winds-of-change.jpg" /pWind power has seen dramatic growth in recent years and remains a highly topical and highly politicised sector. It plays an important role in Europe's economy, contributing to its gross domestic product (GDP) and job creation. Ernst Young, for example, estimates that for every €1 million invested in wind, twenty-one jobs are created./p