solar

For much of last year, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry pursued a plan that, in essence, would prop up the financially challenged U.S. coal and nuclear industries. His proposal, submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last fall, provided financial subsidies to electric-generation...

Call it the Ikea mindset. On populated islands, space is at a premium, just like those stereotypical Swedish kitchens you see when you stroll through your local assemble-it-yourself retailer. That space restriction is a major reason fossil fuels remain a better power-generation option than...

Five years ago, an electric-utility think tank issued a dire warning to its members: Your century-old business model is ending. The continually falling costs of renewable energy generation, especially solar panels, would begin to erode utilities' business from its most profitable customers, the...

Sometimes a picture is truly worth a thousand words. In the case of the rapidly rising rate of solar installations for electricity generation, numerous forecasts by internationally respected bodies have proven woefully conservative. The chart in the tweet below, created by Auke Hoekstra at the...

Earlier this month, the 30th World Solar Challenge kicked off in Darwin, Australia, with 42 competitors vying for victory. At the end of the 3,022-kilometer (1,880-mile) race from Darwin to Adelaide, one team emerged victorious in the highly contested Cruiser class. Solar Team Eindhoven, from the...

For years, renewable energy has been cast as the most expensive option to reduce emissions and the world's reliance on fossil fuels. But 2016 may have marked a turn for the renewable energy sector, with solar energy in particular rising significantly in output. For the first time in history...

For 50 years, the state of California has led the United States when it comes to renewable energy and electric cars. The state features many programs to incentivize electric-car ownership, and 29 percent of the state's 2016 energy production came from solar, wind, and other renewable power sources...

The notion electric cars will become a standard transportation option is slowly being accepted across multiple industries. It hasn't penetrated quite as much in the motorhome world, but now a German company has shown its interpretation of what the future of plug-in motor homes could be. It's called...

Solar energy has long generated electricity both on building roofs and in huge "solar farms" for utility companies, but only a few cars have had solar panels on their bodies. Solar roofs aren't a new concept, but Audi and Alta Devices' solution would be the most transparent photovoltaic solar roof...

Solar power provides 10 percent of California's energy supply, which meant electric-grid operators had to be prepared for potentially disastrous effects during Monday's solar eclipse. To the surprise of many, there were no serious repercussions as the moon blocked a significant source of energy for...

The future of energy production remains in considerable debate, but some new research provides a more optimistic view for a lower-carbon future. Sources for new and replacement energy production remain uncertain, especially the degree to which renewable sources can replace those based on fossil...

The U.S. is coming up to its Independence Day holiday, in which we celebrate the Declaration of Independence from England and reflect on our history and traditions as a nation. This is an interesting time to do that, and there's a cynical argument to be made that backroom politics is as American as...

Scientists generally debate their studies and projections in relatively civil language, but perhaps the currently adversarial tenor of U.S. politics has spilled over into science. A 2015 study on the potential for renewable energy use in the U.S. has now produced not only a stringent attack, but a...

Here's a little quiz on a topic much discussed over the past couple of years: jobs. How many people work in the U.S. coal industry? Not just miners, but office staff, too. And, how many people work for solar-energy companies in the U.S.? DON'T MISS: Clean energy provides far more U.S. jobs than...

As Tesla regularly points out, the lithium-ion battery cells used in electric cars can also serve in home energy-storage units. Now, a Daimler company will go up against Tesla in that field under the branding of its most famous luxury-car make. Mercedes-Benz Energy announced yesterday that it is...

Cities across the U.S. are working to limit their emissions of climate-change gases turning to solar power, among other tactics. In 2016, programs focused on bringing the benefits of photovoltaic solar power to business and residents helped to expand that capacity with record-breaking growth...

Yesterday, U.S. president Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of rolling back pretty much every vestige of U.S. efforts to address climate change. In both his campaigning and since his inauguration, Trump has claimed that his government and its actions focus on creating...

The new presidential administration seems poised to take a radically different approach to energy policy than its predecessor. That approach is founded on denial of accepted climate science, and an expressed desire to promote the fossil-fuel industry, including the so-called revival of coal. But...

Even before Elon Musk engineered Tesla's acquisition of SolarCity, the two companies were collaborating. SolarCity was already controlled by Musk, who believes its solar-energy business can be reinforced and complemented by Tesla's energy-storage business. Last year, Tesla announced a joint project...

No matter how you measure it, 2016 was a major year for solar energy. More solar-generating capacity was added last year than either natural gas or wind, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. A study by investment bank and research firm Lazard found that utility-scale solar has now become the...