In order to combat climate change, we need to rapidly move from fossil fuel energy to clean, renewable energy. The two energy sources I am most interested in are wind and solar power; however, there are other sources that have great potential

On the first day of autumn tens of thousands of Victorians received a welcome surprise from their power company — their electricity bills were going down. Prices were cut 5% because the retailer increased their investment in renewable energy. This will likely come as a surprise to many. Since the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, decided that bashing renewables would play well for them — perhaps more so in the party room than in the electorate — hardly a day goes by without claims that renewables have made our grid unreliable and have pushed prices sky high.

California’s solar sector has been on fire. But after a building sprint that saw its share of solar rise from 0.5% of generation in 2010 to 10% last year, the state may be taking a break following two new production records this month. Solar served up an unprecedented 50% of the state’s demand on a sunny day around 1pm PT on March 5. The next day, utility operators reported a second record for total generation from solar which produced 10,411 megawatts, beating out last year’s record by 5%.

Estimating rooftop solar technical potential across the US using a combination of GIS-based methods, lidar data, and statistical modeling – 38% of US electricity could come from rooftops and solar power only. There is no longer a sound argument that intermittent energy sources – wind+solar – can’t power the country. An aside, as a commercial sales guy, I’d love to get a hold of these databases of nationwide rooftop viability scans and turn them into a lead database. Gold mine.

Egypt currently constructs what is set to be the world’s largest solar park, Benban Solar Park, near the southern city of Aswan that aims to reach between 1.6-2.0 GW by the middle of 2019, according to Electrek.

Denton is set to become the second city in Texas to use 100 percent renewable energy. Denton’s City Council voted 6-1 on Feb. 6 to approve an amendment to the Renewable Denton Plan which institutes the new goal with a target year of 2020. The plan’s original goal was to use 70 percent renewable energy by then. The city’s utility company, Denton Municipal Electric, has determined that solar power is the city's best option for renewable energy, followed by coastal wind and then other wind energy. The city currently purchases 44 percent renewable energy.

News that Swedish furniture giant IKEA is planning to sell solar panels “at cost” in its Australian stores has been met with mixed responses from the local solar industry, with many expressing fears that it will further destabilise – and perhaps undermine – an already over-crowded solar retail and installation market.

Solar power prices have been dropping faster than people expected, even faster than experts expected, and even faster than bullish experts expected. I wrote about this general point a couple of years ago for an article for The Economist Group. The question I was supposed to explore was whether we needed solar technology breakthroughs in order for solar to take over the electricity generation market

The partnership between Elon Musk and the Australian state of South Australia continues to grow, with the tech entrepreneur reaching a deal with state premier Jay Weatherhill to provide free Tesla solar panels and batteries to at least 50,000 homes. Late last year, Tesla completed its project to build the world’s largest li-ion battery as a solution to power outages that were plaguing South Australia. The project was initiated via Twitter as a bet (which proved successful), with Musk promising the system “100 days from contract signature or it is free”.

A state regulator wants the majority of Arizona’s electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2050.On Tuesday, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Andy Tobin released a plan that would give Arizona one of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the country: 80 percent by 2050. The state’s current target is 15 percent by 2025.The proposal encourages more battery storage, biomas-related fuels, energy efficiency and new infrastructure for electric vehicles. It also aims to better align Arizona’s renewable energy mix with demand.

Clean Technica reports that China blew the top off expectations for its solar installations in 2017, It put in 52.83 gigawatts. The incredible 2017 solar surge in China brought its total solar installed capacity up to 130 gigawatts. As a cursory look at these statistics makes obvious, in one year China increased its solar by nearly 70 percent. In short, it wasn’t so far from doubling its ability to generate electricity from solar sources.

China has some of the worst air pollution in the world. In several cities, thick layers of smog are common, resulting in thousands of deaths every year. According to a 2016 study, the top contributor of air pollution-related deaths in China is the burning of coal. The team of Chinese and American researchers behind the study said that pollution from coal caused 366,000 premature deaths in 2013.

President Trump on Monday imposed tariffs of 30 percent on imported solar panel technology in a bid to protect domestic manufacturers while signaling a more aggressive approach toward China.

It's a major blow to renewable energy

Road built from solar panels targeted by gang thought to be trying to steal technology

Solar cells this small could be integrated into anything — and soon they will be. One of the reasons I think solar photovoltaic power is going to take over the world is that it is scalable in a way no other power source can be. It can be used to build multi-hundred-megawatt power plants, or it can be scaled down. Way down. How far down? Try less than the width of a human hair.

Nowhere in the EU is smog more suffocating than in southern Poland. This year, the polluted Polish mining city Katowice will host the COP24 climate conference. Ahead of that, change is in the air — and on the ground.

Using two types of “designer” quantum dots, researchers are creating double-pane solar windows that generate electricity with greater efficiency and create shading and insulation for good measure. It’s all made possible by a new window architecture which utilizes two different layers of low-cost quantum dots tuned to absorb different parts of the solar spectrum.

Glass that darkens when exposed to sunlight is nothing new, but scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden have developed a product that not only darkens but can generate electricity. Scientist Lance Wheeler was experimenting using gas molecules that move through an absorbent layer of glass that acts as a solar power cell when he placed the glass on a hot plate to dry after treating it with methylamine gas.

You may have missed the fact that exactly one week ago two major solar power plants, with a combined generating capacity of 179 megawatts, shifted into commercial operation on Bureau of Land Management property in southern Nevada. It’s totally understandable, since the Interior Department didn’t even issue a news release (although its Nevada state director did show up for the formal opening ceremony, and provides a quote for a solar firm’s publicity package).