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+19 +6
Solar installations are growing faster than people realize, says panel maker
Solar power is growing exponentially as a key source to meet the world's energy needs, the chief executive of a panel maker told CNBC on Friday. Steve O'Neil, CEO at Norway-headquartered firm REC, said that was likely due to the falling cost of solar energy as a result of technological developments. "Solar is growing exponentially is what I don't think people realize," O'Neil told CNBC at the sidelines of the Singapore Summit. "Every two years, the installation rates are doubling and so it's happening around the world now very quickly."
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+22 +5
Solar power is now so cheap in the US it beat government goals by three years
Though US president Donald Trump has promised many times that he will bring back coal, he really can’t do much to fight the forces of good old economics. On Tuesday (Sept. 12), the US Department of Energy announced that utility-grade solar panels have hit 2020 cost targets three years early. Utility-scale solar now averages around $1 per watt (the cost of the hardware’s electricity generation capacity) and $0.06 per kilowatt-hour (the cost of the electricity consumed), targets set in 2001 by the DOE’s SunShot Initiative.
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+15 +4
After generations working in coal, young West Virginians are finding jobs in solar
West Virginia's economy has long been reliant on coal. But as coal jobs dry up, many are looking for jobs beyond coal.
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+22 +7
Power company kills nuclear plant, plans $6 billion in solar, battery investment
On Tuesday, power provider Duke Energy Florida announced a settlement with the state’s public service commission (PSC) to cease plans to build a nuclear plant in western Florida. The utility instead intends to invest $6 billion in solar panels, grid-tied batteries, grid modernization projects, and electric vehicle charging areas. The new plan involves the installation of 700MW of solar capacity over four years in the western Florida area.
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+18 +2
Switch to Renewables Would Save 7 Million Lives Per Year, Create 24 Million Jobs
Californian scientists said a fossil fuel phase-out is achievable that would contain climate change, deliver energy entirely from wind, water and sunlight to 139 nations, and save up to 7 million lives each year. They said it would also create a net gain of 24 million long-term jobs, all by 2050, and at the same time limit global warming to 1.5°C or less.
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+19 +2
Global Solar Capacity Set to Surpass Nuclear for the First Time
The global solar market has been downgraded for 2017. A worrying sign? Hardly. Even with a 4-gigawatt downward adjustment in projected installations, it's still going to be a record-breaking year for new solar capacity additions -- yet again. The 81 gigawatts expected this year are more than double the amount of solar capacity installed in 2014. And it's 32 times more solar deployed a decade ago. (In the year 2000, global installations totaled 150 megawatts.)
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+18 +5
The world’s largest floating solar farm is producing energy atop a former coal mine
The Chinese city of Huainan is rich in coal—very rich. By one 2008 estimate, it has nearly a fifth of all of China’s coal reserves. Now the city has become home to the world’s largest floating solar farm. Appropriately, it has been built atop a former coal mine, which had become a lake after being flooded with groundwater. The China Daily reports that the farm started generating electricity earlier this week.
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+21 +5
The climate and air-quality benefits of wind and solar power in the United States
Wind and solar energy reduce combustion-based electricity generation and provide air-quality and greenhouse gas emission benefits. These benefits vary dramatically by region and over time. From 2007 to 2015, solar and wind power deployment increased rapidly while regulatory changes and fossil fuel price changes led to steep cuts in overall power-sector emissions.
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+16 +3
Here's How Much One of Tesla's Amazing Solar Roofs Actually Costs
The Tesla Solar Roof is here, and if company CEO Elon Musk has his way, there will be one on most houses within 15 years. But despite its energy efficiency and dazzling looks, clean power doesn’t come cheap — and Tesla’s listed price is a little hazy on some of the details. So how much will it actually cost?
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+22 +6
Stand Aside Tesla, Ikea Is Already Selling Solar
And Ikea never thinks small.
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+2 +1
Elon Musk's First Tesla Solar Roof Is Here, and It Looks Amazing
Elon Musk’s house runs on solar. The Tesla CEO made the announcement during Wednesday’s second quarter 2017 earnings call, where he revealed that both himself and Jeffrey B. Straubel, the company’s chief technology officer, have installed solar roof tiles on their houses. “We have installed and working the Solar Roof tiles,” Musk told investors during the conference call.
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+17 +5
How Electricity Cooperatives in the US are Paving the Way for a Renewable Future
Curtis Wynn had a problem. Since 1997, Wynn has led the Roanoke Electric Cooperative in North Carolina. For a good chunk of that time, he'd been pushing for the cooperative's members to adopt clean technology. The problem? His members thought their bills were too high — some were paying more than $200 a month. A third of the co-op's members live in mobile homes and about a half live in single family homes — almost none live in apartments. Many of these buildings were badly in need of efficiency upgrades.
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+20 +5
Video inside North Korea shows country turning to solar power to cope with blackouts
Rare video footage has emerged from North Korea that reveals the growing dependence of its citizens on solar energy to power their homes amid frequent electricity blackouts. At just over a minute long, the video, filmed in March by the Unification Media Group, and published on the Daily NK website, takes the viewer past cyclists on the quiet, residential streets of Chongjin, North Korea’s third largest city in northern Hamgyong Province.
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+11 +2
Utility Helps Wean Vermonters From the Electric Grid
In a new low-income development that replaced a trailer park here, rooftop solar panels sparkle in the sun while backup batteries quietly hum away in utility closets. About an hour away, in Rutland, homes and businesses along a once-distressed corridor are installing the latest in energy-saving equipment, including special insulation and heat pumps.
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+7 +3
Charge on the go with these solar powered bags
Harnessing the power of the sun can solve this. After years of living the “worldwide hustle/entrepreneur/jet set gypsy life,” as he calls it, Adrian Solgaard is set on reinventing the mobile office and is seeking funding via Kickstarter.
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+2 +1
Paw power: China plans 100 panda-shaped solar plants on new Silk Road
In a country where you can find everything from chopsticks to slippers designed to look like pandas, one Chinese energy company is going a step further by building 100 solar farms shaped like the bears along the route of the ambitious Belt and Road initiative. Panda Green Energy Group (0686.HK) has already connected one such 50-megawatt (MW) plant to the grid in the northern province of Shanxi, the first step in a public relations stunt that emphasizes the cuddly side of the world's No.2 economy.
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+27 +5
India is rolling out trains with solar-powered coaches that’ll save thousands of litres of diesel
India's massive railway network is getting serious about its solar experiments.
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+7 +3
25% of Australian Homes have gone Solar and other Green Triumphs this Week
Renewables continue to take the world by storm, which is good news for the climate. Because of less expensive and more efficient technology, about one quarter of all Australian households now have solar panels. This process is uneven, with a rush to put them up recently because of a fall in the price of the panels. The adoption of solar may slow next year. But the technology is such that there will certainly be more periods of rapid adoption.
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+18 +2
Scientists Design Solar Cell That Captures Nearly All Solar Spectrum Energy
A George Washington University researcher helped design and construct a prototype for a new solar cell that integrates multiple cells stacked into a single device capable of capturing nearly all of the energy in the solar spectrum. The new design, which converts direct sunlight to electricity with 44.5 percent efficiency, has the potential to become the most efficient solar cell in the world.
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+1 +1
Panda Power: China just built a solar farm shaped like a giant panda
Last week, Panda Green Energy Group Limited flipped the switch on the world’s most adorable solar panel facility. The group announced last Friday that its Panda Power Plant was officially connected to the grid in Datong Shanxi, China. While a photo of the plant has been difficult to find, a past artist rendering shows panels in the shape of a bright-eyed, smiling Giant Panda.
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