Solar Costing a Third of Retail Power Emerges in Germany

Germany’s cost of producing solar penal for home has shrunk to about a third of the price households pay for power after the nation made developers compete for subsidies.
Most bids to build large ground-mounted solar plants in the first solar auction came in at 9 euro cents (9.7 U.S. cents) to 10 euro cents a kilowatt-hour, Deputy Economy Minister Rainer Baake said. German retail consumers are paying on average 29.8 cents a kWh, according to Eurostat.

“The auctions were very well received,” Baake said at an energy conference Thursday in Berlin. The previous “feed-in tariffs were wonderful to introduce the technology. That era is over.” He didn’t say which bids were accepted, and there’s no guarantee all of them will result in projects.

Germany introduced auctions to try to lower the cost of solar installations as it seeks to more than triple the share of its power consumption coming from renewables by the middle of the century. The Bundesnetzagentur regulator received 170 bids for more than the 150 megawatts it offered. It will auction off a further 350 megawatts this year, 400 megawatts next year and 300 megawatts in 2017.

Coal-fired plants still generate soalr power cheaper than solar penal for home in Germany, which has less sunshine than Italy and Spain in the south. That didn’t stop the country from jumpstarting a photovoltaic installation boom when it introduced above-market subsidies to developers more than a decade ago read more

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SunPower Reports Loss as It Holds Onto More Solar Power Assets

Solar Power los angeles reported its first loss in two years as the second-largest U.S. solar manufacturer pursues a new strategy to keep control of certain power assets instead of selling them.

The net loss was $9.6 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with profit of $65 million, or 42 cents, a year earlier, San Jose, California-based SunPower said in a statement Thursday. Excluding one-time items, per-share profit was more than the 8-cent average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

SunPower said in February its plan to put some power plants and a group of rooftop solar systems installers into a joint venture with competitor First Solar Inc. would reduce profit. The so-called yieldco will be publicly traded and a guaranteed buyer of their assets, reducing capital costs. The entity, which will be controlled by its parents and named 8Point3 Energy Partners LP, offers investors steady returns from long-term power contracts.

Solar Power los angele slashed its first-quarter guidance 90 percent after announcing the joint venture, dropping it to 5 to 15 cents a share from as much as $1.50 on an adjusted basis. It withdrew its forecast for 2015 profit without providing new figures.

China will be the company’s fastest growing region in the next five years, Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner said in an April 24 interview with Bloomberg Radio. SunPower and Apple Inc. are building two 20-megawatt solar power los angeles plants in China’s Sichuan Province.

The earnings were released after the close of regular trading in U.S. markets. SunPower has gained 25 percent this year read more

Tiny implantable solar panels could help the blind see one day

Inside your eye are tiny retinal cells whose job is to translate the visual signals you encounter every day — colors and edges — into signals your brain can understand. Without these photoreceptors, you can’t see. And retinal degeneration, in which these receptors start to die off, is one of the leading causes of blindness.

But one group of scientists may be nearing a solution. In a paper published in the journal Nature Medicine this week, researchers describe a tiny, honeycomb-shaped wireless implant that helps restore vision in rats with retinal degeneration. These rats had lost some of their light-sensitive cells , but they still had intact bipolar and ganglion cells — the cells that photoreceptors hook up to. By using the wireless implant to directly stimulate these cells, researchers were able to restore partial vision to the rats.

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9 metro Denver solar gardens rooted, another 10 start to sprout

A solar garden building boom is sweeping the Denver area, with nine gardens already built and 10 more under development.

An 800-kilo watt array next to Green Valley Ranch Middle School in Denver, developed by Denver-based Sun Share LLC and Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy Inc., is set to go into operation.
In Boulder, a $1.5 million, 500-kilo watt solar system installers los angeles  being built by Louisville-based Clean Energy Collective is nearing completion — next to its first array, which opened in 2013.
"There is a growing demand for solar, and solar gardens is a concept that is taking off across the country," said Adam Browning, executive director of VoteSolar, a solar energy advocacy group.
The gardens, in which area residents or businesses can buy a fractional ownership, are marketed to those who can't put solar panels on their roofs.
About three-quarters of residential rooftops aren't suitable for solar panels, according to a study by the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Homeowners, businesses and municipalities with shares in a garden get a credit on their electricity bills for a portion of the electricity it generates, SunShare chief executive David Amster-Olszewski said read more 

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World's largest solar plant opens in California desert

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell joined state officials on Monday to open the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight solar project in the town of Desert Center, Calif., near Joshua Tree National Park. Built by First Solar panel, the project generates enough electricity to power 160,000 average California homes.
Desert Sunlight received a federal loan of nearly $1.5 billion, and Jewell called its completion an example of the loan guarantee program's tremendous importance.
"When you are stepping out with new technology, when you are trying something that has been untested before, a loan guarantee program from an organization like the Department of Energy is what provides you, as a lender, that certainty that you can step up and support the project," Jewell told The Desert Sun.

Conservative lawmakers have derided the loan guarantee program, arguing that it's wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Critics have pointed to the program's $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, a Fremont-based solar panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy in 2011 read more

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Solar energy services firm's home battery systems target SRP fees

A Scottsdale solar installation company is offering solar panels with batteries to help homeowners avoid the high "demand charge" Salt River Project recently approved for new solar customers.

The batteries will ensure customers don't set a high, momentary demand for power that will trigger steep fees from the utility.

SRP officials said the utility's new rate design will encourage customers to reduce their maximum demand on the utility grid. In the Phoenix area, the highest electricity use occurs in late summer afternoons, when air-conditioners crank up and, unfortunately, the sun is low in the sky and solar panels are not at their maximum output read more

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Tesla's New Battery Could Solve One of Solar Power's Biggest Problems

So far, specific details are thin on the new battery designed for home use that Tesla’s announcing next week. But just based on what we do know, it’s a pretty big deal. The quest for a good battery that can store home-generated power is kind of like the holy grail for a renewable energy future. This one product might change everything.

A New York Times article published earlier this week essentially sets up the problem that Tesla’s battery will solve. In Hawaii, 12 percent of homes have some kind of solar energy, by far the highest rate for any place in the US at the moment. In fact, that rate is growing too quickly—solar customers are dumping so much energy back onto the grid that they’re taxing the delicate and often aging infrastructure that was only designed to deliver power to homes. What’s happening in Hawaii is actually indicative of what’s going to be an issue everywhere as many cities start to see an increase in large-scale solar implementation: There’s going to be too much energy generated, and nowhere to put it.

Utility companies might spend the money to upgrade the grid, but even then it’s difficult for them to predict how much more capacity they’ll need (and of course those costs will certainly be passed down to consumers). The absolute best idea is for homeowners to start installing batteries that can store the power for later use instead of giving the power back to the utilities, something called peak load shaving. It’s not just solar power that can be stored, of course—it can also come from wind turbines or hydroelectricity or the treadmill you rigged together to juice up your house with kinetic energy read more

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Bill makes solar power a smart move for homeowners

A newly passed bill in the Georgia legislature will make solar panel powerful affordable for home and business owners.

ATLANTA -- "Welcome to our most favorite asset of our house," Rutherford Seydel said.

Most people don't do interviews on the roof of their house, but to Seydel and his wife, Laura Turner Seydel, showing off their solar energy services system is one way to celebrate the passage of House Bill 57. Called the Solar Power Free Market Financing Act, it will make it easier and more affordable for Georgia homeowners and businesses to put solar panels on their rooftops.

The bill, expected to be signed into law by Governor Deal, allows home and business owners to finance installation, which can cost anywhere from a few thousand to up to $15,000. By financing, homeowners can avoid the upfront costs and pay for their system over time with what they save on their monthly power bill.
The Seydels' home, Eco Manor in Buckhead, has served as a local blueprint for how homeowners can go green.

Rutherford Seydel explained that, "An installer will put it (solar panel system) there under this law. An installer will be able to be paid back from the savings that you get from your power bill read more:

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CITY COUNCIL APPROVES POTENTIAL NFL CHARGERS, RAIDERS STADIUM NEAR LA

CARSON, Calif. -- A local City Council has cleared the path for a proposed stadium near Los Angeles that could become home to the NFL's San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders.

The 3-0 vote Tuesday by the Carson City Council marks a significant step forward for plans to lure the NFL back to the Los Angeles area after a two-decade drought without a team in the nation's second-largest media market.

Council members could have opted to put the issue before Carson voters, but instead chose to approve it outright themselves read more:

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Upgrade the power grid, or be swept away by a changing climate.

That’s the message in a new Obama administration report published Tuesday calling for billions of dollars of major investments in the nation’s energy system over the next decade. All the pipelines, power lines, railways, and the other infrastructure that bring Americans the energy they use each day will have to be modernized in the face of climate change and a renaissance in renewable energy, it says.

The report, the first Quadrennial Energy Review, is part of the Obama administration’s Climate Action Plan and a four-year guide to modernizing and upgrading the nation’s vast energy system. The rapidly aging system needs a major upgrade in the face of global warming and the need to integrate renewables into the power grid.

In order to crank up a car, drive to work, and switch on the office lights, Americans rely on more than 2.6 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines and hundreds of thousands of miles of power lines and railways that carry fossil fuels and renewable energy to homes and offices read more

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Tree roof bearing solar panel

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Solar Power Battle Puts Hawaii at Forefront of Worldwide Changes

HONOLULU — Allan Akamine has looked all around the winding, palm tree-lined cul-de-sacs of his suburban neighborhood in Mililani here on Oahu and, with an equal mix of frustration and bemusement, seen roof after roof bearing solar panels.

Mr. Akamine, 61, a manager for a cable company, has wanted nothing more than to lower his $600 to $700 monthly electric bill with a solar system of his own. But for 18 months or so, the state’s biggest utility barred him and thousands of other customers from getting one, citing concerns that power generated by rooftop systems was overwhelming its ability to handle it.

Only under strict orders from state energy officials did the utility, the Hawaiian Electric Company, recently rush to approve the lengthy backlog of solar applications, including Mr. Akamine’s.

Solairedirect, which built this solar panel array in France, hopes to branch out from Europe to countries in the developing world.Green Column: Outlook for Solar Gets a Bit BrighterMARCH 18, 2015
It is the latest chapter in a closely watched battle that has put this state at the forefront of a global upheaval in the power business. Rooftop systems now sit atop roughly 12 percent of Hawaii’s homes, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, by far the highest proportion in the nation.
ReadMore.........
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Solar-powered plane on round-the-world flight gets stuck in China

(CNN)The Solar panel Impulse 2, the experimental plane attempting to fly around the world without using a drop of fuel, has been grounded by the weather in China.

What was supposed to be an overnight pit stop in the southwestern city of Chongqing has now stretched into a two-and-a-half week stay.

Weather leaves solar-powered plane stuck in China
It's an unexpected layover that is testing the patience of the pilots and more than 60 team members, just a quarter of the way along a journey that will cover some 35,000 kilometers (21,748 miles) over five months.
"You can believe that your will can influence the weather," says pilot Bertrand Piccard, who comes from a long family line of explorers. But "then you'll be really disappointed because it doesn't work.
"Or you just know that it's an adventure you do with the forces of nature."

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Sackville couple says solar power becoming affordable

It's the warmest day of the year so far in Sackville, N.B., and Blane and Heather Smith are outside, opening-up the garden centre they run beside their three-floor, 27-year-old home. And on a day like today, that home is being powered by sunshine.

"Our power output is 5,100 watts, so that's enough to run our house right now," says Blane Smith.
Over the past few years the Smiths installed 24 photovoltaic panels on the roof for electrical power, two solar water-heating panels, and triple-glazed windows. Together with a heat pump system, the retrofits effectively mean the Smiths pay no more than a monthly connection fee to NB Power. Their most recent bill was $33.24.

"The beauty of being grid-tied is that you can save the power that you generate in the summer, when you generate the most, and use it in the winter when you are producing the least," says Heather Smith.
"We were inspired by Efficiency NB. They dangled the carrot and we went for it. They had programs, incentives to help."

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Home Solar power and Solar Panels installers

Solar Power modern installers consider solar installation a routine task but they are prepared, trained and experienced in your field.

For the rest of us, it is not such a simple matter to fabricate your own sun oriented board. To start with, unlike the pros, we usually have no experience in this area. Secondly, every installation is different. Each residential unit comes with a distinct set of challenges that the DIY er must analyze and conquer.

This lens addresses your questions. You'll find a discussion of the types of home solar panels, how to know if solar power is suitable for your residence, what you will need in terms of supplies and equipment, and basic information about a solar panel installation.

You'll also discover a recommendation for a Green Energy DIY guide that's well justified worth a look.

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 Opening NC solar power market requires a balanced plan

What’s next? Republicans in North Carolina’s General Assembly gathered outside their Jones Street headquarters looking for some trees to hug?

Four GOP House members are sponsoring a bill that would allow independent companies to compete for utility customers with the bigs, Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress. Solar energy, a rapidly developing industry, is helping to generate such a conversation.

The bill would allow financing of such energy sales through third-party leasing, wherein an independent energy developer leases a private rooftop, installs solar panels and then sells the power produced directly to the customer. House members have been getting a push from big corporations such as Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, Target and Macy’s to allow it.

One sponsor, GOP Rep. John Szoka of Fayetteville, puts a free-market spin on the idea, given that Republicans generally shy away from anything having to do with renewable energy.

“I believe in free markets,” Szoka says, “and I believe in property rights. This allows property owners to use their property as they see fit.”
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The Solar System and Beyond is Awash in Water

As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly unrelated worlds in surprising ways.

"NASA science activities have provided a wave of amazing findings related to water in recent years that inspire us to continue investigating our origins and the fascinating possibilities for other worlds, and life, in the universe," said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for the agency. "In our lifetime, we may very well finally answer whether we are alone in the solar system and beyond."

The chemical elements in water, hydrogen and oxygen, are some of the most abundant elements in the universe. Astronomers see the signature of water in giant molecular clouds between the stars, in disks of material that represent newborn planetary systems, and in the atmospheres of giant planets orbiting other stars.
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Obama Announces Plan to Train 75,000 Solar Workers

The White House has announced a goal to train 75,000 workers in the solar industry by 2020, many of them veterans. "These are good-paying jobs that are helping folks enter the middle-class," President Barack Obama said on Friday at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The plan will expand on the Department of Energy SunShot Initiative's Solar Instructor Training Network currently running at more than 400 community colleges. The White House also announced the Solar Ready Vets program aimed at helping veterans transition into the solar industry. A joint program between the Department of Defense and the DOE, it's currently being launched at 10 military bases across the country, including Hill Air Force Base and Camp Pendleton in California.

Obama touted the new goal as a way to bolster the economy and help meet the White House's climate change goals, which call for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The solar industry is creating jobs at a rate of 10 times faster than the overall economy, the White House said. Obama announced the new program the same day the March jobs report was released showing the most sluggish U.S. employment growth since December 2013.
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Solar, Wind Investment Surge, Reversing 2-Year Decline

Global investments in renewable energy soared. Solar, wind and other green energy sources saw a leap in investment last year, surging 17 percent worldwide and reversing two years of decline, the U.N. announced Tuesday.

Investment in renewables in 2014 rose to $270 billion, putting 103 gigawatts of new electricity on nations’ energy grids — the greatest year ever for newly installed generating capacity.
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Leased solar panels can complicate — or kill — a home sale

Can going green by leasing solar panels for your roof cost you money — or give you headaches — when you go to sell the house?

Possibly both.

Say you get pitched by one of the growing number of companies offering solar panels at no upfront cost that they claim will save you lots of money on electricity bills. Sounds like a slam-dunk. So you sign on.

Then a few years later you decide to sell the house. You assume that the presence of solar panels can only be a marketing plus, maybe even get you a higher price. Everybody goes for green, right?

But that's when it gets weird. Some would-be buyers balk when they learn that they'll need to qualify on credit to take over your solar lease payments for the next 15 to 17 years. Others say they like the house but won't sign a contract unless you buy out the remaining lease payment stream — $15,000 or $20,000 or more — because they're worried that the solar equipment will become obsolete or won't save as much on electricity bills as advertised.

Issues like these are popping up increasingly in California and other states and are interfering in sales and closings, according to real estate industry experts.

Consider what happened to Nora and Andrew Barber when they wanted to sell their home near Fresno. They needed to move because of an employment transfer to Thousand Oaks. Their house attracted offers quickly, but two successive sets of buyers backed out of contracts because of the leased solar panels on the roof. They either thought the long-term cost of the lease from Clean Power Finance was too high or got cold feet after hearing what credit qualifications they'd need to take over the lease.

Meanwhile, the Barbers were in the middle of negotiations to purchase their new house and making preparations to move.

"It was a nightmare," Nora said. "We were in a panic" — pressured by the need to close the new purchase yet still dealing with unexpected complications caused by the leased panels. Finally, they paid $22,000 to get out of the lease and sold the house.

Steve Olszewski, senior vice president of operations for Clean Power, said that as a matter of policy, the company does not comment on cases involving its customers. He added that "we have seen very few instances" of home buyers "not wanting solar." In 95% of cases, he said, buyers take over the solar agreement as-is or the home seller "pre-pays the agreement" or purchases the equipment outright.

Lynn Farris, a realty agent with Windermere Hulsey & Associates in Vacaville, Calif., says disputes arising over solar panel leases are "becoming an increasing problem" for sellers and buyers, and because of the rising popularity of solar, "it's going to get worse."

She has seen sales fall apart when the parties couldn't agree on how to handle the substantial payments owed on long-term leases — in one case it was nearly $30,000 — or because buyers thought the leases "were really bad deals." Out of four leased panel agreements she has analyzed, "only one was any good," she said.

Nationwide, residential solar installations are booming — up by 50% per year since 2012, according to the Solar Energy Industries Assn. More than 600,000 homes and businesses now have on-site solar, with the fastest growth rates occurring in Maryland, Massachusetts and New York.

The biggest player in the field, SolarCity — backed by deep-pocket venture capital and chaired by Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — says it now has 190,000 customers in 16 states. Jonathan Bass, vice president of communications, says working out smooth transfers of leased systems from sellers to buyers — or buyouts of systems — is a priority. SolarCity has a 12-person team that already has arranged "close to 3,000" transfers, Bass said.

Takeaways from all this? Top of the list: Be aware of the potential complexities that can occur when you lease, rather than buy, solar panels.

If you opt for a lease, understand your long-term obligations, and talk to your current utility company about the savings claimed. Most important, if you've got a leased system and plan to sell, contact the leasing company well in advance to learn about the lease transfer and buyout options. That way you'll be ready if prospective buyers have problems with your panels.
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Solar panels are popular in Los Angeles. It is natural that many companies install solar panels. When you have taken the decision to buy solar panels for home, here comes a lot involved. A good installer find who can answer all your questions, gives an interesting offer, a good warranty and follow-up are some of the main points. Below are recognized and professional solar power installers. They tell you who they are, their approach, strengths, their brands available solar panels and the warranty they offer.

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California's push for clean energy has a problem: no place to store it

On a quiet Sunday morning last April, power plants were pumping far more energy into California's electricity grid than residents needed for their refrigerators, microwaves and television sets.

So officials made an odd request in a state that prides itself on leadership in renewable energy: They asked wind and solar plants to cut back their output. For 90 minutes, clean energy production was slashed 1,142 megawatts, enough electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes, while dirtier power from less flexible sources stayed on to keep the system stable.

It was the largest curtailment of green energy last year, according to grid operators, and it highlights a hurdle for Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to increase the state's reliance on renewable energy. Peak demand for electricity rarely coincides with the brightest sunshine or the strongest winds, so finding a way to store clean power and deliver it when needed will be critical as California relies more on renewable energy.
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