Solar energy news

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Subsidies? The International Energy Agency noted that in 2014 fossil subsidies came to $490 billion worldwide compared to $112 billion for renewables, so that can’t be the answer. (Coal leases aren’t exactly a money spinner for the federal government either.)

The Real Reason Renewables Are Beating Fossil Fuels - Forbes

Renewables are distributed. Distributed, modular technologies invariably beat technologies that must rely on centralized projects. Just as it became easier to deploy desktop PCs in offices instead of mainframes, it’s far easier to put multiple, easily repeatable solar arrays on rooftops or landfills than it is to get the permits, manage the construction, and engineer the grid connections necessary for a large natural gas plant or a multi-gigawatt nuclear plant.

The Real Reason Renewables Are Beating Fossil Fuels - Forbes

Solar power installer SolarCity, the country’s largest provider of rooftop panels, has exited the Nevada market in the wake of the state’s rollback of the net metering fees paid to residential solar owners. The departure marks an escalation in the war over net metering that is roiling the industry.

A Big Victory for Utilities in the Net Metering Battle Over Rooftop Solar | MIT Technology Review

Solar panel prices dropped steadily in 2015. GTM Research calculated average total solar costs for a fixed-tilt utility-scale system at the end of the second quarter of 2015 at just $1.49 per watt DC, down from $1.58 per watt in the previous quarter. GTM Research forecasts solar prices falling steadily through 2020 and a global market of 135 gigawatts per year in the same year, up from 55 gigawatts installed in 2015. (That is enough to power approximately 10 million California homes.) This growth trend through 2020 constitutes about half (yes, half) of all projected new global electrical capacity in each year.

The Solar Singularity Is Getting Closer | Greentech Media

At $1.49 per watt and 25 percent net capacity factor, we get a levelized cost of electricity (the average cost over the 25-year life of the system) of about 7.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, which includes the 30 percent Investment Tax Credit and accelerated depreciation. This cost of solar power is highly competitive with fossil fuel and nuclear electricity. The Energy Information Administration calculates in its 2015 analysis that the average U.S. levelized cost for new natural-gas advanced combined cycle plants is 7.3 cents per kilowatt-hour -- the same as solar.

The Solar Singularity Is Getting Closer | Greentech Media

Clean energy investment surged in China, Africa, the US, Latin America and India in 2015, driving the world total to its highest ever figure, of $328.9bn, up 4% from 2014’s revised $315.9bn and beating the previous record, set in 2011 by 3%. The latest figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance show dollar investment globally growing in 2015 to nearly six times its 2004 total and a new record of one third of a trillion dollars (see chart on page 3), despite four influences that might have been expected to restrain it. These were: further declines in the cost of solar photovoltaics, meaning that more capacity could be installed for the same price; the strength of the US currency, reducing the dollar value of non-dollar investment; the continued weakness of the European economy, formerly the powerhouse of renewable energy investment; and perhaps most significantly, the plunge in fossil fuel commodity prices.

Clean energy defies fossil fuel price crash to attract record $329bn global investment in 2015 - Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Europe has been supplanted by China as the new global giant pushing renewables forward. China spent a record $111 billion on deployment of clean energy infrastructure last year. That's 17 percent more than it spent the prior year, and almost as much as the U.S. and Europe combined. Spending in the U.S. rose 7.5 percent in 2015 to $56 billion, the most since federal stimulus spending peaked in 2011.

Solar and Wind Just Did the Unthinkable - Bloomberg Business

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GTM Research expects 64 gigawatts of solar PV to be installed globally in 2016, led by the United States and China. Emerging markets will play a prominent role. India will become more established as it becomes a reliable multi-gigawatt market this year, and Brazil and Mexico will be tested for their ability to meet their ambitions with actual project execution. Others like the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh in Asia and Uruguay, Guatemala and Panama in Latin America will move forward and try to break through to 100 megawatts.

GTM Research: Global Solar PV Installations Grew 34% in 2015 | Greentech Media

The opportunity is enormous. According to a report released last week by IRENA in Abu Dhabi, merely doubling the amount of clean energy by 2030 from 2010 levels -- an increase well short of the increase modeled by BNEF for 2040 -- lifts global GDP by $1.3 trillion. And improvements in human welfare would go well beyond gains in GDP, thanks to the range of social and health benefits of clean energy. That includes millions of additional jobs compared to the business-as-usual case.

How to Finance a Trillion-Dollar Climate Change Opportunity | Greentech Media

Once upon a time, people imagined that replacing fossil fuels with renewables like solar and wind would jeopardize the electric grid’s reliability. Then along came some major countries who showed that it didn’t, and that there really are no limits to renewable integration. The result was explained last year in a Bloomberg Business piece aptly headlined, “Germany Proves Life With Less Fossil Fuel Getting Easier”: “Germany experiences just 15 minutes a year of outages, compared with 68 minutes in France and more than four hours in Poland.”

Why The Renewables Revolution Is Now Unstoppable

In 2010, U.S. solar installers hit a milestone of 1 GW per year. Five years later, they’re installing more than 1 GW per month. This tremendous growth has fed a swelling herd of solar unicorns populated by the likes of SolarCity, SunEdison, SunPower and more.

How Solar Software Can Save The World | TechCrunch

Recently, the industry has been buffeted by a variety of tailwinds that should drive even faster expansion. The landmark Paris climate accord promises stronger regulatory support across the world. Concurrently, a group of billionaires led by Bill Gates announced the Breakthrough Energy Coalition to fund this roll out. And the U.S. Congress has extended the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which has raised installation forecasts through 2020 by more than 50 percent. Add to this mix innovation in large-scale battery manufacturing and the future of distributed power generation looks bright indeed. It’s also creating an opportunity to build the first SaaS unicorn focused on distributed generation. As this industry grows, so does the need for software to improve efficiency and lower costs. “Soft costs,” like permitting, financing and customer acquisition, now represent roughly two-thirds of installed costs of residential deployments. As I’ve written about before, the best way to address such soft costs is with software.

How Solar Software Can Save The World | TechCrunch

Australia is uniquely positioned to capitalize on solar energy and it is entirely possible that the country will be mostly reliant on solar power rather than coal within a decade or two. Australia is much like the American west – vast, sunny, and with a relatively small population compared to its size. Australia actually receives more solar radiation per square foot than anywhere else on the planet. Between that fact, and the reality that much of the Australian outback is simply desolate uninhabited desert, Australia has a natural confluence of advantages that align with solar.

Australia's love for solar energy to problems for coal - Business Insider

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But perhaps one of the most intriguing opportunities related to cheap oil prices is the fact that alternative-energy companies are on the outs, and investors can snap them up at massive discounts. By the time the new tax credit expires, solar and wind will be the cheapest forms of new electricity in many states across the U.S. That’s because while it’s true that low energy prices make solar panels and energy-efficient light bulbs less attractive, there are powerful trends that favor alternative-energy companies in the long run.

Cheap oil means big bargains in alternative-energy stocks - MarketWatch

Renewable energy was the biggest source of new power added to U.S. electrical grids last year as falling prices and government incentives made wind and solar increasingly viable alternatives to fossil fuels. Developers installed 16 gigawatts of clean energy in 2015, or 68 percent of all new capacity, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in its Sustainable Energy in America Factbook released Thursday. That was the second straight year that clean power eclipsed fossil fuels.

A Renewables Revolution Is Toppling the Dominance of Fossil Fuels in U.S. Power - Bloomberg Business

Overcoming a series of delays, Morocco started up its Noor I solar project on February 4, marking what many observers call a new era for solar power in North Africa. Located at the edge of Sahara Desert about 120 miles from Marrakesh, Noor I is a 160-megawatt concentrated-solar plant that uses half a million parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight to heat liquid that’s used to create steam to power turbines. The project, which cost nearly $2 billion, was originally envisioned as part of the Desertec plan to build similar plants across the Sahara and export the electricity to Europe. But it collapsed in 2013 when the major European backers pulled out. Noor I is the first of three phases under a plan to create a massive solar complex, supplying 580 megawatts of solar capacity, that could be the biggest in the world when completed. It’s part of Morocco’s ambition to generate 42 percent of its power from wind and solar energy by 2020.

Morocco’s Massive Desert Solar Project Starts Up

Now that solar power is reaching prime time, the fossil fuel industry is doing all that it can to stop its growth. For many years solar was on the periphery, installed by early adopters and helped along by government subsidy. But over the last several years, solar has emphatically become mainstream. It is still growing from a low base, but it is now one of the most preferred sources of new electricity generation. The cost of residential solar have been cut in half since 2010, and utility-scale solar has achieved even greater cost declines. In 2015, the U.S. saw 16 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity installed, which accounted for two-thirds of the total. Solar alone accounted for about one-third of new capacity last year. Natural gas only captured 25 percent of the newly installed capacity despite several years of incredibly low prices. The banner year for clean energy occurred while 11 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity came offline as old plants were retired amid rising costs and stricter environmental regulation. The clean energy transition is very much underway.

Utilities Just Declared War On Solar | OilPrice.com

Solar prices will continue to fall; a study by Oxford University researchers, published last month in Research Policy, found that annual price declines of 10 percent will continue well into the next decade, enabling solar to supply 20 percent of global energy needs by 2027. And falling costs and wider availability of solar systems coupled with energy storage will enable solar households to store energy for later use, making rooftop solar more economical on its own—regardless of whether it ever reaches true grid parity.

Suddenly, the Solar Boom Is Starting to Look like a Bubble

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For the first time ever, solar beat out natural-gas capacity additions, with solar supplying 29.5 percent of all new electric generating capacity in the U.S. in 2015.

US Solar Market Sets New Record, Installing 7.3GW of Solar PV in 2015 | Greentech Media

Led by the utility-scale segment, GTM Research forecasts 16 gigawatts (GW) of solar will be installed in the U.S. in 2016, more than doubling the record-breaking 7.3 GW installed in 2015. While utility-scale installations will represent 74 percent of the installations for the year, the residential and commercial markets will also experience strong growth in 2016. In fact, the U.S. is on the verge of the 1 millionth solar installation milestone.

US Solar Market Set To Grow 119% In 2016, Installations To Reach 16 GW - TheStreet

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Wind and solar have grown seemingly unstoppable. While two years of crashing prices for oil, natural gas, and coal triggered dramatic downsizing in those industries, renewables have been thriving. Clean energy investment broke new records in 2015 and is now seeing twice as much global funding as fossil fuels.

Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg

One reason is that renewable energy is becoming ever cheaper to produce. Recent solar and wind auctions in Mexico and Morocco ended with winning bids from companies that promised to produce electricity at the cheapest rate, from any source, anywhere in the world, said Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board for Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg

What’s harder to see is the effects of this booming industry on America’s workforce. Until now. In the most comprehensive analysis of its kind, a new report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), shows that 2.5 million Americans now work in clean energy in every state. These are hard-working folks who get up every day to build and install solar panels; erect wind turbines and make our homes more efficient. That’s a big number, 2.5 million. Let’s put it into perspective. At 2.5 million, there are now almost as many clean energy workers as nurses in America. More people work in clean energy than live in the state of New Mexico. And when compared to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics jobs data for industries like real estate, agriculture and management, clean energy tops them all.

2.5 Million Reasons Why Clean Energy is Important to America | RealClearEnergy

Vehicle idling is often in the news in Louisville. During the summer, ozone alerts warn residents that the air is unhealthy and will be made worse by vehicle exhaust. And residents living near industrial sites — like the JBS Swift plant in Butchertown — have complained about the exhaust from refrigerated trucks burning diesel constantly. Well, a company that sells solar energy systems for vehicles says that doesn’t have to be the case.

How Solar Energy Could Reduce Vehicle Idling

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It’s worth taking a minute to appreciate the sheer scale of what China is doing in solar right now. In 2015, the country added more than 15 gigawatts of new solar capacity, surpassing Germany as the world’s largest solar power market. China now has 43.2 gigawatts of solar capacity, compared with38.4 gigawatts in Germany and 27.8 in the United States. According to new projections, it seems that trend is going to continue. Under its 13th Five Year Plan, China will nearly triple solar capacity by 2020, adding 15 to 20 gigawatts of solar capacity each year for the next five years, according to Nur Bekri, director of the National Energy Administration. That will bring the country’s installed solar power to more than 140 gigawatts. To put that in context, world solar capacity topped 200 gigawatts last year and is expected to reach 321 gigawatts by the end of 2016.

China Is on an Epic Solar Power Binge

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a bill requiring solar panels being installed on new small and midsize residential and commercial buildings within the city.

SolarCity shares surge on SanFran ordinance

Petroleum giants began investing in clean energy as early as the 1970s, when the oil crisis prompted Exxon to explore solar’s potential. Eventually oil companies settled on a renewable resource more in line with their traditional business: biofuels. Between 2005 and 2013, oil majors invested more than $9.4 billion on ethanol and other plant-based fuels, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Now as wind, solar and other forms of clean energy become more viable, they are drawing more notice from once-leery investors. Renewables were the biggest source of new power added to U.S. electrical grids last year, outpacing coal and gas-fired plants. Global solar capacity is projected to double by the end of 2018, and wind power will increase by 50 percent.

Big Oil Unexpectedly Backing Newest Non-Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg

China’s clean-energy firms face record bond maturities this year, just as investor confidence was shaken by the default of a company that had been the world’s top solar-panel manufacturer.  Renewable companies must repay 28.8 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) of bonds over the rest of the year, more than any other previous annual repayments, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. A venture of Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., the top producer of panels until 2014, missed payments on 1.76 billion yuan of its notes. That brings the number of companies that defaulted on bonds to four, involving $1.8 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Overcapacity still plagues the industry after years of aggressive expansion that left the sector with 105 billion yuan of outstanding bonds. While President Xi Jinping has vowed to reduce pollution that’s a byproduct of a 30-year economic boom, the number of solar and wind-power generating plants in the nation lagged behind production of equipment.

China Green Energy Firms Have Record Debt Due as Yingli Defaults - Bloomberg

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Portugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures. Electricity consumption in the country was fully covered by solar, wind and hydro power in an extraordinary 107-hour run that lasted from 6.45am on Saturday 7 May until 5.45pm the following Wednesday, the analysis says. News of the zero emissions landmark comes just days after Germany announced that clean energy had powered almost all its electricity needs on Sunday 15 May, with power prices turning negative at several times in the day – effectively paying consumers to use it.

Portugal runs for four days straight on renewable energy alone | Environment | The Guardian

An overwhelming 77 percent of attendees indicated that reforms to net metering pose the greatest threat to rooftop solar growth, more so than the phase-down of the federal Investment Tax Credit, the growth in community solar programs, or the loss of state incentives. As Adam Gerza of Energy Toolbase stated during a panel, net energy metering (NEM) is the U.S. solar industry’s “most universal energy policy,” with 42 states making NEM decisions or reforms in the past year. Gerza stated that 95 percent of these decisions have been favorable to rooftop solar; however, it is clear that reforms in states like Arizona and Nevada have caused pain and worry throughout the industry, as exemplified by the conference attendees’ vote on the issue.

The Future of Solar, According to 500 Industry Professionals | Greentech Media

GTM Research's Honeyman has analyzed the role of rate design and NEM policies on “grid parity” -- a term used to indicate the level at which a customer will save on the total cost of energy by going solar. According to his research, there are currently 20 states at grid parity in 2016, and this number is expected to more than double by 2020 under a business-as-usual scenario.  However, implementation of increased fixed customer charges and/or demand charges could leave fewer than a handful of states at grid parity, a scenario that would drastically stifle solar growth.

The Future of Solar, According to 500 Industry Professionals | Greentech Media

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In the next 15 years, Texas expects to add somewhere between 14 and 27 gigawatts of solar capacity, according to a new long-term system assessment from the state’s grid operator, ERCOT. ERCOT is considering eight different scenarios, such as continued low natural-gas prices or extreme weather. Under all scenarios, solar makes up nearly all of the new capacity.

Solar Will Replace Nearly All Retiring Coal in Texas | Greentech Media

Its greenest promise was to install 175GW of renewable power by 2022 (most of it solar). This is an enormous undertaking. In 2014, for example, the world’s entire installed solar capacity was 181GW. The Modi government says the plans are “ambitious but achievable”. The country’s total installed solar power capacity now comes to 5.8GW; to meet its targets it will need to speed up from adding around 4GW a year to adding more than 15GW instead. Mr Modi believes solar power is the “ultimate solution to India’s energy problem”. Of 250m households in India, 56m do not have access to electricity. The majority are in rural areas where off-grid solar installations, suitable for single homes or small clusters of buildings, could prove particularly helpful.

Daily chart: Indian solar power | The Economist

The reduction in FITs across several sectors could be as much as 20 percent to 30 percent, according to GTM Research’s Q2 2016 Global Solar Demand Monitor.  As a result, GTM Research predicts: “The market will take a sharp negative turn in 2016, contracting by 12 percent to 10.2 gigawatts and shrinking a further 73 percent to reach 2.8 gigawatts in 2020.”

Subsidy Cuts Will Cause a ‘Sharp Negative Turn’ in Japan’s Solar Market Through 2020 | Greentech Media

According to GTM Research’s latest report, U.S. Solar PV Price Brief H1 2016: Pricing, Breakdowns and Forecasts, pricing for fixed-tilt ground-mount PV systems will hit $0.99 per watt by 2020. This would achieve the Department of Energy’s ambitious SunShot target of $1.00 per watt by the end of this decade.

Solar PV Prices Will Fall Below $1.00 per Watt by 2020 | Greentech Media

New solar, wind and hydropower sources were added in 2015 at the fastest rate the world has yet seen, a study says. Investments in renewables during the year were more than double the amount spent on new coal and gas-fired power plants, the Renewables Global Status Report found. For the first time, emerging economies spent more than the rich on renewable power and fuels.

Renewable energy surges to record levels around the world - BBC News

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New solar installations are expected to nearly double this year as the industry works through a huge project pipeline that developers created when they thought a federal tax break was on the verge of being slashed. GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group, are projecting about 14,500 MW of new solar capacity this year, up from a record 7,286 MW the industry installed in 2015 when solar outpaced new capacity additions from natural gas. The projected total could have been even higher had some projects not been delayed once Congress extended the investment tax credit.

SNL: Report: Solar installations up 27% in 1st quarter, seen almost doubling in '16

In the first quarter of 2016, 1,665 megawatts of solar PV were installed in the United States with the solar industry adding more new capacity during this period than coal, natural gas and nuclear combined. According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) U.S. Solar Market Insight, Q2 2016, the 1,665 megawatts accounted for 64 percent of all new electric generating capacity brought on-line in the first quarter of the year.

Solar Made Up 64% of New Electric Generating Capacity in the US in Q1 2016 | Greentech Media

Every year, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century — mercifully abbreviated as REN21 — puts out a massive Global Status Report on renewable energy. It is an energy nerd's dream, packed with the latest data on clean energy around the world. When such reports are released, we here at Vox are legally obligated to do a charts post, lest we be fined by the Explainer Authorities. So let's get to it. One of the more interesting themes this year is just how clearly China is pushing the developing world into the lead on renewables. Let's tell the story in graphs.

China is driving global renewable energy growth, in 6 graphs - Vox

A utility may, for example, prefer the firm electricity supply from a coal or nuclear plant over intermittent renewable power as it seeks to maintain a reliable supply of energy. In the Pacific Northwest, wind generation has been curtailed during peak output to avoid the overload of transmission, a case where existing infrastructure cannot handle more renewable power. To address these challenges, the IEA report outlines a series of policy initiatives to continue support for renewable projects while allowing governments to cut back funding. The formula involves a basket of low- or no-cost policy tools that, when taken together, create an environment where ongoing support for renewables is ensured, as is bankability.

Renewables Are Getting Cheaper. But That Doesn’t Mean We Should Eliminate Subsidies, Says IEA | Greentech Media

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A $200 billion spending push by India to boost renewable power output will help drive a surge in issuance of green bonds, according to a unit of Citigroup Inc., the country’s largest arranger of offshore note transactions in 2016. With governments around the world last year agreeing to a new global climate accord, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has pledged to foster economic production in the world’s second-most populous nation that is less carbon intensive. It plans to boost renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 from a current level of just 37 gigawatts, and is aiming to source at least 40 percent of its energy mix from clean sources such as wind and solar by 2030.

Modi’s $200 Billion Renewable Push to Fuel Green Bond Bonanza - Bloomberg

Solar power is on pace for the first time this year to contribute more new electricity to the grid than will any other form of energy – a feat driven more by economics than green mandates. The cost of electricity from large-scale solar installations now is comparable to and sometimes cheaper than natural gas-fired power, even without incentives aimed at promoting environmentally friendly power, according to industry players and outside cost studies.

Big solar is leaving rooftop systems in the dust | Reuters

Unsubsidized utility-scale solar power costs $50 to $70 per megawatt-hour (or 5 to 7 cents a kilowatt hour), compared with $52 to $78 for the most efficient type of gas plant, according to a 2015 study by investment bank Lazard. Generating power from residential rooftop panels is far more expensive, ranging from $184 to $300 a MWh before subsidies, the report said.

Big solar is leaving rooftop systems in the dust | Reuters

“As the declining volume of PV module shipments shows, the market is shrinking,” said Takehiro Kawahara, an analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance.  Repeated tariff cuts and difficulty securing land and grid connections are among some of the reasons that have led to a drop in new applications to develop solar, Kawahara said. For Japanese panel makers such as Sharp Corp. and Kyocera Corp., “the shrinking domestic market forces them to lower costs to remain in competition with international players or consider exiting the segment,” he said.

Japan’s Solar Boom Showing Signs of Deflating as Subsidies Wane - Bloomberg