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Sep. 6, 2014
Energy companies First Solar and NextEra Energy Resources are partnering with federal Bureau of Land Management to build $1 billion, 250-megawatt solar power generating station in the desert 50 miles south of Las Vegas; plant is expected to produce enough electricity to power 80,000 California homes by its 2016 completion. MORE
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Sep. 2, 2014
Oregon-based SolarWorld Americas, largest manufacturer of solar panels in United States, asks Commerce Department to investigate claims that Chinese military personnel broke into company's computers and stole important business documents in long-running trade dispute; company proposes administration should impose tariffs to crack down on Chinese manufacturers benefiting from cyberwarfare and espionage. MORE
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Aug. 7, 2014
Polly Guth, 87-year-old owner of Gilded Age estate in Dublin, NH, is retrofitting home, determined to make it as energy efficient as possible, complete with field of solar panels; hopes to make property net-zero, producing as much, or more, energy than it consumes. MORE
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Aug. 3, 2014
Vocations column features interview with solar panel installer Rocio Farias discussing her career. MORE
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Jul. 29, 2014
China's Commerce Ministry criticizes United States for setting new import duties on Chinese solar products; says that actions risk damaging industry in both countries. MORE
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Jul. 26, 2014
Commerce Department imposes duties of 10.74 percent to 55.49 percent on Chinese solar companies for dumping their products on American market below cost; effects of higher tariffs and other regulatory action has had major impact on market, with solar panel prices increasing and demand declining for some large, low-cost manufacturers that have dominated the market. MORE
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Jul. 18, 2014
Op-Ed article by David J Hayes, former deputy secretary of Interior Dept, notes that many American communities using diesel generators for electricity and heat would greatly benefit from small-scale renewable energy sources; describes how modular wind and solar energy systems under development would result in economic and quality-of-life benefits to many small, isolated communities across nation. MORE
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Jul. 3, 2014
Students from Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University and University of Applied Sciences in Germany show off 800-square-foot amoeba-shaped house they created, one of 25 projects on display at Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 in Versailles, France. MORE
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Jun. 20, 2014
Community solar gardens allow consumers to buy into a solar array constructed elsewhere and receive credit on their electricity bills for the power their panels produce; concept slowly gaining popularity across country; system, pioneered in Colorado, allows people whose homes do not allow for solar construction to make use of the technology. MORE
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Jun. 18, 2014
SolarCity acquires Silevo, maker of high-efficiency solar panels, for at least $200 million in stock; acquisition is intended to move fast-growing provider of rooftop solar electricity systems into panel manufacturing business. MORE
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Jun. 4, 2014
Commerce Department imposes steep duties, ranging from 18.56 to 35.21 percent, on importers of Chinese solar panels, insisting that manufacturers benefited from unfair subsidies; decision, in long-simmering trade dispute, addresses one of main charges brought by manufacturer SolarWorld Industries American. MORE
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May. 9, 2014
Pres Obama will announce handful of executive actions and private and nonprofit groups' investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy; initiatives will not amount to much in terms of energy policy or their impact on global warming, but are part of broader campaign to build public support for Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants; rule is expected to create new market for zero-carbon energy from sources like wind and solar. MORE
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Apr. 27, 2014
Editorial warns that Koch brothers and other big polluters are spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, with latest example being their push for a surtax on homeowners with solar panels that sell power back to utilities; argues that campaigns are nothing more than a cynical push by coal industry to hold back threat posed by renewable energy to their profits. MORE
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Apr. 18, 2014
Paul Krugman Op-Ed column notes Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest assessment--that drastic action necessary to limit emissions of greenhouse gases will have a small economic impact; explains that panel's economic optimism is due to technological revolution that has decreased the cost of renewable energy, particularly solar power. MORE
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Apr. 18, 2014
Energy Department inspector general report says long before it lost $68 million on bankrupt solar business Abound Solar, it should have known that company's chance of repaying loan was deteriorating; report is issued as Obama administration prepares to offer as much as $8 billion in additional loan guarantees. MORE
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Mar. 25, 2014
Honda and other automakers are using car batteries to store solar electricity to use not just in cars, but in homes, too; Honda is introducing experimental house in environmentally conscious community of Davis, Calif, to showcase technologies that allow dwelling to generate more electricity than it consumes. MORE
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Feb. 26, 2014
Jack London Square business district in Oakland, Calif, has been revitalized by solar energy firm Sungevity and other alternative energy start-ups it nurtures. MORE
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Feb. 14, 2014
Ivanpah solar power plant, which covers more than five square miles of California's Mojave Desert, opens after nearly four years of construction; plant could be last of its kind, facing competition from plummeting prices of rival technologies, disappearing incentives for solar farms, and waning appetite among investors. MORE
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Jan. 26, 2014
Issue of solar power is dividing Republican Party as some conservatives are coming to support it, while others remain opposed in favor of traditional utilities. MORE
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Jan. 9, 2014
Tina Beebe, architectural colorist, painter and landscape designer, and Buzz Yudell, award-winning architect, have built airy modern home designed to maximize sunlight and space on small lot in Santa Monica, Calif; building uses solar panels and passive house construction to generate all the energy it needs. MORE
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Jan. 6, 2014
Legislation passed by Spanish government and set to take effect in 2014 drastically reduces payments to investors in solar energy, dropping per-kilowatt-hour payment system and effectively imposing retroactive cuts in payments; action, taken in response to growing deficit, may threaten both solvency of investors and of country's energy grid. MORE
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Jan. 4, 2014
Shares of SolarCity, provider of rooftop solar systems, have soared more than sevenfold since going public, leading solar power craze that has swept Wall Street; SolarCity's outsized success is either a sign of long-awaited gains in the solar sector or of yet another mania gripping the stock market. MORE
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Jan. 1, 2014
Solar panel maker SolarWorld Industries America, expanding long-simmering dispute, asks Commerce Department to impose duties on solar modules containing parts made in China or Taiwan. MORE
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Dec. 24, 2013
Solar power is growing so fast in California that it is turning state's power system upside down; state is mandating that utilities instal storage batteries to discharge power around sunset, reversal of what most had seen as the norm. MORE
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Dec. 5, 2013
Solar installer SolarCity says a battery system created with Tesla Motors will allow the use of stored electricity in times of highest demand, which would reduce usage at peak periods and associated fees. MORE
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Nov. 16, 2013
Arizona power regulators vote to impose modest charge on residential customers who own rooftop solar panels; decision is seen as compromise between system that credits customers for excess renewable energy they send back to the grid, and power companies, who say such customers do not pay their share of systemwide costs. MORE
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Oct. 18, 2013
Closely-watched project called Solana, managed by the Arizona Public Service electrical utility, is able to focus and store solar energy in huge tanks of molten salt; emerging technology is one way that utility industry is trying to make solar energy available during peak usage hours when sun is not shining. MORE
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Oct. 15, 2013
Solar industry, with the price of panels falling, is looking to labor savings to achieve its goal of make solar energy cheaper than natural gas; several companies are developing or selling robots to aid in panel installation or cleaning. MORE
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Sep. 3, 2013
California company Mosaic functions as an online renewable energy bank, soliciting investments for solar projects and making loans for them; about 2,000 clients in 44 states have put in more than $4 million in project financing since it started in January 2013, and it is open nationwide to accredited investors, as well as general public in New York and California. MORE
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Aug. 15, 2013
Architect Dennis Wedlick, known for green houses, designed his own with his life partner Curt DeVito more than 25 years ago in Kinderhook, NY; says passive solar houses, which collect and store sun's energy, have become more advanced and less sun-dependent. MORE
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Jul. 31, 2013
Taiwan stands to benefit again from agreement between China and European Union over long-standing trade conflicts; earlier United States tariff ruling against China created major loophole that many manufacturers of solar panels were able to exploit by buying their cells elsewhere, mainly Taiwan. MORE
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Jul. 29, 2013
News analysis; European Commission’s investigation of solar-panel imports from China was world’s biggest antidumping case when it began in September 2012; inquiry signaled new willingness in Brussels to challenge China’s extensive assistance to favored export-oriented industries; case ended in deal amid European political divisions and may ultimately strengthen China's solar industry. MORE
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Jul. 28, 2013
European Union makes deal with China, setting fairly high minimum price for European sales of Chinese-made solar panels to try to prevent them from undercutting European producers. MORE
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Jul. 27, 2013
Big power companies say incentives for solar power are robbing them of paying customers, setting up a fight for the future of renewable energy. MORE
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Jul. 19, 2013
China plans to impose tariffs that could exceed 50 percent on material it imports from United States and South Korea to make solar panels; move is seen as retaliation for American trade lawsuit and escalates long-simmering dispute with West over solar panels. MORE
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Jun. 25, 2013
Turanor Planetsolar, first boat to circumnavigate globe using only solar power, will spend summer as scientific research vessel, cruising Gulf Stream with team of scientists studying ocean currents and climate change; boat, while not designed for research, is in many ways well-suited to task. MORE
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Jun. 18, 2013
AT&T is introducing 25 solar-powered charging stations in five boroughs of New York City; stations can accommodate up to six devices at a time regardless of wireless carrier; chargers will rotate among areas until October 2013. MORE
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Jun. 5, 2013
European Union trade commissioner Karel De Gucht carries out threat to impose tariffs on solar panels from china, but in significant concession to Chinese lobbying and in response to European opposition, penalties are significantly lower than expected; tariffs will initially be 11.8 percent, about quarter of amount Gucht had threatened to levy, but could rise as high as 47.6 percent if practice known as dumping continues. MORE
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May. 29, 2013
Testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers worldwide are reporting problems in $77 billion solar industry, which they say is facing quality crisis just as solar panels are on verge of widespread adoption; warn that when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements keep manufacturer's identity secret, making accountability difficult, threatening billions of dollars in installations and industry's future. MORE
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May. 29, 2013
Germany comes down on China's side in debate between Chinese and European Union trade officials over scheduled imposition of large tariffs averaging 50 percent on $27 billion worth of solar panels China sells to Europe each year; Berlin is backing Beijing, even though Europe's biggest producer of solar equipment, SolarWorld, is German company that wants Europe to impose tariffs on Chinese equipment. MORE
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May. 28, 2013
Trade negotiations between European Union and China end with mutual recriminations over what the Europeans insist is unfairly low pricing for Chinese solar panels; China calls on EU to refrain from imposing tariffs. MORE
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May. 21, 2013
Obama administration and European Union have each decided to negotiate settlements with China in world's largest antidumping and antisubsidy trade cases involving China's roughly $30 billion annually in solar panel shipments to West; plan would essentially carve up the solar panel market into a series of regional markets. MORE
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May. 21, 2013
Oman's national oil company will announce that it has begun using solar power as new method of coaxing oil out of old wells; process uses system of mirrors that focus sunlight on black pipe, heating up water that is co-produced with oil. MORE
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May. 2, 2013
Solar Impulse, fuel-free plane powered by the sun with wingspan of a 747, is creation of Swiss team working on fuel-free flight; plane is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover its wings, charging batteries that let it fly day and and night; technology is under consideration for drones, which risk damage each time they land to refuel. MORE
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Apr. 25, 2013
Manufacturers are increasingly looking to enter mobile device market with portable chargers, as solar technology gains in cost and efficiency. MORE
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Apr. 11, 2013
Energy Department scientists are developing new way to use energy from the sun to make electricity; process would increase efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas. MORE
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Apr. 9, 2013
Mayor R Rex Parris of Lancaster, Calif, wants city to be first to produce more electricity from solar energy than it consumes. MORE
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Apr. 7, 2013
Behind solar power’s poor stock market performance is an enigma: while there has been strong demand for it, it is hard for solar companies to turn a profit; some mutual fund managers are looking to creative business model that can flourish with rock-bottom panel pricing. MORE
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Mar. 21, 2013
Wuxi Suntech, main subsidiary of solar panel giant Suntech Power, declares bankruptcy in remarkable reversal for what had been part of huge Chinese government effort to dominate renewable energy industries; bankruptcy, sign of worldwide consolidation of solar industry, also signals China's unwillingness to keep subsidizing struggling manufacturers in industry. MORE
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Mar. 16, 2013
New York Mayor Michael R Bloomberg announces plans to install in Times Square 30 trash and recycling stations that can compact waste using solar energy and alert workers when bins are full. MORE
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