Tag Archive for: energy

The solar project will provide $139,679 in first-year utility bill savings, and over $12M over the life of the 20-year agreement.

New Santa Maria solar power project to help offset rising energy costs

The City of Santa Maria will soon install a new solar power project to help offset rising energy costs through the use of alternative sources and efficiencies.

On Tuesday night, Santa Maria Public Works Director Brett Fulgoni will discuss details of the plan during a meeting of the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Commission with an overview and presentation of the project.

The Santa Maria City Council previously approved the project in November 2023.

The plan includes the construction of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems at a number of city-owned locations, including City Well Number 12, Wastewater Treatment Plant, Civic Center, Police Department, Transit Yard, Paul Nelson Aquatic Center, James Hagerman Sports Center, and Minami Park.

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Source: KEYT

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Solar accounted for most of the capacity the nation added to its electric grids last year. That feat marks the first time since World War II.

Solar hits a renewable energy milestone not seen since WWII

Solar accounted for most of the capacity the nation added to its electric grids last year. That feat marks the first time since World War II, when hydropower was booming, that a renewable power source has comprised more than half of the nation’s energy additions.

“It’s really monumental,” said Shawn Rumery, senior director of research at the Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA. The trade group announced the 2023 numbers in a report released today with analytics firm Wood MacKenzie. The 32.4 gigawatts that came online in the United States last year shattered the previous high of 23.6 gigawatts recorded in 2021 and accounted for 53 percent of new capacity. Natural gas was next in line at a distant 18 percent.

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Source: Grist

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If you want to take advantage of solar energy but you can’t (or don’t want to) put solar panels on your roof, you do have other options.

Everywhere else you can install solar panels

If you want to take advantage of solar energy but you can’t (or don’t want to) put solar panels on your roof, you do have other options. As solar panels become more advanced and the technology develops, gathering energy from the sun is growing ever easier and more unobtrusive than ever. Here are some great options for installing solar panels in places other than your roof.

Solar siding

If you have a south-facing wall on your home with about eight feet by eight feet of space, you can install solar panel siding. These solar cells will work best in unshaded areas, of course, but they can still collect energy even in they are in southeast or southwest facing areas. The advantage of this installation method is that you can choose the color of your panels to match your home’s exterior and blend in with the architecture. The disadvantage is that the solar panels won’t be at an optimal angle to absorb sunlight, as they will be perfectly vertical.

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Source: Life Hacker

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In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report, FERC says solar provided 9,924 MW of new domestic generating capacity

US solar energy capacity could soon overtake wind power

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A review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data newly released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals that solar has grown faster in electrical generation than all other energy sources as well as outpaced them in new U.S. generating capacity added during the first three quarters of 2023.

In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through September 30, 2023), FERC says solar provided 9,924 MW of new domestic generating capacity or 42.4% of the total. Moreover, solar capacity additions during the first nine months of this year were almost a third (32.8%) larger than for the same period last year.

The new solar capacity additions edged past the 8,962 MW of new natural gas (38.2%) and were nine times greater than that provided by the new 1,100-MW Vogtle-3 nuclear reactor (4.7%) in Georgia as well as by oil (54 MW) and waste heat (31 MW).

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Source: Solar Power World

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This week, the US Energy Information Administration published its latest monthly report on the country’s energy mix.

PV Data: sustained growth in US solar capacity

This week, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the government body that publishes data on the state of the US power sector, published its latest monthly report on the country’s energy mix. Critically, this month’s data covers the US energy sector up to and including June this year, providing information on power in the first half of the year, and offering ample opportunities to compare the US’ energy performance to other halves and quarters in recent US history.

Many of the takeaways are relatively straightforward, with the US on track for record-breaking levels of electricity generation across the power sectors. In the first half of this year, the US produced 50.3 quadrillion British thermal units (BTU), the most in the first half of a year in history, and putting the US on pace to produce over 100qBTU this year, should it maintain the current levels of production for the remainder of the year, which would be a record figure.

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Source: PV Tech

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ISES explains how much solar PV energy could be harvested from freed-up agricultural land in densely-populated countries with declining populations.

Declining populations free up agricultural land for large amounts of solar in densely populated countries

The global population is expected to increase from 8 billion people today to 9.7 billion by mid-century. Strong growth is particularly evident in Africa, which will add a billion people.

However, in many countries, population is stable or even falling. There are nine countries with populations larger than 20 million people that are expected to have lower populations in 2050 than today: China, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine and Poland. The combined population of these countries is expected to fall by 10%, from 2 billion people today to 1.8 billion people in 2050.

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Source: PV Magazine

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Vast arrays of floating solar panels near the equator could provide unlimited clean energy to countries in Southeast Asia and West Africa, according to new research.

Floating solar on the equator could provide ‘limitless’ energy

Engineering professors at Australian National University have published a new paper in which they explain how some regions on the equator would be ideal for floating solar because the waters there don’t have strong winds and large waves. Tropical storms rarely hit those regions.

The researchers assert that floating solar in those waters could generate up to a massive 1 million TWh per year. They note in an article in The Conversation that “that’s about five times more annual energy than is needed for a fully decarbonized global economy supporting 10 billion affluent people.”

The waters are categorized as calm if the waves are smaller than 6 meters and winds are weaker than 15 meters per second. The calmest waters are in and around Indonesia and equatorial West Africa, near Nigeria. So floating panels installed in those waters wouldn’t need strong, costly engineering defenses.

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Source: electrek

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Researchers have come up with a new way to generate electricity with solar panel technology by harvesting the energy produced by raindrops.

Solar panel tech breakthrough generates electricity from rain

Researchers have come up with a new way to generate electricity with solar panel technology by harvesting the energy produced by raindrops.

The method, proposed by a team from Tsinghua University in China, involves a device called a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that creates electrification from liquid-solid contact.

These are typically used to harvest energy from waves, as droplet-based TENGs (D-TENGs) have previously faced technical limitations that prevented them from working at any significant scale.

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Source: INDEPENDENT

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The Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine, joined the US DOE, KB Home, SunPower, Southern California Edison and Schneider Electric to officially open the novel microgrid communities in the Shadow Mountain master plan in Menifee, CA.

University of California, Irvine, opens research microgrid in Shadow Mountain community

The Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine, joined the U.S. Department of Energy, KB Home, SunPower, Southern California Edison and Schneider Electric on May 22 to officially open the novel microgrid communities located in the Shadow Mountain master plan in Menifee, California.

A microgrid is a self-supporting energy system that serves a specific geographic footprint, with one or more sources of energy that power the community along with the utility grid. For this research and demonstration project, the all-electric homes are located in two adjacent communities and equipped with solar panels, home batteries, a smart water heater, a smart heating and air conditioning system and controls that can isolate and energize the homes in the event of a grid outage. Every home is certified to DOE-designated Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) standards, which includes ENERGY STAR, WaterSense and Indoor airPLUS.

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Source: Solar Power World

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Solar is emerging as an energy superpower with this year's investment in the sector ($380B) set to surpass spending on oil production ($370B) for the first time.

Global solar power investment to surpass oil for the first time

Solar is emerging as an energy superpower with this year’s investment in the sector ($380B) set to surpass spending on oil production ($370B) for the first time.

That’s according to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, who said the

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Source: Seeking Alpha

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