Solar-covered parking lots offer multiple benefits
Yale University researchers have discovered that parking lots across Connecticut could host 7 GW of solar capacity and produce 9,000 GWh of electricity in their first year of operation.
Which crops pair well with solar?
Rapidly falling prices of solar panels have created an impetus for the construction of solar fields, which are often perceived as competing with crop production.
Storm damages shine spotlight on ways to mitigate impact of wind on PV arrays
Hurricane-force wind gusts hit New England during a late-October storm, damaging at least one rooftop solar array and leading Commercial Solar Guy to offer a few pointers.
How the numbers may work for 50-year solar
The discounted cash flow from a solar project’s electricity generation increases by 46% when shifting the installation from today’s standard 25-year lifetime to a 50-year time scale.
When oversized is really the right size
U.S. researchers have concluded that wind and solar generation resources that were sized at 1.5 times along with three hours of energy storage would meet all but 200 hours of demand scattered throughout any given year.
US utility paying solar customers to adopt energy storage
Rocky Mountain Power’s incentive program requires that the batteries be charged by on-site solar power systems in order to fully qualify.
Dragon scale solar tiles installed on Google buildings in Silicon Valley
Some 90,000 individual solar panels will generate enough electricity to cover around 40% of the electricity used in two buildings for Google.
Plastic for solar panels?
Three companies are swapping out aluminum and glass in favor of plastic to save weight and add flexibility. We look at the pros and cons.
Iron flow battery tech shows promise for mid-duration energy storage
The ESS battery systems have a prescribed design life of 25 years, but the battery modules, electrolyte, plumbing, and other components may well last for decades longer with proper maintenance.
Interconnecting US solar to the grid – an opaque process
New documents reveal how renewables have improved publicly available power grid data in the United States, and show how solar and wind are footing the bill for U.S. power grid upgrades.
