solar power

Cheap Natural Gas Upsetting Wind Development Plans, and Other Energy Stories

4 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets, Environmental policy, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Energy stories from around the web. Financial Times, Gas threat to wind farm growth – “Construction of new wind farms in the US is set to decline next year because of competition from cheap natural gas for power generation, the country’s largest developer of new wind power projects has said.” Greentech grid, California …

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New Jersey is Not Exactly the Sunshine State, but Solar Panels Spring Up with Help of State Government

4 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets, Environmental policy / By

Michael Giberson Casually scanning a solar resource map wouldn’t naturally lead you to think that New Jersey would be a good candidate for solar power, but state government policies have resulted in it leaping into second place in PV installations (after California) in 2010. More PV was installed in New Jersey last year than in …

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Homeowners Recoup Their Investment in PV Systems in California

3 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets / By

Michael Giberson A study by Ben Hoen, Ryan Wiser and Peter Cappers of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Mark Thayer at San Diego State University finds that, on average, the sales price of homes with PV systems is boosted enough to cover the homeowner’s own investment in the solar power system. One might, as the Berkeley Labs’ …

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Troubles, from the Point of View of the Solar Power Industry

2 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets, Environmental policy, Regulation, Uncategorized / By

Michael Giberson It’s not easy out there for the solar power industry: Renewable power credits don’t provide long term security for developers… …and middlemen seem to make more money from RECs than renewable power producers do. Private homeowner association rules can frustrate desires of persons wanting to go solar. Local government zoning regulations and associated …

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When Should a Solar Power Installer Be Treated Like a Regulated Public Utility?

Electricity, Environmental policy, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson In Arizona, solar power installation company SolarCity has been told it must be regulated as a public utility if it employs a financing arrangement it has developed, a “solar services agreement,” to sell its services to non-profit entities. Usually SolarCity builds solar power systems and provides financing and ongoing monitoring services, but doesn’t …

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Integrating Variable Energy Resources to the Electric Power Grid (cont.)

9 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets / By

Michael Giberson In January we noted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s questions concerning the integration of “variable energy resources” to the electric power grid.  FERC asked for comments; over 120 comments have been submitted in reply (so far).  Peter Behr, of ClimateWire, characterizes some of the positions submitted in the FERC inquiry in an article available …

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Making the Most of Spain’s Feed-in Tariff for Solar Power

5 Comments / Electricity, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Bloomberg reports on fraud via Spain’s subsidized feed in tariff rate for solar power: Preliminary evidence shows some solar stations may have run diesel-burning generators and sold the output as solar power, which earns several times more than electricity from fossil fuels, El Mundo said, citing unidentified people from the energy industry. The …

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Shifting Policy Extinguishes Short-lived Spanish Solar Boom, Fortunately

Electricity, Environmental policy, Politics / By

Michael Giberson The New York Times has a fascinating story on the solar power industry boom and bust in Spain created by shifting public policies. Similar effects have been observed from shifts in subsidy support for renewable power development in the United States, though because the subsidy was smaller and spread over a larger area …

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