The solar, wind and energy efficiency industries already employ millions of people in the U.S., and they’re poised to grow. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are 374,000 American jobs in solar energy, 102,000 in wind energy and more than 2.2 million related to energy efficiency.  [...]

Nonprofit solar installer GRID Alternatives recently received a donation of about 620 kW of solar modules from JinkoSolar to help expand the organization’s efforts to bring solar power and job training to low-income communities in the U.S. [...]

Renewables were the biggest new source of electricity last year as the cost of building new wind and solar farms fell. Clean energy provided 55 percent of all new capacity added worldwide, the most ever, and total investment was about double the amount for generators driven by fossil fuels, according to a report published Thursday by UN Environment, the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.   [...]

Post Date: April 6, 2017 Opportunity Title: Request for Proposal for Contracted Rooftop PV Services RFP-17-48:  CONTRACTED ROOFTOP SOLAR PV SERVICES Please visit our website @ www.arapahoegov.com and at “How Do I?” scroll over to “Find” then scroll down to RFP Bid Opportunities then to “Register as a Vendor” and follow the prompts.  We have all Bids/RFPs, Addendums, Attendance Sheets and Award Information available for download.  If you have any problems with registering, [...]

Post Date: April 5, 2017 Job Title: Solar Installer Location:  Longmont, CO Target Hire Date: Immediate To Apply: Please submit resume to *protected email* Southard Solar is seeking applicants to install residential grid-tied PV systems. In this position, the Apprentice Installer will provide support to the Crew Lead of the installation team and work with Crew Lead to ensure the completion of installation of all solar arrays/systems. It is the responsibility of every Installer to ensure safe w [...]

With smartflower, you get a beautifully designed, easy-to-setup solar solution fully integrated with smart features for nearly effortless ownership. [...]

One of the big questions for humanity’s future is: how will we supply enough clean and plentiful energy to sustain a growing global population? At face value, the big question has a simple answer: solar. In theory, the world’s demand could be met by just one thousandth of the sun’s energy landing on Earth.   [...]

You need a sunny roof to benefit from solar panels, but yours may be sunnier than you think. Google’s Project Sunroof gives building-by-building details, and now has data for (parts of) all 50 states. [...]

For over a century, the landscape north of Kimberley, British Columbia, was used for intensive industrial hard-rock mining — but now it’s home to the largest solar farm in all of British Columbia. Over the decades, the site of Teck’s (formerly Cominco’s) Sullivan Mine hosted a steel mill, fertilizer plant and tailings ponds, rendering the area tree-less for the foreseeable future. [...]

The ability to store energy promises to revolutionize the way we generate, transmit and use electricity - making renewable sources such as wind and solar cheaper and more dependable. Massachusetts is one of just three states requiring electric utilities to build battery facilities in the future. [...]

The solar industry is one of our most obvious success stories. Our industry directly employs 261,000 people. We generate energy that is both clean and renewable. And we generate this energy at prices that are less than conventional utility power — as low as 6 cents per kwh.  [...]

Imagine a future when solar cells can be sprayed or printed onto the windows of skyscrapers or atop sports utility vehicles -- and at prices potentially far cheaper than today’s silicon-based panels. It’s not as far-fetched it seems. Solar researchers and company executives think there’s a good chance the economics of the $42 billion industry will soon be disrupted by something called perovskites, a range of materials that can be used to harvest light when turned into a crystalli [...]

This week, the largest renewable energy project built in the U.S. through an alliance of diverse buyers reached commercial operation. The development of the 60-MW Summit Farms Solar project was driven by demand from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston Medical Center, and Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation.   [...]

A team of scientists at the University of Cambridge has developed a way of using solar power to generate hydrogen from biomass, the U.K. university said last week. [...]

Property Tax Exemption Renewable energy personal property that is located on a residential classified property, owned by the residential property owner, and produces energy that is used by the residential property is exempt from Colorado property taxation. [...]

Updated June 2015 2007 legislation enabled the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to establish a multi-year energy savings goal for electric utilities in the state. Reduction targets are set to 1.35% of sales in 2015 and increase to 1.68% in 2020. Utilities file their plans to work toward targets annually. The companies collectively budgeted over $110 million in 2014 to promote energy efficiency and load management in the state.   [...]

Sunrun has received about 1,000 orders for its recently launched BrightBox solar plus energy storage solution in California and Hawaii, Sunrun co-founder and CEO Lynn Jurich said during a March 8 4Q16 company earnings call.   [...]

Within the past decade or two, the solar industry has experienced a great deal of evolution and expansion. In the U.S., one of the largest shakeups was in 2010 when PV panel prices dropped. The inverter market has also been subjected to changes, especially in terms of new topologies and increased functionalities. [...]

NREL Director Martin Keller kicked off the first full day at Solar Power Colorado in front of a standing room-only audience. In a provocative keynote address he presented the successful history of solar research, which has been accompanied for decades by a dizzying descent in solar costs. Combine that with the way the solar industry improves environmental conditions and creates high-quality jobs – and you have an important good-news story to tell. But, said Keller, the solar industry needs [...]

Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter opened the Solar Power Colorado conference Wednesday, March 15th with an overview of solar initiatives nationwide. While there may be policy uncertainty at the national level Ritter said, looking at solar initiatives at the state, local and corporate level is more promising. Ritter described the bipartisan support for solar energy among governors, indicating that while there are fewer of them, GOP governors in renewable energy resource-rich states are becomin [...]

Sungevity, which last week laid off more than two-thirds of its Kansas City staff, received only a fraction of the $11.8 million in potential tax breaks that were offered to attract the company here. The solar panel marketing company opened a sales office in downtown Kansas City in early 2015. [...]

Contracts to sell electricity directly to corporate users are among the key demand drivers for wind and solar power, while the influence of state mandates wanes, according to a report Friday by Moody’s Investors Service.  [...]

Distributed energy resources are fast becoming cost competitive with traditionally generated electricity. According to Rocky Mountain Institute, grid-connected solar-plus-battery systems will reach economic parity with grid electricity within the next 10-15 years. Despite near-term technical and financial challenges, more and more business will adopt on- and off-site generation, storage, community and wholesale projects.   [...]

Please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show as Tom Kimbis, the Executive Vice President of the Solar Energy Industries Association, talks about SEIA’s Consumer Protection and Ethics Committees, as well as SEIA’s “Consumer Guide to Solar Power” and Residential Disclosure Forms. [...]