One of the biggest obstacles to widespread acceptance of solar energy is that people are unaware of their options for acquiring Bay Area solar power for their business, organization or institution. Many people have driven through a neighborhood and seen a home with solar panels affixed to the roof, and assumed the homeowner purchased the system outright with a large upfront cash payment. While that’s certainly a viable option for businesses, it may not be so…

Most solar panels are installed on south-facing roofs (if the house has one), as this puts them in a position to receive the most direct sunlight over the course of a year. Because we live in the northern hemisphere, the sun tends to move across the southern portion of the sky, particularly in the winter months. But a new study released by the Pecan Street Research Institute states that solar panels that face west can…

In November 2012, California voters overwhelmingly supported the passage of Proposition 39, which closed a corporate tax loophole and raised $1 billion in revenue annually, half of which would be allocated for clean energy projects and efficiency improvements at educational facilities. Now that Prop 39 has become law, many are wondering about the next steps for institutions that hope to receive grants from the bill. One of the provisions described in the legislation was for…

We recently wrote about a report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, located at U.C. Berkeley, that showed how solar installation costs have fallen significantly in the last decade. But the main reason for that has been the hardware itself. Solar panel prices have fallen precipitously in recent years due to the advent of the Chinese solar market, which has created a flood of cheap panels. But soft costs – the other aspects of installation such as labor, marketing,…

Local news source MyDesert.com reports that the BrightSource Energy’s 500 megawatt (MW) Palen project, which would have been constructed in Coachella Valley, was disapproved by the California Energy Commission (CEC). The ruling reinforces the notion that the state’s utility scale solar industry is struggling to build out new capacity, as opposition from local and environmental groups to these large projects is considerable. Unfortunately, because such projects require the approval of so many various stakeholders, developers can sometimes spend…

Although the benefits of renewable energy, and Bay Area solar power in particular, are clear, there are still quite a few opponents to this technology who think the best way forward for the United States is to remain dependent on fossil fuels. While this conception is being turned on its head, the solar energy industry still has to make considerable efforts to educate the public on why solar is such a great option for homeowners…

The first 57 megawatts (MW) of a 579 MW solar generating plant is coming online soon, according to Reuters. Once operating, the California Solar Star plant will be the largest in the country, providing enough electricity to power over 250,000 homes. The power station is made up of two sites spread between Kern and Los Angeles counties. Overall, the project involves 1.7 million solar panels covering 3,200 acres of land. The electricity generated by the plant will…

An enormous new renewable energy project near Blythe, California, has been approved by California regulators after the developers switched from concentrated solar power (CSP) to photovoltaic (PV) solar modules. It’s unclear what the next steps are for NextEra Energy, the company that will build the 485-megawatt (MW) project. Reuters reports that the project was originally slated to be over 1,000 MW and use parabolic troughs to collect sunlight for turbine steam generation. However, NextEra downsized the…

Researchers at Purdue University have created a new structure based on the opal gemstone that, if integrated into a thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar module, could lead to more efficient panels that are 100 times cheaper than conventional solar power technology. Thin-film solar cells use considerably less silicon than conventional panels, but they’re much less efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. The Purdue team replaced silicon with a material they referred to as “inverse opal,” meaning that…

The city of Los Angeles is hoping to derive 20 percent of its electricity from rooftop solar energy by 2020. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that his administration and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) would push for the installation of 1,200 megawatts (MW) of solar generating capacity, enough to cover about a fifth of the city’s 6,000 MW of peak demand in the summer time. KCET.org reports that the initiative is…

The New Solar Homes Partnership (NSHP) is a program that was brought into effect by the California Solar Initiative (CSI), the legislative bill that has had a significant impact on the growth of solar in the Golden State. In essence, NSHP provides funding and incentives for home builders to construct new houses with renewable energy installations (mainly solar) already included, as a way of encourage solar ownership. Installing solar power when a house is being constructed…