Construction has started on a solar energy project in Calipatria, California, near the Mexican border. The new plant will provide enough power for 60,000 homes while employing 800 people during the construction stage. Located a few hours east of San Diego, the developers will be selling electricity to San Diego Gas & Electric under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Called Solar Gen 2, the site consists of three separate arrays of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which…

Most people tend to think of solar power as something only wealthy and upper-middle class homeowners are able to take advantage of, but that simply isn’t true anymore. Several economic conditions have converged to make this renewable energy source more accessible to low-income residents. One of those factors is the availability government subsidies specifically set aside to encourage solar panel ownership for low-income families. As part of the California Solar Initiative (CSI), the state government created the…

Summer is here, and Californians are going to be turning their air conditioners on en masse to keep their homes livable. This is an understandable impulse, but it’s one that is fraught with consequences. Air conditioners are one of the most energy-intensive appliances in the home, which means power consumption skyrockets in the summer months along with the associated expenses and pollution from burning fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) states that air conditioning…

The Clovis Unified School District (CUSD) in Clovis, California, will soon complete construction of a 5.86-megawatt (MW) solar installation that will provide electricity for nearly 38,000 students. The system was financed by a voter-approved bond initiative that will ultimately save the district $2.7 million a year in energy expenses. The CUSD solar installation is expected to deliver 8.4 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually, and will serve as an educational opportunity that will demonstrate to students the viability…

Every year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) takes a reading of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the top of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. This test was carried out last week, and the results were troubling for those who are concerned about the economic and ecological effects climate change. NOAA reported that carbon dioxide had hit a “milestone” of 400 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere, which hasn’t happened…

One piece of conventional wisdom that gets passed around among Bay Area solar circles is the notion that solar panels need to be routinely cleaned, or homeowners who have rooftop PV systems will experience a loss of efficiency. The idea is that dust and dirt accumulating on the surface of the panels blocks sunlight, thereby decreasing the amount of electricity that you get out of the system. Therefore, it may be necessary to contact a…

Thermophotovoltaics are seen by many in the solar community as having huge potential for increasing the efficiency of solar cells. With commercially available photovoltaic modules, a semiconductor absorbs infrared light and converts it into electricity. Because infrared rays represent only a fraction of the energy emitted by the sun, this means that solar panels generally only convert about 20 percent of the sunlight that hits them into usable power, while the remaining energy is either…

In late January, the City of Sacramento and Ygrene Energy Fund, a provider of clean energy finance programs for local governments, announced in a press release a new initiative to bring green technology upgrades to the metro’s businesses and residences through 100 percent private funding. Clean Energy Sacramento will enable property owners to make energy efficiency, renewable power and water conservation upgrades at no upfront cost in order to help the city achieve its goal of reducing electricity…

We consistently report on the latest trends in the field of solar energy and how more home and business owners are turning to solar power to lower their burden on the power grid. This is especially true in California, where residents throughout the state have been lining up in droves to have photovoltaic installations completed on their properties Now, the small town of Sebastopol in the Sonoma Valley wine country has become the second community in…

The California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) has received a grant of $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to launch a major effort at reducing the soft costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. The grant, which was funded by the DOE’s SunShot Initiative, will be used to create a program aimed at standardizing and streamlining the installation process in a number of ways. The soft costs of solar are defined as those…

While we’re personally big fans of Bay Area solar power, the fact is that utilities are not. The accelerating growth of the solar energy industry has left them in a position that could eventually become unsustainable. The problem lies with the fact that photovoltaics (PV) create a feedback loop in which customers convert to solar power, thereby shrinking the customer base over which the utility company has to distribute the costs of maintaining the electric…

Solar panels could have a positive effect on the value of your home, according to a new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that homeowners who decide to switch to solar power could eventually earn a premium on the sale price of their house from buyers looking to go solar themselves. The specific amount depends largely on circumstances such as how old the panels are and other factors, but the report found that…