Seth Masia is editor of SOLAR TODAY Magazine and director of communications at the American Solar Energy Society.
Reducing Soft Costs Will Bring Success Beyond 2016
By Tony Clifford Solar needs to reach a marketable price point before the Federal tax credit expires in 2016, While there’s debate about what that price point will be, I’m not really concerned with hitting a specific number. The industry simply needs to reach a “tipping point” at which the photovoltaic (PV) industry can sell [...]
Gas, Gas and More Gas
The Vail Global Energy Forum, March 1 to 3, was dominated by discussions of what Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper called “the unbelievable surfeit of natural gas.” Hickenlooper, along with many gas advocates, believes that the United States has enough economically-viable gas reserves to last a century. One pay-off: old, inefficient coal plants are closing, cutting [...]
January: All New Generation was Renewable
According to a monthly report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, all of the new utility-scale electric generating projects commissioned in the United States in January – 1231 megawatts worth — were renewable-energy systems. New wind capacity grew 247 percent over installations in January 2012, and new solar capacity grew 128 percent over the same [...]
Lawrence Berkeley Revises German Solar Cost Calculation
Why Americans Pay 80% More for PV In a study supported by the Department of Energy’s SunShot program, the Lawrence Berkeley Lab has revised its assessment of why solar installations are cheaper in Germany than in the United States. It’s not because labor rates are lower; instead, standard practices mean fewer labor hours on each [...]
How to Double America’s Energy Productivity
The Alliance Commission on National Energy Efficiency Policy on Feb. 7 published a report, “Doubling U.S. Energy Productivity by 2030.” It puts relatively simple financial measures at the top of its to-do list. For instance, it recommends a PACE-like program, at the state and local level, for financing home energy projects with repayment included in [...]
Connect with ASES
