July 16, 2020 at 10:53 am Comments are Disabled
PV modules have a 30-year lifespan. There is currently no plan for how to manage this at end of their lifespan. The volume of modules no longer needed could total 80 million metric tons by 2050. In addition to quantity, the nature of the waste also poses challenges. PV modulesRead More
April 14, 2020 at 11:02 am Comments are Disabled
Concentrated solar PV doesn’t make many headlines these days, but research continues to show its possible impact in the future. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has published another solar cell research breakthrough: The fabrication of a six-junction solar cell that achieved a record-breaking solar conversion efficiency of 47.1%. TheRead More
March 11, 2020 at 10:10 am Comments are Disabled
WattBuy, an energy intelligence service that enables consumers to make smarter choices about their electricity provider, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced a new project to automatically collect and make public a searchable database of all electricity rates in the U.S. NREL will publicly shareRead More
June 10, 2019 at 8:59 am Comments are Disabled
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) named the 10 finalists from Round 1 of the American-Made Solar Prize, a $3 million competition aimed at revitalizing U.S. solar manufacturing. The range of innovations among the competitors include cell and device-related concepts as well as module and applicationRead More
March 27, 2019 at 7:51 am Comments are Disabled
We wrapped our arms around California’s new Building Energy Efficiency standards in Installment I of the Countdown to 2020. In this installment, we take a closer look at how these 80,000 annual additions to the solar pipeline (based on historical averages) will more broadly impact the California solar market. RegulationsRead More
January 2, 2019 at 8:37 am Comments are Disabled
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers estimate that installing floating solar photovoltaics on the more than 24,000 man-made U.S. reservoirs could generate about 10 percent of the nation’s annual electricity production. Their findings, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, reveal for the first time the potential for floatingRead More
December 3, 2018 at 9:56 am Comments are Disabled
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been awarded nearly $2.8 million in funding to develop a system for grid electricity storage and power generation that includes a high-temperature charging device, low-cost thermal energy storage modules, a high-performance heat exchanger, and a closed-loop Brayton cycleRead More
November 15, 2018 at 10:06 am Comments are Disabled
Rigid silicon solar panels dominate the utility and residential markets, but opportunity exists for thin-film photovoltaic and emerging technologies notable for being lightweight and flexible, according to scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Thin films such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium galliumRead More
July 23, 2018 at 2:46 pm Comments are Disabled
Shaving the peaks off commercial and industrial (C&I) electric bills is the top revenue stream for energy storage systems, and given the trend in increasing utility charges for time-of-use consumption, peak shaving can pay for a system in as little as three years, system providers say. Just how high theRead More