Decades later, Jimmy Carter is still raving about solar panels
Since he came into office, President Jimmy Carter has shown a tremendous interest in renewable sources of energy. Before ending his term, Mr. Carter became the first president to power portions of the White House with solar panels. In 1979, he was even quoted saying that solar panels could Read More...
Canada to start building its largest solar farm ever this year
A recent $500 million investment from Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) will begin one of Canada’s most ambitious renewable energy projects to date. With the investment, the province of Alberta will start building 1.5 million solar panels along the southern borders of Canada Read More...
New molecule can harness over 50% more solar energy than current solar cells
For the first time ever, scientists have managed to develop a single molecule that can absorb energy from the entire visible spectrum of light, meaning it can harness over 50 percent more solar energy than conventional solar cells. That also means it can catalyze that energy into hydrogen. Read More...
California reaches 1 million solar panel landmark
Back in 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger set out a plan to ‘terminate’ the use of dirty energy sources powering the state of California. His government proceeded to sign an act to subsidize and expand the installation of solar roof units throughout California. The program allocated around Read More...
How one Australian band is getting musicians to invest in solar farms
When the Australian band Cloud Control was about to go on two-week tour after releasing its third album in 2017, the band’s keyboard player Heidi Lenffer asked climate scientists to find out how much emissions they would produce. The result? Around 28 tonnes of emissions—roughly equivalent Read More...
This utility company has found the best way to help people save energy and money
In rural North Carolina, energy bills eat up a massive chunk of a household’s monthly budget—not because the energy rates are especially high, but because the home themselves aren’t built efficiently. Drafty windows, leaky ducts and poor insulation are common, and that means that much of the Read More...
Community solar projects are finally including low-income households
Although community solar projects are on the rise in America, there’s one major flaw: less than half of US community solar projects have any participation from low-income households, and of the projects that do include lower-earning families, only about 5 percent involved a sizable share above 10 Read More...
More Africans have access to electricity than ever thanks to solar energy
Africa’s great size, along with a number of different factors, has made it an extremely difficult task to create electrical grids that consistently deliver power. This has led more and more people to rely on less-clean energy sources such as kerosene or diesel fuel. The good thing is Africa has Read More...
India cancels 14 huge coal-fired power stations as solar energy hits record low
India has canceled plans to build nearly 14 gigawatts of coal-fired power stations – about the same as the total amount in the UK – with the price for solar electricity “free falling” to levels once considered impossible. Analyst Tim Buckley said the shift away from the dirtiest fossil fuel Read More...
Swedish scientists may have found the answer to solar energy storage
Scientists have developed a specialized fluid that can help the solar industry overcome the issue of energy storage. The fluid, which has been called a solar thermal fuel, can store energy from the sun for well over a decade by trapping the solar heat between its chemical bonds. When the energy is Read More...