Analysis

Japan’s Post-Fukushima Solar Solution

published: 2012-02-15 10:28
By D.A. Barber Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has historically been ahead of many countries in adopting residential solar. In 2009, residential was 90 percent of the total PV market in Japan, which at the time was the ...  more

A Paint-Based Solution to Capturing Sunlight

published: 2012-02-14 15:48
By Dr Dino R Ponnampalam There has been a considerable push to restructure the energy mix to favor non-finite energy resources due to traditional energy resources being finite.  Examples of non-finite energy resources include sola...  more

Obama’s Solar Plan Targets the Western U.S.

published: 2012-02-14 15:25
By D. A. Barber In his “State-of-the-Union” address presented to Congress on January 24, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama called for an "all-of-the-above" energy policy stressing the need to develop both traditional (natural gas...  more

EPIA Report: Worldwide PV at 67.4 Gigawatts

published: 2012-02-10 11:09
By D.A. Barber A January 2012 report from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) says that total installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity worldwide reached more than 67.4 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2011. If the total...  more

Large-Scale Solar Booming in Arizona

published: 2012-02-06 10:42
by D.A. Barber Arizona was the fastest-growing state until the recession. Until recently, Arizona’s power generators included four coal-fired power plants and the largest nuclear power plant in the U.S., located west of Pho...  more

California’s Solar Growth

published: 2012-02-03 18:02
By D.A. Barber If California - the most populous U.S. state - was a country, it would rank the 8th largest economy between Italy and Brazil. But California is by far America's No. 1 solar state, with nearly 1,000 megawatts of roo...  more

The Portable PV Power Market

published: 2012-01-31 16:32
The U.S. military has long used portable PVs in Iraq and their other Middle East battles, and “developing nations” like Africa and India are deploying portable PVs in areas where the majority of the population has little chance of...  more

Report Suggests PVs are Reaching Grid Parity

published: 2012-01-17 17:35
Solar energy “grid parity” is considered achieved when the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) to generate 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) becomes equal to what it costs to generate 1kWh of the current cheapest form of electricity: ...  more