Clean Power Research recently attended a U.S. Department of Energy workshop focused on solar soft cost reduction. We came away impressed by the DOE SunShot team’s clear focus on the right problem. While the cost of modules was once the … Continued
solar industry
Department of Energy’s aggressive fight against solar soft costs
LADWP doubles solar generation capacity with streamlined incentive processing
The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) – the nation’s largest municipal utility – processed 400% more solar incentives in the 2011-2012 fiscal year after implementing a new, more efficient program management solution from Black & Veatch and … Continued
Valuing solar: a matter of perspective
2012 has seen a backlash against distributed generation net metering, particularly solar distributed generation. Most utilities in most states currently have some form of net metering, which is a simple mechanism for assigning a value to distributed generation that … Continued
NREL turns to SolarAnywhere for NSRDB
Yesterday, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced the newest release of the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB). The database is widely used by solar system designers, building architects and engineers, renewable energy analysts and others to plan, size … Continued
Solar by the numbers: valuing solar in the U.S.
As the U.S. gets ready to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, why not celebrate the most abundant energy source on this planet: the sun. After nearly 15 years serving the solar industry, we thought we’d share some of our unique … Continued
3 steps to reducing solar customer acquisition costs
In anticipation of the soon-to-be released NREL report that benchmarks solar soft costs in 2010, plenty of media attention is being given to soft-cost reduction strategies. According to NREL’s data, customer acquisition and system design make up 11 percent of … Continued
20-million solar calculations served
This week, the engine that powers Clean Power Estimator® calculated its 20-millionth solar estimation (at least since we started counting). This marks a milestone for Clean Power Research and is a bellwether of industry growth. Since it launched in … Continued
WSJ analysis reveals a truth about the economics of solar: sunlight is just one factor
Would you believe that Denver and Los Angeles have a similar return on a solar investment? Or that Brooklyn has better returns than either of those locations? Or that installing a solar system in Minneapolis or Portland, Oregon, could pay-off? … Continued
Accolades for Austin Energy’s Value of Solar tariff continue
Austin Energy’s innovative approach to compensating distributed solar owners is continuing to receive accolades across the country. In September, Austin Energy received an Innovation Award from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Earlier in the year Austin Energy was named the … Continued
Reflections on SPI 2012 and Bill Clinton’s keynote
The highlight of Solar Power International 2012 (SPI) was former President Bill Clinton’s keynote – proof positive that the solar industry has come of age. Many of us remember the small solar tradeshows of yesteryear with a few dozen booths … Continued