Just how great was the solar resource in 2013 in California? Record setting!

SolarAnywhere Posts | Apr 2, 2014

2013 marked the driest year on record in most regions of California. While this weather pattern led to many brown lawns and thirsty reservoirs, clear skies allowed many locations to experience well above-average PV energy generation potential. To better understand...

The solar value proposition part 2: Charting a new path using data and analytics

SolarAnywhere Posts | Feb 20, 2014

In Part 1 in our series on the solar value proposition, we looked at a new approach to valuing PV. With this new approach, there is a need to quantify deferred and avoided generation, as well as transmission and distribution capacity increases through peak-load...

Solar forecasts generated from satellite images help balance power grid

SolarAnywhere Posts | Feb 4, 2014

What do NASA and NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have to do with balancing the power grid? Plenty, it turns out, for areas with a high penetration of solar energy production. Read about the link in NASA’s Energy Innovations blog...

Impact of the North American Monsoon on solar variability

SolarAnywhere Posts | Jan 30, 2014

Solar energy output is predominantly affected by seasonal solar variations and weather. The angle of the sun to the solar panel changes with the time of day and seasonal variations, changing the available solar resource in predictable ways. Weather also affects the...

2014 solar trends episode 3: Solar Financing – A New Hope

SolarAnywhere Posts | Jan 23, 2014

Financing has been with solar since its earliest days. Before the lease and the power purchase agreement (PPA), residential solar customers would often purchase systems with cash. Cash payments are a form of financing, as the customer is choosing to purchase a solar...

Flexibility meets reliability: PVWatts and NSRDB now available through Clean Power Research API services

SolarAnywhere Posts | Dec 5, 2013

In keeping with our mission of powering intelligent energy decisions, Clean Power Research is introducing a 10 km Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) dataset for use in Clean Power Research API services. Programmatic access to this high-resolution dataset and the...