The plunging costs of solar PV and the arrival of new financing options is demolishing the idea that the technology is just a privileged plaything of the rich. Welcome to mass-market solar PV. The irony, however, is that it’s the very wealthy who are helping make this possible.
Electric Vehicles
Hot news in cleantech: Direct current servers; tapping canal power
DC servers to slash data centre power usage; award-winning Sydney Uni technology delivers smart power solution; small-scale hydro for canals.
Solar PV will do to grids what mobiles did to telephony
A leading US utility chief predicts that solar PV will have as big an impact on electricity grids as the mobile phone did on the fixed line telephone business. Throw in smart meters and electric vehicles, and there are big changes afoot.
Mixed Greens: Solar shakeout claims more green jobs
LDK Solar cuts 22% of staff; bankruptcy shelves crowd-funded UK wind project; German solar installations double; SolarCity to float; RECs regulatory body established.
Mixed Greens: Land of the rising solar
Solar set to boom under Japan’s new policy; German solar subsidy cuts could be 30%; Tesla shares bounce; Melbourne’s double-decker solar EV charge station.
Mixed Greens: A battery-powered peak solution?
New claims lithium-ion power storage could challenge nat gas in peaking power by 2016; Tesla faces wider losses.