Americas

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Intersolar North America In Its 10th Year: Blazing a Trail Where Others Follow

Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Intersolar North America will once again be the first major solar event of the year. It takes place July 11-13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and is co-located with ees North America and SEMICON West. These combined events bring together professionals from the solar, energy storage and semiconductor industries to share knowledge and innovation, network, and accelerate business goals. With its consistent growth to 18,000+ attendees in 2017, Intersolar North America is the most-attended solar event in North America.

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Can Women Solve The Skills Gap Problem In A Rapidly Growing Clean Energy Sector?

Women can and should address the skills gap problem in the rapidly growing clean energy sector – globally. That is the bold declaration from Dr. Nina Skorupska CBE, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association (REA); who addressed a significant consequence of the pace of the global energy transition upon the release of Global Energy Talent Index (GETI), the world’s largest global energy sector skills, recruitment, and employment trends report, released by Energyjobline and Airswift.

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Xcel Files 1,230 MW Wind Proposal Claiming $2.8Bn Customer Savings Over 30 Years

Xcel Energy has filed a proposal, seeking approval to construct the 522MW Sagamore wind facility in New Mexico and the 478MW Hale wind facility in Texas, as well as a long-term PPA in Texas for 230MW supplied by the Bonita wind facility. The utility company forecasts that this will save customers located in both states approximately $2.8 billion over a 30-year period, borne from integrating the lower-cost wind energy resources into the company’s energy portfolio. The additional 1,230 MW of wind energy is enough electricity to power more than 440,000 typical homes, according to Xcel.

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SunPower Is Top Panels Provider In First Round Of French Solar Projects Tender

SunPower has announced that, in the first round of France’s tender process for large-scale solar power, the company will supply 31 percent of the solar panels required for the awarded solar projects, more than any other solar panel brand. In total, the company will provide 130MW of its high-efficiency SunPower® E-Series solar panels for installation at 25 ground-mount and carport solar projects. The company states that a majority of the panels will be manufactured at its facilities in Toulouse, France.

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World Bank Approves $480m Guarantee As Argentina Drives Towards Clean Energy

The World Bank has approved a $480 million guarantee to stimulate investment in clean energy in Argentina. The Bank guarantee will support the Fund for the Development of Renewable Energy (FODER), which facilitates financing of projects under the RenovAr program of the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mining. This initiative seeks to stimulate power generation from wind, solar, biomass, biogas and small-scale hydro sources to achieve the country’s 20 percent renewable energy target by 2025.

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Renovate America Closes $200 Million Credit Facility, Continuing HERO Expansion

Renovate America, a leading U.S. provider of home-improvement financing, announced today that it has closed a $200 million credit facility with Bank of America N.A. to support the continued expansion of the HERO Program, the nation’s largest form of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. Since launching just over five years ago, the HERO program has been used to finance energy and efficiency improvements across 90,000 homes. The credit facility will provide Renovate America with enhanced liquidity and will further diversify the company’s funding profile. It now has five warehouse lenders in aggregate, up from three last year.

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Nordex Group Wins Project For 95 Wind Turbines In US With Capacity Of 285 MW

The Nordex Group has received an order to install 95 turbines in the 3 MW class in the United States. The project is the first follow-up order from a Safe Harbor transaction agreed upon with a major international power supplier at the end of last year. It added that choosing the Safe Harbor solution, the customer, name not disclosed, will obtain a higher tax benefit which was valid in 2016. The manufacturer will be supplying 95 turbines with a nominal capacity of 3 MW each and a rotor diameter of 125 metres. This type of turbine is designed for the site conditions prevailing and for medium wind speeds. Nordex will install the turbines on 87.5-metre tubular steel towers.

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Manufacturing Of Printable Solar Panels Made Possible By Perovskite Breakthrough

A University of Toronto innovation could make printing solar cells as easy and inexpensive as printing a newspaper. Post-doctoral researcher Hairen Tan of U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and his team have cleared a critical manufacturing hurdle in the development of a relatively new class of solar devices called perovskite solar cells. This alternative solar technology could lead to low-cost, printable solar panels capable of turning nearly any surface into a power generator.
University Professor Ted Sargent, an expert in emerging solar technologies and the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology said, “Perovskite solar cells can enable us to use techniques already established in the printing industry to produce solar cells at very low cost.

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Energy Department Announces up to $30 Million for Grid Integration Projects

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) SunShot Initiative announced up to $30 million in new projects to support the integration of solar energy into the nation’s electric grid while diversifying the nation’s electricity sources and improving the reliability and security of the electric grid. SunShot will fund 13 projects with a total of up to $30 million to develop next-generation grid planning and operation tools that help to integrate more solar power with the grid.

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Renewables Provide 23% Of US Electrical Generation, As Wind, Solar Grow Rapidly

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA); renewables provided 23% Of US electrical generation in 2016, as wind and solar surged with an increase of 23%. Electrical generation by coal dropped by 8.30% and that from petroleum liquids & coke plummeted by 15.37%. (Solar-generated electricity is now more than double that from petroleum sources.) Electrical output attributable to natural gas and other gases increased by just 3.47% while growth in the nuclear power sector was an anaemic 1.02%. Beyond solar, wind, and hydro; geothermal also posted an impressive increase of 9.41% in 2016.

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HERO Program Launching for 240,000 More Homes in 28 More California Communities

88,100 California households have already utilised $2.1 billion in HERO financing for energy efficiency, water conservation and clean energy upgrades. Now, more than 240,000 homeowners in 28 more California communities who want to go solar, or make efficiency-related repairs and upgrades can finance 100% of their home projects through the HERO Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program. Through HERO financing, homeowners can pay for projects with an additional line item on their property taxes. As a result, HERO financing payments may have tax benefits, and many homeowners see immediate savings on their utility bills by investing in efficiency upgrades.