distributed energy
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Increasing on-site consumption of distributed solar
Germany has developed a tool -- roughly translated as “own consumption” -- to increase the amount of solar electricity used on-site.
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China's top-down energy gigantism and a bottom-up American alternative
Instead of envying China for leading on coal plant research, why not focus on what the U.S. does well -- distributed, bottom-up, human-scale innovation?
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Feed-in tariff champion Hermann Scheer leaves big legacy
The recent death of German renewable energy advocate Hermann Scheer -- dubbed the sun king or even the Stalin of renewables -- is a unique opportunity to reflect on his largest legacy, the feed-in tariff, a policy responsible for the rise of the renewable energy industry.
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The focus on big projects holds back solar in U.S.
While the government lavishes loans and expedites project reviews on public land for multi-megawatt solar projects, it's solar PV that's turning sunshine into electricity.
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Distributed, small-scale solar competes with large-scale PV
Distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) proponents have recognized that solar has economies of scale -- larger installations generally have lower installed costs per watt of peak capacity. But new data suggests that these economies are significantly smaller than previously believed. This is good news for solar and great news for the renewable energy movement.
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District energy 101
District energy is a big deal, and like most of our energy system, it's subject to a host of inconsistent and/or mutually contradictory regulations. Good policy would fix those inconsistencies. Problem is, lawmakers just don't understand it. So let's break it down.
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Fannie and Freddie bring down Boulder clean-energy finance program
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac claimed the first casualty in their attack on a promising clean-energy financing tool when Boulder County, Colo., canceled the latest round of its popular ClimateSmart Loan Program on Tuesday. “We are extremely disappointed by the lack of flexibility and vision we’ve encountered with the FHFA [Federal Housing Finance Agency], and […]
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Greening homes requires credit, which Fannie and Freddie should understand
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have essentially shut down an innovative program that helps Americans green their homes. Here’s more on the story: Jeanine Cotter, CEO of California solar installation company Luminalt, has a good explanation of what keeps homeowners from investing in rooftop solar and retrofits that cut energy waste. In her experience, people […]
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Fannie and Freddie attack clean-energy plan
Few new ideas brighten the faces of clean-energy advocates as much as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, the Berkeley-born financing tool that’s spreading quickly throughout the country. The three-year-old model has put rooftop solar panels, high-efficiency furnaces, and other home improvements within reach of thousands of American homeowners, and there’s hope it could reach […]