Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility

24-hour solar energy: molten salt makes it possible, and prices are falling fast

by Robert Dieterich, InsideClimate News The first thing you see of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility, and you can be miles away, is a light so bright you can’t look directly at it. This sits atop a 640-foot cement tower, rising from the flat, empty Nevada desert around the halfway point on the highway […]

Oil giants see a future in offshore wind power. Their suppliers are investing, too.

by Lyndsey Gilpin, Insideclimate News Transporting an offshore wind array from the factory floor to the ocean floor is no easy feat. Giant, specialized marine vessels must carry the blades and turbines—which sit atop rigs hundreds of feet tall—out miles from shore. Steel or concrete foundations are built to hold them in place, and underwater […]

50 ways 100% Clean Energy won in 2017

By Jodie Van Horn, Ecowatch We’d never argue that 2017 was a great year, but some really great things did happen! Here are 50 ways (yes, 50!) that clean energy kept winning in 2017 despite Trump’s attempts to roll back the country’s progress. The Republican Mayor Championing 100% Renewable Energy in Louisiana Republican Mayor Greg Lemons made […]

Xcel Energy’s Community Solar Program Hits Major Milestones in Year 3

by Laura Hannah, Greentech Media It’s been a big year for Xcel Energy’s community solar program in Minnesota, with approximately 200 megawatts of projects crossing the finish line. Launched as a result of policy shaped and driven by Fresh Energy and its partners in 2013, community solar allows utility customers to participate in a solar […]

Two reasons to trust Community Choice agencies – they are not monopolies and they are local

In November, private utility Southern California Edison (SCE) published a document titled “The Clean Power and Electrification Pathway.” It is essentially SCE’s integrated blueprint for California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution via electrification of everything. The utility envisions seven million electric cars on the road, thirty percent of heating systems in homes […]

Community choice is key to meeting climate plan’s ambitious goals

by Barbara Bry, Rayman Khan and Hilary Nemchik, Voice of San Diego San Diego is a leader in innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability. The city’s Climate Action Plan harnesses those qualities and places us at the forefront of combating climate change. Community choice energy, also known as community choice aggregation, would allow the city to establish […]

Top US firms including Walmart and Ford oppose Trump on climate change

by Richard Luscombe, The Guardian Since taking office, Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, rolled back numerous protections against environmental pollution and espoused coal as the fuel of the future, all in the name of job creation and ending what he sees as the “theft of American prosperity”. […]

Huainan City, China boasts world's largest floating solar farm

China on pace for record solar-power installations

by Feifei Shen, Bloomberg China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, is poised to install a record amount of solar-power capacity this year, prompting researchers to boost forecasts as much as 80 percent. About 54 gigawatts will be put in place this year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said Monday, raising a forecast of more than 30 gigawatts made in July. That […]

SoCal Edison’s plan to ‘electrify everything’ could help the climate — and SCE’s profits

by Sammy Roth, The Desert Sun Seven million electric cars on the road. Thirty percent of heating systems in homes and businesses powered by electricity. And 80 percent of California’s electricity generated by climate-friendly power sources like solar, wind and water. That’s what Southern California Edison says will be needed by 2030 to meet the […]

America’s ‘renaissance’ to gains for renewables: global energy trends

by Stanley Reed, NY Times LONDON — From the rise of renewable power to the transformation of the United States into a heavyweight producer of oil and gas, the global energy market, normally slow to evolve, is going through major upheaval. That is the assessment of Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy […]