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Bangladesh Hits 1 Million Solar Home Systems

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:30:00 +0000

A few months back Nancy Wimmer told us about Bangladesh’s solar success

Abu Dhabi solar plant key to energy security

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:59:52 +0000

Shams 1 uses 258,048 parabolic mirrors to collect sunlight and concentrate it onto oil that flows through a tubing at the center of the curved mirrors. This heated oil makes its way into a heat exchanger and is then used to create steam that powers turbines, thus making electricity.

The launch of the Shams 1 power plant is big news in clean energy, and a major hallmark on the Middle East’s path towards energy diversification.

Social Bankability, Solar Crowdfunders, & Emerging Markets

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:30:00 +0000

If we are going to avoid the worst impacts of climate change we need disruptive innovations that fundamentally alter the broken systems that continue to build out inequitable, fossil fueled societies. Solar and other renewable energy technologies can do that to energy markets. But it won't happen without fixing another broken system - finance. Now it appears that the energy innovation axiom - small is big - also applies to financial innovation as solar crowdfunders prove that aggregating small investments from individuals can break down financial barriers to a clean energy revolution.

Crowdfunding is a potentially disruptive financial innovation that unlocks and aggregates small amounts of capital to ensure what society deems socially and environmentally important receives the capital it requires. The disruptive potential of this 'social bankability' was on full display last Monday when Solar Mosaic officially opened its doors to investors in California and New. In just 24 hours three solar projects (built on affordable housing projects) totaling $313,000 were fully funded by average people contributing as little as $25. Including its beta testing Solar Mosaic has raised $1.1 million for distributed solar.

Seeing this happen in the USA is truly awesome given the painful obstruction to climate and clean energy solutions our politicians have put forward on a global stage. Combining crowdfunding with other financial innovations like opening Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT's) and Master Limited Partnerships (MLP's) to renewable energy in the US (something on the table in the form of the Coons Bill) offers a unique opportunity to further tear down financial barriers. Doing so will help unlock US clean energy leadership and not a moment too soon.

But the real opportunity for crowdfunders lies with distributed solar in emerging markets where the world's poor pay obscene amounts for dirty fuel based lighting. It's the 1.3 billion people living in off grid communities for whom the economics of solar make the most sense and have the most impact.

That's why the Sierra Club advocates for international financial institutions (IFIs) (like the World Bank) to fund distributed solar in emerging markets. But despite the high profile calls from entrepreneurs like Jigar Shah to capitalize on the opportunity IFI's have simply not stepped up to the challenge. In fact, getting them to pony up even relatively small amounts of public money to make solar bankable - like the $313,000 Solar Mosaic raised in one day - is like pulling teeth (except, of course, for the renewable energy champion OPIC).

That's because providing funding in these relatively small amounts to 'new' technologies is just not what these guys do. They don't because their business and operations model is suited to a different age, one which helped produce the problem of climate change and inequality but is ill equipped to solve it. That means that solving energy poverty and climate change is up to those capable of financing and deploying small scale distributed renewable energy - at least according to the radicals at the International Energy Agency.

So while Solar Mosaic's first day is exciting, it's their next steps that hold the truly disruptive potential. Solar Mosaic and other crowdfunders like SunFunder are already eagerly eyeing emerging markets like India where the coal sector is a mess, grid expansion isn't happening and diesel prices are unbearably high. These conditions along with exciting new business model innovations like community power offer a potent alternative to the status quo. But the only reason they will happen is that a new age of entrepreneurs and financiers have deemed them socially bankable.

Already India is home to Milaap, a domestic Indian crowdfunder funding solar lanterns in West Bengal with ONergy, and improved cookstoves in Orissa. As Uttar Pradesh and Bihar continue to incubate distributed solar revolutions the need for financing becomes more stark. While IFIs fund feasibility study after feasibility study watch for the crowdfunders to step in and catalyze the market.

It's clear that in the United States at least, our current financial system is broken. Which is why rooting out entrenched financial power must happen alongside efforts to root out entrenched fossil fuels. Because climate change is not just about technology, it's about systems that produce equitable outcomes for people and the environment. It's clear our current financial and energy systems can't, or simply won't, do that. Let's work to make sure the systems of the future, built on a foundation of social bankability by disruptive innovators like solar crowdfunders, do.

New crowdsourcing platform gives hope to small-scale solar

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:04:49 +0000

Less than 24 hours after launching its online marketplace, Mosaic raised $313,000 to power

“Black hole for light” drastically improves efficiency of solar cells

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 04:26:29 +0000

Researchers at Princeton University led by electrical engineer Stephen Chou, have developed what is being called a “nanostructure sandwich” to trap light and improve the efficiency of organic solar cells by 175%. A layer of metal mesh 30 nanometers thick (A nanometer is about one hundred-thousandth the width of human hair)

India’s solar mission, phase 2

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:15:59 +0000

An Indian worker cleans solar arrays during the inauguration of a one-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant near Gandhinagar, in 2011. The ground-mount photovoltaic power plant is the first of its kind in Gujarat state, expected to produce 1.5 million kilowatt-hours of clean solar energy.

The Indian government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has released a draft of its policy for Phase II of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).

Energy’s Presence, Not Price, Changes Lives

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:23:40 +0000

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative has rightfully united the world’s attention on a critical development issue – delivering universal energy access.

Meet Uttar Pradesh, India's Next Distributed Solar Hotbed

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Much attention has been paid to the distributed clean energy revolution brewing in Bihar. But for all the hype generated by Minister Kumar, what's happening next door in Uttar Pradesh may be even more exciting.

Chinese oversupply sees cost of solar panels drop worldwide

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:07:16 +0000

Right now we’re seeing a glut of solar panels in the market largely due to an increase in Chinese manufacturers being able to produce panels a lot faster and cheaper than their more established European counterparts thanks to a flood of local Chinese investment in the industry.

India’s Solar Revolution, Small is Big

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:08:33 +0000

A while back I wrote a post on the need to get India’s solar boom right solar boom right.

MID-YEAR REPORT: 70% of New U.S. Generating Capacity in First Half 2015 is From Renewables

Mon, 27 Jul 2015 20:50:27 +0000

In yet another clear indication of the nation’s energy future, renewable sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) accounted for nearly 70% (69.75%) of new electrical generation placed in service in the United States during the first six months of 2015. According to the recently-released “Energy Infrastructure Update” report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s [...]

Podcast: Why Global Solar Demand Will Be Off the Charts

Mon, 06 Jul 2015 13:23:08 +0000

By the end of the decade, the solar industry could be installing 135 gigawatts yearly — more capacity in 12 months than all the cumulative installations over the last four decades. The 2020 solar market will look much different today. It will be defined by fewer subsidies, greater geographic diversity and more sophisticated business models. [...]

Is Solar Net Metering a Subsidy to Utilities?

Mon, 06 Jul 2015 12:59:24 +0000

When Robert Nohavec of Park City, Utah; Jabbar Graham from Cherry Hill, New Jersey; and Don Born, of Waldoboro, Maine installed solar on their homes, they had something unexpected in common. They were all giving back to their electric company and their community. That’s because solar energy systems tend to provide more value to the [...]

One in Three Investors Will Back Their First Solar Project within the Next Year

Wed, 01 Jul 2015 13:50:20 +0000

One interesting development of the commercial solar industry boom that is currently under way in the U.S. is the numbers of professional investors getting involved with the sector. Over 60 percent of investors will invest in commercial solar and a staggering 83 percent of investors will make investment in solar a priority in the next five [...]

U.S. Community Solar Market to Grow Fivefold in 2015, Top 500 MW in 2020

Thu, 25 Jun 2015 16:26:09 +0000

The United States community solar market is approaching a tipping point. In its latest report, U.S. Community Solar Outlook 2015-2020, GTM Research forecasts the market to grow fivefold this year with 115 megawatts installed. By 2020, community solar in the United States will be an annual half-gigawatt opportunity. With 66 cumulative megawatts installed through the [...]