Google has created a $75 million fund with Clean Power Finance, a company that offers financing for residential solar panel installations.
The investment will enable 10,000 homeowners to install solar panels on their homes.
The upfront cost is the largest obstacle to installing residential solar panels, and solar installation companies don't always have the means to offer financing. Clean Power Finance seeks to overcome that hurdle by offering installers a way to provide financing to potential customers, while also giving companies without ties to the solar community a way to invest in the industry.
The California solar manufacturing company to which the federal government loaned $528 million--and which closed its doors, laying off hundreds of workers--will be in a U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware this morning.
The proceeding is likely to shed more light on Solyndra, which closed abruptly just a few weeks ago, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.
At today's bankruptcy hearing, Solyndra will ask for permission to auction off its state-of-the-art factory built with more than $500 million from the federal government.
OneRoof Solar is offering a new twist on the solar lease: when you replace your roof, you can get integrated solar panels with no incremental cost.
The company today announced it raised a $50 million series A round led by the solar arm of Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group. The company also said it has secured the funding to finance solar installations at residential customers.
Solar leases, which are available in about 20 states now, have quickly become a popular way to have solar photovoltaic panels installed. Instead of purchasing the panels, homeowners pay a monthly fee and the solar installer … Read more
Editor's note: This is a guest column. See the bio of Matt Feinstein below.
Nearly $1 billion in venture capital funding, a massive U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee, and a disruptive technology expected to translate U.S. clean-technology innovation into economic growth--all have kept mentions of Solyndra alive in the business press and solar industry circles well past its demise. A number of interconnected conclusions have been drawn. Some are true, some are false, others lie in the middle. Among them:
Claim: Unexpected drops in polysilicon prices destroyed Solyndra's business case.
It's not often that I handle a ton of anything but I recently took delivery of 2 tons of wood pellets for home heating. Pellets aren't perfect but I see them as one of the ways consumers can diversify their energy sources and "go green" on a personal level.
The pellets, which are compressed sawdust, come in 40-pound bags stacked about 5 feet high on wood pallets. Those 2 tons, stashed in my garage until the cold weather hits, will cover the bulk of my household heating needs for the coming season.
SolarCity said today that the Department of Energy has not been able to finalize a loan guarantee for a project to install rooftop solar panels on military bases, blaming the political furor caused by bankrupt solar company Solyndra.
Earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced a $344 million conditional loan guarantee agreement with SolarCity to install solar photovoltaic panels at Department of Defense bases in 33 states. The distributed solar project, called SolarStrong, would have doubled the number of residential solar installations in the U.S. and would have been the largest rooftop solar project.
Researchers using novel materials to build photovoltaic cells say their efforts could nearly double the efficiency of silicon-based solar cells.
The cells being developed by teams from the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University have the potential to achieve a light-to-energy conversion rate, or solar efficiency, of 40 percent or better, according to the researchers.
The photovoltaic cells are intended for use in satellites and space instruments. Currently, the silicon-based solar cells that NASA uses in its satellites and instruments have efficiencies of only up to 23 percent, according to NASA statistics.
Solyndra's burnout burdens other solar upstarts news analysis The media frenzy and political circus caused by bankrupt solar company Solyndra makes it tougher for other fledgling solar companies to secure financing and risks derailing government policies to promote green technologies.
In the latest twists in the weeks-long story, government-backed Solyndra said yesterday that CEO Brian Harrison and CFO Bill Stover will exercise their Fifth Amendment rights and not provide substantive answers to questions during a scheduled Congressional hearing on Friday.
The 2.1-megawatt project will be the largest solar installation of any hospital in New Jersey to date, and be distributed across six different locations within the hospital's campus.
The solar system will include two rooftop installations, three parking lots with solar carports, and a solar carport on the roof of an existing parking garage.
The solar system will be constructed by Sun Farm Network, and the 10,000 solar cells will … Read more
Second-quarter U.S. installations of photovoltaic solar panels rose 17 percent from the previous quarter as increases in non-residential and utility-scale projects offset a weakened residential solar market.
Installations were also up 69 percent from the same period the previous year at 314 megawatts, according to a report released today by industry trade group the Solar Energy Industries Association and research firm GTM Research.
Installations are poised to double this year, though SEIA said it revised its outlook for the residential and utility segments while raising its non-residential market forecast.
"We have to step back and remember that we are in some dire economic times, and to see 17 percent quarter-over-quarter growth and 69 percent year-over-year growth is really quite astounding," said Tom Kimbis, vice president for strategy and external affairs at SEIA.
Solar module prices fell 12 percent in the United States during the quarter--bringing the decline for the year to about 30 percent, the report said, adding that without that decline, U.S. installations may have been flat this year.
"We're benefiting from competition. It's driving some companies out of business, but on the other hand it's a real boon for homeowners and small businesses who want to install solar," Kimbis said. … Read more
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