Category Archives: Renewables and Energy

Electric Cars are a Resounding Success

 
By most accounts, this recent wave of plug-in electric cars has been a resounding success. Dealers sell them quickly and report high customer satisfaction, while utilities say they’re getting frequent requests for information about how to get chargers and what rate to sign up for.
 
 
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Oakland Company Plans California Desert Solar Power Plant Project

BrightSource Energy of Oakland unveiled plans Friday to build a cluster of three solar power plants in the Southern California desert, a project capable of generating enough electricity for 300,000 homes.

The Rio Mesa project – near Blythe in Riverside County – would feature three fields of mirrors, each one surrounding a 750-foot-tall tower. The mirrors would focus sunlight on the towers, producing intense heat that would be used to boil water into steam, turn turbines and generate electricity.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/14/BUDF1LI082.DTL#ixzz1arldudaW

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Installation Costs of Solar PV Systems Have Decreased in 2010-2011

 
The installed cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2010 and into the first half of 2011, according to a report released on September 15 by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The average installed cost of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2010 fell by roughly 17 percent from 2009, and by an additional 11 percent within the first six months of 2011. The reductions reflect the drop in both the cost of PV modules as well as non-module costs such as installation labor, marketing, overhead, inverters, and the balance of systems. According to the report, “Tracking the Sun IV: A Historical Summary of the Installed Cost of Photovoltaics in the United States from 1998 to 2010,” average non-module costs for residential and commercial systems declined by roughly 18 percent from 2009 to 2010.
 
 
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