The Business Guide of Solar Industry | iSolarWorld

As  California  prepares to shift to 100%  renewable energy  by 2045, the need of the state’s local clean energy has also increased. This is the largest economy in the world that has committed to such an aggressive goal and the process will involve expanding access to solar for residents and communities that have previously not been able to tap into the growing  clean energy market  in the country. people, who are living in  low and moderate-income  multifamily developments were especially unable to access the solar energy. San Francisco-based residential solar and storage company,  Sunrun  with around 3,200 employees has decided to fill that access gap. the company over the next 10 years will install at least 100 megawatts of solar on affordable multifamily housing developments. About 80% of residents under this proposed plan earn below 60% of the area median income. The company has a very broad vision for how residential rooftop ...

If you are unaware about the popularity of solar, keep your eyes open while watching TV and you will find hundreds of media campaigns on solar and renewable energies in US.as many companies are looking to build a more  sustainable brand,  solar energy  has taken over mass media. Following the recent growth in  solar industry  across the globe, numerous corporate organizations have made  clean energy  the centerpiece in their multimillion-dollar adverting campaigns. Large corporations including technology giant  Apple , brewing company  Coors Light , telecommunication firm  Verizon  and search engine Google are a handful of the hundreds of companies that are making  sustainability goals  for their organizations. These corporate houses are using television and social media to promote these initiatives. According to a study on  Consumer Trends in Sustainability , “near about 75% of consumers would be more li...

Solar panels   are synonymous with residential and commercial use for most of us. We put solar panels on our homes to cover electric bills and augment commercial buildings to draw new business and  “go green .” But we may have never bothered to think of what happens when solar panels are added to the layout of schools or universities? Schools are now becoming popular when it comes to installing solar panels. According to a recent report, thousands of  US schools  are cutting their utility bills by  choosing solar . These savings are used to pay for teachers’ salaries and textbooks.This is the first nationwide assessment of how  solar energy helps to power schools  in communities across America. A nonprofit organization, ‘ The Solar Foundation’  has developed the comprehensive understanding to date of how  solar energy is being financed  by US schools. The report said estimated that there are 3,752 K-12 schools with  solar inst...

According to the news website ‘ThinkProgress’, currently, Americans are twice as likely to be employed in the  solar energy industry  as in the coal industry. Over 51,000 people in the United States were hired to design, manufacture, sell or install solar panels last year. This industry data is 17 times faster than the economy as a whole. Following this immense growth of the solar energy sector in the country,  US army has also moved towards solar   energy . According to a U.S. Army study published in 2010, ‘Sustain the Mission Project: Casualty Factors for Fuel and Water Resupply Convoys’, casualty impacts related to using alternative energy and water technologies to sustain Army missions should be evaluated in Army combat and combat support models over a wide range of theatres and scenarios to better reflect the complex conditions and actions at the tactical and theatre levels. Of course,  petroleum energy  will continue to be a necessity, but not...

A small US town Warren, the county seat of Marshall County, Minnesota is the new champion in the country’s clean energy drive. The city, which is home of merely 1,563 people, is expected to produce maximum solar energy through  solar panels  that are tilted towards the equator at an angle equal to the latitude in coming years. Warren can be counted as a perfect example of a small town, which is going big by picking solar energy in the recent past. Solar installations  in Warren are mostly titled at the latitude of the city (Average Tilt at Latitude or ATaL) average 4.21 kWh/m2/day, which is about 18% greater than the average monthly GHI of 3.58 kWh/m2/day. This is approximately 6% greater than the average monthly DNI of 3.96 kWh/m2/day. The city has a yearly average solar radiation value of 4.6-kilowatt hours per square meter per day (kWh/m2/day). July is considered as the month with the highest historical solar radiation values with an average of 5.77 kWh/m2/day,...

Across the globe, wildfire incidents have increased especially places like California, Greece, and Indonesia. You just open a morning newspaper and find images of smouldering trees, menacing flames and fleeing families. a mong the scientific community, there is a global consensus that the increasing severity and occurrence of wildfires is directly linked to climate change. However, human activity has also been identified as the immediate solutions. Research indicates that large wildfires in the United States burn more than twice the area they did in 1970 and average wildfire season is 78 days longer. Now, let us tell you how solar is the hero here. Solar power is the alternative to the traditional energy such as coal, oil and natural gas, which since the 19th century have been furiously emitting greenhouses gases. Greenhouse gases are known to trap radiation from the sun in the atmosphere, thereby warming the earth and trapping noxious gases. Many dangerous consequences like...

Colorado-based  Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)  has recently come out with a study, which revealed that  solar installers  could offer  rooftop customers  even more savings by  bundling solar panels  with heat pumps and other electric appliances. The carbon benefits and financial costs of electrification of home heating in four US cities have been studied by the  RMI . The financial costs were harder to overcome. Electricity comes from the rooftop, not from the grid. A manager with  RMI's electricity practice , Mike Henchen said that the customer just sticking with gas could lower cost, lower lifetime cost, than converting to a heat pump. “If electrification with  installing rooftop solar  is combined, a different outcome can be seen. It is very capital intensive so there’s an additional $15,000 in this case for installing rooftop solar, but the long-term energy reduction is substantial and outweighs that and makes the so...

Colleges and universities across the United States are leading the fight against global warming, but the  residential campus in Hampshire  has taken a step ahead and is designated as the first one in the country to go solar. The campus, which has about 1,400 students, situated in Western Massachusetts, now will have  100 percent solar electricity . founded as a counterculture school in the 1960s, Hampshire has a strong environmental focus. the college recruited Lash, the former head of  World Resources Institute , to be its president a few years ago. Lash’s tenure has witnessed numerous environment-friendly activities including the construction of everything from net  zero energy buildings  to the 19-acre  solar power system . The president is excited about his college’s achievement in the arena of renewable energy. He said that however there are a lot of universities and educational institutions who have opted for solar; Hampshire is the only ...

Known as ‘ America's Heartland ’, Midwest region has emerged as the ‘key destination’ for the investors associated with  the clean energy sector  in the country. According to a recent analysis by  Clean Energy Trust (CET) and  Environmental Entrepreneurs  (E2),  over 714,000 people work in clean energy industries across the Midwest. The Clean Jobs Midwest report stated that at the end of 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Labor statistics, the region’s clean energy economy employs more than all the waiters and waitresses, computer programmers, lawyers and Web developers in the Midwest combined. while renewable energy comes in second with around 83,127 jobs, energy efficiency leads all clean energy sectors, employing more than a half-million workers (513,695) – led by  solar and wind  (73,675),  advanced transportation (79,470),  advanced grid  (30,104) and  clean fuels  (7,861). Industry experts see this as a po...

As prices are going down and capacity is going up across the globe, the  solar industry is expectin g a huge growth  in the next five years. If we consider the experts’ view, then the world is likely to have over 1 trillion watts of installed  solar PV  capacity by 2023. This estimated amount is not even enough to serve more than one-third of America's electricity consumption. Earlier in 2014, it was forecasted that by 2022, 871 gigawatts solar power would be generated. Global deployment of  photovoltaics f or electricity generation, which is growing faster than previously expected, is set to reach the terawatt level within just five years. This is indeed a big achievement for the solar industry globally. A recent seminar organized in Golden, Colorado of  PV specialists  from the US  National Renewable Energy Laboratory  ( NREL) , the  Fraunhofer Institute for Solar  came out with this conclusion. Analysts at  Bloomberg...

If recent reports are to be believed, the  solar installation in US   will stay at the same level in 2018 as last year due to weakness in several major  residential markets . Slowdown in big projects after a rush to beat a tax credit deadline is also responsible for this situation. However, amidst this turmoil, a sign of relief has been announced by the solar developer  Safari Energy . The company declared that the 2.056 MW  solar rooftop system  at Francis Scott Key Mall in Maryland has started functioning. Currently, the project is providing clean energy for the Class A shopping destination, which is originally owned by real estate investment trust  PREIT (Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust) . Located within an hour of Washington, D.C., and the state’s largest city Baltimore, this shopping mall project is Safari Energy’s eighth development in the state, bringing the total capacity of the company’s commercial   rooftop sola...

For a sports lover cheering for his/her favourite team from the stadium gallery while munching on crispy hot dog is the ultimate love, is not it? Now, there is good news for all those hot dog lovers in USA, as a recent  SEIA data  shows around 6 million hot dogs will be sold using  solar system  at ballparks, the famous baseball park in the country.   Ballparks is not the only  stadium opting for solar energy . in an attempt to improve the sustainable profile of their power generation, an ever-growing number of sports venues have taken on the use of solar energy. due to their ability to reach enormous numbers of fans worldwide, sports have always been a vital platform for value promotion. Solarisation of stadiums and other sport venues was achieved through wide-scale initiatives in many areas. International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to include environmental protection measures as one of the requirements for a successful bid to host the Games...

People across the United States are converting their homes and properties to  renewable resource , as advanced technology has made residential  solar energy  more affordable and reliable. According to National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL ),  r ooftop solar power can provide power to the 75% of Homes in US . to make their homes  solar-friendly , users integrate generators, panels, and power storage units and this means a hefty upfront personal investment. Until rooftop solar panels came into the market, it was difficult for homeowners to incorporate equipment onto their existing home as this entire process involved huge expenses. Many people therefore, stepped back from installing solar panels. But the situation has changed slowly after  community solar  system’s grand entry. This cooperative model has changed property owners’ view on renewable energy as well as has made this affordable. What is Solar Community actually? sometimes referr...

To match the country’s rising demand for  solar power , researchers of California’s acclaimed Stanford University developed a  water-based battery . Aiming to provide a cheap way to  store solar energy  generated when the sun is shining, this battery can also store wind so it can be fed back into the electric grid and be redistributed during the high demand. This prototype  manganese-hydrogen battery , which is merely three inches high, generates a mere 20 milliwatt-hours of electricity. This is on par with the energy levels of LED flashlights, which hang on a key ring. However, prototype’s diminutive output has been found, researchers are hopeful and confident enough that they can scale up this table-top technology to an industrial-grade system. This could charge and recharge up to 10,000 times and remember, with a useful lifespan, creating a grid-scale battery well in excess of a decade. The team, led by Wei Chen, a postdoctoral scholar, coaxed a rever...

If you are wondering about how much electricity demand could be provided by rooftop solar in the United States, you will be surprised to know the answer. According to a latest report released by the  National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) ,  rooftop solar power  can provide power to the 75% of Homes in US. The report titled ‘Rooftop Solar Technical Potential for  Low-to-Moderate income  ( LMI ) households in the US’ mainly focused on the solar photovoltaic (PV) potential on US households along with LMI levels. A combination of  light detection and ranging  ( LiDAR )-based scans of buildings and statistical techniques have been utilized in the study, in order to assess rooftop solar PV potential. According to the study, among the 116.9 million residential buildings in the US, 67.2 million buildings were suitable for solar PV. About 75% of residential consumption count as the total generation potential. The rooftop solar PV potential is actu...