Editorial Leader: Revolutionary time for the energy poor

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:16:22 GMT

ONE OF the things I really love about my job is seeing the amazing work taking place around the world to make other people’s lives better - in the May/June 2013 issue of Renewable Energy Focus I’m delighted to share that with you in all its glory.

The UN ...

Time to end the guilt on incentives and start fighting

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:19:05 GMT

The last month has brought another depressing piece of news: This time the potential demise of Suntech, a pioneer credited with helping scale up the PV industry, ...

Editorial Leader: New markets for a new era of power

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:31:36 GMT

AND WOW, there are certainly plenty of new markets for the renewable energy industry – and they are finally coming out into the light. Deployment of renewables is an “idea whose time has come”.

These are the words of Adnan Amin, director general of ...

Solar energy: what cost, what outlook and what’s going on in Hawaii?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:23:40 GMT

So cumulative solar PV power installations worldwide shot past the 100GW mark in 2012, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) announced this month. In fact, the figure by end 2012 was just over 101GW. A major milestone indeed.

While t ...

10 clean energy investments from Google

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:02:26 GMT

The past few years has seen Google embark on an ambitous program of investment in the renewables space, the most recent announcement seeing Google investing $200 million in a Texas wind farm

Top 10 trends for the fuel cell industry in 2013

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:05:42 GMT

Around this time of year everyone and their dog does a review of the year just gone, or a preview for the year to come, often in the form of a ‘Top 10’.

Even so, it’s interesting to see what analysts at Pike Research highlight in ...

An inconvenient truth

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:19:55 GMT

The global growth of renewable energy over the last few years cannot be disputed, but can it really play a major role in the world of large-scale electricity generation? Some would say it already is. Wind power is the obvious example.

“If anybody had said we would be here talki ...

EWEA 2013 conference - hot topics

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:10:26 GMT

EWEA 2013 is just a few weeks away. So what can conference delegates expect to be the main topics up for debate?

Event launch and keynotes

The EWEA 2013 conference will open with a series of high-profile speakers addressing important ...

We bid an Austrian farewell to EWEA’s man at the top...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:55:53 GMT

The Renewable Energy Focus team – along with many on the wind power side of the renewable energy business – is looking forward to some top wind-related events coming up in the next few weeks and months…

First up on the events scene for wind power is the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) plays a key role in the development – and in particular demonstration – of fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in a wide range of applications.

The FCH JU is a unique publ ...

Today’s Top 10: A wish list for the renewable energy market in 2013

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:24:26 GMT

By John Peters, Managing Director, Engage Consulting

The global renewable energy market is evolving rapidly. John Peters from Engage Consulting looks into his crystal ball and discusses some of the changes that would enable the ...

Tidings of comfort and joy

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:02:59 GMT

By Elizabeth Block

The UK government appears to have given up on being “the greenest government ever”. No one saw much comfort following months of ...

Guest Blog: Tragic Fall of a Solar Icon - Sharp sells itself piece by piece

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:02:23 GMT

By Sneha Shah.

The vicious downturn of the global solar industry has seen innumerable bankruptcies and thousands of job losses.

Guest Blog: driving forward wind and marine in the UK

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:23:58 GMT

By Felicia Jackson.

The second UK Wind & Marine Energy Business Barometer, covered recently in a UK, The Times newspaper supplement, Wind & Marine Energy, reveals findings from an annual survey of ...

Guest Blog: Tough times, tough actions - time for a greentech patent amnesty?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:39:14 GMT

By Barry Johnston

Given the increasing 6 degrees threat of global warming, and its made its renewable energy aspirations c ...

Guest Blog: UK developing fuel cell and hydrogen technology manufacturing and supply chain

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:35:07 GMT

By Richard Kemp-Harper, Technology Strategy Board

Over a number of years, the UK's Technology Strategy Board has built up a good relationship with innovative businesses working i ...

Surge in solar energy news from South Africa – Top 5 solar power project announcements this month (so far)

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:54:29 GMT

The solar power market in South Africa has ramped up a gear, with a stream of project news emanating from the country in recent days. Covering project financial close, contract awards and construction starts, the news covers both solar PV and concentrated solar power (CSP).

Why this news ...

Guest Blog: Global Energy Access by 2030?

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:36:37 GMT

By Mathias Aarre Maehlum, EnergyInformative.org

Electrical power is probably the most important factor for development and growth. According to International Energy Agency (IEA)

Paradise lost?

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:18:17 GMT

Who doesn’t dream of a few weeks escape to a tropical island paradise like the Maldives? I know I certainly do. So I couldn’t wait to watch Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve on BBC Two last weekend. It was the fourth inst ...

Guest Blog: Setting the stage for GreenBuild 2012

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:32:08 GMT

By Comly Wilson, CleanEdison

Are you going to Green Build 2012? If so, you’ll be in good company. The 11th annual gathering of all those involved in ‘building green’ into th ...

Shocking wake-up call on global warming – report stresses renewable energy investment needs

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 10:47:00 GMT

Despite the billions of investment being ploughed into renewable energy and low carbon technologies across the globe, the world is failing dramatically in its battle to stem the tide ...

Guest Blog: Ahead of this week's US election the message is clear - the green revolution will be crowdfunded

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:57:10 GMT

The green blogosphere has been ablaze with posts, tweets, and comments about the second US presidential debate in which the two candidates squared off on their respective energy approaches.

President Obama offered strong support for continued government-funded development ...

Guest Blog: Can petrol generated from the air become carbon neutral?

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:50:37 GMT

In the last week, a British company (Air Fuel Synthesis) introduced us to a potential breakthrough piece of technology which can create petrol using just air and electricity. One major benefit of this generated fuel is that it can be ...

Renewable energy at home - the 6 key steps to getting it right you need to know

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:10:05 GMT

As energy demand rises and consumer electricity bills increase, more and more attention is turning to renewables.

Sometimes this is for the wrong reasons: Support for renewable energy is often unjustly blamed for energy price hikes – however Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) crossed our desk recently. The EIU spoke to 284 senior-level renewable energy executives about the risks in financing, constructing and operating renewable energy projects, as well as the risk manage ...

My biomass breakfast or how I learned to love wood pellets

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:58:19 GMT

Have you ever witnessed the delivery of wood pellets to an on-site boiler? I thought not.

Well, you are fortunate that your blogger here was invited to a “Cool Heating Biomass Breakfast” at the Maidenhead Rugby Club, no less, not to view some rugged males battling it out but t ...

Which countries are winning the race to invest in renewables?

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:18:58 GMT

NB: this is my editorial from the March/April issue of Renewable Energy Focus magazine, which is now out. If you don't subscribe yet, it's free, so feel free to subscribe here.

Global clea ...

Will the oil shock translate into "banker shock..."?

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:56:36 GMT

I was just about to write about the soaring oil price, due mainly to the turmoil in Libya and other oil-producing countries, along with the threat of revolt spreading to Saudi Arabia, when an email came in from Jeremy Leggett, the famous oil man turned solar guru.

Here in Britain, the las ...

Pennies from Heaven

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:08:43 GMT

Pennies from Heaven? BBC feature foreshadows early FIT review

The BBC’s Newsnight is one of Britain’s most respected TV news programmes, and its main presenter, Jeremy Paxman, is famous for his ferocious interviewing style. So when I heard that solar energy wa ...

Why did I not make the Zayed Prize shortlist...?

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:00:00 GMT

As your hard-working blogger, I thought that I would surely have made the Top 40 list for the Zayed Future Energy Prize, the biggest environmental prize on the planet. In fact, I was not even nominated but I hope you will all do better next year.

How big is the grand prize, you a ...

Can global knowledge transfer speed grid parity?

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:36:36 GMT

What happens when Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, drops in to Australia’s first carbon-neutral office building to meet Prime Minister Julia Gillard? While they might have exchanged a few private words about the exhilaration of smashing glass ceilings, the topic of the day was not wo ...

High-efficiency crystalline silicon designs – high efficiency meets “ease” in 2011 By Guest Blogger, Shalom Goffri, Managing Consultant, Energy, Navigant

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:49:29 GMT

During fast and heated growth in 2010, the solar market has seen its share of technology shake-ups as well. In July, Applied Materials made headlines by discontinuing new sales of it SunFab thin-film silicon line after production had fallen woefully behind cost and efficiency expectations of the ...

CSP – is it time? Coverage of CSP Today's CSP Project Development USA Conference

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:56:14 GMT

Amid optimistic announcements for gigawatts of CSP installations over the next few years, stage whispers of the barriers this industry continues to face continue. At CSP Today’s Project Development conference held in Denver on October 25 and 26, Stephen Mullennix, Partner at U.S. Renewables ...

Leaks and politics enliven EFEF

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:37:48 GMT

Wow, another big conference in London. This time it’s the 2^nd annual European Future Energy Forum, a Masdar-sponsored event that had its debut in Bilbao last year. And it lasts three whole days.

So we have 3713 registered delegates, though fewer than 900 actually attended ...

Who says there's no early money...?

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:37:01 GMT

Who says there’s no early money…?

On Monday, 27 September, I went to Cambridge for the launch of the Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF). This new fund has been set up by the Low Carbon Innovation Centre at the University of East Anglia with £8 million ...

What is more economic - biomass power or biofuels?

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:12:27 GMT

Author: Guest Blogger Rakesh Radhakrishnan, Ph. D. | Associate Director| Energy | Navigant Consulting, Inc.

A short and very unsatisfactory answer to this question is, “Well it depends!”

In reality, there actually are some critical details that must be underst ...

How much to install PV on a royal roof...?

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:38:51 GMT

How much to install PV on a royal roof?

Wow, big news: HRH The Prince of Wales has got consent to install 32 solar panels on the 123 ft² roof of Grade II-listed Clarence House. In late August 2010, nationals such as the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail

AltaTerra FiT freak gives web conference

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:13:12 GMT

Rats! I missed it. I planned to dial in to Palo Alto-based AltaTerra’s web conference last month on feed-in tariffs (FiT) but it started at 2pm eastern time, 7pm here. Events, dear e-reader, got in the way.

Of course, it was no problem as it’s almost impossible to “miss& ...

What does it take to bring you your solar news...?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:03:19 GMT

Following an April 2010 visit to Syria in which I became the first, OK, maybe the second person on the planet to express any interest in Syrian renewable energy, a local Arabic-speaking friend in Damascus emailed me that a notice had gone up at the Japanese Embassy there: a whopping $6 million to ...

California’s FiT and Persistent Faith in the Rational Market Theory, among other things

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:49:44 GMT

So much happening in California, much of it crucial to the forward progress of solar in the biggest market in the USA.

First, unemployment remains high, the budget remains in limbo with outgoing governor Schwarzenegger willing to let the situation pass on through to the next administratio ...

Look! Up on the roof! Is it a technology? Is it a commodity? Is it an appliance? Yes, it’s all of these things! It’s a Solar Panel!

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:57:48 GMT

Caught ya – this is really an article about branding. You know, that marketing function that turns needs into wants and functions into attributes – or, scares the heck out of you and then turns around and offers you a safe place to land while it makes you love being scared.
...

Ontario: A complicated new frontier for PV

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:42:33 GMT

First came the announcement, then came optimism, then came the announcements, then came the reality checks and finally, the changes to Ontario’s wildly anticipated feed-in tariff; not to kill it off, but to control it and, hopefully, help develop a sustainable market.

Historically, ...

Checklist for Developing Your Feed-In Tariff

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:07:59 GMT

Look around the FiT landscape and if you can, find one that created a healthy, sustainable market that did not overburden those who are paying for it;

Yes, I mean remember the ratepayers;

Look around again;

Yes, I mean remember the ratepayers, ...

Do you need to Speak Solar to Thrive in the Solar Industry

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:16:20 GMT

There is a wave of new business professionals in the solar industry – and not all of them speak solar. Every industry has its own language along with a host of acronyms to go along with it.

The specific language of business can actually obliterate understanding, but, there is no get ...

May 2010 summary: Wind and Hydro sparkle in alternative energy

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:35:08 GMT

The alternative energy industry witnessed a marginal decrease in the number of deals, but a huge increase in deal value in May 2010. The market reported 212 deals worth US$39.2 billion in May 2010 compared to 219 deals worth US$27.4 billion in April 2010 - an increase of 43% in terms of deal valu ...

April 2010 summary: decreased deal activity

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:23:26 GMT

The alternative energy industry witnessed a decrease in the number of deals and deal value in April 2010. The market reported 194 deals worth US$24.4 billion in April 2010, compared to 240 deals worth US$24.9 billion in March 2010.

This was a decrease of 19% in terms of the number of deal ...

Zayed Future Energy Prize sends a message to the transport sector

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:29:26 GMT

Taken at face value, the news that the winner of the Zayed Future Energy Prize 2010 (and with it a cool US$1.5 million) is Japanese car manufacture Toyota for its groundbreaking UNFCCC web site.

You can find details of the ‘Copenhagen Accord’ about which draft negotiation text circulating in the f ...

COP15: The bright side of life

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:42:34 GMT

8 December: After one day of mainly plenary sessions, the Copenhagen COP15 ran into technical details and working groups today. Yesterday’s key note speeches from people like the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and COP President Connie Hedegaard e ...

COP15 in a nutshell

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:20:52 GMT

The much talked about UNFCCC COP15 Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen is now underway. If you, like us, have been completely overwhelmed with all the news; views; predictions; doom and gloom; excitement; not to mention political machinations ...

COP15: Starting point is + 3.5°C

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:18:45 GMT

4 December 2009: Except for India, all countries in the world have now laid a number on the table regarding their ambition for greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the next few decades. The accumulation of these pledges is ...

COP15: China and US make their moves

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:05:55 GMT

27 November 2009: The temperature is rising, 9 days before Copenhagen. The hope I expressed last week about a secret China-US scheme for Copenhagen was satisfied within a week. Yesterday both China and the US published their first bids in the negotiations. That cannot be ...

COP15: deadlock until mid December?

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:50:41 GMT

19 November 2009: Last week, the world’s leaders present at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Singapore, and the environment ministers at the pre-COP15 in Copenhagen, publicly confirm ...

COP15: Heads of State book their tickets

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:16:22 GMT

13 November 2009: The most important news of the past week was the announcement from several important Government leaders that they will show up in the Danish capital in December. This is definitely feeding some optimism about the Copenhagen outcome, after a wee ...

COP15: Summit downgraded

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:56:02 GMT
6 November 2009:
Less than five weeks ahead of the start of the
Convention of Parties nr. 15 (COP15)
in Copenhagen, the Summit has been watered down to an ‘Intermediate Summit’ – at best. A legally bi ...

Renewable Energy Focus - Blog

Editorial Leader: Revolutionary time for the energy poor

Time to end the guilt on incentives and start fighting

Editorial Leader: New markets for a new era of power

Solar energy: what cost, what outlook and what’s going on in Hawaii?

10 clean energy investments from Google

Top 10 trends for the fuel cell industry in 2013

An inconvenient truth

EWEA 2013 conference - hot topics

Event launch and keynotes

We bid an Austrian farewell to EWEA’s man at the top...

Today’s Top 10: A wish list for the renewable energy market in 2013

Tidings of comfort and joy

Guest Blog: Tragic Fall of a Solar Icon - Sharp sells itself piece by piece

Guest Blog: driving forward wind and marine in the UK

Guest Blog: Tough times, tough actions - time for a greentech patent amnesty?

Guest Blog: UK developing fuel cell and hydrogen technology manufacturing and supply chain

Surge in solar energy news from South Africa – Top 5 solar power project announcements this month (so far)

Why this news ...

Guest Blog: Global Energy Access by 2030?

Paradise lost?

Guest Blog: Setting the stage for GreenBuild 2012

Shocking wake-up call on global warming – report stresses renewable energy investment needs

Guest Blog: Ahead of this week's US election the message is clear - the green revolution will be crowdfunded

Guest Blog: Can petrol generated from the air become carbon neutral?

Renewable energy at home - the 6 key steps to getting it right you need to know

My biomass breakfast or how I learned to love wood pellets

Which countries are winning the race to invest in renewables?

Will the oil shock translate into "banker shock..."?

Pennies from Heaven

Why did I not make the Zayed Prize shortlist...?

Can global knowledge transfer speed grid parity?

High-efficiency crystalline silicon designs – high efficiency meets “ease” in 2011 By Guest Blogger, Shalom Goffri, Managing Consultant, Energy, Navigant

CSP – is it time? Coverage of CSP Today's CSP Project Development USA Conference

Leaks and politics enliven EFEF

Who says there's no early money...?

Who says there’s no early money…?

What is more economic - biomass power or biofuels?

How much to install PV on a royal roof...?

How much to install PV on a royal roof?

AltaTerra FiT freak gives web conference

What does it take to bring you your solar news...?

California’s FiT and Persistent Faith in the Rational Market Theory, among other things

Look! Up on the roof! Is it a technology? Is it a commodity? Is it an appliance? Yes, it’s all of these things! It’s a Solar Panel!

Ontario: A complicated new frontier for PV

Checklist for Developing Your Feed-In Tariff

Do you need to Speak Solar to Thrive in the Solar Industry

May 2010 summary: Wind and Hydro sparkle in alternative energy

April 2010 summary: decreased deal activity

Zayed Future Energy Prize sends a message to the transport sector

COP15: The bright side of life

COP15 in a nutshell

COP15: Starting point is + 3.5°C

COP15: China and US make their moves

COP15: deadlock until mid December?

COP15: Heads of State book their tickets

COP15: Summit downgraded