IEA Report Outlines Record Expectations for 2023

The International Energy Administration’s (IEA) mid-year Market Update released last month notes the historic growth in renewable energy generation expected this year and next. The agency ascribes much of the expected growth to pro-renewables policy momentum, high fossil fuel prices, and renewed concerns about energy security both arising from Russia’s now years-long war in Ukraine.

The report’s key findings include:

Wind & Solar Overtake Coal for the First Time Ever

The renewable energy sector’s historic global capacity growth isn’t the only positive news wave the industry is riding these days. According to analysis by E&E News, wind and solar combined to produce 252 terawatt-hours (TWh) in the first 5 months of 2023, eclipsing the 249 TWh produced by coal over the same time period. This marks the first time ever that solar and wind energy sources collectively outperformed coal over any consecutive 5-month period.

This symbolic milestone seemingly happened in the blink of an eye. Less than two decades ago, coal accounted for almost 50% of the United States’ total energy production. In 2007, coal production topped 1,171.5 million short tons – a record high. Those days now seem like a distant memory. The Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Joe DeCarolis, stated earlier this year, “we expect that the United States will generate less electricity from coal this year than in any year this century.” Put more bluntly, Andy Blumenfeld, an industry analyst at McCloskey by Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) recently told E&E News, “from a coal perspective, it has been a disaster…The decline is happening faster than anyone anticipated.”

The pace of coal plant closures in the U.S. is only expected to accelerate as the economics of coal increasingly lose out to those of renewables. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the U.S. is on track to close half of its coal-fired generation capacity by 2026, just 15 years after hitting its peak in 2011.

Will the Momentum Continue?

The decline of coal in the United States has been steady over recent years. The brief exception being in 2022 when global gas markets were roiled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ensuing energy security concerns that forced many countries in Europe to rely on the “quick fix” of doubling down on coal plants.

The global pendulum has since shifted back on the heels of a mild winter in both Europe and the United States. A recent EIA report noted that 11 GW of U.S. coal capacity was retired from June 2022 to May 2023, and the agency anticipates there being 15% less coal-fired generation in the U.S. this summer compared to last.

Meanwhile, the momentum being experienced by the solar and wind industries is expected to swell even further. According to the EIA, the U.S. electric power sector added an estimated 14.5 GW of solar generating capacity and about 8.0 GW of wind capacity during the 12 months ending May 31, 2023. The EIA expects solar generation to increase by 24% (10.8 TWh) this summer versus last summer, which beats the expectations for every other energy source.

A confluence of world events, policy decisions, and economics have combined to put the solar industry on stable footing around the world. On the latter point, solar PV costs have fallen a remarkable 76% since 2010 according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The summer’s sweltering heat reminds us of the urgency to address the global effects of climate change. The growing prominence of solar energy in the global energy landscape coupled with the continued decline of the emissions-heavy coal industry offers hopeful signs for the future.

Cover Photo Source: Syracuse.com

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Texas Solar Capacity Hits Peak

In 2022, Texas led the country in the amount of solar capacity added to the grid for the first time in history. The Lone Star State added 1,664 MW of solar capacity from 2021 to 2022, eclipsing California who added 1,308 MW during the same time period according to a report from Climate Central’s Weather Power. Texas also saw the largest jump in solar generation from 2021 to 2022 (6,252,720 MWh), once again besting California (4,722,732 MWh).

Texas is poised to ascend up the solar charts even more this year. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Texas is on pace to add 7.7 GW of solar capacity in 2023 – the most in the country – while California will add 4.2 GW. By themselves, the two states will account for 41% of new solar capacity this year in the United States.

Photo Source: Energy Information Administration (EIA)

The rich oil fields in West Texas and the oil refineries that dot the state’s Gulf Coast have been a fixture of the state’s landscape – and economy – for generations. As solar energy continues its ascension in Texas there are clear signs that the fossil fuels industry is losing its vise grip on the state. Fossil fuels-related jobs in Texas have fallen steadily over the past few years, from over 344,000 in 2019 to just over 265,000 in 2021.

Public Opinion Shifts in Favor of Clean Energy

As the trendlines for the solar industry and the fossil fuels industry move in opposite directions in the state, the mood of your average Texan is also markedly shifting. Two years after Winter Storm Uri crippled the state’s largely fossil fuels-dependent grid system, a clear majority of Texans now favor a shift to renewable energy production.

Photo Source: University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs

According to survey findings from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, 64% of Texans favor expanding the nation’s reliance on solar energy. Meanwhile, just 42% of respondents favor expanding U.S. reliance on natural gas fired power plants, 35% favor expanding reliance on fracking for oil and natural gas, and 27% favor expanding reliance on coal mining and coal fired power plants.

Texans also strongly favored other solar-specific policies, including overwhelming support (90%) for net-metering legislation and for tax incentives for homeowners and businesses to install rooftop solar panels and battery storage (82% in favor).

Anti-Renewables Lawmakers Intervene

Instead of embracing Texas’ rising stature as a national leader in solar capacity and embracing the bounty of economic benefits that come with that, opportunistic state politicians are instead seeking to stem the tide by propping up the state’s fossil fuels industry.

Texas’ rise up the utility-scale solar ranks is poised to grind to a halt after the Texas Senate recently approved S.B. 624. The bill ranks up there as one of the most anti-renewables bills ever seen. It is riddled with punitive measures specifically designed to cripple the state’s solar and wind industries. Here is a sampling of the measures in the bill:

Photo Source: CNN

The bill now heads to the GOP-controlled House for consideration before it ends up on Gov. Abbott’s desk to potentially become law. This nakedly punitive and partisan piece of legislation that singles out a whole industry flies in the face of the laissez faire posture the state has long had to development, especially energy development.

The irony of this moment is striking. Texas was blessed with oil and gas resources that helped catapult its economy to new heights during the “Oil Boon” era about 100 years ago. A similar combination of steady winds and extended sunlight exposure have helped the state dominate in a new energy era as tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of corporate investment in solar and wind projects flow to the state during the present era of rapid clean energy growth. Instead of supporting this promising economic opportunity, Texas legislators beholden to the fossil fuels industry donor class seem hellbent on stifling this growth with burdensome regulations.

Hopefully rationality can once again take root in the Texas legislature and the free market – not emotional politicians – can once again guide the state’s energy policy. S.B. 624 sets a bad precedent that Texas can’t allow to become the new normal.

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China’s Market Dominance

It’s hard to overstate how much of a stranglehold China has over the global solar energy supply chain. A recent deep-dive report compiled by the International Energy Agency (IEA) puts this fact into stark terms. According to the report:

“China’s share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels (such as polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells and modules) exceeds 80%. This is more than double China’s share of global PV demand. In addition, the country is home to the world’s 10 top suppliers of solar PV manufacturing equipment.”

China’s commanding influence is seen across all major solar panel inputs. In 2021, China could lay claim to 79% of global polysilicon capacity, 97% of wafer manufacturing, and was responsible for producing 85% of the world’s solar cells. Incredibly, the report even notes that 1-in-7 solar panels produced in the world comes from one single facility in China’s Xinjiang province.

Photo Source: The New York Times

The issues this poses to the global solar PV supply chain are obvious. When so much of an industry’s supply chain is focused on a small portion of the globe, production and shipping bottlenecks are inevitable and their global impacts could be paralyzing. Region-specific extreme weather events, shipping issues, political unrest, and labor shortages are just a sampling of the issues that could go wrong and bring the global PV supply chain to its knees. Not to mention potential Black Swan-like events like economic fallout from China’s simmering tensions with Taiwan.

The geographic concentration of mission critical solar PV components has led to massive supply-demand imbalances, which ultimately, has driven costs up. The IEA report notes, for example, that the price of solar panels spiked by 20% over the last year, largely spurred by an eye-popping quadrupling in the price of polysilicon.

The solar manufacturing cost advantages that China has cemented in recent decades are a direct result of policies championed by the Chinese government highlighting the solar PV industry as a national economic priority. Government policies encouraged economies of scale and innovations that helped to drive down production costs for solar. As a result, solar manufacturing costs in China are 20% lower than the United States.

Photo Source: EcoWatch

IRA Seeks to Turn the Tide

The IEA report put in stark terms the competitive imbalance between the U.S. and China when it comes to solar manufacturing, and called on policymakers to establish financial and tax incentives that can help to reverse the tide.

The passage of the much-heralded IRA last year included such financial incentives to induce more domestic fabrication like an increase in the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) from 30-40% for projects using domestic products, as well as a product-specific production tax credit (PTC). The most impactful benefit, however, is the timeframe which extends the bill’s various incentives for 10 years, giving much-needed long-term certainty to manufacturers.

Photo Source: Renewable Energy World

In addition to the IRA, the Biden Administration has been aggressive in pulling other levers of power to accelerate solar manufacturing growth opportunities in the United States. Last June, President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to boost domestic manufacturing of clean energy sectors – like solar panel manufacturing – while also instructing the federal government to increase purchasing commitments of U.S.-made solar panels and related clean energy products.

The President also announced around the same time period a 2-year moratorium from tariffs on solar panel imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The goal of the move was to protect vulnerable solar jobs in the U.S. amid significant supply chain disruptions brought on by the Department of Commerce’s ongoing investigation into whether panels imported from these four Southeast Asian counties evaded tariffs placed on Chinese-made solar products.

Photo Source: Bloomberg

Solar Manufacturing Announcements Start to Pile Up

One of the primary goals of the IRA was to launch U.S. solar manufacturing capacity to new heights, and it sure is hard to argue with the results. The clean energy-focused non-profit advocacy group, Climate Power, released a report recently documenting new clean energy investments occurring in the U.S. between the signing of the IRA in August through the month of January.

The research by Climate Power shows that companies have announced more than 100,000 clean energy jobs in the United States since the passage of the IRA. These jobs are tied to 90 different clean energy economic development announcements across 31 different states, and they collectively represent nearly $90B in new capital investment. These figures are simply staggering by any measure and they once again underscore that climate action and our country’s economic future are inextricably tied to each other.

Advancing the nation’s solar energy capacity goals is imperative for addressing the global climate crisis, and the economic benefits that Americans stand to see are more evident now than ever. The national security imperative for domestic clean energy production investments are also increasingly clear. Just days ago, China was chided by the U.S. for having a surveillance balloon floating over the country’s heartland. With tensions between the two countries on the rise, the case for growing solar production capacity at home and weaning off the Chinese-based supply chain speaks for itself. The IRA has certainly primed the pump for doing just that, and we are excited to see the numerous domestic investments in solar production facilities announced in recent months. Hopefully this trend marks a turning point for the U.S. solar industry.

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How Do They Work?

Solar panels themselves are an engineering marvel, and floating solar panels are even more so. Metal components are a significant part of land-based solar energy systems, which presents a challenge for floating solar panels since metal and water are not a good mix. Ground mounted solar panels are installed on mounting systems that are typically anchored into the ground by a steel helical pile.

Floating solar panels on the other hand are typically placed upon polyethylene-based “floaters,” which are buoyant and strong enough to hold 2.5 times their weight. The floating structure itself is coated with magnesium alloy, which is highly resistant to corrosion and rust. The floating solar structure is kept in place via mooring lines and anchors that rest at the bottom of the body of water.

Just as ground-mounted systems typically require flat terrain, floating solar energy systems require calm waters with minimal choppiness. You won’t find them out on the open ocean. Instead, you’ll find them on lakes, canals, and similar (often man-made) bodies of water.

To date, floating solar has mainly been installed overseas. The largest floating solar arrays are all in Asia, including the largest such installation in the world, the mammoth 320 MW Dezhou Dingzhuang floating solar array in China.

Meanwhile, Portugal is home to Europe’s largest floating solar array with a 5 MW, 12,000 panel system located in the region of Alqueva.

Pros and Cons

Floating solar panels are a revolutionary technology that are disrupting conventional approaches to generating solar energy. Floating solar panels present a number of advantages over land-based alternatives, and some flaws as well. Here are some of the main pros and cons of floating solar panels.

California Canals

Floating solar panel systems are much more prolific internationally than they are in the United States. The largest U.S.-based floating solar farm is a 4.8 MW system sitting on two ponds at Healdsburg, CA’s wastewater treatment plant. This system is dwarfed by the 320 MW Dezhou Dingzhuang floating PV array in China.

California is seeking to help the U.S. along and make water-integrated solar panel systems more mainstream by employing a unique adaptation to long running efforts to mitigate drought effects. If it were a country, California would have the 4^th largest economy in the world. Much of California’s modern-day success is owed to the state’s elaborate aqueduct system which was initially constructed some 60+ years ago. The state’s aqueduct system includes over 4,000 miles of canals designed to deliver water from wet Northern California to comparatively dry Southern California.

The State of California is hoping to complement this series of man-made canals with solar panels. The state-funded effort, dubbed “Project Nexus,” will affix solar panel canopies over three sections of the Turlock Irrigation District (TID), totaling approximately 8,500 feet of space. Construction on the project is expected to commence in 2023.

Photo Source: Smithsonianmag.com

The marriage between solar canopies and canals can help to solve dual issues in California. The shade cover provided by the canopies can help to combat omnipresent drought concerns in California by reducing evaporation, while the solar canopies add another tool to the state’s toolbox to achieving 50% clean energy generation by 2025 and 60% by 2030.

Researchers at UC Merced and the University of California Santa Cruz first planted the idea of ‘solar canals’ in a study published last year in Nature Sustainability. The hope is that this pilot project shows promise and can be scaled up significantly across the state. The researchers estimate that the water saving effects and solar generation potential will be profound. According to their research findings cited in a recent PBS article:

The research suggests that covering all of California’s canals – spanning roughly 4,000 miles – with solar panels could save up to 63 billion gallons of water and generate 13 gigawatts of renewable power annually. One gigawatt is equal to the energy consumption of 100 million LEDs, or as others put it, enough to power 750,000 homes.

It would have been preposterous a couple decades ago to think that floating solar panels or solar panel canopies built over Californian canals would ever be feasible. The emergence of these water-integrated solar innovations is yet another reminder of how groundbreaking technologies are continuing to open up new possibilities for how we harness the Sun’s power.

Floating solar in particular is just barely scratching the surface when it comes to its long-term potential. Currently, only 2% of new solar installations are on water, yet the United States has more than 24,000 human-made bodies of water. It will be fascinating to follow the growth in the floating solar panel industry in years to come. The prospects are clearly bright.

Cover Photo Source: NREL

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A Worrying Trend

The passage of the IRA is a seminal moment for the solar industry that will likely spur a “gold rush” of sorts as developers seek to take advantage of the increased market certainty and race to gobble up suitable land for large solar farms. Solar farms have been around for some time, but favorable market dynamics continue to increase their prevalence. According to data from 2018 gathered by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), there are over 2,500 utility-scale solar PV developments generating electricity in the United States. More recent data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) puts the number closer to 10,000.

As utility-scale solar farms have become more commonplace, so too have the concerted efforts to push back against them. This pushback has been led by grassroots community activists who are often adept at leveraging social media to organize opposition around solar developments. According to an April analysis by Reuters, there were:

“45 groups or pages on Facebook dedicated to opposing large solar projects, with names such as “No Solar in Our Backyards!” and “Stop Solar Farms.” Only nine existed prior to 2020, and nearly half were created in 2021. The groups together boast nearly 20,000 members.”

The ultimate goal of these grassroots activists is to influence the decision-making of local planning commission members and elected officials who are tasked with evaluating these projects. There is evidence that they are doing just that. An NBC News article from March documented the following:

“NBC News counted 57 cities, towns and counties across the country where residents have proposed solar moratoriums since the start of 2021, according to local news reports, and not every proposed ban gets local news coverage. At least 40 of those approved the measures. Other localities did so in earlier years.”

A Google search of “solar moratoriums” show plenty local solar moratoriums that have been established by municipalities across the country in just recent years.

Dispelling the Myths

The opponents of utility-scale solar projects can be quite a motley crew. On one end of the spectrum, there are climate skeptics who think climate change is a “hoax” and outright oppose renewable energy investments on the grounds that they are not needed. And then there are opponents with environmental and land conservation concerns who worry about deforestation and related ecological impacts associated with utility-scale solar developments.

The reasons cited by opponents of solar projects generally fall into two buckets; a) misinformation or b) valid concerns that are easily addressed by appropriate developer-led mitigation efforts. Here are some of the most common reasons that people oppose solar projects.

Finding Common Ground

The most effective solar developers are those who view community pushback not as a headache, but as an educational opportunity that can ultimately lead to pivotal long-term relationships with community stakeholders.

Solar developers who go out of their way to engage with community members – even those who oppose their project – are best positioned to achieve positive outcomes. Putting forward a good faith effort to engage with and educate community members should be a foundational aspect of any stakeholder engagement process. The unique thing about solar farms is that they have 30+ year lifespans, which really underscores the need for developers to be intentional about developing and maintain long-term relationships in the communities that they work. Many prominent solar developers provide grants or similar philanthropic donations in the communities that they work in that support community and/or economic development priorities. Partnering with the local community college around solar worker-focused training programs is another common and effective way for developers and communities to align around common priorities.

It is hard to talk about opposition to solar projects without talking about politics. Utility-scale solar projects are primarily located in rural communities that have conservative politics. Once upon a time, this fact wasn’t that noteworthy, but it is now quite relevant in an era of increased political polarization. Support by conservative voters for solar and wind farms has dropped sharply in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2020, 84% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents supported “solar panel farms,” but this support fell to 73% by 2021. This is clearly an ominous sign since these renewable projects are often a best fit in conservative-leaning communities.

Photo Source: Pew Research Center

Instead of shunning these solar skeptics, the partisan divide over support for solar farms represents a great opportunity for developers to partner with organizations committed to bridging this growing partisan gap. Conservatives for Clean Energy (CCE) is one such organization with a growing presence in the Southeast. From their website, the organization “proudly educates the public and decision-makers on the economic benefits of clean energy and advocates for continued investments across the Southeast.” CCE has state-based chapters in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. This podcast interview by the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) with CCE President/CEO, Mark Fleming, covers a lot of relevant topics about how CCE seeks to be a resource to conservative lawmakers.

The Center for Energy Education is another organization involved in educating lawmakers and the general public about the benefits of solar energy. The Center claims on their website to have educated over 730 public officials on the virtues of solar energy. The organization has provided structured training and workshops to thousands more across the country.

Advocacy organizations like these play such a critical role in breaking through  misinformation and educating the public on the myriad of benefits that solar energy can bring to their community. Successful large-scale solar developments hinge on the ability to secure local support. It is critical for solar developers and local stakeholders alike to embrace the opportunity to learn from one another, and approach these projects with an open mind and collaborative spirt.

Cover Photo Source: LenConnect.com

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How Will the Solar Industry be Impacted?

The IRA is chock full of measures to advance the country’s decarbonization goals, including incentives to spur innovation and further growth in the clean energy sector. The solar industry stands to potentially be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the bill’s passage. Here’s a high-level overview of the primary solar incentives in the bill that will give the industry a major jolt in the arm:

• The bill restores the 30% federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), extending it for another 10 years. This policy certainty has long evaded the solar industry as Congress has made a habit of fiddling with the ITC and driving boom-bust cycles with their last-minute decision making. Energy storage technologies are now also eligible for the ITC.
• For the first time, solar projects will now also be eligible for the Production Tax Credit (PTC). Unlike the ITC which offers a one-time tax credit for project investors, the PTC is tied to the power that a renewable project generates over 10 years.
• Additional add-on tax credits can be applied to the ITC and PTC. There are an array of additional “bonus” add-ons that can be stacked together to create an especially lucrative financial incentive. These add-ons seek to encourage more solar projects to locate in low-income communities and in formerly coal-dependent communities, in addition to encouraging sourcing materials from domestic suppliers and paying prevailing wages for project workers. The graphics below show the myriad of add-on components of the ITC and PTC and their significant cumulative value.

Photo Source: Edison Energy

The various pro-solar initiatives baked into the IRA have already led to a boon in domestic manufacturing, as leading solar companies make renewed commitments to bring solar manufacturing jobs to the United States.

First Solar, the largest solar panel manufacturer in the U.S., announced in late August that they will invest up to $1.2B to expand solar panel manufacturing capacity in the country. About $1B will go towards a new facility to be located in the Southeast, which will employ hundreds and begin operations by 2025. An additional $185M will go towards expanding production capacity at the company’s existing factory in Ohio.

Photo Source: Toledo Blade

SPI Energy, a PV project developer and EPC firm, announced just days after the passage of the IRA that they intend to secure 1.5GW of solar wafer manufacturing equipment for a new U.S. production facility. The company is targeting delivery and production of 1.5GW of solar wafers production capacity by 2023, with plans to double that capacity by 2024. This will be the first silicon wafer facility based in the U.S. in nearly a decade’s time.

European PV Hardware, one of the largest solar tracker providers in the world, also announced recently plans to bring a 6 GW factory to Texas that will be operational by next year. Q Cells is also poking around states as it scouts a location for a nearly $2B 9 MW module manufacturing facility.

Photo Source: PV Hardware

These recent investments are just the tip of the iceberg, according to the Solar Industry Energy Association (SEIA). SEIA foresees an avalanche of additional solar manufacturing investments coming to the U.S. in coming years:

“As a direct result of the IRA, we expect to see significant new investments in domestic solar module, tracker, inverter and racking capacity within the next 2-3 years, followed by new investments in solar ingot, wafer and cell capacity within 3-5 years. By the end of the decade, the IRA will be instrumental in ensuring the U.S. solar industry meets its goal of 50 gigawatts (GW) of domestic solar manufacturing capacity across all key industry segments by 2030.”

Burden for Success Shifts to States

The passage of the IRA has brought renewed enthusiasm to climate activists and renewable energy enthusiasts who now see a much more feasible path forward to meeting climate goals. Lost in the euphoria, however, is the fact that while the federal action is indeed historic and desperately needed, it is not an instantaneous cure-all. States, municipalities, and utilities will play an outsized role in maximizing the true potential of the IRA.

The shear scale of new renewables capacity required to be developed in the U.S. in order to meet climate targets is significant. This presents an opportunity that is both exciting and daunting. In a recent guest article for Forbes, Senior Policy Expert for Energy Innovation’s Power Sector Transformation team, Daniel Esposito, points out in stark terms just how much the status quo will need to be upended in order to maximize the full potential of the IRA:

“The U.S. must build roughly 100 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar capacity annually through 2030 to hit its climate targets, but it developed just 28 GW in 2021. More than 920 GW have applied for grid interconnection, but most projects drop out when faced with insurmountable transmission upgrade costs that have many “free-rider” beneficiaries. Successful ones languish for years waiting for approval.”

The traditional process of getting solar projects approved is overly bureaucratic, time-consuming, and far from streamlined. As noted by Esposito, there are a number of prominent challenges that the industry has historically faced that will need to be addressed so as to not impede the IRA’s plans to drastically increase renewables capacity.

• Patchwork permitting process: solar projects have long been plagued by a disjointed permitting process that differs – often significantly – from county to county. The lack of uniformity adds time and uncertainty to projects, both of which can be debilitating. The worrisome trend of solar farm moratoriums that are sprouting up across the country is not helping matters either.
• Interconnection issues: The time that solar projects spend in interconnection queues is increasing. These queues are a byproduct of the various impact studies that utilities and transmission system operators require before a project can be greenlighted. According to a report from the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory of all energy projects, “the typical duration from connection request to commercial operation increased from ~2.1 years for projects built in 2000-2010 to ~3.7 years for those built in 2011-2021.”
• Transmission access: Solar companies can build out as much solar capacity as they want, but all will be for naught without improvements and extension of the electric grid, all of which has a long-time horizon.

The common denominator to all of the above is time. These time-consuming hurdles to solar project development and grid connection threaten so much of the ambitious plans set forth in the IRA.

There is another omnipresent threat to the success of the IRA in ramping up renewables deployment – politics. A lot of the models predicting that the IRA will help to rapidly expand renewable capacity in the country are based on economic models that fail to account for political differences among the states. In many states, state utility commissions play an outsized role in determining how much renewable energy capacity to incorporate into the grid. While solar capacity is growing off the charts in this country, there are still many states where the fossil fuels industry has commanding influence over the state legislators and utility commissions that will dictate how much of the pro-renewable initiatives in the IRA will actually happen in their respective states.

Lest we forgot the recently decided Supreme Court case West Virginia vs. EPA where a bevy of Republican-led states and fossil fuel companies successfully sued to block the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide emissions related to climate change.

It is worth pointing out that the IRA was signed into law strictly along party lines with no Republican support for the bill. As such, ambitious Republican state elected officials will see little political incentive to go to the mat to take advantage of the pro-renewables initiatives in the IRA given the political exposure they would open themselves up to during a primary campaign.

Even so, there is reason for optimism. The economics of solar and wind energy continue to improve by leaps and bounds with each passing decade. The IRA is loaded with incentives that will continue to bend the cost curve down, and most importantly, that establish a degree of certainty that has long eluded the renewable energy industry. Bi-partisan advocacy organizations like the U.S. Climate Alliance, led by Red-state and Blue-state governors alike, have only hardened their resolve to make sure that the benefits of renewable energy flow to every corner of this country in the wake of the IRA’s passage. There are clear challenges to implementation for sure, but the solar industry has proven itself to be resilient time and time again, and we are confident that key industry players will rise to meet the moment.

Cover Photo Source: ADT Solar

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Too Much of a Good Thing

The dynamic between heat, sunlight, and solar panels can all seem counterintuitive. You would think that bright, sunny, long summer days would be most ideal for capturing solar energy. In actuality, excessive heat is a stressor that can erode solar PV panel efficiency.

Solar panels are manufactured and tested to function at their peak performance at a temperature of 25 °C (77 °F). Drops in energy efficiency start to happen once temps get above that 25°C mark. The slow erosion of PV efficiency is generally negligible on say an 88 °F degree summer day, but the compounding effect of efficiency losses can really weigh down performance on those especially hot 38+°C (100 °F) days.

The easiest way to explain the effect that ambient heat has on a solar panel’s performance is through temperature coefficients, which essentially indicate how much of a loss in efficiency will be incurred for every additional degree in surface temperature above 25 °C. For example, if the temperature coefficient of a solar panel is -0.5%, then for every 1°C rise, the panels maximum power will be reduced by 0.5%. So, on a 40 °C day, a solar panel’s output will be reduced by 7.5%.

Photo Source: Seaward.com

July Heat Cripples Vulnerable Regions

A July heat wave ravaged countries across the world, but the effects were most pronounced in Western Europe where, unlike in the U.S., air conditioning is not a widespread household commodity. Temps above 38°C took hold across much of Europe, which in some cases was a nearly 15-degree deviation from historical summer temps that typically hover closer to 25°C.

London experienced its hottest day ever on July 19 when temps at Heathrow Airport hit 40.2 °C (104.4 °F). The hottest temps on the continent during the July heat wave were felt in the small town of Pinhão, Portugal were the high on July 14 reached a hard to comprehend 116.6 °F. The unprecedented heat and dry conditions in Europe during July led to widespread wildfires that wreaked havoc all over the continent. Over 5,400 people in Europe died during the month due to complications from the heat, many of whom were elderly people living in dwellings not equipped with A/C.

Photo Source: The Atlantic

The U.S. was not spared from the historic heat wave that crippled Europe. According to an Axios article from July 25, 1,403 daily high-temperature records and 2,856 records for warmest overnight low temperature were set in the 30 days prior (Source: NOAA). Like in Europe, the blazing temps have fueled wildfires like the still burning Oak Fire in California, which has destroyed over 19,000 acres and forced the evacuation of over 6,000 people.

The once unfathomable record-breaking global temps that occurred in July are, of course, just the latest real-time manifestation of the climate crisis that we are all living in. UCLA climate scientist, Daniel Swain, recently made the following blunt assessment:

“Climate change is making extreme and unprecedented heat events both more intense and more common, pretty much universally throughout the world. Heat waves are probably the most underestimated type of potential disaster because they routinely kill a lot of people. And we just don’t hear about it because it doesn’t kill them in, to put it bluntly, sufficiently dramatic ways.”

The threat to human life and personal property are challenges wrought by the climate crisis, but the widespread threat to critical public infrastructure (like the electric grid) are of equal concern. In England, the oppressive heat compromised airport runways and buckled heat-sensitive train rails, leading to significant disruptions in travel. Meanwhile in Texas, the hottest month on record strained the state’s grid as previous demand records were broken 11 times in the month, including exceeding 80,000 MW for the first time ever.

The extreme temps can also pose similar issues to solar panel infrastructure. Although exceedingly rare, solar panel fires can occur. They are most often due to a design flaw, component defect, or faulty installation, but extreme heat is another contributing factor. A contained roof fire at a house in Quincy, MA in July was blamed on overheated solar panels, and just days ago – amidst prolonged 100+°F daily highs – a number of solar panels atop an office building in Dallas, TX caught fire.

Photo Source: NBC DFW

Perhaps the most realistic fire threat involving solar panels is a wildfire-esque situation where dry vegetation underneath ground-mounted solar panels catches fire and spreads across a solar farm. This very situation has happened just in the past couple weeks amidst the July heat wave in Europe. An on-site grass fire affected a 30 MW solar farm in the Netherlands, and the same occurred at a 20 MW solar farm in the United Kingdom. Fire crews contained the fires in both instances and damage to the panels was minimal.

Photo Source: Dailymail UK

Overcoming the Heat Challenge

The solar industry is adapting to the growing climate challenges posed by a warming planet as numerous innovations are being developed to reduce the threat to efficiency that excessive heat can bring.

For one, the type of solar PV cell used matters. Monocrystalline and polycrystalline are the most common type of solar cells used on commercial panels, and they have the worst temperature coefficient of between -0.45% – 0.50%. The increasingly popular thin film solar cells have a temperature coefficient about half that at around -0.20%, while hybrid solar cells that combine both technologies sit roughly in the middle at -0.30%. A lot of concerns over heat-related efficiency loss can be alleviated as solar cell technology gets more sophisticated and market applications for thin film cells increase.

A range of active cooling technologies can also help solve the solar heat conundrum.

Companies like Sunbooster have harnessed an active cooling system that cools the surface of the panels by recycling rainwater and deploying it in an irrigation-like manner over top the panels during hot days.

Photo Source: PV Magazine

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have also researched a hydrogel substance that can possibly have significant cooling capabilities. According to a PhysicsWorld article, “the researchers pressed a 1-cm-thick layer of the hydrogel against the underside of a standard silicon solar panel. When the temperature drops in the evening and overnight, the water absorbed by the material condenses to form liquid water. During the daytime, as the temperature increases, the heat from the PV panel causes the water to evaporate – a process that not only removes heat from the panel, but also regenerates the vapour sorbent so that the atmospheric water harvester (AWH) is ready for the next night-day cycle.” The technology is not yet fit for commercialization, but the researchers are optimistic about its long-term viability.

Photo Source: Physics World

And in the “low hanging fruit” department, one of the easiest ways to cool solar panels is to combine them with their close cousin, the wind turbine. Wind turbines placed strategically on a solar farm act as massive fans, circulating cool air that flows over and around the ground-mounted panels below.

Photo Source: Linquip Technews

So much of the infrastructure relied on in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world was built during a time of fundamentally different assumptions about weather and climate. Clearly, the heat impacts felt last month are a reminder of how an ever-warming planet is changing this antiquated approach. The solar industry needs to harness promising innovations to adapt to new climate realities or run the risk of falling behind at a time when humankind needs it the most.

Cover Photo Source: LA Fire Department

The post Global Heat Wave Puts Solar Panels to the Test appeared first on Solar Tribune.

Giving Landfills a New Lease on Life

Any hope of meeting near-term decarbonization goals in the U.S. will require millions of acres of new solar energy capacity, and will necessitate putting solar panels in places never thought of before. Capped landfills are a unique option to meet the growing demand for more solar energy capacity in the United States.

A capped landfill is a landfill that is past its useful life as a site for storing waste and has been capped at the surface to minimize deleterious environmental impacts from water seepage . The “cap” is usually comprised of concrete/asphalt, soil, clay, a gravel-based drainage layer, a geomembrane, or some combination of these options.

According to a report from RMI, a non-profit renewable energy research organization, the potential for repurposing capped landfills into solar energy producing mega sites is significant. This was the report’s main takeaway:

“Out of the 10,000 closed landfills across the country, at least 4,000 of them could host solar projects, the report concludes. The total generation capacity of solar at these sites could exceed 63 gigawatts, more than two-thirds of the country’s entire solar capacity installed through 2020.”

The total number of solar arrays installed on capped landfills and the amount of megawatts they produce has steadily been increasing over the past decade, and yet, it is still just a fraction of what is possible. The room for growth is significant.

Photo Source: RMI

The optics of converting an old, capped landfill site into a solar energy producing juggernaut are very appealing. These brownfield sites are limited in their future use given contamination concerns and environmental monitoring requirements. What better way to lead on climate change then to turn these symbols of excess waste and overconsumption into hotbeds of renewable energy activity?

Pros and Cons

Here’s a look at some of the primary pros and cons of putting solar arrays on capped landfills.

Key Strategy for Solar Equity

A priority in recent years for solar energy stakeholders has been to highlight the growing need to place equity at the heart of the push for increased solar energy capacity. Even amidst historically low solar energy costs, there is a perception that residential solar is something that is reserved for the well-heeled. Connecting low-income communities to the myriad of benefits of solar energy has been and should be a top focus of the industry. The whole concept of “community solar” is predicated on this very belief, aiming to democratize the availability of solar energy. Solar projects placed on capped landfills represent a key potential strategy to drive these more equitable solutions.

The Sunnyside Solar Project in Houston, TX is one such example of an equity-focused capped landfill solar project that led to widespread community benefits. In April of this year, the City of Houston gave the greenlight to convert a vacant landfill in the low-income Sunnyside neighborhood into a massive solar farm. The $70M project will include 70 MW of solar panels installed over 224 acres that will produce enough energy to power 5,000 to 10,000 homes. The project is the largest brownfield solar project in the country.

Photo Source: Houston Chronicle

The project will result in a number of ancillary benefits that will be felt by the Sunnyside community. Those benefits include:

• Power discounts will be made available to residents in the Sunnyside neighborhood.
• Increased local job opportunities. A partnership between Houston Community College and Lone Star College will train 175 Houstonians for solar jobs related to the Sunnyside Solar Project.
• The project will include investments in bioretention areas, an integrated biking and walking path, an electric vehicle charging station, and battery back-up to the Sunnyside Community Center
• The project will include an Agricultural Hub and Training Center that will have an aquaponic greenhouse and promote other biodiversity training opportunities focused on beekeeping and native plant preservation.

Environmental justice and racial equity were at the heart of the Sunnyside Solar Project. The project had the support from key local organizations like Population Education and the Houston chapter of the NAACP. The project also has a strong supporter in the city’s mayor, Sylvester Turner. In a press release celebrating the project, Turner stated:

“The Sunnyside landfill has been one of Houston’s biggest community challenges for decades, and I am proud we are one step closer to its transformation. I thank the Sunnyside community because this project would not have come together without its support. This project is an example of how cities can work with the community to address long-standing environmental justice concerns holistically, create green jobs and generate renewable energy in the process.”

Nexamp’s Solar Star Urbana Landfill project offers another promising example of the broader community benefits of landfill-based solar projects. This 40-acre, 14,000 solar panel project sits on a capped landfill and produces 5.3 MW of solar energy for residents in Illinois. The project delivers subsidized energy to low- and moderate-income residents in Illinois through the Illinois Solar for All program, a community solar program that incentivizes low income residents to connect to solar power.

Photo Source: Nexamp

Another positive example can be found in Annapolis, MD. There, a 16.8 MW solar project placed on an 80-acre capped landfill sells some of the power generated on its site to the City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, and the county’s board of education.

Placing solar projects on brownfield sites like capped landfills represents a real low-hanging opportunity for the industry to further add to the nation’s capacity and connect more underserved communities to the benefits of solar industry. We at Solar Tribune have documented similar efforts to place solar projects on old coalfields in Kentucky and the benefits this has brought to economically distressed parts of Appalachia. These projects help generate local jobs and wealth, make vulnerable communities more resilient in the face of growing grid disruptions brought on by climate change, and bring much-needed investments to communities who need them most. This is an industry trend that we can all get behind.

Cover Photo Source: Biz Times

The post Solar Panels Helping Old Landfills Embrace a Greener Future appeared first on Solar Tribune.

What is Agrivoltaics?

Agrivoltaics is a term used to describe the marriage between solar power generation and agricultural production. The U.S. Department of Energy defines it as “agricultural production, such as crop production, livestock grazing, and pollinator habitat that exist underneath solar panels and/or in between rows of solar panels.”

The concept underscores the multi-faceted life-giving qualities of the Sun. Plants and livestock not only benefit from sunlight in the traditional way, but sunlight absorbed by solar panels is used in part to support on-site agricultural production, such as powering irrigation systems and agricultural equipment.

Unlike typical utility-scale solar farms, agrivoltaics involves the solar panels being much higher off the ground and strategically “clustered” in ways that optimize sun/shade exposure for optimal crop production. Contrary to popular belief, few crops thrive on all-day sun exposure. Solar panels on the other hand thrive with lengthy sun exposure. Agrivoltaics allows for the best of both worlds.

Photo Source: N-Sci Technologies

The temperature moderating effects of the elevated solar panels also have crop production benefits. Air and land underneath the panels is cooler in the summer, which helps insulate crops from drought impacts as moisture is more easily retained in the soil. The elevated panels also benefit from the cooling effects of having ample air flow above and below them, since solar panels lose efficiency when their surface temperatures get too hot.

A 2019 study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) documented numerous food production, water savings, and energy production benefits of agrivoltaics. The study found that solar panels were kept 16°F cooler by evaporation from the crops below, which was enough to increase energy production by 2%. The crops below the solar panels that were tested were found to be 100%-300% more productive, depending on the species, while solar panel shade cover reduced irrigation-water use by 15% and overall water consumption by over 150%. Pretty impressive numbers all around.

The wide-ranging benefits of agrivoltaics ultimately mean more cash in the pocket of farmers. Not only do crop yields increase and maintenance costs decrease, but they are often able to benefit from dual income streams from a solar land lease arrangement and improved crop production.

Solar Sheep

Solar grazing is a phenomenon that few could have conceived of once upon a time, but now, the practice is routinely employed to the collective benefit of animal, farmer, and solar operator. According to the aptly named American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA), the U.S. has over 15,000 acres of sheep-maintained solar sites.

Once you can get past the odd visual, relying on sheep to graze on the land where massive solar arrays sit is a no-brainer. Grazing sheep munch on grasses and weeds, which helps to optimize solar panel efficiency by removing shade threats and keeping the panels otherwise unobstructed. This reduces the need for traditional mowing and landscaping, which can help to prevent unwanted structural damage to the solar arrays and helps to keep stray grass clippings and dirt from soiling the surface of the panels. We also implicitly associate solar energy systems with carbon reduction and environmental benefits, so ditching gas-powered lawnmowers and chemical herbicides for grazing sheep is a meaningful shift that can amplify the broader benefits of solar energy production.

For their troubles, the sheep get a comfortable supply of food to munch on and ample protection from the sun and weather elements underneath the solar panels.

Photo Source: American Solar Grazing Association

The cost-savings for all parties involved is another reason to like the solar-sheep arrangement. The solar operator no longer has to worry about maintenance fees associated with traditional landscaping and potential damages from mowing mishaps or overgrown vegetation. Meanwhile, the sheep farmer receives a steady income stream for the use of their sheep without sacrificing meat, dairy, or wool production capabilities. According to the ASGA, solar operators typically pay farmers $250-$750 per year for an acre of land to be grazed.

Powering Pollinators  

Incorporating pollinator-friendly habitats into solar farm sites is another aspect of the agrivoltaics movement that has far-ranging benefits.

The decline in pollinator populations – especially among bees – is well-documented. Habitat loss, climate change impacts, and insecticide use are some of the main challenges that pollinators continually face these days.

By incorporating native plant habitats on solar sites, great progress can be made to support critical pollinator populations. Other associated benefits like reducing erosion and runoff issues, and promoting overall biodiversity are an added bonus. When accompanied with pollinator-friendly vegetation management practices, like eliminating insecticide use, solar sites can help to foster pollinator activity on-site and in the surrounding area. The participating farmer and neighboring agricultural sites stand to benefit from all of the increased pollinator activity given the obvious role that pollination plays in crop production.

Photo Source: Fresh-Energy

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has general guidelines to protect pollinators from harmful insecticides, and there are no shortage of pollinator-friendly organizations out there that promote best practices in supporting pollinators in your home garden, school, business, etc. Many states are now implementing their own pollinator-friendly solar farm standards to incentivize pollinator habitats specifically on solar farm developments. Minnesota was the first state to do just that back in 2016, when then Governor Mark Dayton signed the Pollinator Friendly Solar Act into law. This first-of-its-kind legislation outlined voluntary standards and benchmarks that participating solar sites can meet in order to achieve recognition as a “pollinator-friendly” solar location. Several other states have followed Minnesota’s lead and developed their own voluntary standards to certify solar sites as pollinator-friendly.

Photo Source: Fresh-Energy

We’ve seen consumers’ pro-renewable preferences influence all sorts of industries and the honey industry is no different. Not only are pollinator-friendly solar sites becoming more common as a way to benefit farmers and vulnerable pollinator populations, but honey producers are also realizing the appeal of marketing honey harvested on solar farms. Companies like Minnesota-based Bare Honey are embracing this promising market opportunity and showcasing the multiple layers of economic and  environmental benefits of solar-based honey production.

The cross-cutting benefits of solar energy never cease to amaze us. The emerging prominence of agrivoltaics is but the latest manifestation of the broad benefits associated with solar energy. Not only can solar energy lead the way to powering the world in a more sustainable way, but it can totally transform the way that we produce food. Imagine a future where acres of farmland is covered with solar panels and high yielding crops; grazing sheep and abundant honey producers. Global de-carbonization goals will require wholesale changes across many industries. The ongoing innovations in the agriculture industry and the emergence of agrivoltaics are a great example of how solar energy will continue to shape (and improve) the future.

Cover Photo Source: Enel Green Power

The post The Rise of Agrivoltaics appeared first on Solar Tribune.

On the surface, the prospect of a car powered by an infinite and free power source that is never “off” sounds like a dream come true for renewable energy enthusiasts. But as the old adage says, ‘if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Check out the following Youtube video from Engineering Explained for an in-depth and wonky overview of the mathematical and engineering challenges of solar-powered cars.

Here’s a cliff notes version of the main limitations to such a technology:

Solar Features Still Making Their Way on EVs

While engineering limitations make a vehicle fully powered by the sun a fantasy prospect for consumers, solar cell technology is being adopted at a much-limited scale in many modern-day electrified vehicles.

The futuristic Mercedes Benz VISION EQXX comes equipped with a 117-cell solar array embedded in its roof. Energy generated from the solar cells is sent to and stored in a separate 12-volt battery, powering the infotainment/navigation system and the car’s lights. As far as what the solar capabilities of the car do to its range, well, the answer is not much. Mercedes claims that the car’s solar roof can add around 15 miles of range on long-distance journeys. For perspective, that amounts to about 2.5% of the miles that the car can get when fully charged. To be clear, the VISION EQXX is a “concept car” not yet fit for mass production.

The VISION EQXX is a solar power plant of its own. Its ultra-thin roof panels feed the battery system for up to 25 kilometers of extra range.#MercedesBenz #VISIONEQXX pic.twitter.com/m1tKwPirMc

— Mercedes-Benz (@MercedesBenz) April 9, 2022

The Lightyear One developed by a Dutch startup is arguably the gold standard in the solar-equipped EV space. With its expansive solar array affixed to nearly every horizontal corner of the car, the Lightyear One can purportedly add 7 miles of range for every hour that the car is parked under ideal solar charging conditions.

Source: Lightyear One

Some level of solar charging capabilities are becoming more and more mainstream with the latest EV models. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, and Toyota bz4x are just some of the recent electrified vehicle models coming with some level of solar charging capability. The Fisker Ocean SUV is another top option in the emerging market of solar-integrated vehicles available to consumers. Fisker claims that the Ocean vehicle can produce up to 1,500 additional miles from its “SolarSky” technology, and up to 2,000 miles under ideal conditions.

Source: MotorTrend

Options are also increasing in the pickup truck market as some EVs in this class pay homage to the convertible with a retractable solar apparatus that increases the surface area of the vehicle available to generate solar energy. Tesla’s Cybertruck comes with a solar roof option in the form of a solar cell-equipped tonneau cover. Exact specs and charging details for the still-in-production Cybertruck are murky but Musk claims that the solar tonneau cover can add 15 miles per day to a vehicle’s range.

Photo Source: Tesla

The much less well-established Chinese startup Edison Future has plans for a Cybertruck-esque solar-equipped vehicle as well. Instead of a traditional tonneau cover, this vehicle will have an extendable bed cover of solar PV segments that resembles a turtle shell. The company optimistically claims that the solar panels will be able to add 25-35 miles of added range. Such a claim seems hard to take seriously, but we shall see. The company hopes to start delivering vehicles in 2025.

Photo Source: Edison Futures

Just like with any market, electric vehicle manufacturers will provide a product that satisfies the evolving desires of their customer base. Even though the effectiveness of solar features on an EV are limited when it comes to extending the car’s driving range, consumers may just fall in love with the novelty of the idea. This dynamic is perhaps not too dissimilar from the residential solar energy market. As costs have come down and new companies have entered the market, residential solar use has taken off and become more commonplace.

While solar integration in EVs will not change these vehicles into endlessly powered long-range vehicles, it is nonetheless an exciting example of the simultaneous maturation of both the EV and the solar industry. It is yet another example of the array of benefits that renewable energy innovations are bringing to our everyday lives.

Cover Photo Source: BBC

The post The Solar Powered Cars are Coming…Sort of appeared first on Solar Tribune.

The Dust Problem

Spring is a dreadful time of year for many with seasonal allergies, as pollen begins to permeate the air and aggravate sensitive nasal passageways. Pollen, dust, and other particulate are a similar pain for solar panels. The National Renewables Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that dust and grime accumulated on a solar panel can lead to 7% energy loss annually in the United States and up to as high as 50% in the excessively dusty Middle East.

Photo Source: iStock by Getty Images

This issue can generally be solved after a good rainstorm, but those events are obviously sporadic and unpredictable. Overnight cooling combined with morning dew and surface heating as the day goes on can also lead to a process called cementation where the grime hardens on the panels and is nearly impossible for a regular rain shower to remove.

How Are Solar Panels Typically Cleaned?

Traditional solar panel cleaning methods vary depending on whether we’re talking about a ground-mounted solar array or one affixed to a house, but regardless, the process generally involves water and a brush/sponge/squeegee. The process doesn’t differ meaningfully from washing your own car. Just like washing your car, great care needs to be taken to not scratch the surface glass of the panel as any surface damage can reduce the panel’s efficiency.

Photo Source: Premier Solar Cleaning

The major flaw with this traditional cleaning method is that it requires the use of water. For residential users this results in added cost in the form of higher water bills, but perhaps more importantly, relying on water to clean solar panels is incongruent with the broader sustainability goals of using solar energy in the first place. It is estimated that 10 billion gallons of water is used per year to clean the world’s solar panels. To put that in perspective, that amount of water could satisfy the drinking needs of up to 2 million people. Clearly, the massive water consumption footprint associated with cleaning of solar panels does not represent a long-term solution for the industry.

Solar Panel Cleaning Robots

Establishing a waterless fix to the soiled solar panel conundrum has inspired a burgeoning niche market within the solar industry – solar cleaning robots.

Art Robotics, a fledgling Belgian startup, is one such company involved in the space. The company uses a drone to deliver a small slender robot (named HELIOS) to roof-affixed solar panels which clean the panel surface using vacuuming technology. The contraption is basically a Roomba for your solar panels. The product is pitched as a cleaning service that you would sign up for as needed or in regular intervals.

SolarCleano is one of the more well-known providers of robots for cleaning solar panels, although many of their robots use water. Their SolarCleano B1 robot is one exception. This gigantic solar cleaning system is designed for use on ground-mounted utility scale solar farms. The fully autonomous system consists of a robot on wheels equipped with a large rotating bristle brush that “drives” around cleaning the surface of the solar panels.

While the waterless brush-based robots help to solve the excessive water challenge, there are concerns that over time the constant scrubbing can lead to scaring of the solar panels, which ultimately leads to a reduction in solar efficiency and in useful life.

MIT’s Static Electricity Solution

Existing solutions to cleaning solar panels are better than nothing, but far from ideal. They are either labor intensive and waste a lot of water (manual brush system) or susceptible to damaging the panels with excessive use (robotic dry brushing). Leave it to the bright minds at MIT to stumble upon a breakthrough technology that can totally change how we approach the cleaning of solar panels.

Earlier this month, researchers at MIT released a study highlighting a solar panel cleaning approach rooted in the power of static electricity. A small electrode that hovers above the solar panel creates an electrostatic charge that repels dust particles off the surface of the panel. The process is less effective with high humidity or moisture (ie, morning dew) on the panels, so its use in desert-like arid environments is particularly promising.

The technology is still very much in the lab prototype phase, but its potential application for commercial use seems promising. Such a simple solution could be a boon to ramping up solar energy production in arid climates where sun is abundant but where dust storms threaten the long-term feasibility of solar energy applications. The American Southwest, Sahara Desert, and Middle East immediately come to mind.

Innovations in the solar panel itself has helped drive down costs and drive-up adoptability over recent decades. The potential breakthrough solar cleaning innovation being pursued by MIT researchers may further drive up global solar capacity as the door to solar energy adoption and long-term viability opens up in new regions across the world.

Cover Photo Source: MIT

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Oil & Gas Key to Putin’s War Politics

It can hardly be a coincidence that every military excursion that Russia has launched on Putin’s watch has happened during stretches of all-time high oil prices. During the August 2008 war in Georgia, crude oil prices were just coming off an historic high of almost $140/barrel (global benchmark crude Brent) set two months prior. Oil prices were similarly high in February 2014 when Russia seized Crimea ($108.21/barrel). Putin’s invasion of Ukraine came as the price for crude oil was over $90/barrel – a seven-year high.

Source: Business Insider

Clearly, Putin uses record high oil prices to fill Russia’s coffers, fund the country’s war machine, and blunt the blow of international sanctions. Putin’s third attempt at such a strategy, however, is likely to be his most fatal.

Russia’s status as one of the most fossil fuels-rich countries in the world has allowed the country to maintain geo-political influence even as growing authoritarian tendencies in the country turned off many global democracies.

Many of the world’s global powers, like the U.S. and much of Western Europe, have performed an awkward dance with Putin’s Russia for years. On the one hand, these countries assume a confrontational posture on the global stage, criticizing Putin’s anti-democratic instincts, all while they maintain reliance on Russia’s oil and gas products behind the scenes. Those days are likely to change significantly, and Russia is poised to be the biggest loser as the latest upheaval to global energy politics reshuffles the world order. The Biden Administration took the unprecedented step recently to ban all Russian oil imports in what is perhaps the most severe sanction the United States has placed on Russia to-date. The NY Times’ ominous yet fitting headline about the move, The Future Turns Dark for Russia’s Oil Industry, accurately describes the bleak future that Russia now faces.

Europe Pledges an Even Greener Future

The fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been unprecedented. European, American, and other democratic voices across the world have coalesced around a global strategy to send military support to Ukraine and isolate Russia through severe economic sanctions.

In the early days of the assault on Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline tied to Russian energy company Gazprom. President Biden also slapped sanctions specifically on the Nord Stream 2 AG company that is in charge of building the pipeline. This comes as countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and others cascade sanctions on Russian energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft.

Source: Getty Images

These moves, while good for the overall global push to adopt more renewables, leave Germany and other European countries in a tough spot. Germany in particular closed the door on nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster and pledged in 2019 to shutter coal-fired power plants by 2038. Reversing course on either at this juncture would be politically difficult, but reporting indicates that Germany is at least considering extending their coal phase-out plans.

To say that Germany has a complicated relationship with Russian gas would be quite the understatement. The country relies on Russia for two-thirds of its natural gas supply and one-third of its oil. Germany has almost no short-term leverage over Russia when it comes to severing these long-standing ties. That’s perhaps why Germany and other EU countries are all but slamming the door on any outright ban on Russian oil imports in the near future.

The short-term reality aside, the energy politics in Germany and across Europe have changed dramatically in favor of a greener future. German officials in particular are now more motivated than ever to fully embrace renewables back home. Germany recently announced plans to meet all of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2035, an accelerated timeline from the previously set date of 2040.

Source: Bloomberg Energy

Climate Change as National Security Threat

The predicament that Germany finds itself in is a perfect example of the growing ties between climate change and national security. This reality was underscored recently by a Ukrainian climate scientist, Dr. Svitlana Krakovska, at a UN climate meeting where she called out the common denominator for the worrisome near-term and long-term future her people face. Said Krakovska:

“Human-induced climate change and the war on Ukraine have the same roots—fossil fuels—and our dependence on them.”

It is no coincidence that recent wars and hostile military actions have been concentrated in and around major fossil fuel-producing countries. Iraq, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Russia all come to mind. The more that the developed world can wean itself off of tainted global oil produced from hostile countries the better.

Just like Germany, the United States is reassessing its own predicament over global oil reliance. Amid sky rocketing gas prices, the Biden Administration is doing the once unthinkable; considering reaching out to  Saudi Arabia to tap more of its oil reserves and considering the relaxing of oil sanctions previously placed on Venezuela. To put it mildly, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela aren’t exactly saints on the global peacekeeping front. The fact that the United States is so reliant on fossil fuels from such bellicose countries to meet its energy needs is highly problematic to say the least.

Combating climate change has long been positioned in moral terms, and increasingly, in economic terms as the costs of renewables have dramatically fallen in recent decades. The ongoing crisis in Ukraine is now forcing everyone to view the problem through the lens of sovereignty. It is not only the climate that is at stake, but the very nature of sovereignty for much of Europe is at stake as well. The best way to diminish the geo-political influence of petro-aggressor states like Russia is to commit to an energy policy that puts renewables at the center of a plan for energy sovereignty.

Cover Photo Source: World Economic Forum

The post Putin’s War Accelerates Clean Energy Push appeared first on Solar Tribune.

Big Rooftops = Big Solar Potential

A report recently released by the non-profit Environment America underscores just how immense the solar generation potential is for America’s big box retailers.

Regardless of where you live in the U.S., big box stores likely feel like a ubiquitous fixture of your landscape. According to Environment America’s report, the nation’s big box retail stores, supercenters, large grocery stores, and malls collectively boast 7.2 billion square feet of cumulative rooftop space. In solar capacity terms, these rooftops have the potential of generating a jaw-dropping 84.4 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar electricity each year. This is roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity used to power 8 million average U.S. homes. This immense solar potential touches almost every state in the country.

Photo Source: Environment America

Incorporating solar panels on every square foot of cumulative big box retailer rooftop space would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 52 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, or put another way, it would be like taking more than 11.3 million cars off the road.

A Winning Business Case

The falling cost of solar energy systems and the unpredictable and steadily increasing cost of electricity from the grid makes the financial case for solar adoption on commercial rooftops a no brainer. The Environment America report notes that America’s big box retailers spend just under $18 billion per year on electricity, and by equipping their stores with rooftop solar panels, retailers could cut their annual electricity costs in half. In addition to this direct cost savings, a host of additional financial benefits could be captured by retailers who embrace rooftop solar. For example:

Who’s Leading the Way?

It is no secret that many of the world’s most prominent businesses have embraced renewable energy in a big way in recent years, as pressure has mounted from consumers and shareholders alike. Tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google have traditionally been among the world’s top purchasers of off-site renewable energy as these companies seek to green up their image given the power-sucking aspect of their line of business.

Even though as a collective big box retailers are just scratching the surface on installed on-site solar capacity, the Environment America report points out those companies that are leading the way – namely Target, Wal-Mart, and IKEA.

Photo Source: SEIA

At the end of 2019, Target had 259 MW of solar generation capacity installed on its stores and distribution centers across the country, while Wal-Mart had 194 MW through the end of FY2021. Target’s solar installations provide between 15% and 40% of its location’s electricity needs, while Wal-Mart on-site installations provide between 20% and 30%. Meanwhile, IKEA has solar installations on 90% of its U.S. locations, and sources more than half of its global direct energy needs by renewable sources.

Photo Source: SEIA

The on-site investments by Target, Wal-Mart, IKEA, and other competitors are laudatory and yet also just scratching the surface of what is possible, as noted in the Environment America report. All three companies have near-term net-zero emissions goals, so hopefully renewable energy investments will continue to swell by these industry leaders. Target’s goal is to hit net-zero emissions by 2040, Walmart plans to have zero emissions with no carbon offsets also by 2040, and IKEA is striving for net-zero or net-negative emissions by 2030.

Putting rooftop solar on the facilities of companies with large footprints is both a logical and untapped opportunity to greatly advance global and national climate goals. Creative solutions will need to be pursued and solar panels will have to find their way to some unconventional spots in the process. The public and private sector should collectively view this as an opportunity to collaborate and advance mutually beneficial clean energy goals. Put simply, we will need more instances of solar panels being put on airfields, big box retailer rooftops, and other unique places like along highway noise barriers.

We, the consumer, should remember that we have a lot of pull when it comes to nudging the private sector towards committing to and following through on ambitious clean energy targets that help to make the world more sustainable for future generations.

Cover Photo Source: Wal-Mart

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An Ideal Fit

The basics of finding an ideal site for optimal solar energy production are quite easy. Flat, expansive swaths of land are the hallmark of any large solar array. All the better if said land is minimally shaded from surrounding trees or tall buildings, thus allowing for maximum daily sunlight exposure. And lest we forget that the less landowners involved, the better. Site control is often the biggest barrier to building a solar farm, as working with multiple landowners with competing interests (and the omnipresent litigation concerns) is never fun.

This brief description sounds an awful lot like every single airport you’ve probably ever been to. Large and flat developments occupying wide open spaces without a vertical obstruction in sight. Add in the expansive rooftop surface area at airport terminals, hangars, and other buildings along with the gargantuan surface parking lots and public bus station infrastructure at airports (hello solar canopies!) and the opportunities for solar production should make any solar developer salivate.

Denver, Austin Airports Rise Above

According to a 2020 study conducted last year by the University of Colorado, 20% of public airports in the United States have adopted solar panels in some capacity over the last decade. The home state Denver International Airport is one such airport that has emerged as a national leader in harnessing the potential of on-site solar. Since 2008, the airport has installed over 42,600 solar panels across 56 acres and they’re not done yet. Construction began earlier this fall on two more solar arrays on airport property that will bring the airport’s total solar capacity to a whopping 34 MW.

“After the two new systems are energized, the airport will have solar panels spread across over 140 acres of land, making (the airport) one of the largest hosts of solar energy at any airport in the world.”
-Scott Morrissey, Senior VP of Sustainability, Denver International Airport

Source: Worldwatersolar.com

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is another major U.S. airport being hailed as a global leader in the renewable energy space. Earlier this month, AUS was recognized as one of four airports in North America to reach carbon neutrality. The airport’s renewable energy commitments are numerous and include partnering with the local utility (Austin Energy) to expand EV charging infrastructure at the airport, and purchasing renewable energy and carbon off-sets from sustainable sources. The airport also produces its own on-site renewable power thanks to a solar project completed earlier this year. AUS installed 6,642 solar panels that also double as shaded parking for airport visitors. The solar array can produce 1.8 MW of power, and thanks to an arrangement with Austin Energy’s Community Solar Program, a portion of the energy is sent back to the grid for local residential customers to benefit from.

More Airports Big and Small Turning to Solar

The accolades for solar-friendly airports don’t stop in Denver and Austin. There are in fact numerous examples throughout the country of airports that are turning to solar to reduce operating expenses and to meet sustainability goals, including some unconventional names on the list.

Take Chattanooga for example. Did you know that Tennessee’s Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport was the first U.S. airport to be powered entirely by solar energy? Completed in 3 phases and measuring the size of about 16 football fields, the airport’s on-site 2.7 MW solar farm – and battery storage technology – produces enough energy to support daily operations.

This airport’s airfield will be the first in the U.S. to run completely on solar power.

Welcome to the new @ChattAirport pic.twitter.com/2d2TKCSWW1

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) December 9, 2018

Solar is also taking root in another off-the-beaten-path destination, notably unsunny Maine. Just this month, a 17.5 MW planned solar farm was approved at the state-operated Augusta State Airport. The ground-mounted solar array will occupy 18.4 acres of airport property and feed electricity back to the grid, offsetting the state’s electrical costs over the life of the 21-year lease with a private developer. The economics of the project are extraordinarily favorable for Maine taxpayers. State officials expect the project to generate enough electricity to effectively save Maine $6 million over 20 years.

Meanwhile, a 12.3 MW solar + storage canopy system being built over surface parking space at New York’s JFK Airport would be the state’s largest such solar project where solar energy is produced and stored in one place. Solar energy produced by the project would power the airport’s AirTrain and send discounted clean energy to the Queens power grid. Then there is Kansas City where city officials are kicking the tires on an enormous 2,000-acre solar farm that would sit on city-owned property at the airport. City officials say that the proposed 300 MW solar farm would provide enough energy to meet all of Kansas City’s energy needs.

Airports Offer Unprecedented Scale Advantage

The ‘diamond in the rough’ solar potential of global airports really comes into focus when you consider the massive efficiency gains of putting solar projects at an airport compared to residential solar developments.

Earlier this year, researchers at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology published a report showing the tremendous potential of solar housed at the nation’s airports. Using satellite imagery to determine optimal solar coverage, the researchers analyzed open space at Australia’s 21 airports and compared that to 17,000 residential solar panels in a town just outside of Melbourne. They determined that if solar panels were affixed to all of the open space at Australia’s 21 airports it could generate 10 times as much energy as those 17,000 residential solar panels. Solarizing all of those airports would produce enough power to power some 136,000 homes.

The energy resilience that comes with solarizing airports can also help to solve the Achilles heel of any airport…extended power outages. Suffice it to say that losing power at a major airport can lead to chaos and steep economic losses. In 2017, an extended outage at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport led to the cancellation of 1,400 flights by Atlanta-based Delta Airlines, costing the carrier some $25 million. Earlier this year, Pittsburgh International Airport became the world’s first major airport to be completely powered by its own microgrid, a move clearly designed to protect against some of the aforementioned crippling effects of losing power at the airport. The hybrid 20 MW microgrid consists of just under 10,000 solar panels installed across 8 acres of airport property along with 5 natural gas generators.

Photo Source: Pittsburgh International Airport

The conversation about solarizing America’s airports is of course playing out amongst the much less rosy backdrop about the outsized carbon footprint of commercial air travel. Passenger air travel continues to be responsible for the fastest growth in global carbon emissions. The commercial aviation industry is barreling towards electrification, however, even if at a snail’s pace. Making progress towards global climate goals will require a transformation of all sectors of the transportation industry. The overhauling of the aviation industry and shift to solar adoption at commercial airports is a trend that we can certainly get behind.

Cover Photo Source: State Aviation Journal

The post Solar Power Takes Off at U.S. Airports appeared first on Solar Tribune.

Assuming that a brand new Tesla vehicle or solar roof is outside your gift buying budget, we hope that the below suggestions help spark an idea about how a solar-inspired gift can bring joy to the loved one in your life.

Solar-Powered Portable Power Stations

These are definitely among the priciest solar-powered items you could gift to someone this holiday season, but they are also among the most important for those who have mobile energy needs or who rely on 24/7 energy reliability at home.

Gas-powered generators are incredibly polluting, and if used improperly, incredibly dangerous. One 5 kW generator can emit as much carbon monoxide as approximately 450 idling cars (!!!). According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 900 people died of carbon monoxide poisoning from portable gas generators between 2005 and 2017, with another 15,400 having to be treated in the emergency room for portable generator-related carbon monoxide poisoning.

Jackery Solar Generator 500 + 100W Panels – $ 799.98

This solar generator combo from Jackery combines a portable power station with a portable, lightweight 100W SolarSaga solar panel to power your energy needs. The power station can recharge via one of 3 ways: wall outlet, car outlet, or the solar panels. We are certainly partial to the latter option. This product is great for your next camping adventure, football tailgating party, or just to have handy as a backup for a bad thunderstorm or ice storm that knocks your power out for an extended amount of time.

Check out this solar generator review on Popular Mechanics for a more detailed overview of options to consider when buying a solar generator.

BioLite SolarHome 620+ Lights, Charger and Radio – $112.46

This all-in-one system uses a 6W solar panel to charge up a portable central unit that in turn powers 3 hanging lights, an MP3/FM radio, and USB charge-out. The three hanging lights come with their own individual light switches allowing them to be used independently in 3 separate rooms. The setup is ideal for tiny house living, cabins, sheds, or hunting structures.

Purchasing of this product also supports a great mission. BioLite is a company that is committed to bringing affordable, small scale renewable energy solutions to poverty-stricken populations in undeveloped countries. This product and other BioLite products have benefited over 3.2 million people across Africa and Asia.

Solar-Powered Educational Toys for Kids

Educational toys that incorporate STEM principles are a growing niche market in the toy industry. These hands-on experiential learning devices help children develop critical problem-solving skills that will serve them well in life, especially if a STEM career field is in their future.

4M Green Science Solar Rover DIY Kit – $19.98

How cool is this lil’ thing? It’s like a mini-Mars rover. This toy uses a rudimentary solar panel and some basic wiring to propel a vehicle using either the provided vehicle body or a soda can. This toy teaches kids the basics about solar power capabilities, while also reinforcing the good habit of re-using disposable household items. Speaking of which…

Eco.6 Solar Recycler Robot Kit – $16.99

This toy also encourages kids to put old disposables to good use in a fun and creative way. This solar robot can be adapted to 6 different functions: Street Roller, Walking Robot, Bottle Yacht, Drummer Robot, Flying Bird, or CD Racer. Soda cans, water bottles, and old CDs are the starring subjects of this solar kit that teaches kids about the value of re-using items otherwise destined for a landfill.

Pica Toys Remote Control Solar Car Kit – $21.58

Remote control cars have been an age-old reliable holiday gift for generations. This solar-powered option allows slightly older kids (8-12 year olds) to build one from scratch and learn the basics about electrical engineering in the process. This gift may be especially relevant to young kids growing up right now since electrification, batteries, and solar energy will all transform personal transportation during the lives of today’s youth.

Check out this review of STEM-focused solar toys at STEM Geek for more ideas on what to gift the young budding solar enthusiast in your life.

Solar-Powered Gifts for the Outdoor Enthusiast

Solar-powered knickknacks and outdoor recreation go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and jelly. Below are a few such gifts for the outdoorsy person in your life.

Solar Powered Bike Light and Horn Set – $23.99

This solar-powered light kit is an important safety feature for expert and novice bike riders alike, especially with hours of daylight dwindling as we enter the winter months. This apparatus includes both a bright 350 lumens headlight and a taillight with multiple lighting modes. The kicker is the small but mighty (140 dB) horn that comes with the kit to add another important layer of safety.

Solar Spark Lighter Fire Starter – $5.99

A little old school and a little new school, this solar-powered spark lighter is the perfect stocking stuffer for the backpacker in your life. The simple invention uses a parabolic shaped container to concentrate an intense amount of heat from the sun onto a piece of material held into place by a prong in the middle of the device. I’m glad I didn’t have access to one of these as a mischievous 10-year-old.

Chill Solar Cooler – $649

I’ve lugged around some coolers in my day and I can tell you that the weight of the ice packed cooler and the pain of having to drain the melted ice from a small drain plug at the end of your outing are two annoyances that I could do without. This innovative cooler solution by GoSun solves both problems by getting rid of the ice altogether. Using brushless compressors, solar power, and a lithium battery for storage, the cooler is able to act as a bona fide freezer if you need it to with the ability to cool down to -4 degrees Fahrenheit. The cooler can be powered by a regular wall outlet, via a 30W folding solar panel, or even better, a 60W ‘solar table’ that integrates a panel into a folding table.

It is great to see solar energy becoming so ubiquitous these days that it is integrated into many common household items. Hopefully you can find space on your holiday shopping list to gift such an item to a loved one in your life.

We at Solar Tribune wish you and yours a very joyous and safe holiday season this year!

The post 2021 Guide for Solar-Inspired Holiday Gifts appeared first on Solar Tribune.

Seizing the Solar Opportunity

The renewable energy generation potential of America’s tribal lands is profound. Many American Indian tribes in the West and Midwest in particular occupy land with some of the nation’s best solar and wind resources.

According to a 2018 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), tribal lands have the potential to generate 6,035 GW of utility scale solar power, or 5% of the nation’s total capacity. Tribal lands also have the potential to generate 891 GW of wind power, which represents 8.8% of the nation’s total wind generation capacity.

Despite the promising prospects for renewable energy production on tribal lands, a rather miniscule 400 MW of installed renewable energy capacity had been put on land owned by federally recognized Indian tribes by 2019 according to an S&P Global article that cited NREL data. A U.S. Government and Accountability Office (GAO) report from 2015 ascribed much of the blame for the disconnect to inefficiencies in the disbursement process for federally funded renewable energy projects.

Thankfully, a number of non-profit organizations with a mission to promote equity in the renewable energy space – with a specific focus on American Indian tribes – are working to pick up the slack and help tribal governments capitalize on solar opportunities. GRID Alternatives is perhaps the most prominent such organization. GRID is a national leader in developing and installing solar projects that benefit underserved communities. Their Tribal Program leverages both government and philanthropic dollars to install solar energy projects on tribal lands. These projects result not only in the obvious benefits (jobs and clean energy), but they often come with job training opportunities and other workforce development programs targeted at young people that can really help to move the needle in what are some of the most impoverished communities in the country.

Since its inception in 2010, GRID Alternatives’ Tribal Program has supported the installation of 849 solar energy systems on tribal lands across the country, collectively representing over 5.9 GW in installed solar capacity. Over 1700 people benefited from hands-on solar workforce training as a result of these projects as well.

Organizations like GRID Alternatives play a critical role in filling the solar void on tribal lands, since tribal reservation communities have limited access to traditional solar tax incentives offered by the federal government as they are sovereign nations that do not pay federal taxes.

Sovereignty Through Energy Independence

The pursuit of sovereignty is an ingrained principle in tribal communities. Which begs the question, how sovereign can a government and group of people be if they have no control over their own energy infrastructure? The attractiveness of achieving energy sovereignty through renewable energy has logically bubbled upon as a priority for many of the nation’s Indian tribes.

Native communities, and other communities of color, have long been subject to the destructive effects of pollutive industries that often locate in or proximate to low-income and communities of color (See: Environmental Racism). This dynamic is especially present in the fossil fuels industry which has scared Native lands from coast to coast. Lest we forget that it was Native Alaskans and American Indian tribes in the Gulf Coast who bore the brunt of the long-term damage from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and the equally infamous Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf coast in 2010.

To that end, renewable energy projects on tribal lands are far more than just an economics play, which is the context they are most often otherwise put in. The potential of renewable energy connects Native people to their ancestral roots, placing a great emphasis on the immense offerings that Mother Earth provides to her people. Energy sovereignty is also a vital component to the quest for self-sufficiency which is a dominate historical pursuit for Native people.

This case study example from the DOE’s Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs about the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ (EBCI) foray into the solar world reveals the myriad of benefits that the Tribe’s energy sovereignty pursuit has brought to its citizens.

The EBCI installed a 700 kW PV system on land adjacent to the Tribe’s casino in Western North Carolina to power the casino, a hotel, and 2 administrative buildings. The project was made possible by a $1M grant from the DOE and a $1.3M investment by the Tribe.

Photo Source: Energy.gov

According to Joey Owle, Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources for the EBCI, the main energy challenges that the tribe has historically faced involve supplying reliable service to the buildings that drive the tribe’s economy. The most prominent of which is the casino which operates on a business model that requires around-the-clock energy consumption. The new solar array is also a big cost saver for the tribe, to the tune of just under $100,000 annually that the tribe can re-allocate to other essential tribal needs.

The EBCI’s embrace of solar energy is simple yet meaningful for a group of people for whom self-sufficiency is a way of life. As Owle put it:

“How can we call ourselves sovereign if we’re dependent for multiple functions? Energy independence is a component of our sovereignty. We are taking our independence and sovereignty into our own hands by investing in this industry to meet the needs of our community members.”

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Continues to Lead

It is hard to imagine an American Indian tribe that has done more for the Native-led environmental justice movement than the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Tribe’s famous protests from 2016-2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline turned them into a household name across the globe. Even though the pipeline was ultimately approved, the tribe’s fight invigorated tribal members who were growing anxious about the threat climate change posed to their way of life. In 2019, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe built a 300-kilowatt solar farm just 3 miles from the controversial pipeline that power two buildings of great significance for the tribe – the Cannonball Youth Activity Center and the Veterans Memorial Building. The Cannonball Community Solar Farm is the state of North Dakota’s first every solar farm.

Photo Source: Al Jazeera

In a state that is dead last in the country in installed solar, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s modest 300-kW solar farm is a big deal and offers important symbolism. For far too long indigenous people in this country have had their sacred lands desecrated by the fossil fuels industry. While Big Oil profited off their lands, the economic benefits to tribal members were fleeting. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s efforts to sustain themselves in North Dakota through solar investments are heroic, but hardly the only example of American Indian tribes awakening to the bad bill of goods pushed on them by the fossil fuels industry.

Photo Source: GivePower

For decades, the Navajo Generating Station operated as one of the nation’s largest coal plants on land belonging to the Navajo Nation, until its eventual decommissioning in 2019 and subsequent demolition the following year. The plant was a vital economic powerhouse for the tribe, providing it with the bulk of the tribe’s total revenues. Since its closure, the Navajo Nation has moved forward with multiple solar arrays on tribal lands including 2 from just earlier this year. The solar projects will provide several hundred of jobs for tribal members and rake in tens of millions of dollars in energy payments, land lease payments, and tax revenues for the tribe.

The Moapa Band of Paiutes in Nevada, another community previously dependent on the coal industry, also has multiple solar projects in its growing renewable energy portfolio. One of which, the Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project, was the first large-scale solar project to ever receive construction approval on a tribal land in all of North America.

Many tribal governments are freeing themselves from the burdens of long-standing ties to the fossil fuels industry in favor of a much brighter future powered by the Sun. In the process, they are achieving energy independence and improving the economic well-being of their people. Solar energy is especially empowering to a constituency whose ancestors knew how best to harvest all that Mother Earth had to give. We should all find inspiration in this worthy pursuit.

Cover Photo Source: Bismarck Tribune

The post American Indian Tribes Are Unsung Heroes of Clean Energy Movement appeared first on Solar Tribune.

Competition Heats Up

It wasn’t too long ago that Tesla was considered to be the only reputable player in town on the electric vehicle manufacturing front. Technologically speaking, Tesla still maintains superior advantages over its competitors, but the electric vehicle market is still much more crowded today than it was just a handful of years ago. We don’t hide from our pro-Tesla bias at Solar Tribune, but even we must recognize that the increased number of electric vehicle models with competitive price points is ultimately good for overall market development. Major electric vehicle pronouncements by auto companies in recent years include:

Just about every other major global auto company from Honda to Audi to Volkswagen have announced similar “all-electric” commitments to be met within roughly the next 15 years. Electric vehicle start-ups Lucid Motors and Rivian, the latter of which recently beat Tesla and GM in producing the first all-electric pick-up truck, add further diversity of options to the electric vehicle marketplace.

Ford also made waves in the industry just days ago when they announced plans to invest $11.4B on new auto plants in Tennessee and Kentucky that will produce electric vehicles and the batteries that power them, that latter of which is an important goal as domestic auto players try to wean themselves off of foreign EV battery supply chains. Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford, fully understanding the significance of Ford’s embrace of electrification, put the move in important context:

“With this investment and a spirit of innovation, we can achieve goals once thought mutually exclusive – protect our planet, build great EVs Americans will love and contribute to our nation’s prosperity.”

Electric Vehicles by the Numbers

Fully electric vehicles and their various hybrid variations continue to grow in popularity in the United States. Since 2010, over 4.1 million hybrid electric vehicles, 633,809 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and over 1 million fully electric vehicles have been sold domestically. The growth in fully electric vehicle sales has increased every single year since 2010. The 761,100 electrified vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2020 are a record, and it represents the fifth consecutive year of growth in EV sales in the United States.

Data Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics

California accounts for 42% of all electric vehicle registrations in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. For perspective, electric vehicles registered in California exceed that of the total number registered in the next 14 states combined.

The Tesla Model 3 is by far and away the most popular electric vehicle sold in the United States. According to data from the Transportation Research Center at Argonne National Laboratory, sales of the Tesla Model 3 accounted for 47.4% of all electrified vehicle sales in 2019 covering 45 different vehicle models. Even though the electrified vehicle marketplace has become more crowded in recent years, it is clear that Tesla still dominates.

Data Source: Transportation Research Center at Argonne National Laboratory

Busting Common Myths

Despite the growing adoption rates of electrified vehicles, myths still linger. Here are some of the most common busted myths:

“Electric vehicles are only for rich people”

“I’ll save on gas costs, but those savings will be offset by increased electricity costs from home charging”

“The range of electrified vehicles is too low for me to do any meaningful amount of driving.”

All Eyes on Congress

Even though electric vehicle sales in the U.S. continue to rise, the industry is still very much in the developmental stages. After all, EV sales in Q2 of 2021 amounted to just 3.6% of total vehicle sales according to McKinsey. Significant public investments to build out the national charging infrastructure and additional financial incentives to draw people to the EV market will be necessary as the industry seeks to become more mature.

All eyes are on our Capitol Hill these days as we follow the status of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bill has a number of provisions that specifically target the EV industry. The most prominent of which include:

• $7.5B set aside for nationwide EV charging station investments
• $7.5B to help school districts across the country replace diesel fuel engine school buses and ferries with low- and zero-emission replacements.

Democrats have also proposed in their $3.5B budget bill an increase in the EV tax credit to up to $12,500 for U.S.-made, union-made zero emissions vehicles, a meaningful increase from the $7,500 incentive that is currently in place for most other electric vehicles.

Lawmakers continue to hash out the details of the aforementioned pieces of legislation. What the final numbers look like for EV-impacted investments is anybody’s guess right now. Regardless of what formally comes out of Capitol Hill, the momentum in the EV industry is unmistakable. Electrification commitments from major auto makers, tougher emissions standards at multiple levels of government, and state-level EV incentive programs will help to accelerate the EV revolution.

Industry analysts were claiming that 2020 would be the year of the electric car, but the Coronavirus pandemic and resulting downturn in the global economy had other plans. Nailing down the “year of the electric car” may be a fun parlor game, but it is clear that we are at something of an inflection point in the auto industry. The pace of change in the industry and the rate of electric vehicle adoption globally will only accelerate from here. Buckle up – it’s going to be a heckuva ride.

Cover Photo Source: Ernst & Young

The post The Electric Vehicle Era is Here appeared first on Solar Tribune.

A Match Made in Heaven

An assortment of industries across the global are increasingly turning to solar energy to power their facilities as the cost of solar continues to go down and as renewable energy commitments by major corporations continue to go up. The beer industry is no different. From eco-conscious microbreweries to the most prominent beer giants in the world, solar-focused beer production is taking the industry by storm.

The marriage between beer and solar power makes plenty of sense. Local craft breweries and other artisanal beer makers place a premium on natural ingredients and they have a deep appreciation for their product’s connection to the Earth. After all, the two biggest inputs to get beer are water and hops, and you’ll never meet a brewer willing to compromise on the quality of either. From incorporating best practices around water management to providing farmers with spent hops for fertilizer, good environmental stewardship is a corporate value that is foundational to many local breweries. Embracing solar energy is a natural fit for these types of companies who largely share a common commitment to sustainability. The process of making beer is also incredibly energy intensive, with most breweries requiring between 12 to 22 kWh of electricity just to produce one barrel of beer. The cost savings of solar energy are a no-brainer, especially for the ‘little guys’ in the industry.

Local breweries get the credit for being early adopters of solar energy in the industry, but the involvement of name brand beer giants in recent years has helped turn a niche trend into an industry-wide standard with big global impacts.

Photo Source: PackagingDigest.com

The largest brewer in the world, Anheuser-Busch InBev, is a global leader in the renewable energy space. The company is committing to a future that places renewable energy – and solar in particular – at the forefront. Anheuser-Busch is a member of RE100, a corporate leadership initiative on 100% renewable electricity led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP. In 2017, Anheuser-Busch made a commitment to source 100% of their purchased electricity from renewable by 2025. Earlier this summer, Anheuser-Busch announced that they had smashed through that goal years ahead of schedule, thanks largely to a slew of PPAs the company inked with both providers of solar and wind energy. The company’s 222 MW 2,000+ acre solar farm in Pecos County, TX came to fruition through a PPA with Canada’s Recurrent Energy. The Anheuser-Busch Solar Farm was completed this year and it is the largest solar project for any U.S. beverage company.

Solar Breweries by the Numbers

Statistics are difficult to come by, but according to at least one source the first known brewery to install a solar energy system was California’s own Anderson Valley Brewing Company. The almost 35-year-old company has been able to generate nearly 40% of its electricity from its own solar energy system that was installed in 2006.

The largest known on-site solar-powered brewery can be claimed by the famous Dutch beer maker, Heineken. Heineken’s journey into solar energy dates back to 2011 when the company first outfitted their European-based breweries with solar arrays. The company’s production facility in Den Bosch, Netherlands is the world’s largest with over 16,500 solar panels covering a distance equivalent to 8 football stadiums. The Den Bosch solar array is a 5.8 MW system. All of the company’s self-generating solar energy systems add up to a solar portfolio of just under 16 MW.

Heineken’s dominance aside, the density of solar-powered breweries is undoubtedly concentrated in the United States. According to SolarPlaza’s 2019 ranking or largest solar-powered breweries, 74 of them were in the United States.

Photo Source: SolarPlaza

The 10,000+ solar panel, 3.2 MW solar energy system at the MillerCoors production facility in Irwindale, CA and Sierra Nevada’s 10,000+ solar panel 2.6 MW system in Chico, CA are recognized as the largest such on-site facilities in the United States. That distinction will not last much longer, however, with the recently announced plans by beer behemoth Anheuser-Busch to invest $64M in solar panels and other emission-reduction technologies at its Los Angeles brewery. With completion anticipated by year’s end, the array is expected to be the largest on-site solar installation of any brewery in the United States, and have the ability to cover more than 10% of the site’s total electricity usage.

A New Type of Solar Incentive

People turn to solar energy for all sorts of reasons. The environmental/moral/ethical appeal is sufficient to draw many people to the solar energy lifestyle, while others are drawn largely due to the well-documented financial incentives of going solar. The federal investment tax credit (ITC) is far and away the most popular of solar incentives available to the American consumer. An assortment of state tax credits and upfront cash rebate opportunities add further appeal to those drawn by solar financial incentives.

A brewery in Australia has figured out another powerful solar incentive – free beer. Australia’s Victoria Bitter, in partnership with ad agency Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, launched a ‘Solar Exchange’ program earlier this year allowing customers to trade excess solar energy (in the form of solar credits on their energy bill) in exchange for a slab of 24 canned beers worth roughly $50 AUD. That is a heckuva deal if you ask me.

The offer is part of an effort by Victoria Bitter’s parent company, Carlton and United Breweries (CUB), to make good on a renewable energy target to use 100% renewable energy by 2025. The marketing strategy complements other renewable energy efforts being carried out by CUB like outfitting multiple breweries with solar panels and purchasing power from a large solar farm in Australia via a PPA.

You can call it a gimmick if you want, but this is the type of creative think-outside-the-box marketing strategy that can help encourage a new subset of the population to redouble their efforts to lead a more sustainable life by harnessing the power of solar energy.

Beer is a lovely treat that requires a boat load of electricity to produce. Making breweries the world over more focused on renewable energy practices – like outfitting them with solar energy systems – helps to remove some of the energy-sucking guilt out of one of the world’s favorite guilty pleasures. The odds are good that the next brew you enjoy will be one that was produced using solar energy. That is something that all of us solar/beer enthusiasts can offer a ‘cheers’ to.

Cover Photo Source: Craft Brewing Business

The post Beer Industry Taps into the Power of Solar Energy appeared first on Solar Tribune.

A Nascent Industry Finding its Footing

Even by the most optimistic of outlooks, Kentucky’s solar industry is just barely beginning its growth journey. As of 2020, the state could lay claim to having 59.53 MW of cumulative installed solar capacity, a figure that was good for a rather humbling ranking of 48th out of the 50 U.S. states. A meager 0.1% of the state’s electricity was generated from solar sources.

For perspective, the leading solar state in the country, California, had 31,288 MW of cumulative installed solar capacity in 2020, and just under 23% of the state’s electricity was generated from solar.

Kentucky’s position relative to its peers may not be overly impressive, but the trendline is clear. Just 10 short years ago Kentucky had basically no installed solar capacity (0.2 MW). The SEIA projects that the state may clear 845 MW of installed capacity by as soon as 2025, as costs continue to plummet and favorable pro-solar policies entrench themselves at the state level.

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

In a strange twist of irony, the prospects of the state of Kentucky’s solar industry may rest in the coalfields that have anchored the state’s energy production capabilities – and cultural identity – for generations.

Carbon offsets are a popular way for corporations pursuing sustainability goals to achieve the “net” in their net-zero emissions goals. Carbon offsets essentially work as credits that companies can leverage to offset operations that are otherwise not carbon neutral. Kentucky’s nascent solar industry positions the state well to benefit from these offsets, given the state’s still heavy reliance on fossil fuels. About 73% of the state’s electricity generated in 2019 came from coal. Carbon offsets can be quicker to achieve and be far more impactful in a place like Kentucky, as opposed to say just building another solar farm in California.

Kentucky’s hundreds of thousands of acres of coalfields (many of which are abandoned) represent an interesting adaptive reuse opportunity for solar developers. Just last month, the state of Kentucky unveiled a web-based tool to make it easier for solar developers to site arrays on reclaimed mine lands in the state.

Kentucky’s eastern most county – Pike County – will soon be the home to one such solar array which will be affixed to land that formerly operated as a coal mine. First announced in 2017, the solar array will occupy 700 acres on a former strip mine on Kentucky’s Bent Mountain and it will consist of over half a million solar panels. Global auto manufacturing giant, Toyota, is partnering on the solar project and providing a critical boost to the economics of the project by committing to a 15 to 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

Photo Source: RH Group

Renewables-Minded Corporations Providing Momentum

Unlike more established state solar markets, residential solar is not a primary driver of solar growth in Kentucky. Installed residential solar capacity has ticked up in recent years, but it still barely registers as a blip on the radar with regards to the state’s overall solar capacity. A somewhat humorous example of this is this story from earlier in the year highlighting a Tesla solar rooftop owner in Louisville who is the only Tesla solar roof homeowner within 500 miles of Louisville.

Photo Source: SEIA

Kentucky’s recent solar success and promising future is owed mainly to the growing number of major corporations with ambitious renewable energy goals that are committing to power purchase agreements (PPA) for solar farms in the state.

In May, Acciona Energy got the greenlight from regulators to build a 188-MW solar farm, one of multiple that the company plans to build to serve the needs of Amazon. Acciona and Amazon inked a deal last December committing Amazon to buy 641 MW of electricity from multiple solar arrays in Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. In March, the Tennessee Valley Authority made public their plans to develop a 173 MW solar-plus-storage project just outside of Bowling Green, KY that would power a nearby data center for Facebook and a nearby production facility for General Motors. Meanwhile, Dow and Toyota are the beneficiaries of a 100-MW solar farm just south of Louisville that is expected to be commercially operational next year.

Industry Gets Major Jolt from Recent Ruling

The days of Kentucky’s residential solar market largely taking a backseat to the state’s overall solar picture may be numbered, though, thanks to a pivotal state ruling expected to give the residential market a major jolt in the arm.

Just a couple months ago, Kentucky’s Public Service Commission (PSC) released a precedent setting ruling on net metering that greatly favors residential solar users. The PSC ruling tabbed the offset for excess electricity sent back to the grid by solar users at $0.09/Kwh, which was 3 times higher than the $0.03/Kwh level that Kentucky Power – a utility company serving 100,000+ households in Eastern Kentucky – was advocating for.

Prior to this recent ruling, Kentucky solar homeowners were credited for every Kwh of energy that was sent back to the grid and Kentucky Power sold that excess energy to neighboring utilities for the retail price of $0.11/Kwh. When Kentucky Power proposed their latest rate hike, the utility company tried to lower that compensation rate significantly, which among other things, would have significantly stunted growth prospects for the state’s resident solar market.

The PSC wasn’t having it. It is worth noting what a relief (and surprise) the PSC’s ruling was. Kentucky Power has long been a thorn in the side for Kentucky’s solar industry, and public policy victories and favorable regulator rulings have been hard to come by for Kentucky’s solar advocates. The PSC’s ruling ensures that the financial incentives for solar homeowners remain strong in Kentucky, just like they are in so many other U.S. states.

It will be worth following where Kentucky’s solar industry goes from here. The PSC’s ruling on net metering, the growing interest in corporate PPAs in the state, the expansive development opportunities on old coal mines, and the constantly improving solar economics in the state vis-à-vis coal all combine to put a lot of wind at the sails of the state’s nascent solar industry.

The proof will be in the pudding, but the symbolism is clear – the benefits of solar energy are breaking through in the heart of coal country.

Cover Photo Source: Inside Climate News

The post ‘Kentucky Solar’ No Longer an Oxymoron appeared first on Solar Tribune.

An Unlikely Source of Inspiration

Theme parks have never exactly been noted for their low environmental impact. People often travel across long distances via car or even worse, commercial jet, to spend time at a theme park. Single use plastics and other landfill-destined consumable goods are typically in over abundance at theme parks as well. When you consider the fact that hundreds of millions of people worldwide attend theme parks on an annual basis (Over 20 million at Disney’s Magic Kingdom alone), you can understand how environmentalists might give theme parks the cold shoulder.

That is all changing now.

As the threat of climate change grows by the day and the number of increasingly eco-conscious global consumers grows with it, theme parks of the 21^st-Century are taking on a different design and purpose than those of yesteryear. The Walt Disney Company is one such enterprise that is playing a leading role in blending together a message of fun and sustainability at global theme parks.

Disney’s Earth Day Announcement

The Walt Disney Company recently marked Earth Day by unveiling a renewed list of environmental sustainability commitments that placed solar power at the forefront.

Among the most notable of the company’s commitments is its plan to develop two new 75 MW solar facilities with plans to bring them online in 2 years. The planned solar projects join Disney’s other recent solar investments. The first of which was a 22-acre, Mickey-shaped solar farm built near Epcot in 2016 and a much larger 270-acre, 57 MW solar project developed in 2019. Collectively, these four solar facilities will allow Disney to produce enough solar power to cover 40% of their total annual energy consumption.

As any avid Disney fan knows, the company’s footprint extends far beyond Orlando, FL, and the company has likewise spread its solar investments across multiple global attractions. In addition to the previously mentioned Walt Disney World Resort projects, solar investments can also be noted at the following:

Reportedly, the amount of solar energy produced across Disney’s global portfolio is enough to power over 65,000 homes for a year, or put another way, the equivalent of 8 Magic Kingdoms!

Disney’s Earth Day announcement is part of its renewed long-term vision to reach zero net greenhouse gas emissions for its direct operations by 2030.

Disney Isn’t Alone

Disney is far from the only global theme park to embrace environmental sustainability. Other theme parks both in the U.S. and abroad are doubling down on environmental sustainability commitments, and some parks are even themed around the topic of climate change itself.

Six Flags Great Adventure: Thanks to a partnership with KDC Solar, Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey now runs entirely on solar energy. KDC Solar was behind a multi-faceted 23.5 MW solar project that debuted at Six Flags in 2019, which ranks as New Jersey’s largest ever net metered solar project. By powering the whole park on solar energy, as much as 1.5 million tons of carbon particles are now no longer being released into the atmosphere.

DefiPlanet (France): DefiPlanet doesn’t have the name recognition as Disney, but it is arguably the world’s crown jewel of environmentally sustainable theme parks. The over 60-acre park’s whole purpose is to educate revelers on climate change. They do so in a creative and fun way that uses mythical creatures to guide families along the park on fun adventures while simultaneously warning them about the perils of a warming planet.

Photo Source: DefiPlanet

Greenwood Forest Park (United Kingdom): Six Flags in the United States can lay claim to being the first solar-powered theme park in the U.S., but it is the United Kingdom’s Greenwood Forest Park that makes that claim internationally. In 2015, the Park installed a 576-panel 150 kWh solar system that meets 80% of the Park’s daily energy needs. The solar energy system covers all of the power needs of the Park’s famed SolarSplash water slide, which is the UK’s first ever solar-powered amusement ride.

PortAventura World (Spain): The PortAventura World amusement park in Spain is yet another example of sustainable tourism done right in Europe. In 2019, the park laid claim to being the first carbon-neutral resort in the World. In 2020, they unveiled an on-site solar project that provides about one-third of the whole resort’s power needs on an annual basis. The 22,000 PV panel system is the largest self-consumption solar PV facility in Europe. PortAventura World’s sustainability commitments extend beyond just solar, as the resort also eliminated use of all plastic products on resort grounds in 2020.

Children are the future, and the future for the world’s citizens is at great risk without concerted effort to reverse the effects of climate change. Even though they are not typically the paying customer, theme parks are ostensibly venues that exist to entertain children. It is heartening to see some of the world’s most prominent theme parks embrace the opportunity to harness this momentum and further excite children about renewable energy and the importance of combating climate change.

It is no accident that children are the face of the global movement to combat climate change thanks to the global ascendance of Greta Thunberg and the emergence of youth-centric climate change advocacy organizations like the Sunrise Movement. I, for one, am optimistic that the seeds of interest in renewable energy that global theme parks are helping plant today in children across the world will bear fruit years down the line in the form of a more just and sustainable world.

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2020 Was Solar’s Best Year Ever

Even in the face of unprecedented challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the solar industry enjoyed its best year ever in 2020, this according to the “U.S. Solar Market Insight 2020 Year-in-Review” report released in March by the SEIA and Wood Mackenzie. A record 19.2 GW of new solar capacity was added in 2020, breaking the previous high-water mark of 15.1 GW set back in 2016.

This note from the SEIA’s press release is perhaps the most remarkable detail of the whole report:

“The 8 GWdc of new installations in fourth quarter 2020 marks the largest quarter in US solar history. For perspective, the US solar market added 7.5 GWdc of new capacity in all of 2015.”

In 5 short years, the solar industry is now adding more capacity on a quarterly basis than it used to add annually! And this type of explosive growth may now be the norm, according to SEIA projections.

The SEIA/Wood Mackenzie report predicts that the solar industry will reach a landmark annual installation rate of 50 GW in new solar capacity by 2030. The result will be an addition of more than 324 GW of solar capacity over the next 10 years, quadrupling from current levels.

The ambitious projections are in part a result of broader trends among customers, utilities, and corporations to decarbonize the grid, in addition to the improved solar economics that make the energy source cheaper by the year. Increased support from the federal government and a number of state governments is putting additional wind at the sails of the industry. In fact, the report credits the two year extension of the federal investment tax credit (ITC) with increasing the solar deployment forecasts from 2021 to 2025 by 17%.

Feds Pledge to Cut Solar Costs

If the solar industry is going to take off in the next 10 years, like the SEIA predicts, it will be in no small part due to pro-solar public policies taking hold across the country that provide a significant accelerate to fueling broader solar adoption. Just this month, there were significant pronouncements by the federal government and several state governments on that exact front.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced in March that they are setting a new target to cut the cost of solar energy by 60% within the next ten years. The goal was described as necessary to accelerating solar deployment across the country and achieving the Biden Administration’s goal of a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035.

DOE is putting $128M in federal funding behind the effort, which will go to targeted initiatives designed to advance already promising solar technologies. Funding priorities through DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) will include:

The feds aren’t the only ones putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to encouraging the expansion of the nation’s solar energy generation capabilities. Governors in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts likewise made waves by announcing historic efforts to accelerate their respective state’s transition to a cleaner energy future.

Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Wolf, recently committed to a 191 MW solar procurement via planned expansive solar arrays across nearly 2,000 acres of Pennsylvania farmland. This represents the largest such solar commitment made by any state in the country. Pennsylvania plans to purchase at least half of all electricity used by the state’s government buildings from the planned solar arrays. The plan is for the arrays to be producing power by Jan 1, 2023.

Just days ago, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a sweeping clean energy bill into law that establishes 2050 as the state’s benchmark to reach net-zero for greenhouse gas emissions. Among other things, the bill expands access to solar net metering credits and removes barriers in current solar policies that limit solar energy access to low-income communities, thus allowing for more equitable access to renewable energy for all residents of Massachusetts.

Perfect Storm of Opportunities in 2020-2030

The solar industry’s promising near-term future is owed in large part to a confluence of factors that are simultaneously at play and helping to fuel widespread solar adoption across multiple sectors. These factors can generally be summed up as follows:

• Historic government support for solar initiatives: As noted in previous articles, President Biden has made combating climate change an administration-wide priority. If even a fraction of his campaign promises and post-election commitments come to fruition, then his Administration will still clearly be the most pro-solar Administration we’ve ever seen in this country. The previously mentioned DOE funding announcement is a sign of what’s to come. As public opinion continues to shift in favor of renewables, expect lots of states (see Pennsylvania and Massachusetts) to follow suit.

• Solar costs continue to plummet: It was just a handful of months ago when solar energy was officially dubbed the cheapest form of electricity in history. This comes as little surprise as the costs associated with solar energy systems have plummeted in recent years. The unmistakable downward trend will continue this decade, making solar more and more affordable for the average homeowner.

• Residential demand fueled by desire for energy resilience: The recent energy grid crisis in Texas, sparked by a rare cold snap in the Deep South, is just the latest reminder of the perils of being beholden to an antiquated energy grid. Similar situations were experienced in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and in California after its recent rash of devastating wildfires. The fact of the matter is that climate change is making these otherwise rare weather events far more commonplace. Look for more and more homeowners in the next several years to look to the solar energy market to achieve a degree of energy independence from an increasingly unreliable energy grid.

• Corporate-driven demand: Large corporations continue to be a major driver of increased growth in the U.S. solar market as more and more major corporations adopt ambitious renewable energy goals. Annual installed corporate solar capacity (both on-site and off-site) in 2019 was 1,283 MW, a nearly 75% increase from just 4 years earlier. Expect that trendline to only continue as environmental sustainability continues to become a point of emphasis in corporate boardrooms across the country.

When taken together, these factors combine to set the solar industry up for some historic achievements to take place over the next decade. It is no wonder that the SEIA and Wood Mackenzie are so bullish on what the possibilities are for the industry in upcoming years. The forecast for the industry is good news for humankind, as we cannot afford to lose any more ground in the fight to reverse the effects of climate change. Bold actions and big results will be needed.

Cover Photo Source: Forbes

The post The Solar Decade is Here appeared first on Solar Tribune.

Setting the Record Straight

By now you have surely heard plenty about the rare winter storm that impacted Texas a few weeks ago, leading to an unprecedented statewide power failure that left millions of residents without power; for days on end in some cases. The death toll from the storm will take months to fully tabulate, but it will surely reach into the hundreds. The widespread property damage associated with the storm and its aftermath will likely make it the most costly winter weather event in state history.

Unfortunately, there has been no shortage of misinformation about the role that the state’s renewable energy sector played in the power grid failure. The much-maligned Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which oversees the overwhelming majority of the state’s energy grid, has been clear in pointing out that frozen wind turbines and iced over solar panels played a negligible role in the grid’s failure. Dan Woodfin, Senior Director for ERCOT, specifically stated that frozen wind turbines were “the least significant factor in the blackouts.”

Photo Source: Pipeline Technology Journal

Instead, frozen natural gas pipes and a lack of standby reserves brought the grid to its knees. Frozen instruments at coal and nuclear facilities further compounded the state’s problems. Natural gas, coal, and nuclear fuel sources comprise well over 2/3’s of the state’s fuel mix. It is not hard to conclude that the Lone Star state’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels, coupled with the lack of adequate winter weatherization at its fossil fuels production facilities, are ultimately what did the state in.

Financial Incentives Point to Solar Boon in Texas

We have covered in previous articles Texas’ position as a state that is ripe for rapid near-term growth in solar energy generating capacity. That likelihood is now perhaps doubly true as the need for the state to diversify its energy generating capabilities has perhaps never been more obvious. Even before the latest Texas energy crisis, the state was planning for a significant addition of solar capacity to the grid in just the next couple of years.  From S&P Global Market Intelligence,

“Between 2021 and 2023, developers plan to add roughly 35 GW of combined solar and wind capacity to the state’s primary transmission system, operated by the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas Inc., according to the grid operator’s most recent data.”

Texas is second only to solar behemoth California in both cumulative installed solar capacity and total households with residential solar energy systems. Yet on a per capita basis residential solar adoption in state remains miniscule as the 783,000+ households with solar comprise less than 1% of the total households in the state, underscoring the industry’s massive growth potential. Texas’ deregulated energy market had long kept utility prices low for the typical user, thus not creating the cost incentive to switch to solar that is present in many other states. We now of course know the long-term peril of relying so heavily on such a system.

The financial incentives in Texas are changing in real time, however.

Some households in Texas were hit by energy bills that were some 10,000% higher than their typical bills. One such customer, a 70-year-old living off Social Security, had to deplete his modest savings to pay off a $16,752 (!!!) energy bill. This particular gentleman, and others hit with outrageous bills, were customers of Griddy, a small company in Houston that provides electricity at wholesale prices. As the typical supply and demand dynamics went haywire in the midst of the energy crisis, so too did the wholesale energy market which is especially vulnerable to even modest fluctuations in supply and demand.

Photo Source: The Conversation

The savings account-busting energy bills that many Texans were recently faced with may just be the tip of the iceberg. Make no mistake about it, the government of Texas whether they want to admit it or not will need to spend billions of dollars in modernizing their grid infrastructure and protecting against future weather-induced catastrophes. Keep in mind that such weather events are forecasted to become more unpredictable and impactful as the consequences of climate change become more acute.

There is now political pressure on elected officials from both parties in Texas to bless significant expenditures in infrastructure maintenance and improvements. The cost will of course ultimately be passed on to customers in the form of higher utility bills. If you are a Texas resident looking for a sign to take the leap and embrace a residential solar energy system, then this is it.

Weather Disasters Spur Greater Solar Adoption

Crises have a way of being especially clarifying for those impacted the most by them. This dynamic is perhaps most true when it comes to people who have been severely impacted by natural disasters. Let’s face it, losing your beachside house in a hurricane doesn’t exactly inspire most to rebuild and give it another try.

The notion that the recent debacle in Texas could result in a flood of new interest in solar energy is not without recent precedent.

California’s issues with recurring raging wildfires are a prime example of the incompatibility of pre-21^st Century energy infrastructure and weather events that are increasingly volatile and without precedent. Recall that California’s largest utility, PG&E, was forced to intentionally cut off power for millions of customers in 2019 as a preventative measure in order to limit wildfire outbreaks. PG&E Chief Executive, Bill Johnson, confessed that it could take a decade for the company to improve its electrical system enough so that it doesn’t have to resort to customer blackouts as a wildfire risk mitigation strategy.

Photo Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

In the wake of its high-profile struggles battling widespread wildfires, California has seen renewed interest in solar-plus-storage energy systems as homeowners seek to reduce reliance on an increasingly unreliable energy grid. State incentives geared towards making solar batteries more affordable for consumers have helped to fuel the transition. The result has been clear. According to a July 2020 article by Scientific American, 174 permits for energy storage projects were issued in the front half of 2020 in Sonoma County, eclipsing the total number issued in all of 2019 (161). Marin County, CA issued 763 solar permits in the 12-month period ending on June 30, 2020, an increase of 136% from the previous year.

The story was similar in Puerto Rico. After the island’s national energy grid was ravaged by Hurricane Maria in 2018, record numbers of the country’s residents installed home battery systems.

No energy source is 100% foolproof, but the events that recently transpired in Texas are a stark reminder of how vulnerable fossil fuel-dependent energy grids are to potent weather storms. Texans used to cite their prowess in the crude oil and natural gas markets as an example of “energy independence.” Such an assertion now comes across as pretty tone deaf. If there is any good to come from Texas’ recent misfortunes it is that these events are sure to hasten the state’s march towards a more renewables-focused future, and maybe then the state’s promise of energy independence can ring true.

Cover Photo Source: The Verge

The post Hopes for Solar Spring Anew in Texas Following Energy Grid Debacle appeared first on Solar Tribune.

A Just Transition is Good Politics

In just the first several days of his presidency, President Biden has made it clear that addressing climate change will be a prominent feature of his administration. The President has assembled the largest team ever inside the White House that is dedicated to climate change policy. This so-called Climate Cabinet is a recognition by Biden that climate change is no longer a niche public policy challenge that can be pursued within the confines of the Environmental Policy Agency, but rather, an expansive challenge affecting ever corner of the federal government.

The brute politics of climate change on Capitol Hill, however, have not changed much since Biden was last in the White House. Political intransigence from U.S. Senators from fossil fuels-dependent states remains an omnipresent challenge to achieving any big legislative victory on the climate change front. This is especially true in an evenly divided Senate where Joe Manchin – from heavily coal-dependent West Virginia – is arguably the body’s most influential Senator.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to fundamentally change the politics of climate change by highlighting the importance of a “just transition.” Put simply, a “just transition” is a term used to emphasize that the people and communities that powered America since the days of the Industrial Revolution deserve to be supported – not left behind – as we pivot to a more sustainable approach to producing energy. While the fossil fuels industry is rightfully criticized for its role in exacerbating the effects of climate change, workers within the industry are just trying to earn a respectable living and support their families, often in communities with few other job prospects.

Photo Source: Movement Generation

On the campaign trail, Biden leaned into this conversation. His Climate Plan calls for the formation of a taskforce to help coal and power plant-dependent communities diversify their economies. The taskforce would:

“…help these communities access federal investments and leverage private sector investments to help create high-paying union jobs based upon the unique assets of each community, partner with unions and community colleges to create training opportunities for these new jobs…”

The Climate Plan also encourages the passing of federal legislation that would protect the retirement benefits of miners, their widows, and their dependents.

Not only are the above policies morally just, but they are also good politics that can hopefully loosen the logjam on Capitol Hill. It is imperative to not shun fossil fuels workers or make them feel guilty for the climate predicament our world is confronting. Federal policies that provide for the retraining of fossil fuels workers, in addition to other financial incentives, need to be a pivotal component to any broader climate change policy. This mindset is critical to winning support from members of Congress who represent districts and states that are heavily dependent on the fossil fuels industry.

COVID-19 Adds Urgency to the Moment

People who work in the fossil fuels industry and/or who live in communities whose economies rely on the industry have long been presented with a false choice – either you can have a job or have a healthy environment, but not both. In reality, robust climate action will have a stimulating effect on the economy and clean energy job prospects are overwhelmingly brighter than those in the fossil fuels industry.

This is precisely the message that John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, made just days ago during his first appearance in the White House Press Briefing Room.

John Kerry: “Unfortunately, workers have been fed a false narrative … that somehow dealing with climate is coming at their expense. No, it’s not.” pic.twitter.com/yMy9bWKqOc

— The Recount (@therecount) January 27, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of the fossil fuels industry. In many respects, the pandemic has just greatly accelerated the employment trends seen in the clean energy sector visa vie the fossil fuels sector for years. The 2020 Clean Jobs Report released by E2 noted that in 2019, total clean energy jobs outnumbered total fossil fuels industry jobs by a 3-to-1 margin.

Photo Source: E2 Clean Jobs Report, 2020

Clean energy jobs also grew at a greater clip than all jobs nationally in the immediate 5-year period before the 2020 economic downturn that so disproportionately affected the fossil fuels industry.

Photo Source: E2 Clean Jobs Report, 2020

Clean energy job growth outpaced job growth in the fossil fuels industry, especially in fossil fuel-dependent states like Pennsylvania before COVID and that trend is only likely to accelerate once we are on the other side of the pandemic.

It should come as little surprise that many fossil fuels workers dealing with job losses related to the COVID-19 downturn are finding re-employment opportunities in the solar industry. A recent article in the Houston Chronicle highlighted this dynamic in Texas. The Lone Star state has seen a flood of large-scale solar investments in recent years, with companies like Lighthouse BP, a San Francisco-based solar company, investing more than $1 billion in solar projects in the state. Their CEO, Kevin Smith, noted that their growth is being supported by an influx of former oil and gas workers.

“No question, we are getting workers moving over from oil and gas. A lot of the oil and gas skills are applicable to solar.”

Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group, an Austin-based clean-energy research firm, thinks that this dynamic is just beginning.

“Oil and gas is boom and bust, while solar has seen nothing but gradual growth over the last 10 years. This is where the jobs are going to be and where the economy is heading. If you’re not going to make the shift, you’re going to be left behind.”

We as a country can’t afford to allow today’s fossil fuels workers to be left behind. The social, economic, and political consequences are too great. While clean energy job prospects are appealing, old habits die hard. There is a great deal of familial pride and personal dignity that today’s coal miners find in their line of work. The collapse of the coal industry under COVID-19 only adds urgency to the just transition movement.

Germany Offers a Blueprint

While the United States largely shirked its climate change responsibilities in recent years, other developed countries pursued bold action. Germany is one such nation that passed historic legislation to wean the country off coal, while still supporting the economic needs of coal workers.

Last summer, Germany passed groundbreaking legislation to phase-out all of the country’s coal power plants by 2038. The legislation was born out of the multi-year efforts of a commission that consisted of industry, academia, environmental groups, and labor unions. Not only did this historic legislation establish a timetable for shuttering the country’s coal-fired power plants, it ensured that coal-dependent regions would receive critical government support to deal with the economic shock from such a move.

The legislation earmarked 40 billion euros in government aid to coal-dependent regions and ensured that coal plant operators would be compensated for shutting down capacity.

Germany has combined federal financial support for transitioning coal workers with local-led efforts focused on coal plant adaptive reuse and community revitalization strategies for an effective holistic approach that ensures a just transition for coal workers. In an example of the latter, a massive former coal  mining complex in Essen, Germany was preserved and transformed into a UNESCO World Heritage site that now pumps tourism dollars into the community and serves as a prominent cultural amenity. Other examples can be found in the video below.

A holistic approach that phases out coal-fired power plants, invites key stakeholder groups to the policymaking table, and commits federal dollars to worker retraining programs and other support programs may serve as integral elements to a Biden Administration-led effort to aggressively combat climate change in way that is fair and just for America’s fossil fuels workers.

There are growing signs that the typical political alignment on climate change is being reshuffled. Just recently, some of the biggest names in corporate America like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Ford Motor Co. CEO, Bill Ford, penned a letter to President Biden pledging their support to the fight against climate change and committing to creating more American jobs in the process. They understand that the stakes couldn’t be higher. A recent poll commissioned by the United Nations dubbed as the “biggest survey ever” of global sentiment on climate change found that almost 2/3’s of the 1.2 million people surveyed agree that the world is currently in a state of climate emergency.

The politics as usual approach to climate change can’t persist forever in the United States. Legislation that places a premium on a just transition for fossil fuel workers may be the key to unlocking the support needed on Capitol Hill to go big.

Cover Photo Source: World Oil

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Solar Industry Feels the Pandemic Pinch

It won’t be until early 2021 when we can get a more complete picture of the job losses the solar industry suffered in 2020, but the numbers are sure to be pretty grim. Earlier this year, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) predicted that 38% fewer people would be employed in the industry through June than what their earlier pre-COVID projections called for, effectively wiping out 5 years of solar job growth.

Photo Source: SEIA

Records Still Get Broken

Despite the unprecedented challenges that 2020 presented, the solar industry was still able to reach impressive new heights.

Solar accounted for 43 percent of all electricity-generating capacity added in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Q4 Solar Market Insight report, jointly released earlier this month by Wood Mackenzie and the SEIA. The report also notes that 2020 is likely to surpass 2016 as a record year for solar deployment with 19 GW of new solar capacity expected to be installed by the time the year is over. The likely record-breaking year is owed in large part to the stability that the utility PV segment has provided in an otherwise unpredictable year. Utility-scale solar accounted for 70% of the total 3.8GW of solar capacity installed during Q3.

It was the residential and commercial sectors that bore the brunt of the pandemic-induced turmoil from earlier this year as statewide shutdowns disrupted a business model that relies heavily on door-to-door sales. In a somewhat miraculous turnaround, the residential solar sector is still poised for a record-breaking year. Bloomberg NEF is forecasting that a record 3 GW of residential solar will be installed on U.S. homes in 2020.

If the projection comes to pass it will only underscore the broader industry’s adaptability and staying power in the face of unprecedented challenges. By embracing digital sales amid statewide lockdowns limiting person-to-person interactions, residential solar installers were able to broaden their customer pool in a way that can bear fruit even when a return to “normal” is achieved. By Q3, most state lockdowns were lifted and homeowners stuck spending more time at home embraced the opportunity to make energy efficiency upgrades to their homes. With work from home arrangements likely being the new norm at least through the first half of next year, residential solar may continue to ride its positive momentum to another record-breaking 2021, as Bloomberg NEF predicts.

Tesla’s Big Year

Aside from biopharma companies who led the way in creating a COVID-19 vaccine, it’s hard to find a major company who had a bigger year than Tesla.

At the start of the year, Tesla’s stock price was near $85/share. The company’s stock will end up finishing the year above $700/share. To put Tesla’s stratospheric 2020 rise in perspective, the company’s market cap of over $700B is greater than the five top-selling global vehicle making groups combined! The startup company that naysayers once wrote off as just another flash in the pan is now trading on the S&P 500, one of the world’s most recognizable stock market indices.

Tesla’s rise up the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies coincides with a growing realization in the auto industry, and on Wall Street, that the days of internal combustion engine (ICE) dominance in the auto industry are clearly numbered.

A perfect storm of sorts occurred in 2020 to bring the electric vehicle industry to this point. Stricter global regulations on vehicle emissions and ever-growing support among consumers for electric vehicles continue to make the economics of gas-powered vehicle production less and less favorable for auto makers. General Motors, who has dominated the gas guzzling pick-up truck space for decades, recently committed to spending $27B on electric vehicles. These expenditures will, for the first time, exceed the company’s planned investments in gas-powered vehicles.

Bloomberg projects that electric vehicle sales may be headed for a record in Q4. From their analysis:

“The current quarter may well be the first ever in which automakers sell 1 million fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles worldwide. It took the industry until 2015 to get its first million on the road. The global fleet is now about to cross the 10 million mark.”

Technological advancements have also contributed mightily to the electric vehicle industry’s brightening prospects. Tesla, of course, has been the industry leader on this front, and they unveiled even more technological breakthroughs in 2020. Namely in the form of new lithium-ion battery innovations that Elon Musk promises will allow Tesla to bring a brand new autonomous electric vehicle at a price point of $25,000 to the auto market within the next 3 years.

Photo Source: Tesmanian.com

Changes in Washington Fuel Industry Optimism

In some rare good news for the solar industry out of Washington, the omnibus spending bill and COVID relief package passed by Congress and signed by the President in December included an extension of the solar investment tax credit (ITC). The ITC was scheduled to drop from 26% to 22% in 2021, but will now stay at 26% for two more years. This important solar incentive has worked wonders in recent years to encourage more homeowners to embrace solar. Its extension is a big deal and one of the few successes the industry achieved on Capitol Hill this year.

Efforts by the Trump Administration to stymie growth in the renewables sector over the past 4 years have been well-documented. On the whole, Trump’s efforts have been futile as the solar industry reached all manner of solar capacity and generation milestones during his term. There is still no doubt, however, that the solar tariffs levied by the Administration injected unnecessary uncertainty in an otherwise stable industry, hurting solar workers and company balance sheets in the process.

The impending inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States couldn’t come at a more crucial time for the solar industry and for climate change advocates. Solar industry players aren’t looking to the Biden Administration for an industry-saving life preserver so much as they are just looking for the federal government to take their foot off the industry’s neck.

Photo Source: CNBC

The Biden-Harris Administration will assume office as the most pro-renewables presidential administration – by far – in U.S. history. Biden has called for investing $2 trillion over 4 years in clean energy in an effort to meaningfully reverse the harmful effects of climate change. By comparison, the Obama-Biden Administration set aside $90 billion for clean energy investments in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009. The nearly 2,000 times increase in the former figure shows just how rapidly the politics of climate change have changed in just over a decade. Biden’s clean energy plan also calls for achieving 100% clean electricity nationwide by 2035. Such an ambitious goal would likely require installing and bringing online hundreds of millions of solar panels nationwide.

Much of what can be achieved on the renewables and climate change front in Biden’s initial term will hinge on the composition of the Congress. Another round of economic stimulus and an infrastructure bill are likely to be early term priorities in 2021 for the Biden Administration, both of which could be ripe for bi-partisan support and include significant investments in clean energy. Regardless, the solar industry will rejoice in having a friend, not foe, in the White House for the first time in 4 years and the industry’s job creation potential will likely take off starting in 2021.

With the extension of the ITC now enshrined in law, a new pro-solar Administration soon assuming office, and plans for historic clean energy investments by the federal government, this may be the time to bet big on the solar industry. We look forward to chronicling what is shaping up to be a prosperous 2021.

Cover Photo Source: Orange County Register

The post The Solar Year in Review appeared first on Solar Tribune.

Nailing the perfect gift for a loved one or close friend is really what makes the holiday season especially rewarding. Even though solar costs have plummeted in recent years, the idea of gifting a solar energy system or electric vehicle to that special someone is way out of the price range of your average American. Even so, there are no shortage of solar-inspired gifts that you can purchase for the eco-conscious solar enthusiast in your life. Use our gift guide below to find just the right solar knickknack this holiday season and help showcase the wonder and versatility of the sun’s awesome power.

Gifts Under $40

Panther Vision POWERCAP – Available on Amazon for $20.79

Solar-powered flashlights are no longer the novelty item they were just a few years ago. There are, however, newer products on the market that harness the sun’s energy to create light in more creative and practical ways.

Take for instance this LED-equipped baseball cap that is powered entirely by solar energy. Two LED lights are affixed to the underside of the hat’s brim while a solar-powered NiMH battery sits on the top of the brim to collect solar energy throughout the day. On a full 8-hour charge, the cap’s LED lights can last up to 10 hours with a visibility range of about 32 feet.

The hat is ideal for all sorts of outdoor activities that are made all the easier with some strategically placed light. The hat can be especially helpful for routine tasks like walking the dog in the evening now that the days are shorter as we approach the winter solstice.

Outdoor Motion Sensor Solar Lights – Available on Amazon for $29.99

Solar landscape lighting products are a dime a dozen these days, but product offerings on the market today are now much more effective and diversified than just a few years ago.

These motion-detected solar-powered outdoor lights are hard to beat for the price (4-pack/$29.99). The lights attach easily to a wooden fence or deck and provide much-needed light to make walking paths clearer at night. With the use of appropriate screw anchors, the lights can also be screwed into stucco and even concrete. The lights are equipped with 8 LED lights which provide a powerful display of targeted light for such a relatively small device. I can speak from personal experience that these lights are a quality product. I have about a dozen or so of them affixed to the wooden fence around my house and they work great! Check out this 3-sided option for an even wider radius of light.

TEDCO 50 Foot Solar Balloon – Available on Amazon for $18.50

This product is certainly from the “you don’t see this everyday department.” This 50-foot tubular balloon is sure to elicit plenty of laughs from the kids in your life, while also providing educational enrichment. The all-black balloon essentially acts as a combination of a kite and a hot air balloon. The sun’s energy heats the air inside the tube, helping it to gain buoyancy. The heated air inside the balloon slowly expands encouraging lift off given that it has lower density than the surrounding air, much like a hot air balloon. This simple but fun product is a great educational tool for young children as it provides a hands-on lesson in thermodynamics, solar energy, convection, thermodynamics, and the more sophisticated Bernoulli and Pascal principles.

Assorted Solar-Powered Toy Kits – Available on Amazon for $20+

Solar-powered toy kits are a great gift for school-age children on your holiday shopping list, especially those with an interest in science and tinkering. These fun and educational DIY toy kits are the perfect way to hone a child’s critical STEM skills. The kits come in a range of shapes, forms, and functions, but they typically involve a small self-assembled motorized vehicle that is powered by small solar panels.

Gifts Over $40

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 – Available from Logitech for $59.99 

Yes, you read that right, solar-powered wireless keyboards are a thing now. This wireless keyboard can charge itself under both natural sunlight or artificial light in your house (sunlight gives the best charge). It is a great addition to a well-lit office that may have a desk positioned to absorb sunlight during the day. It also gives added incentive to take your work outside to your deck or patio and soak up some Vitamin D yourself.

Colorful Solar-Powered Floating Pool Balls – Available on Amazon for $59.98 (4-pack) 

This 4-piece set of colorful floating lights are a nice addition to a pool or backyard pond. The 14 x 14 in. balls are inflatable, waterproof, and can emit light up to 8 hours after a full day’s charge. With social gatherings occurring outside more and more during the Covid-era, these are a neat solar-inspired way to bring some fun and color to your next outdoor party.

GoSun Portable Solar Grill – Available at Home Depot for $199

Ask anyone who regularly camps out and they will tell you that a solar oven or grill is a nice way to greatly enhance otherwise lousy campfire cooking routines. The portable solar grill is a new twist on the more conventional solar ovens that employ several reflective panels to direct heat to a pot or similar piece of cookware holding food.

The solar grill by contrast uses a tubular cooking surface made of metal and reflective materials to rapidly cook an interior compartment with food contents in as little as 20 minutes. Cooking temperatures can be adjusted from 200 degrees Fahrenheit to a scalding 550 degrees. Not bad for a device that folds up neatly amongst your camping gear and weighs just 3.5 pounds.

Solar-Powered Wireless Bluetooth Speaker – Available on Amazon for $47.99

This rugged Bluetooth speaker is powered entirely by solar energy. Its compact (just 1 pound) and easy to carry design plus its dustproof, waterproof, and shockproof features combine to make this product a must have for your beach or pool bag next summer. Ten minutes of charging time in the sun provides about an half hour of music playing time, while a full day’s charge can produce up to 60 hours of nonstop music.

We hope that the above gift ideas help inspire you to incorporate solar-powered products into your holiday shopping list this year. More importantly, we hope that in this year marked by tumult and despair for so many that you find time to refocus on the important things in life. For us that means redoubling our focus on living more sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyles. For tips on how you can do the same this holiday season, take a look at the below resources:

• An Eco-Friendly Gift Giving Guide to Green Your Holiday Season
• Green That Holiday: 7 Easy Tips to Make it an Eco-Friendly Holiday

We at Solar Tribune wish you and yours a very joyous and safe holiday season this year!

Cover photo source: Blakeloosli.com

The post 2020 Holiday Guide to Solar-Inspired Gift Giving appeared first on Solar Tribune.