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U.S. Residential Distributed Solar: still getting cheaper, installation and permitting too, more batteries

October 20, 2022 by John Rogers

John Rogers at UCS reviews the new and comprehensive “Tracking the Sun” report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which covers both residential and non-residential “grid-connected, distributed” solar PV systems in the U.S. There has been clear progress across the board, including PV module efficiency, system costs, installation and permitting, and the uptake of batteries. For example, median efficiency for modules in residential systems … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Renewables Tagged With: batteries, California, costs, distributed, efficiency, grids, Hawaii, installation, IRA, modules, NonResidential, permitting, residential, solar, storage, Texas

Aluminium, sulphur and salt batteries. Cheaper than lithium-ion, for homes and EV charging stations

September 7, 2022 by David Chandler

The high and escalating demand for the lithium-ion batteries that dominate the market is driving the search for alternatives. Ideally, they will be made from inexpensive, abundant materials. David Chandler at MIT describes research there into a design that uses aluminium and sulphur as its two electrode materials, with a molten salt electrolyte in-between. The results point at batteries that have a projected cost per cell of about one-sixth that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Storage Tagged With: aluminium, batteries, charging, costs, electrolyte, EVs, innovation, lithium, research, residential, salt, storage, sulphur

How a street can share a Ground Source Heat Pump

May 11, 2022 by David Barns

Ground and air source heat pumps are expected to play a major role in cutting the use of gas for heating. But one major problem with them is that they need a lot of space. For those living in dense housing it’s just not practical. District heat networks are the usual alternative, but the dense urban areas they serve need to be near a large source of waste heat like power stations or other industrial units. David Barns at the University of Leeds … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, HVAC Tagged With: air, buildings, district, heat, HVAC, local, pumps, residential, urban

U.S. Solar breaks new records. What’s needed to keep the momentum?

May 10, 2022 by John Rogers

The latest available data reveals it’s been a record breaking 2021 for U.S. solar. John Rogers at UCS runs through the highlights. Solar passed the 100GW milestone, with 23.6GW newly installed, up 19% on 2020 and 77% up on 2019. Solar was the biggest source of new electric generating capacity for the third year in a row. Residential, non-residential and utility-scale all performed well. Across the nation, solar accounted for 3.9% of total … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Renewables Tagged With: California, costs, electricity, Illinois, Indiana, policies, residential, rooftop, solar, Texas, US, Utility, Virginia

EU Buildings Renovations: get ready for minimum energy performance standards (MEPS)

February 23, 2021 by Louise Sunderland

To meet Europe’s 2030 climate targets the buildings sector must cut its emissions by 60%. That means annual renovations need to jump by an order of magnitude; at the moment it’s crawling at 1% per year. Worse, standard renovations save very little energy, just 9% in homes and 16% in commercial buildings. It’s the deep renovations that cut energy by 60% or more, but that’s only happening to under 0.3% of the stock. Louise Sunderland at RAP … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, commercial, CzechRepublic, efficiency, EU, GreenDeal, MEPS, Netherlands, Poland, recovery, renovations, residential, Romania

Buildings Renovation in Germany: success story or potential failure?

January 25, 2021 by Andreas RĂĽdinger

The German Federal Association of Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW) has claimed that money and effort spent on the nation’s buildings renovations have not worked. But Andreas RĂĽdinger at IDDRI has looked into the evidence and concluded that the opposite is the case. CO2 emissions from the residential sector in 2018 were 37% lower than in 1990. Though final energy consumption was broadly stable, that’s because efficiency gains were offset by … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, emissions, France, Germany, heating, insulation, renovation, residential, tenants

Distributed Solar: rooftop residential, commercial systems keep getting cheaper

December 6, 2019 by John Rogers

In the U.S., PV module efficiency (median values) rose from 12.7% in 2002 to 18.4% in 2018, much of it in the last decade and a full percentage-point increase in the last year alone. The best modules are even more efficient, says John Rogers at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Improvements have come from manufacturing processes and cell architectures, and the increasing share of more-efficient mono-crystalline technologies: up from 40% in 2016 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids, Renewables Tagged With: batteries, electricity, grids, PV, residential, solar, storage

Most read this week

  • Biofuel is approaching a feedstock crunch. How bad? And what must be done? by IEA | posted on January 23, 2023
  • EU ETS and CBAM: what the big update to emissions trading rules means for Europe’s key sectors by Simon Göss | posted on January 16, 2023
  • Can Aluminium-air batteries outperform Li-ion for EVs? by Helena Uhde | posted on September 8, 2021
  • Gravity Batteries: any nation can do it at scale using rocks by Simon Read | posted on July 27, 2022
  • 10 Carbon Capture methods compared: costs, scalability, permanence, cleanness by Ella Adlen | posted on November 11, 2019
  • Micro-nuclear reactors: up to 20MW, portable, safer by Christina Nunez | posted on April 22, 2021
  • EU Energy Outlook to 2060: how will power prices and revenues develop for wind, solar, gas, hydrogen + more by Alex Schmitt | posted on December 6, 2022
  • Europe needs a Regional Green Bank to fulfil its Green Deal and match the U.S. by Esmeralda Colombo | posted on January 20, 2023
  • Concrete: 8% of global emissions and rising. Which innovations can achieve net zero by 2050? by Ben Skinner | posted on January 24, 2023
  • How to sell Heat Pumps to the public in Europe by Helena Uhde | posted on January 19, 2023
  • Hydrogen production in 2050: how much water will 74EJ need? by Herib Blanco | posted on July 22, 2021
  • Twenty-first century energy wars: how oil and gas are fuelling global conflicts by Michael T. Klare | posted on July 15, 2014
  • What’s stopping even bigger Wind Turbines? Blade speed and flexing? More likely manufacturing and installation capacity by Simon Hogg | posted on January 18, 2023
  • What’s best for Hydrogen transport: ammonia, liquid hydrogen, LOHC or pipelines? by Herib Blanco | posted on May 5, 2022
  • Making Hydrogen will consume 2% of total global renewable capacity growth by 2027 by IEA | posted on January 17, 2023
  • EU energy ministers unable to agree on biofuels policy by Karel Beckman | posted on December 15, 2013
  • Why hydrogen fuel cell cars are not competitive — from a hydrogen fuel cell expert by Zachary Shahan | posted on June 17, 2016
  • Smart Glasses: experts can monitor and advise on power plant inspections anywhere in the world by Christoph Gatzen | posted on January 25, 2023
  • The 10 big problems with simply replacing fossil cars with electric by Schalk Cloete | posted on December 6, 2021
  • 2023 lookahead for Sustainable Finance: EU Taxonomy, ESG ratings, corporate disclosure laws, Europe’s “IRA” by Luca Bonaccorsi | posted on January 12, 2023

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Recent Posts

Make Hydrogen in developing nations: share prosperity while meeting our climate goals

Smart Glasses: experts can monitor and advise on power plant inspections anywhere in the world

Concrete: 8% of global emissions and rising. Which innovations can achieve net zero by 2050?

Biofuel is approaching a feedstock crunch. How bad? And what must be done?

Europe needs a Regional Green Bank to fulfil its Green Deal and match the U.S.

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