Format: 2013-05-26
Format: 2013-05-26
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Solar

Applied Ventures: Five Years of Active Corporate Cleantech Investing

By Chris Moran
Oct272010

I am pleased to share with you an update on Applied Ventures as we celebrate our fund's fifth anniversary. Over these past five years, we have had the privilege of investing more than $100 million dollars in 27 companies, mostly in cleantech, making us one of the most active investors in the space.

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Solar

A Tribute to Dr. Hermann Scheer (1944 – 2010)

By Sebastian Goeke
Oct182010

The renewable energy sector, and the solar photovoltaics industry in particular, lost a great leader on Thursday, October 14. Hermann Scheer, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, and mentor and champion of the solar photovoltaics industry, died unexpectedly in Berlin at the age of 66.

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Solar

Building a Viable Solar Sector

By Charlie Gay
Oct112010

I recently wrote a piece for EnergyBiz Magazine on advancing solar manufacturing technology to enable solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to become a significant part of the global energy portfolio by lowering the cost-per-watt. The following is a brief excerpt from the article.

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Solar

Plans to Cut Spain’s Solar PV Feed-in Tariff Put the Industry’s Future in Peril

By Sebastian Goeke
Jul292010

The Spanish government has recently brought forward rather contradictory policy developments concerning renewable energy sources (RES). On the one hand, the Industry Ministry has presented the country’s National Renewable Energy Action Plan. It foresees that, by 2020, 22.7% of the country’s final energy consumption will come from renewable sources. This is great news, considering that Spain’s RES European Union (EU) target is 20%. On the other hand, the government announced soon after that it would introduce retroactive cuts in the feed-in tariff program for the photovoltaic (PV) industry in the context of the austerity measures the country is currently undergoing.

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Solar

India National Solar Mission … Democracy at Work!

By Kolan Saravanan
May142010

The Government of India had announced the launch of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and the first phase of the mission is under implementation. One of the key targets in the first phase is to have 1,000MW of grid connected photovoltaics (PV) by 2013.

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Solar

California Upgrades its Net Metering Policy

By Blair Swezey
Mar42010

California's solar industry scored a significant policy victory with the passage of AB 510, which raises the requirement on the state’s electric utilities to “net meter” customer-sited solar systems to 5% of a utility’s annual peak demand from 2.5%.

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Solar

Europe’s PV Potential

By Winfried Hoffmann
Mar32010

At the current Photovoltaic (PV) Symposium in Bad Staffelstein the main focus is on the worldwide information exchange about the state of the technology - both from the national and international market development perspectives.

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Solar

Sunny with a Chance of Gigawatts

By Dr. Giorgio Cellere
Mar12010

The recently posted 2010 predictions for solar market was a stimulus for reflections on local business opportunities. Being Italian, it comes natural to contribute to this blog with a discussion about the solar photovoltaic (PV) market in Italy and the innovation potential.

Italy's goal is to have 3 gigawatts (GW) of PV by 2016. Today, Italy has 0.3 - 0.6 GW of solar PV installed (although statistics on installed capacity vary widely). According to Enel SpA, the cumulative PV capacity in Italy is 0.4 gigawatts peak (GWp), split 17% ground-connected (grid), 60% commercial rooftop and 23% residential rooftop.

Financial analysts see the market growing to 0.6 - 1 GW in 2010. If the 1 GW in 2010 scenario comes true, then Italy will need to grow the PV installed capacity by 20% a year to reach the 2016 goal. GIFI Italia (Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane) expects 1.3 GWp installed during 2016 alone for an overall cumulative capacity of 7.2 GWp. Is this growth feasible operationally, technologically or financially?

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Solar

We Could Start Saving the Planet Today

By Cathy Boone
Dec212009

Last week, I attended the Western Governors’ Association meeting, a non partisan gathering of state governors, staff and industry focused on improving how the west collaborates on regional problems. Several speaker panels focused on how best to make progress in generating energy from renewable sources.

It’s frustrating.

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Solar

Solar: Is it About Cost or Scale?

By Charlie Gay
Oct212009

It’s about both evolving together. For the first time in history a manufactured good — a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel — can supply energy. Traditionally, we have consumed resources to make power. Burning wood, coal, oil or natural gas has been the norm.

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Solar

Manufacturing Energy

By Rob DeLine
Oct122009

We can manufacture our way out of our current energy conundrum. That's because solar power, unlike fossil-fuel-generated electricity, is manufactured energy. Manufactured energy: it’s a powerful concept. Sunlight is absorbed, processed and converted, as opposed to fossil fuels, which must be located, extracted, shipped and burned.

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Solar

Inside the Numbers in China

By Mark Pinto
Oct22009

In 2008, Applied Materials unveiled a 2 megawatt parking lot and roof top solar installation at its Sunnyvale, California location. It was then, and remains, one of the largest corporate installations in the world.

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