News

The U.S. Air Force cut the ribbon on the biggest solar array in the U.S. military so far in February. The 16.4 MW project will be based in Tucson’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The move to independent on-site energy will give the Department of Defense more reliable energy. Read more here.

Cool Planet Energy Systems, a technology company producing advanced fuels and biochar products, broke ground on its first commercial facility in Alexandria, Louisiana. The facility, dubbed Project Genesis will be the first advanced fuels facility of its kind in the U.S. Read more here.

The nation’s first all-electric school bus hit the road in the Kings Canyon Unified School District in Foster City, California in early February. Kings Canyon became the first school district in the nation to use an all-electric school bus and there is another unit on order. The pilot for the buses was funded with $400,000 from the California Air Resources Board AB 118 Air Quality Improvement Program Electric School Bus Demonstration Project.

Opower officially filed its S-1 on Monday signalling that it plans to go public. The document reveals an increase in revenue from $28.7 million to $88.7 million in 2013. More than 90 percent of revenue came from utility subscription, with the nation’s top utilities being its major source of revenue. The S-1 also shows that Opower recorded net losses of $21.3 million in 2011, $12.3 million ins 2012 and $14.2 million in 2013. Read more here.

Energy storage system manufacturer, EnerVault and engineering and process design firm NORAM have announced a collaborative agreement to scale production and commercialize EnerVault's iron-chromium redox flow batteries. The battery will begin operation in Spring 2014.

Google and renewable energy assessment and forecasting company 3TIER have collaborated to make 3TIER’s wind and solar datasets available on Google’s Map Gallery platform for free. Each dataset offers annual average values using proven and widely accepted scientific techniques derived from long-term historical weather models of 10 or more years at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Read more here.

According to a new government report, renewable energy accounted for nearly 100 percent of the new generating capacity installed in the United States in January. 287 MW came from solar in the form of a few big projects in the Southwest, 30 MW from geothermal steam, 4 MW of wind, 3 MW of biomass and 1 MW of other. Read more here.

SolarReserve’s 110 MW Crescent Dunes solar power tower is due to come online in either Q3 or Q4 of 2014. This will be the biggest solar power technology project in the world that incorporated molten salt storage. Read more about the projects progress here.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released a report that shows that the integration of renewables into electricity grids can be done in any country at little cost as compared with the current-fossil-fuel-heavy electricity systems. The report was done using present-day costs for solar PV and wind. According to the IEA, the key to incorporating high levels of wind and solar is for countries to employ renewable energy in a way that supports the grid. It also says that investing in additional flexible generating capacity and improving the operation of the electricy market will help in the incorporation process.

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) has announced it has attracted projects worth more than $625 million in private-sector follow-on funding after its investment of approximately $95 million. In addition, at least 24 ARPA-E project teams have formed new companies to advance their technologies, and more than 16 ARPA-E projects have partnered with other government agencies for further development. Read more here.