(Image credit: Getty Images Europe via @daylife) The solar trade war heated up Thursday when China’s Commerce Ministry of Commerce published a preliminary finding that government renewable energy polices in U.S. states violate free-trade regulations. The finding, published on the Commerce Ministry’s website in Chinese and reported by the Associated Press and Bloomberg, did not identify specific policies, projects or states that allegedly violated free-trade rules. China’s move follows the U.S. Department of Commerce’s preliminary ruling on May 17 that hit Chinese solar manufacturers with steep tariffs, finding they illegally dumped cheap photovoltaic cells on the American market. The unfair trade complaint was brought by the U.S. subsidiary of Germany’s SolarWorld with the support of other companies, four of whom refuse to be identified. A ... Continue reading →

(Image credit: Getty Images Europe via @daylife) The solar trade war heated up Thursday when China’s Commerce Ministry of Commerce published a preliminary finding that government renewable energy polices in U.S. states violate free-trade regulations. The finding, published on the Commerce Ministry’s website in Chinese and reported by the Associated Press and Bloomberg, did not identify specific policies, projects or states that allegedly violated free-trade rules. China’s move follows the U.S. Department of Commerce’s preliminary ruling on May 17 that hit Chinese solar manufacturers with steep tariffs, finding they illegally dumped cheap photovoltaic cells on the American market. The unfair trade complaint was brought by the U.S. subsidiary of Germany’s SolarWorld with the support of other companies, four of whom refuse to be identified. A ... Continue reading →

Geothermal is in many ways the best option when it comes to generating clean, carbon-free energy. The problem comes in the details. The chasm between the promise and challenges facing geothermal are underscored in the latest annual report from the Geothermal Industry Association. Geothermal plants–which essentially extract heat from below the surface of the earth and use it to create steam for generators at power plants– account for 11.2 gigawatts of power capacity worldwide. Approximately 3.1 gigawatts worth of geothermal plants exist in the U.S. Unlike wind or solar, geothermal power is not intermittent. Geothermal plants provide consistent, baseline-quality power decade after decade. A gigawatt of capacity of geothermal power is thus equivalent to 3 gigawatts of solar or wind. Geothermal wells only extract a ... Continue reading →

Are the decision-makers entrusted with determining the future of energy infrastructure operating under an outdated understanding of the cost-competitiveness of solar power? In many cases, the answer is yes, according to a paper released last week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). In “Reconsidering the Economics of Photovoltaic Power,” (PDF) BNEF CEO Michael Liebreich and nine collaborators document the precipitous decline in the price of solar power since 2009. “Average PV module prices have fallen by nearly 75% in the past three years,” they write, “to the point where solar power is now competitive with daytime retail power prices in a number of countries.” Those facts so quickly upended what had been conventional wisdom (i.e., solar power is prohibitively expensive) that the new economics of ... Continue reading →

Written by Melissa Hincha-Ownby Bike stencil on Portland, Oregon's bike routes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Bloomberg Rankings has released a list of bike-to-work rates in 25 major U.S. cities and Portland, Ore., came out on top. In 2010, nearly 16,000 workers biked to work. That’s 5.44 percent of the city’s total workforce and it represents an increase of 1.29 percentage points from the 2006 survey. Whether it was the need to cut back on fuel bills because of the Great Recession, the desire to get healthier or simply a better choice for the environment, biking to work increased during the five-year period examined by Bloomberg Rankings. Portland is a veritable mecca for bike owners. Bloomberg’s follow-up story highlights the growing bike trend in the city: families ... Continue reading →

When Duke Energy’s chief technology officer David Mohler visits China next week, he’ll stop by the city of Langfang to check out a project that aims to show what a city of the future might look like if it incorporates coal-based and renewable energy generation, biofuel production and water recycling. The so-called “eco-city” project is under construction by ENN Group as its campus in this city that is about 40 miles southeast of Beijing. The Chinese company develops technologies to use coal for producing electricity, heat and transportation fuel. It also runs a solar panel factory and works on real estate development. And it’s teaming with Duke to figure out how they could combine their perspective know-how on energy to bid for public projects with ... Continue reading →

Written by Jim Motavalli Plug in hybrid (Photo credit: Tom Raftery) PITTSBURGH — That old Honda in your driveway — maybe it’s in need of a valve job? Transform it with an electric conversion. A team at Carnegie Mellon University here in Pittsburgh has come up with an all-included kit to make your 2001-2005 Civic a zero-emission battery car. Converting an existing car instead of buying a new one is good for the planet, and the old beater will have a new lease on life. Your mechanic can probably install the kit in two and a half days. It’s not a difficult job, and you can sell the used engine and transmission on Craigslist. That’s the good part. Now here’s the bad part. The conversion ... Continue reading →