Category: En_Ren_Solar_MN

China will control exports of some metals widely used in the semiconductor industry, its commerce ministry announced on Monday, the latest salvo in an escalating war over access to high-tech microchips between Beijing and the United States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a $7 billion grant competition through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to increase access to affordable, resilient, and clean solar energy for millions of low-income households. Residential distributed solar energy will lower energy costs for families, create good-quality jobs in communities that have been left behind, advance environmental justice, and tackle the climate crisis. The Solar for All competition, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), will expand the number of low-income and disadvantaged communities primed for residential solar investment by awarding up to 60 grants to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and eligible nonprofits to create and expand low-income s

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a $7 billion grant competition to expand access to residential solar energy in low-income communities. The funding, paid for by the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, will cover up to 60 grants, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) press call Wednesday. Activities covered by the grants will include development of technical and financial assistance to install residential solar in communities receiving the awards.

High above the Las Vegas Strip, solar panels blanketed the roof of Mandalay Bay Convention Center — 26,000 of them, rippling across an area larger than 20 football fields.

Solar farms stretch out mile after mile along Interstate 10 around Palm Springs, creating one of the densest areas of solar development in North America in the heart of California’s Colorado Desert. But the area’s success in meeting the state and the nation’s renewable energy goals is running up against the Southwest’s biggest climate challenge: Having enough water.

The US solar industry’s growth trajectory is incredibly strong. Within just a few short years, the industry will be regularly installing 40-50 gigawatts (GW) of capacity according to our latest outlooks. This is quite the feat when you consider the most the industry has installed to date was 25 GW in 2021. Over the next decade, annual average growth will be 11%. And the installed base of projects will multiply nearly five times – from 150 GW installed today to nearly 700 GW installed by 2033.

Elon Musk unveiled his futuristic hyperloop concept in 2013 by taking swipes at California’s high-speed rail project, deriding it as “a bullet train that is both one of the most expensive per mile and one of the slowest in the world.” A decade later, his fanciful tube train remains science fiction while construction of the Golden State’s cash-strapped railway continues, with at least one feature the mercurial billionaire should like: it’s going to be solar-powered.

The US solar market is on track to more than double over the next five years as the landmark Inflation Reduction Act boosts domestic manufacturing.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed paper-thin solar cells that can be attached to any kind of surface to convert it into a power source. Thinner than human hair, these cells could be laminated onto various kinds of surfaces, such as the sails of a boat to provide power while at sea, onto tents and tarps that are deployed in disaster recovery operations, or onto the wings of drones to extend their flying range.

Global investment in energy is slated to hit roughly $2.8 trillion in 2023, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency, with over $1.7 trillion of that set to go on clean energy technologies such as EVs, renewables and storage.