U.S. Congress has voted to extend the wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC). On Friday morning, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the 2016 spending package and that afternoon, the U.S. Senate followed suit. As a result, the PTC and alternative ITC, that also includes solar and geothermal energy, will now be extended …
SolarCity Awarded Multiagency PPA
SolarCity has been awarded a power purchase agreement (PPA) as part of the Federal Aggregated Solar Procurement Pilot (FASPP) program that combines multiple mid-sized PV installation projects in northern California and northern Nevada. The first-ever joint project was awarded by several agencies, including U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Environmental Protection …
Tafila Wind Farm Helps to Power Jordan
The Tafila Wind farm is now online and helping to power Jordan and the Middle East. This 117 MW wind farm is the first and largest utility wind power plant in the country, and is directly connected to the national grid. Estimates find that the farm should produce 400 gigawatt-hours of electricity each year. The project is in line with …
Congress Votes to Extend ITC for Wind, Solar
The renewable electricity industry got an early holiday present this week as Congress included a five-year extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for renewable energy projects that provides a 30 percent federal tax credit for commercial installations of solar PV systems and new wind energy projects in the tax extenders package. The ITC was set to expire at the …
Nova Scotia Supports Ocean Energy, Wildlife
As offshore wind begins to take off, many organizations are concerned about the impact on ocean life. Last week, the Nova Scotia Legislature passed the Marine Renewable Energy Act (Bill 110) as a means to ensure that ocean renewable energy has appropriate licensing and environmental protections in place to protect marine life. Novia Scotia is looking at tidal energy as …
General Motors Texas Plant to be Wind Powered
Wind will be soon be powering General Motors’ (GM) Arlington Assembly plant (Texas). Enough renewable energy will be produced to build nearly 125,000 trucks a year. The 115 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy will be enough to manufacture more than half of the plant’s annual vehicle output – the plant produces more than 1,200 vehicles per day. The wind …
Americans United for Change New Climate Video
COP21 will go down in history as nearly 200 countries came together to reach an historic climate agreement. Despite the efforts, there is still a political contingency of “climate deniers” (check out the Climate Deniers Anthem spoof released by Funny or Die last week) and Americans United for Change noted they will be taking the presidential debate stage tomorrow in …
Shell Uses Football + Solar to Create Energy
Shell has been working on some creative ways to create renewable energy and one of their latest projects has been unveiled in Africa using human energy and solar power to create electricity. Music star Akon helped to bring attention to the project at the Federal College of Education in Akoka, Lagos. The new pitch is part of Shell’s #makethefuture program. …
Sing Along to the Climate Change Deniers’ Anthem
Funny or Die has done it again with their latest video “produced” by the Koch Brothers, the fossil fuel billionaires. In the video spoof, the Koch brothers pay celebrities to sing climate change denier’s anthem to the “We Are the World” music. The video features actors Beau Bridges, January Jones, Darren Criss, Jennette McCurdy, Emily Osment, Ben Feldman, Estelle and …
U.S. Solar Market Shines Brighter Than Ever
The U.S. solar market is shining brighter than ever according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, Q3, 2015. Installed solar PV capacity in the U.S. was 1,361 MW, marking the eighth consecutive quarter in which the U.S. has installed more than a gigawatt of capacity. It also sets the stage for the best year in history for solar installations. …