By Jessica Kutz—Originally published by The 19th A few months ago, Renee Russak and her partner of 30 years embarked on a road trip from their home in Seattle to Whistler, Canada, to visit a friend. This was different from past travels: They were driving in their recently purchased electric car, a used Volvo.  The trip is over 200 miles each way, and they had used a phone app to carefully map out where they would stop for electric charging stations. Though their car could last over 200 miles on a single charge, they planned to recharge it twice on each leg of the trip. Cold temperatures ..read more

Contributed by Ian Prowell, Principal Engineer, ONYX Insight  According to a recent report, the wind turbine component market size is set to be worth $82 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of more than 7% between 2023 – 2030. While this figure is driven by the number of new wind farms set to come online, upgrades to existing fields also plays a significant role in this growth.  Predictive maintenance techniques are delivering significant benefits to new and existing wind farms and condition monitoring systems and solutions, in particular, provide accurate analytical insight tha ..read more

Buyers of solar modules will soon have an easier time selecting modules produced with lower levels of embodied carbon. Most of the world's solar modules are produced in Southeast Asia and China, where the carbon intensity of crystalline silicon module production is more than twice that of a module manufactured in the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency. The non-profit Global Electronics Council has established what it said is the world's first ecolabel to set thresholds on the embodied carbon in solar PV modules and guide purchasers in search of a more environmentally friendly ..read more

A Colorado cement plant is adding on-site solar and energy storage systems to help decarbonize its production process. TotalEnergies will develop, own, and operate the 33 MWdc ground-mounted solar array and 38.5 MWh battery energy storage system at Holcim's cement plant in Florence. The project's solar array will use single-axis solar trackers that follow the sun's movement through the day and bifacial solar panels that generate power on both the front and back sides. The energy storage system aims to reduce the factory's impact on the local utility grid, particularly during on-peak periods w ..read more

According to new analysis by the climate think-tank Ember, wind and solar power supplied more of the European Union's electricity than any other power source in 2022 for the first time ever.  Together, they provided a record one-fifth of the EU's electricity, a larger share than gas or nuclear. This achievement was due to record additions of new wind and solar power, and this helped Europe to survive the "triple crisis" created by restrictions on Russian gas supplies, a dip in hydro caused by drought, and unexpected nuclear outages. The power deficit created by the latter was filled with ..read more

By Elizabeth McGowan, Energy News Network The death of a 43-foot North Atlantic right whale that washed up on Virginia Beach in mid-February was not caused by the offshore wind industry. Still, that incident and other similar ones have heightened wind developers’ attention to protecting vulnerable marine mammals. Dominion Energy is following a meticulous safety checklist as its 2.6-gigawatt wind farm, 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coastline, evolves from a blueprint to turbine steel in the ocean floor. Jason Ericson, a director on Dominion’s environmental services team, said the utility has ..read more

A concept developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) may simplify the process to manufacture perovskite solar cells, possibly accelerating the path toward the technology’s commercialization. Perovskite solar cells are made by depositing various layers onto a conductive glass substrate. Multiple coatings are needed to create the full device structure. The technique from NREL combines or eliminates altogether some of the steps, simplifying the manufacturing process and potentially lowering manufacturing costs. Perovskite is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium ..read more

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the United States solar industry continues to set records. SEIA predicted that the country's total installed solar capacity would more than quadruple by 2030, with annual installations reaching 45 GW. This growth has been driven by declining costs of solar technology, favorable government policies, and increasing demand for renewable energy sources. FirmoGraphs monitors the lifecycle of large renewable projects from the date they enter utility regulator records to the start of construction and commercial operation. Data comes f ..read more

By Lisa Prevost, Energy News Network Hoping to tap into the billions of dollars in federal incentives coming available for renewable energy projects, Connecticut is preparing to lay out a strategic plan for developing a hydrogen economy. A bill approved last week by the House Energy and Technology Committee charges the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection with developing a hydrogen strategic plan that encourages the use of hydrogen produced from renewable energy, and prioritizes its use in the sectors of the economy that are hardest to electrify. The department would also have to ..read more

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Europe's most fossil fuel-intensive energy companies transformed completely in little more than a decade by doubling down on offshore wind. Ørsted, formerly DONG Energy, for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, started aggressively building wind farms off the coast of Denmark, the U.K. and Germany in 2008 — a time when offshore wind was a curiosity. The company sold off the North Sea oil and gas assets on which it had built its identity to focus on clean energy, becoming Ørsted. Fast forward 15 years and China, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan and Denmark have some 62 ..read more