The Ivanpah solar power plant is a work in progress along a stretch of California desert just west of the Nevada border. Earlier this week, Google announced it will invest $168 million in the 370-megawatt (MW) project, which relies on solar thermal technology that’s sometimes informally called the “power tower” (pictured left). This announcement comes after the Internet [...]

California Governor Jerry Brown yesterday signed into law a mandate requiring utilities get a third of their electricity from renewable resources like solar panels and wind turbines. The new bill promises to bring certainty to a fast-growing market for solar energy, in particular. With the transition to a new Governor this year, the future of [...]

Last fall Los Angeles’ main utility, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP), was weighing a 30-percent cut to its solar rebate. Now, due to “record demand” for the rebates, DWP last Friday suspended the application process for at least 90 days. The numbers tell all: some 2,000 rebate applications remain unprocessed, representing more than [...]

SolarCity, a fast-growing company that provides solar lease options to homeowners in many parts of the country, today announced it plans to install more than 8,000 solar panels for the City of Sacramento, California. At 1.9 megawatts (MW), the solar panel installation would be the largest such facility in the city and would produce around [...]

Regular readers (among others) will know that California is the nation’s clean energy leader. The state has on the books a law requiring that a fifth of all electricity come from renewable sources by 2010. A 2009 executive order by former Governor Schwarzenegger raised that target to 33 percent. But, thanks to procedural nuances, the Governator’s [...]

Todd Woody of Grist Magazine summarizes nicely a recent solar industry report, saying solar power is “not just a California thing anymore.” More specifically, Woody reports that [b]ack in 2004-2005, California accounted for a whopping 80 percent of the U.S. market. In 2010, that share fell to 30 percent, with 258.9 megawatts of the 878.3 megawatts [...]

If you’re a residential customer of Southern California Edison (SCE), you’ve got more than SoCal’s sunny days to be happy about. You’re also sitting on what is arguably the state’s best solar rebate. We’ve discussed this before. But, looking at the numbers this morning, I could help but mention it again. Here’s the deal. In 2006, [...]

What’s better than producing clean energy using nothing but the power of the sun? Using that energy to power the cleanup of a federal superfund site that for years has been polluted by pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer runoff. It’s enough to make any environmentalist giddy. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Jared Blumenfeld, U.S. Congressman Mike [...]

California environmental groups want 2011 to bring about much friendlier times between themselves and the solar energy industry. To that end, several state environmental organizations, led by the California Desert and Renewable Energy Working Group and Defenders of Wildlife, have come up with a list of recommendations they hope the U.S. Interior Department will consider when approving future solar energy projects to be built in the state.

Tony Sarich, co-founder of American Modular Systems (AMS), has constructed California’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certified winery, with an accompanying LEED Gold certified home to soon follow.