Tag: Solar Panels
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Colorado’s 2040 ‘renewable’ energy goal faces cost challenges
A new state report outlined how Colorado plans to reach 100% “renewable” electricity by 2040, a goal that supporters argued is crucial to achieving “net zero” carbon in a few decades but which critics countered is happening too quickly at a significant cost to consumers. The report examined a buildout of wind, solar, batteries and…
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Integrating agriculture with solar panels shows promise
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Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” wrote singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1969, lamenting the view from her hotel window in Hawaii of parking lots “as far as the eye could see,” she said in a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times.…
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Officials: Moving electricity by train can help reduce carbon pollution from power plants
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Xcel Energy Colorado CEO Robert Kenney announced a pilot project on Wednesday to move electricity much slower than the speed of light — at perhaps 60 mph. By train, that is. The Wireless Alternative by Train Transport (WATT) project is testing the viability of shipping up to two gigawatt-hours of renewable…
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Solar carport canopy at Denver high school contributes to families who need relief from energy bills
Northeast Early College High School in Montebello officials and students celebrated completion of a $1.5 million solar carport project Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting. The project is expected to create $200,000 in annual energy bill credits that will be donated to Denver Public Schools families in need. Participating families could save as much as $700 a year…
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Xcel Energy proposes $15 billion plan to add renewable energy to its system
Xcel Energy proposed a $15 billion “preferred plan” to add an “unprecedented” amount of renewable energy to its grid over the next seven years that would double the amount of renewable energy on the system. The company’s Clean Energy Plan, submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission Tuesday, shows Xcel could add $10 to the…
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Department of Commerce ruling: Some solar panel imports from Southeast Asia illegal
Imports of some solar panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, or Vietnam using components produced in China are circumventing U.S. anti-dumping regulations and tariffs put in place by the Obama administration to protect U.S. businesses, according to a preliminary decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The department’s decision, published Dec. 2, is part of an…
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Rushed transition to renewable energy could cost lives, critics say
Achieving Gov. Jared Polis’ 100% renewable energy goal by 2035 is technologically impossible – at least for now – and could cost people their lives, critics of Colorado’s transition away from fossil fuel toward toward renewable energy said at a recent forum. They pointed to the experience of California, which suffered a widespread rolling blackout in…
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Rare earth minerals essential to renewable energy not as rare as advertised
The confluence of the need for renewable energy with China’s dominance in the “rare earth minerals market” puts America’s supply chains for these essential components in a precarious position, say extraction and refining executives in Denver. China controlled more than 80% of the supply for these minerals in 2017, but that share of worldwide production…
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New statewide building code could cost homeowners $68 billion
A new law that a Colorado think tank says paves the way for converting all homes in the state to electricity for cooking, space and water heating and EV charging could cost Colorado homeowners between $59 and $68 billion by 2031, and would exacerbate Colorado’s already acute housing shortage. In its analysis of House Bill…
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Forced labor in China triggers investigation into solar panel dumping
A firestorm of criticism exploded when U.S. solar panel producer Auxin Solar CEO Mamun Rashid filed an unfair trade practices complaint with the U.S. Department of Commerce. When rumors emerged that punitive retroactive tariffs on imported panels could go as high as 250%, it brought importation of solar panels from Southeast Asia to a sudden…