Utility scale parabolic trough solar concentrators harness the sun's energy to make steam for electricity generation. The more efficiently that a trough can harness the sun's energy and convert it to steam, the more electricity it will be able to make.

Coming on the heels of yesterday's announcement that California is moving closer to setting grid energy storage mandates for utilities in the state, today Pike Research released a new report that says the grid energy storage market could reach as much as $35 billion by 2020.

The era of the "smart" solar panel is here. As more companies develop new power optimization and data tracking technologies for solar systems, the market has exploded.

Two months after installing an 80-kW concentrating photovoltaics unit in California, Skyline Solar has put another 22-kW project in the ground in Hawaii.

Conservatives, let's talk about energy. And why so many conservatives are so wrong -- so liberal, even -- on wind and solar energy.

As policymakers consider energy and environmental goals, renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are one popular tool to encourage the development of renewable power resources. These regulations, also called renewable electricity standards, typically require utilities to source a specified percentage of their power from qualified renewable sources. States adopt RPS programs to incentivize the development of new capacity, reduce their carbon footprints and mitigate volatility in fossil fuel prices. While such regulations do have cost impacts to ratepayers, proponents argue that their benefits exceed their costs.

GreenRay Inc., developers of the first safety certified AC Module, announced today that the company's SunSine™200 AC Module has completed its safety certification and is now listed by Intertek to the UL 1741 standard.

The state of California is on its way to requiring utilities to store a portion of the renewable energy they generate for off-peak usage.

Spanish company Grupo OPDE's subsidiary Mecasolar, which designs, manufactures and installs solar trackers and other equipment for solar power plants in Europe and elsewhere, announced that by the end of 2010, it expects to have installed globally more than 22,000 solar trackers with a total power of 282 MW.

SunPower announced this week that it was chosen by the U.S. government to install 20 MW worth of projects on federal buildings around the country.

Shortly after the CIGS thin-film producer MiaSolé signed an agreement with German developer Juwi Solar for 7.5 MW of panels, the two companies announced a much larger supply deal for 600 MW. The move is a positive one for MiaSolé, which has faced delays in scaling up operations.

Even though solar is currently in the middle of a slow down when it comes to the manufacturing and the purchasing of panels and arrays, it still has the chance to become a big player in powering the world. Solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar power (CSP) developments are already making great strides in powering parts of Europe and Asia. But the U.S. is lagging noticeably behind and will need a little push from the government to get things started, namely in financial incentives and a firm piece of climate legislation signed into law.

For decades, designers of solar power systems have faced a knotty set of interlocking challenges. Solar panels produce DC at relatively low voltages, but inverters require a relatively high input voltage to be able to convert the power to AC and send it to the grid. Solar panels can be wired in series to sum their voltages, but their combined output fluctuates with even small mismatches among panels on a string.

Two years ago, GW-scale production facilities were considered a big deal. With more companies reaching the GW range, the next step is to get to multi-GW capacities. That's exactly what Neo Solar Power Corp. is doing in Taiwan.

The energy developer and project owner NextEra Energy Resources got the green light from the California Energy Commission (CEC) this week to build a $1 billion, 250 MW concentrating solar power plant in the state. It's the first time in 20 years that a project of its kind has gotten approval.