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Community solar has hit a tipping point. It has become a major focus of the renewable energy sector and the subject of multiple reports and conferences where it is emerging as a highly flexible and customizable way to bring solar to a broad range of utilities and customers.

State Grid Corp. of China, which manages the electricity grid in the world’s most populous nation, blamed a lack of planning for congestion in its network that forced authorities to limit the amount of power renewable energy generators can sell.

If it wasn’t for the U.K., Europe’s solar power market would have flat-lined last year, according to new industry figures that reveal the world’s biggest market for the technology is struggling to retain its scale.

An anonymous leak from within the Apple corporation has revealed details about the secretive electric car project known as “Project Titan.” Previously thought to have been a passenger-carrying vehicle, the car is actually a small solar-powered iPhone delivery vehicle which operates autonomously. It appears to have been designed and built by high school students in the Solar Rollers energy education program.

Cooperation of authorities and potential investors in alternative energy segment in Belarus has had a very low level of efficiency, since over recent years in the country signed investment agreements for numerous projects have reached a total funding of US$ 20 billion, while actual implemented projects have only reached US$ 2 billion, Vladimir Nistsyuk, head of the country’s association for renewable energy, said.

Russian Ministry of Energy may increase quotas for construction of solar power plants in the country for the period of 2016-2019, as this segment of renewable energy industry is mostly of interest for investors, according a statement from the deputy Energy Minister of Russia Vyacheslav Kravchenko.

The operator of a massive U.S. government-backed solar project in California that fell short of production targets says the facility more than doubled its output last month, putting it on pace to meet its obligations to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) last week approved the first wind energy research activities plan (RAP) for a facility to be located in U.S. federal waters.

Without exception, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is all about Atomic Energy Defense (AED). Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), on the other hand, are far from mission-critical. To the extent that the DOE’s 2016 budget request allocates 63 percent to AED activities and only 9 percent to EERE, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs seem to make good publicity and little else.

Where will the industry stumble and where will it thrive? We asked executives at major renewable energy companies to talk to us about their worries, fears and concerns as we head into 2016.

With traditional coal-fired power stations coming to the end of their working lives, the challenge to engineers to develop clean, reliable energy technologies has never been so pressing.

The biggest factors in boosting wind turbine productivity — longer blades and taller towers — are fueling much of the next-generation research and development push to build a more powerful, efficient, durable and cost-effective turbine.

Renewable energy developers won contracts to produce 1,720 MW of power in Mexico during the country’s first-ever private auction, after the government ended a decades-long state electricity monopoly in 2013.

The solar PV industry in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has witnessed rapid growth over the recent years. Since 2006, several industry leaders have built solar PV projects in the region.

The New Development Bank (NDB), which has an authorized capital of US$100 billion, could provide additional opportunities to fund development of new hydroelectric projects.
 

Vaisala, a global leader in environmental and industrial measurement, has signed a 3-year contract with leading independent power company, Pattern Energy Group Inc. (Pattern Energy), to supply access to historical and real-time lightning data for ten wind farms in North America. The data will be used by Pattern Energy to optimize blade inspection and repair programs and combat one of the most common causes of turbine downtime in the wind energy industry.

SunEdison Inc., the worst-performing clean-energy developer, plunged to a record low after a holding company it controls said SunEdison may seek bankruptcy protection.

A $2.5-billion transmission line carrying wind power to the U.S. Southeast is coming — whether state regulators there like it or not.

The U.S., with low-priced natural gas, is an anomaly. In much of the world, gas is expensive. So in sun-drenched Africa, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) with its cheap thermal energy storage is competitive.