In this week’s Solar News Roundup, Germany generates half of all electricity in March from renewables and Florida Power & Light revealed plans for a massive solar-powered battery system.
Continue readingSolar tubes/sun tunnels vs. skylights: an overview
Many property owners install skylights as a way to add natural light to their home or business. However, there are other options available; if you’re looking for a reliable and cost-effective way to add more sunlight to your property, solar tubes may be the way to go.
Continue readingDeep cycle batteries overview: what you need to know
You are probably already familiar with a range of batteries–from the AAAs in your TV remote to the larger battery under the hood of your car that you hopefully rarely think about. Just as different types of batteries are most useful for different types of applications in your home, there is one type of battery that is ideal for being paired with solar energy systems: deep cycle batteries.
Continue readingHow roof angle can affect solar panel performance
There are a lot of factors that can affect the performance of your solar panels and the economic benefits they can generate—things such as where you live and how sunny it is, how much you pay for electricity, which way your house faces—even the pitch of your roof. Variety is the spice of life, but the diversity of our architecture can affect the performance of solar panels. It’s important to understand how those differences in production performance related to the angle of your roof will affect the overall financial performance of your solar power system.
Continue readingHow do SRECs work? State by state solar renewable energy credits explained
Of all the incentives for installing solar panel systems, solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) are some of the most potent, yet least-understood. You may have heard enigmatic terms like “SREC markets,” “solar renewable portfolio standards,” and “minimum compliance payments” thrown around in discussions about SRECS, but sifting through of all this jargon can be downright mind-numbing. However, SRECs can provide sizable streams of money to owners of solar power systems, so learning about what SRECs are, where they are available, and how they can make solar more financially-rewarding can, quite literally, pay off in a big way. In this article, we aim to answer the simple question: “how do SRECs work?”
Solar panel technology: learn about the latest advances in solar energy
Solar power is in a constant state of innovation in 2019, with new advances in solar panel technology announced constantly. In the past year alone, there have been milestones in solar efficiency, solar energy storage, wearable solar tech, and solar design tech. Read on to get the complete update on all the breakthroughs you should know about in the world of new solar panel technology.
Multi-junction solar cells: what you need to know
Solar panel efficiency is improving constantly, and innovations in solar cell construction, materials, and design are at the forefront of these improvements. Multi-junction solar cells are an exciting technology that may provide increased efficiencies in the solar panels of the future.
Continue readingCancelling a solar lease contract
If you were to ask your neighbor who installed solar five years ago about how they financed the system, it’s likely that they’re leasing their solar panels from a large, national solar provider like Vivint or SunRun. It was only recently that solar ownership options – either buying the system with cash upfront or financing through a loan – became the more popular option for homeowners investing in new solar panel systems.
Continue readingSolar roadways: what you need to know
Innovation in the solar energy industry is happening constantly. While panels are typically installed on rooftops or on large plots of land, some in the industry think that roads and highways are a suitable place for solar panels as well. Solar roadways are roads that have integrated solar cells generating power from the sun – in this article, we’ll examine how feasible solar roadways are and what their future might look like.
Continue readingHow many solar panels do you need to binge your favorite TV shows?
With Game of Thrones about to return for its eighth and final season, we at EnergySage began to wonder how much energy it takes to binge watch the entirety of the series. Naturally, our next question was: how many solar panels would it take to watch all of Game of Thrones? And how does this series compare to some of the other long-running series on TV in terms of solar energy required to power a complete-series watch-a-thon?
Continue reading