A silicon solar cell with silicon-germanium filter using a step-cell design (large) and a gallium arsenide phosphide layer on silicon step-cell proof-of-concept solar cell (small). Photo: Tahra Al Hammadi/Masdar Institute News The following is adapted from a Masdar Institute article by Erica Solomon. The cost of solar power is beginning to reach price parity with cheaper fossil fuel-based electricity in many parts of the world, yet the clean energy source still accounts for just slightly more than 1 percent of the world’s electricity mix. Solar, or photovoltaic (PV), cells, which convert sunlight into electrical energy, have a large role to play in […]

In a closely watched trade case, the four commissioners of the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday voiced their support for tariffs and other import restrictions to protect domestic solar companies from an influx of cheap solar panels being produced overseas.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Geoffrey Parker, co-author of “The Platform Revolution,” will keynote the Empowering Customers & Cities executive utility and energy conference in Chicago November 1-2. He prepared this executive summary of the energy revolution now underway in New York state at the request of The Energy Times. The utility of the future envisions a dramatic, sustained increase in the use of distributed energy resources by retail customers as well as by the distribution utilities serving those customers. That new framework will require changes in policies and regulations in three major categories – utility support for and procurement of DER, distribution utility cost […]