Tux Reports Communities

China officials rejected the claim that they were dumping solar panels in the U.S. (Associated Press, 2012). China warned increased tariffs may harm U.S. businesses.

The past two years have been a challenge for U.S. clean energy companies.

“In the last two years, 12 U.S. producers of solar cells and modules have been forced to shut down or declare bankruptcy or to have significant layoffs because of these Chinese imports of dumped and subsidized product.” (VOA)

Sources: AP Business, Voice of America

Docket No SP-1642 is approved and Project Dolphin Solar Farm A Expanded is moving forward (MacRumors, 2012). Apple will build a 20-MW Solar Photovoltaic Electric Generating Facility in Catawba County, North Carolina. The Commissioner Susan Rabon did not participate.

Interestingly, despite a suggestion from Hickory Daily that residents were worried, no public comments were made during the meeting.



According to a 2011 Charlotte Observer article, Apple plants in Austin, Texas; Sacramento, Calif.; and Cork, Ireland, are 100 percent powered by renewable energy.

Apple is also expected to build the nation’s largest fuel cell project, at 4.8 megawatts (Charlotte Observer, 2012).

Sources: MacRumors, Charlotte Observer (2011),...

Imagine a turtle the size of a small car - approximately 1.8 meters (6 feet) from head to tail and a shell the size of a small swimming pool (Discovery News, 2012). You are now imaging the latest fossil finding of a coal turtle, Carbonemys cofrinii discovered by an NC State University graduate student (NC State University, 2012). The work was published in Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

Congratulations!

Sources: Discovery News, NC State University Press Release, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology

Through a process called net energy metering (NEM), public utilities give consumers financial credit for the renewable energy they generate and feed back to the grid. Net metering has increased since it started in 2003. All states except Tennessee participated in these offerings in 2010.

NEM allows solar households to roll their meters backward for every kilowatt-hour they send to the grid (up to the point where their bills zero out). The return they get on the electricity they generate is the same retail rate they pay for what they consume." It benefits about 90% of solar households.

"... the average annual growth in customer participation was 56%, with a 61% increase between 2009 and 2010." This growth represented 0.1% of all customers in 2010.

The total number of customers increased to 155,841, of which California accounted for 56% (86,495). The next largest states were Colorado (9,776), Arizona (8,559), New...