Solar Energy News
At Acro Electric, we feel that staying "in the know," is vital to our success as an industry leading solar integrator. Here you will find links to, and short commentary on, news relating to solar power, the green economy, and the energy market. We hope you find it to be a useful tool for staying informed.
- Expect a Jolt When Opening the Electric Bill: The Wall Street Journal has reported that a large amount of proposed electricity-rate increases are turning up all over the country. These rate increases are being driven by escalating coal and natural gas prices. Appalachian coal has roughly (more...)
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Solar Energy is Hot in Central Valley: Acro Electric's President, Steve Vella, is featured in the latest issue of the Central Valley Business Journal. The article gives an overview of some of Stanislaus County's high profile projects and solar companies.
Read about it at: Northern California surging ahead on solar power: Northern Californian's have been installing solar power systems at an unprecedented rate. Though northern California has less sunshine than southern California, PG&E Electric rates continue to make solar power a "no brainer"
Read about it at: FedEx Freight goes solar in California terminals: FedEx has completed installation of a 282 kilowatt solar power system at their facility in Whittier, California. This puts the company in a position of owning over 1 megawatt of operation solar power system in California.
Read about it at: Frito-Lay solar system puts the sun in SunChips, takes advantage of renewable energy: The Frito-Lay plant in Modesto will soon be using the power of the sun to make it's popular SunChips brand snack. large curved mirrors that move with the position of the sun, focusing the heat into tubes of glass filled with water. This preheated (more...) - Surprise! Pacific Gas and Electric Quietly Raises Rates Again: In the beginning of 2008, it was big news that Pacific Gas and Electric was actually lowering rates by 1% on average. We sat down to crunch the numbers ourselves, and it was true. Lower tier users took a hit in their electrical costs, but it did average (more...)
- SunPower Completes California Solar PV Project For Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart's new 390 kilo-watt solar power system is completed at the Sam's Club store in Chino, CA. This is the first installation out of seven that Wal-Mart is having installed. The seven projects will total 4.6 mega-watts of PV (more...)
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Water-treatment plant to run on solar power: Rancho California Water District is planning to install a large solar electric system in Murrieta, CA, that will save the district approximately $4 million.
Read about it at: California Solar Initiative sees robust demand in first year: The California Public Utilities Commission has released their assessment of the first year under the California Solar Initiative. Demand for solar in 2007 outpaced the total installed capacity across the state.
Read about it at: New Green Jobs Law Will Jumpstart Economy, Provide Training for Los Angeles Workers: Phenomenal growth in the renewable energy industry causes California congresswoman to push for a Green Jobs Act.
Read about it at:- How Would a Recession Affect the Solar Industry?: Some say a recession is coming, while others say the recession is already here. How will it effect the solar industry? Anytime is still a good time to ditch that expensive electric bill.
Read about it at: Bill offers affordable way to be energy-efficient: Municipal funding for renewable energy, and energy efficiency, was in the spotlight again Monday. A Bill has reached the state floor that would create an optional plan allowing municipalities to finance renewable energy, and energy efficiency (more...)- GE funding five large Sunpower solar projects in California: General Electric Energy Financial Services is partnering with Sunpower to install 8 megawatts of solar energy, in 5 projects, throughout California. The 5 Solar power Systems will be owned by GE, but will provide energy for: a Toyota Motor Sales' (more...)
- How Green Was My Candidate?: SolarNation weighs in on the 2009 presidential candidates and their views on the issues of energy independence and climate change. 9 out of the 13 presidential hopefuls seem to be paying attention.
Read about it at: U.N. Warns of Ecology Threats: The Global Environment Outlook Project, of the U.N., has released it's 4th report on the global environment. It has been called "the final wake-up call to the international community." You can read the Rate Hikes for Modesto Irrigation District to be Decided Tuesday: Residents in Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties, that receive electrical service from MID, face their fourth rate hike in four years. MID's board of directors is expected to decide the matter this Tuesday (11/27/07). Ideas on the board (more...)- Inclusion of Renewables in Energy Bill Receives New Political Support: Nineteen members of congress have expressed support for reinclusion of renewable energy standards, and fuel economy increases, into the national energy bill. "The energy bill in conference gives us a historic opportunity to make landmark changes in (more...)
- Honda creating home system for drivers to make hydrogen: Solar Powered Cars for California? May be sooner than we think if Honda is successful with its plans for using solar power to create your own hydrogen refueling station.
Read about it at: Berkeley lawmakers OK home solar power plan: The city of Berkeley, California, has enacted a groundbreaking framework for government finance of residential solar power systems. This is an incredible step forward for renewable energy in California.
Read about it at: Solar Hot Water Rebates Now Available: Rebates for solar thermal systems have been signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, and the industry is a buzz with possibilities.
Read about it at:- Bold Moves for Renewables in 110th Congress: The extension for the investment tax credit for renewable energies is still in the senate, along with a new federal loan program. Scott Sklar has written an interesting article covering some of the things that have been happening, up on the hill, in (more...)
- PG&E helps Habitat for Humanity go solar: PG&E will be footing the bill to install solar power on 65 California homes being built by habitat for humanity in 2008. The utility company expects to pay aproximately $1.2 million in the program.
Read about it at: Safeway Goes Solar: Safeway, America's 3rd largest grocer, has installed the first of 23 solar power systems that are planned to be installed on Safeway grocery stores stores. The first system has been installed in Dublin, CA.
Read about it at: PG&E Rate Hike on the Horizon: Small Businesses and Homeowners can expect rate hikes in the beginning of 2008, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Surprisingly, Large businesses will not be sharing in the brunt of increased electrical rates.
Read about it at: California Can Lead Nation in Green Tech Industry and Stimulate Economy With Bond Package: Bill Lockyer, Treasurer of The State of California, shares his stance on climate change, and renewable energy. Today He outlined his plan to stimulate the economy by keeping California at the forefront of the "green tech" revolution.
Read about it (more...)- Wells Fargo Invests $266 Million in Solar: Wells Fargo is investing $266 Million to build the nations largest solar power plant. It will be located south of Las Vegas and cover approximately 400 Acres.
Read about it at: Acro Quoted in The News: The Union Democrat, Based in Sonora California, a newspaper serving "The Mother Lode" area, has published an article on a local solar (more...)- Video Presentation!: We have added a video presentation to our website from Sunpower - one of the major manufacturers we work with. This presentation covers a good amount of of information in a short, roughly 6-7 minute, presentation that is informative and to the (more...)
- Clean Energy: It IS All About Scale: This is an interesting article covering a quick overview and some predictions for the future of the renewable energy industry. Future plans for renewables are out-pacing the nuclear option - plenty of new solar manufacturing plants are on the (more...)
- U.S. Retailers Save with Solar PV and Energy Efficiency: Macy's is the latest retail giant to jump on board with solar power. They will be joining such companies as Target, Wal-Mart, Kohls, Estee Lauder, and BJ's Wholesale as companies acting on their commitment to a greener bottom line. It's no (more...)
- Going solar saves money in long run: The Contra Costa Times has published an article discussing some of the benefits of going solar. Although this particular installation was done by one of our competitors, we feel this is very good reading. The article also discusses the push (more...)
- Bay Area Senior Housing Goes Solar: The second, ever, solar powered senior housing development will be located on University Ave. in San Francisco. If you're interested, we highly recommend this short article, due to the fact that it includes an audio interview with the (more...)
- PG&E Adds Utility-Scale Solar Projects to Its Power Mix: Straight off the PR Newswire, PG&E is building a 40 acre solar power plant outside of Tracy, California. This is an extremely exciting project! The technology being used is a prototype system developed by Green Volts, a utility-scale solar (more...)
- Morgan Stanley To Own, Finance Wal-Mart Solar Power Systems: One of America's largest finance firms, Morgan Stanley, will be financing solar power for the retail behemith Wal-Mart. This is a great little article, and as an added bonus: it explains "power purchase agreements," or PPAs. A PPA is a (more...)
- Green homes winners in housing decline: The National Association of Home Builders says the building of green homes has gone up 50% since 2004. With utility bills that are 60%, or more, below the average for normal homes... It's no wonder why. We've been saying: "increasing energy (more...)
- Google turns on solar panels : Google's new solar power system is up and running, and they are not stopping there. This article highlights some green activities over at Google, such as their ongoing conversion of hybrid cars to plug-in electric, as well as some of their (more...)
- California Paper Goes Solar: The oldest newspaper industry journal in the United States releases a small article on one of our projects. In early May, Acro Electric installed a 32kW solar power system at the Montery County Weekly, in Seaside California, for one of our (more...)
- Board Considers Washington School Solar Project: In Berkeley, the Board of Education is planning to vote on approval for a solar power system at Washington Elementary School. The (more...)
- Solar power goes portable: Exciting new solar products are coming to market this year. Among them is Xantrex's new backpack - the Xpower Powerpack. Unlike other portable solar products, which are designed to top off batteries or charge small electronic devices like cell (more...)
- Solar powered plane prepares for aviation history: Bertrand Piccard, a "round-the-world balloon pioneer" is planning to fly across the United States in a prototype aircraft that is powered only by the sun. The project is called "Solar Impulse," and the team plans the flight as one step of a quest to (more...)
- How Would a Recession Affect the Solar Industry?: Some say a recession is coming, while others say the recession is already here. How will it effect the solar industry? Anytime is still a good time to ditch that expensive electric bill.
