Solar power is on sale Maybe the biggest opportunity for homeowners is through the Residential Clean Energy Credit. The government is returning 30% of costs for installing solar energy in your home through federal tax credits. So for example, if you spend $10,000 setting up a solar power system,
We’re always chasing better performing and more efficient solar panels to help power our renewable future, but no matter how efficient a panel is there are location-based impacts to performance. Tilt angle and orientation can either boost or decrease performance, and it’s hard to achieve optimum performance in
Thanks to a 70% drop in price since 20101 and plenty of government subsidies, solar panels have become an integral part of the utility grid, as well as many home rooftops. However, this renewable energy technology isn’t all sunshine. There’s shadows looming over its bright future. There’s
Storing solar energy cheaply and efficiently is a key component for the future of renewable energy. Even though lithium batteries are great, they can still be costly and, depending on the chemistry, there can be safety concerns. There are ways we can store solar energy more directly though … and one
There’s always the promise of some big breakthrough that’s going to change everything. Well, scientists have just smashed the solar panel efficiency record, and it could mean a big change for the future of renewable energy. This isn’t just more hype, but a sign of where things
Solid state batteries have been hyped for years as a silver bullet for making EVs mainstream, improving consumer electronics, and … well … everything. It’s 2022 and they still aren’t here in any meaningful way, but there have been interesting advancements that are worth exploring. However, with several other battery
Near the end of last year I published a video on solid hydrogen storage and it got a lot of questions, critiques, and push back from some of you. In some cases, rightfully so, and in other cases, not so much. In trying to simplify a pretty complex topic, I
Geothermal energy has the potential to be an always-on power source for countries around the world. However, it hasn’t been the hottest renewable energy option because drilling deep enough into the earth to reach sufficiently high temperatures is difficult and costly. Yet, a startup has recently unearthed a solution
Being cheaper, more energy dense and longer lasting than lithium-ion technology, lithium-sulfur batteries may be the holy grail of power storage. Besides fueling electric vehicles (EVs) adoption, they could turbocharge the integration of renewables into our energy grid. However, a technical fault has been holding back their economic feasibility…until
Many of us still rely on fossil fuels for heating our homes, either by burning something like natural gas for heat or by using it to produce electricity to power space heaters and air conditioners. Typical resistive electric heat is 100% efficient. For every Watt you put in, you get
It’s been almost 4 years since I had solar panels installed on my house, which is located in Massachusetts. In general they’ve been performing pretty close to what was promised, but last year threw us some curveballs that made me a little concerned. I saw a pretty sharp
Hydrogen is number one on the periodic table, but it’s still a straggler in the renewable energy race. Like many other renewable technologies, hydrogen has dominated headlines for years now, but inefficiencies in the production and storage of hydrogen hold it back. There’s a lot of pieces to