California State University – Dominguez Hills has new off-grid solar powered benches on its campus that provides off-grid wireless charging.

Off-grid solar bench with wireless charging and Wi-Fi

California State University – Dominguez Hills has new off-grid solar powered benches on its campus, provided by Bluebolt Outdoor LLC.

The bench provides off-grid wireless charging for student devices like phones and tablets and contains a Wi-Fi access point. It has integrated LED lighting, USB charging ports, and a double-sided poster display space. The bench also contains environmental sensors for monitoring air quality and flood and fire detection.

Bluebolt said it manages advertising sales for the poster locations within customer-approved categories. The benches have been deployed in Katy, Texas, Victorville, California, and by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Source: PV Magazine

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CA, TX and FL are leading the country in solar power generation, while TX, IA and OK are the leaders in wind energy, per a new analysis.

America’s solar and wind energy hotspots, mapped

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California, Texas and Florida are leading the country in terms of solar power generation, while Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma are the leaders in wind energy, per a new analysis.

Why it matters: Solar and wind power are producing a comparatively small but growing share of America’s overall energy supply — yet they make up a bigger slice of the energy pie in some states compared to others.

The big picture: Solar installations generated nearly 240,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity across the U.S. in 2023, per the analysis from Climate Central, a climate research nonprofit.

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Source: AXIOS

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Researchers in Italy have conducted a series of experiments to assess the quality of wheat growing under elevated agrivoltaic systems.

Wheat grows better in agrivoltaic facilities

Researchers in Italy have conducted a series of experiments to assess the quality of wheat growing under elevated agrivoltaic systems. The have found that it has greater nutritional value for livestock.

The CNR Institute for Bioeconomy, the University of Florence, and Italian agrivoltaic specialist REM Tec srl conducted the study on 11.4 hectares of wheat in Borgo Virgilio, in the province of Mantua. The system featured 7,680 Bisol panels and 768 trackers at a height of 4.5 meters, for total PV coverage of 1.3 hectares.

The team used three sections of 12 meters x 12 meters with photovoltaic coverage with a ground coverage ratio (GCR) of 13% and three sections of 144 m2 with a GCR of 41%. They also used three as reference sections with similar characteristics, but without panels and shading structures.

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Source: PV Magazine

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Cosmic is selling its first 100 prefab ADUs starting at $279,000 that could generate enough energy to be a "power plant" for the main house.

A startup’s solar-powered backyard tiny home can help power the main house

Entrepreneur Sasha Jokic dreams of ending global housing insecurity by manufacturing prefab multi-family residences for low-income families.

To do so, his San Francisco-based startup Cosmic is now selling its first 100 tiny homes starting at a cool $279,000 for a 385-square-foot studio.

Ironic, yes. But Jokic says it’s the first step: The revenue from these 100 accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, sales would be reinvested into the startup’s manufacturing process, setting it on the path of building faster and cheaper high-quality homes.

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Source: Business Insider

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Solar, wind and battery storage accounted for nearly 95% of the capacity in transmission interconnection queues as of year-end 2023.

1100 GW solar and 1000 GW storage now await transmission interconnection

By year-end 2023, 1086 GW of solar projects awaited transmission interconnection, along with 503 GW of standalone storage, according to preliminary data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The amount of storage in hybrid projects, such as solar-plus-storage projects, awaiting interconnection at year-end was estimated at 525 GW by LBNL, based on imputed values for missing data when storage capacity for hybrid projects was not reported.

The data were reported in a staff report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

LBNL’s preliminary values for all but one of the resource types awaiting interconnection are presented in the table below from the FERC staff report. The exception is hybrid storage, which FERC staff shows as 299 GW in the table, not LBNL’s preliminary 525 GW, because FERC staff excluded hybrid storage projects for which capacity was not reported.

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Source: PV Magazine

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Walmart is investing in 19 solar projects under development across the US, including 15 community solar projects.

Walmart just funded 15 community solar projects across the US

Walmart is investing in 19 solar projects under development across the US, including 15 community solar projects.

Walmart’s strategic tax equity investment will drive the construction, operation, and maintenance of solar projects across five states – Illinois, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware, and California.

As the American Council on Renewable Energy explains, tax equity investors provide funding to take advantage of the tax benefits and receive cash flows from the project, partnering with the project sponsor to become a partial owner of the project company.

In this case, Walmart is partnering with Colorado-based renewable energy provider Pivot Energy, and the retail giant’s tax equity investment will enable the construction of 72 megawatts (MW) of community solar projects. In Colorado, 41 MW of those projects will serve low and moderate-income homes.

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Source: electrek

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The municipality of Falconara Marittima, Italy, has installed a free off-grid PV shade for electric vehicle charging at no cost to users.

Italian municipality offers free EV recharging via off-grid PV shade

The Italian municipality of Falconara Marittima has deployed a public off-grid photovoltaic shade to enable electric vehicle owners to recharge their cars for free.

“The initiative is an unprecedented novelty,” Michele Massacesi, the owner of the company that developed the project, Sistema X, told pv magazine Italy. “There are three unique characteristics of this product: A self-supporting off-grid shade that rests on ballast, without requiring any excavation and therefore easily removable; electricity produced exclusively by the sun, therefore 100% sustainable; and free energy supply without any form of payment. These are unique features on the market today.”

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Source: PV Magazine

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Skydweller has the wingspan of a 747 jet, only 5,000 lbs., will fly without a pilot at speeds of around 35mph and altitudes up to 40,000ft.

A solar-power plane being tested off the Mississippi coast is pushing the limits of flight

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Deep in the piney woods of south Mississippi, an aerospace company is pushing the boundaries of solar-powered flight.

Working from a temporary hangar at Stennis International Airport, a scant 15-minute drive from the Louisiana-Mississippi line, Skydweller Aero Inc. has been testing an unmanned airplane with a wingspan that stretches three-quarters of a football field and, the company promises, will fly continuously for 90 days or longer using only the energy from the sun.

The plane — also called Skydweller, which resembles a giant glider and only weighs as much as a Ford F-150 pickup truck — will fly without a pilot or human crew at speeds of around 35 mph and altitudes up to 40,000 feet, company officials say.

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Source: nola

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The idea of floating solar panels on reservoirs and other calm waters has already taken hold. Sending them off to sea is another matter of next-level engineering.

Floating solar array is designed to take the rough stuff

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The idea of floating solar panels on reservoirs and other calm waters has already taken hold. Sending them off to sea is another matter of next-level engineering. However, the potential benefit of co-locating solar arrays with offshore wind farms is a tempting prize, and the firm Moss Maritime is moving closer to a solution.

Offshore Floating Solar Modules: It’s Complicated

The Moss venture is especially interesting because Moss Maritime is an established expert in floating offshore technology as a branch of the global conglomerate Saipem, which is known for its decades-long experience in offshore oil drilling. It’s a good example of the ways in which fossil energy know-how can work for the energy transition, not against it.

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Source: Clean Technica

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Wastewater, PV solar arrays & available space may come together to create renewable fuel for California's nascent hydrogen fuel cell market.

Hydrogen facility proposed in western Kern would run on solar power, wastewater

Three elements prevalent at Kern County oil production sites — wastewater, photovoltaic solar arrays and available space — may come together before long to create renewable fuel for California’s nascent hydrogen fuel cell market.

A commercial project being proposed in Lost Hills by Chevron Corp.’s renewable energy division would create 2 tons of hydrogen per day by applying electrolysis to oil-field produced water hauled in from company operations elsewhere in the county. The electricity required would come from a solar farm already powering oil production at the site.

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Source: Bakersfield.com

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