[amor de cosmos]

Solar Impulse Airplane Lands in California to Launch First Sun-Powered Flight Across America!
by Mike Chino, 03/28/13

So far we've seen the Solar Impulse airplane soar over Paris, Switzerland, and Morocco - and now the aircraft is set to fly across the United States on the first sun-powered cross-America flight in history. The Solar Impulse just landed at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, and we had a chance to check it out in person before it embarks on a journey that will take it from San Francisco to New York without using a single drop of fuel. Read on for a closer look at this amazing vehicle - and find out if it's coming soon to city near you!

http://inhabitat.com/solar-impulse-a...cross-america/

New York Solar Projects to Get $46 Million in State Funding
28 March 2013

March 28 (Bloomberg) — The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers incentive programs for solar energy, is awarding $46 million to 76 projects in the state.

The funds will be paired with $100 million in private financing to support projects totaling 52 megawatts of capacity, the authority said today in a statement on its website. Units of Exelon Corp., MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. and SolarCity Corp. were among the 28 recipients.

The program caps funding at $3 million a project and requires private investments, according to the statement. Today’s awards represent the first of three rounds for current proposals under review, the authority said.

The incentives have been dropping as solar energy costs have declined. The “portfolio-weighted average” incentive awarded today was 88 cents a watt, or about 30 percent of the cost to build the projects, down from $1.30 a watt in 2011 and 93 cents a watt in 2012, the authority said.

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/new-...state-funding/

Hot topic: forecasting solar for grid integration
March 28th, 2013
Written by Adam Kankiewicz

Grid-integration of distributed generation sources continues to be a hot topic for utilities and independent system operators (ISOs). Last month, the Utility Variable Generation Integration Group (UVIG) held its 6th annual workshop on Variable Generation Forecasting Applications to Power System Planning and Operations. At this event, numerous wind and solar energy forecasting topics related to power system operations were discussed from both U.S. and European perspectives.

Several excellent talks by European utility and forecasting entities focused on regional-specific concerns, foreshadowing challenges the U.S. is likely to face as PV penetration increases. According to Dr. Alejandro J. Gesino from Amprion GmbH, Germany currently has approximately 31 GW of both wind and solar generation resources installed (approximately 62 GW total), and system integration is continuing to challenge Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) on a daily basis.

While most German wind energy is utility scale and tends to be metered, the vast majority of solar energy in Germany is behind-the-meter in small distributed generation (DG) installations. Unlike metered PV systems, utilities have no direct way to monitor the energy production of systems installed behind-the-meter. As a variable energy source, deriving and predicting the energy produced by behind-the-meter solar is daunting at best, and will be something of a wild card as the level of installed capacity of DG solar continues to increase in Germany.

Although the penetration of behind-the-meter solar in the U.S. has not yet reached German levels, forecasting solar is becoming a challenge for several Western U.S. utilities and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). Clean Power Research founder Tom Hoff described our efforts to help utilities and ISOs address the challenges involved in DG solar generation using SolarAnywhere® FleetView™ fleet forecasting capabilities.

http://www.cleanpower.com/2013/forecasting_solar_hot/

Solar Cooperative Gets Panels On 1 In 10 Roofs In Neighborhood Of DC
March 28, 2013

What began as a group of neighbors hoping to reduce their impact on global warming has since become a major force for solar advocacy in Washington, DC.

The Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative was started by two teenage boys who wanted to make solar power convenient and affordable through a bulk-purchase program. Along the way, the cooperatives new members realized that buying power wasn’t enough, and sought out changes in the district’s energy policies. Today the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative has helped to get solar panels on over 10 percent of the homes in the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood and has grown into a city-wide political organization.

In December 2012, John Farrell spoke to Anya Schoolman about the growing political role of the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative in the larger DC area. As Anya explains, their success is attributed to an on-going cycle of project development, organization, and policy work, a process that has proven successful since the cooperative started in 2006. Having achieved many of their immediate goals for more affordable community solar – and with a growing network of solar constituents – the cooperative hopes to continue pushing for legislation that will enable solar in greater DC.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/28/...borhood-of-dc/