Jenn Coyle, March 31, 2009
One of our engineers just pointed out that Evergreen Solar recently received the highest rating for panel performance in the first 6 months of a one-year test being conducted by TUV Rheinland, an international test institute headquartered in Germany.
Out of 14 major brands of solar panels tested, Evergreen's produced the most power over a 6-month period. In fact, their newest products are guaranteed to initially provide a minimum of 100% of their power rating. This means that when you plug in a new 200 W panel in full sun it will generate 200 W of power, while the industry standard is to provide only 95-97% or 190-194 W for a 200 W panel.
Congratulations to Evergreen on this performance achievement! You can check out their press release
for more details.
Jenn Coyle, March 24, 2009
When I broke down the $33.5 billion allocated to the Department of Energy in last month's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act it was no surprise that it provides
a huge shot in the arm for the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The $16.8 billion marked for EERE is a tenfold increase over their 2008 appropriation of $1.7 billion. (EERE)
David Hague also pointed out that overall federal energy spending (adjusted for inflation)
has remained flat over the last twenty years. The adjusted DOE outlay only increased from $20.3 billion in 1988 to $21.9 billion in 2008. (USGPO)
We're happy to see that the stimulus package provides a much needed boost to the agency responsible for one of the most pressing
issues of our time. EERE has already announced the first few funding opportunities, in the vehicle technologies program. We'll be keeping an eye out for further announcements in the coming weeks.
