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Solar Update October 2015 Anthony Watts / 1 day ago October 8, 2015 Guest essay by David ArchibaldIntroductionWhile Solar Cycle 24 is well into its decline in terms of F10.7 flux and sunspot number, several types of solar activity have risen dramatically over 2015. The solar wind flow pressure, for example, is now at a two decade high. That in turn means that the low in neutron count for this cycle may be more than a year out. This also means that the expected, much-awaited solar-driven cooling could be put off for at least year, with the consequence that the...

Vance Ginn, Ph.D., is an Economist in the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, TX, one of the top free market, state-level think tanks in the nation. Prior to joining the Foundation in September 2013, Vance was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow at TPPF in 2011 and anxiously awaited his return to fight for liberty. In 2006, he interned for a U.S. Texas Congressman in Washington, D.C. and received his B.B.A. in Economics and Accounting with minors in Political Science and Mathematics before earning his Ph.D. in Economics from Texas Tech University in...

From the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)New perspectives for long-term climate predictions? This image shows a time series of solar activity (bottom) and the North Atlantic Oscillation in two model simulations, without (blue) and with (yellow) solar forcing. Credit, GEOMAR.  Are climate predictions over periods of several years reliable if weather forecast are still only possible for short periods of several days? Nevertheless there are options to predict the development of key parameters on such long time scales. A new study led by scientists at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel shows how the well-known 11-year cycle...

Abengoa, a renewable energy multinational company headquartered in Spain, has been a favorite of the Obama administration in getting federal tax money for clean energy projects. Since 2009, Abengoa and its subsidiaries, according to estimates, have received $2.9 billion in grants and loan guarantees through the Department of Energy to undertake solar projects in California and Arizona—as well as the construction of a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas. But in the space of less than a year, Abengoa’s financial health has become critical, leading investors to worry whether the company can survive. The company’s stock price on NASDAQ has swooned—from...

An Inspector General of the Department of Energy report that picked over the bones of the Solyndra green energy fiasco placed most of the blame on Solyndra executives for losing more than $500 million in taxpayer money. But a close reading shows DOE made plenty of mistakes as well. The report authored by DOE Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman came just short of calling Solyndra’s highest officials liars, saying their actions during the loan process were “at best, reckless and irresponsible or, at worst, an orchestrated effort to knowingly and intentionally deceive and mislead the Department.” While the 13-page report...

A four-year investigation has concluded that officials of the solar company Solyndra misrepresented facts and omitted key information in their efforts to get a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. government. Solyndra was the first company to get federal loan guarantees under a program that was created in 2005 and expanded by President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package. The company’s failure soon after receiving the loan guarantee likely will cost taxpayers more than $500 million. Republicans and other critics cite it as an example of wasteful spending under the stimulus program. The report by the Energy Department’s inspector...

President Obama is having a hard time with the definition of free market. The most recent example came from his remarks at the National Clean Energy Summit, an event hosted by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to promote solar power. Obama told a crowd in Las Vegas that solar and renewables now make economic sense and blasted conservative think-tanks for being insincere when it comes to the free market. He said, “Now, it’s one thing if you’re consistent in being free market. It’s another thing when you’re free market until it’s solar that’s working and people want to buy...

I need Freeper expertise. Does anyone have the generator pitched on Glenn Beck's show or the my solar backup (are they the same?). I know it can't back the entire house up but we are looking for one that can run the fridge and/or freezer. I just finished reading the survivalist series by A. American and Morgan (lead guy) had a solar generator. Thanks in advance for your help!

A new energy boom is taking shape in the oil fields of west Texas, but it’s not what you think. It’s solar. Solar power has gotten so cheap to produce—and so competitively priced in the electricity market—that it is taking hold even in a state that, unlike California, doesn’t offer incentives to utilities to buy or build sun-powered generation. Pecos County, about halfway between San Antonio and El Paso and on the southern edge of the prolific Permian Basin oil field, could soon host to several large solar-energy farms responsible for about $1 billion in investments, according to state tax...

It turns out that because of the emissions of extraordinarily potent greenhouse gases NF3 and SF6 and energy during the manufacture of solar modules, solar energy ends up being worse for the climate than burning coal (assuming the global warming hypothesis is valid). A Swiss engineer has made a thorough analysis of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the manufacture, transport and operation of solar panels. His conclusion: Ferrucio Ferroni writes here how China is the number 1 manufacturer of solar panels globally and that the production of solar panels there requires immense amounts of electricity, which in China is...

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A third, much faster coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to catch up with the two observed on 18 and 19 June bringing them all to Earth in close succession by the UTC day of 22 June 2015. The CME was associated with an R1-Minor flare event observed at 0142 UTC (9:21 pm ET) from Sunspot Region 12371 located near center disk. A G3-Strong Geomagnetic Storm Watch has been issued for 22 June as well as a G2-Moderate Watch for 23 June as the CMEs make their way past Earth. These Watches supersede all prior forecasts. Stay tuned to...

Now the Spanish government is planning to tax homes that produce their own energy through solar power and store some of it using batteries. El País reports: <> A draft decree prepared by the Industry, Energy and Tourism Ministry establishes a new fee to discourage the use of batteries or other storage systems by people who produce electricity, with solar or photovoltaic panels for instance, and who are connected to the national power grid. This latest royal decree follows on the heels of an earlier one announced in 2013 that levied a tax solely on those who generate their own...

New Hampshire utility ratepayers will pay a Taiwanese company $1.22 million to build the state’s largest solar installation so that a small town can save about $500,000 in power costs over the life of the project. Taiwan’s Walsin Lihwa, parent company of Borrego Solar, will use Chinese-made solar panels in the 3.5-acre project, which is supposed to be finished in July. It will supply power to several municipal buildings in the area but only some of the time: the town of Peterborough (population: 6,284) gets only 197 sunny days per year. “What a great project,” deadpanned David Kreutzer, a senior...

One of the largest companies to manufacture solar panels in the United States uses a surprising resource to keep costs low and compete against producers from China: prison labor. Suniva Inc, a Georgia-based solar cell and panel maker that is backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, farms out a small portion of its manufacturing to federal inmates as part of a longstanding government program intended to prepare them for life after prison. Suniva does not actively publicize its work with the prisons, saying it prefers to talk about its in-house factories in Georgia and Michigan, which handle most of its...

State regulators approved Minnesota's first industrial-scale solar energy project Thursday, a mammoth 21-site setup that will dot the Twin Cities exurbs and beyond with acres of solar panels. The unanimous vote by the Public Utilities Commission advances the ramp-up phase of large-scale solar energy in Minnesota, with this single $250 million project promising up to 100 megawatts of power by 2016. Currently, fewer than 15 megawatts of solar power are estimated to be generated in Minnesota -- so the swift addition of 100 megawatts would represent more than a six-fold increase, with other huge projects on deck. The project is...

Saudi Arabia solar power exports ‘absolutely realistic’ Last updated on 28 May 2015, 4:47 pm Desert state has abundance of sunshine and could produce more than it consumes, says power company boss(Pic: Activ Solar/Flickr) By Ed KingHopes that Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude oil producer, could soon become a top solar energy exporter are well founded, according the head of one of the country’s leading power firms.“Saudi could be a solar exporter – I think it’s absolutely realistic and it’s going to happen,” said Paddy Padmanathan, CEO of ACWA Power, which runs a portfolio of solar, coal, gas...

The woes of China’s solar industry deepened in recent days as one panel manufacturer lost nearly half its market capitalization and another said it might be forced to close down. Shares in Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd. , whose meteoric rise had troubled industry watchers, nearly halved in value Wednesday before trading was halted. The 47% plunge, to 3.91 Hong Kong dollars (50 U.S. cents), wiped US$18.6 billion from Hanergy’s market capitalization. The company declined to comment on the fall—which came during its annual shareholders’ meeting in Hong Kong—but said it would make an announcement later in the day.

Most people buy rooftop solar panels because they think it will save them money or make them green, or both. But the truth is that rooftop solar shouldn’t be saving them money (though it often does), and it almost certainly isn’t green. In fact, the rooftop-solar craze is wasting billions of dollars a year that could be spent on greener initiatives. It also is hindering the growth of much more cost-effective renewable sources of power. According to a recent Energy Department-backed study at North Carolina State University, installing a fully financed, average-size rooftop solar system will reduce energy costs for...

The green energy movement in America is dead. May it rest in peace. No, a majority of American energy over the next 20 years is not going to come from windmills and solar panels. One important lesson to be learned from the green energy fad’s rapid and expensive demise is that central planning doesn’t work. What crushed green energy was the boom in shale oil and gas along with the steep decline in the price of fossil fuel that few saw coming just a few years ago. A new International Energy Agency report concedes that green energy is in fast...