Solar Energy Plane Passes First Test

The Solar Impulse aircraft, a pioneering Swiss bid to fly around the world on solar energy, successfully completed its first test flight in western Switzerland on Wednesday. It flew for 87 minutes propelled by four, 10-horsepower electric motors, which get their energy from 12,000 solar cells. Pioneering around-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard founded the project. The team plans to undertake the world tour in five stages by 2013.

Green Mountain Power, a utility company serving 25 percent of Vermonters, said the number of customers using small-scale renewable energy sources to generate their own electricity has more than doubled since 2008. The largest growth came from customers who generate electricity with solar panels, the company said in an April 6 press release.

Arizona Cuts Solar Incentive Amount Because Program Is So Popular

Despite the down economy, demand for solar-power installations has been so large it threatened to drain Arizona’s solar rebate fund by June. So the Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) moved to reduce the amount of each rebate, in order to make the fund last longer and to provide solar incentives to more people. More APS home and business customers put solar panels on their roofs last year than in the previous eight years combined, and about 113 residential customers a week have applied for solar rebates from the utility this year, according to the Arizona Republic. The APS has proposed cutting its solar rebate from $3,000 per kilowatt to $2,150 a kilowatt.

A forward-thinking utility in Florida wants to help more homeowners and businesses save energy. Tampa Electric is setting aside $1.5 million over five years for energy efficiency incentives for customers.

Kaiser Permanente to Install Solar Panels at 15 Sites in California

Health care giant Kaiser Permanente announced March 30 that it has made a deal with Recurrent Energy to put solar panels on buildings at 15 Kaiser sites across California. All told, the panels will generate 15 megawatts of power—or what approximately 11,000 homes use in any given instant. Each site will receive about 10 percent of its power from the rooftop panels. Recurrent will install the solar panels and Kaiser will spend $95.6 million over 20 years for power from the panels. That amount is about the same, or a little less, than buying electricity from the grid at today’s prices. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kaiser wants to use on-site, sustainable energy for 25 percent of its electricity needs by the year 2020.

The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) recently increased funding to $1.45 million for a solar-energy incentive program for commercial buildings.

Suntech Power Finishes Solar Installation at Harrah's

Suntech Power Holdings announced it completed a 1 megawatt solar power installation at Harrah’s Rincon Casino in Southern California. The project consists of 4,000 solar panels on five-and-a-half acres of land and will provide almost 90 percent of the power needed to run the casino’s HVAC system. The casino-hotel contains 662 rooms.

The New York Public Service Commission set aside $279 million in incentives over the next five years for small-scale renewable energy projects. About $170 million of the total has been tagged for solar-technology projects. The Commission’s approval came on March 25.

Colorado’s Advanced Energy Buys PV Powered

In a deal worth up to $90 million in cash and stock, Advanced Energy Industries bought Oregon-based PV Powered, a company that makes inverters, an essential part of solar power systems. According to OregonLive.com, Advanced Energy also sells inverters, which convert the direct current (DC) electricity generated by solar panels into the alternating current (AC) power usable by households and other customers on the electrical grid. Advanced Energy sells to large commercial and industrial users, while PV Powered targets residential and small commercial solar customers.

Early this week, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill into law setting a new Renewable Energy Standard that requires the state to get 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.