Apr 15, 2010 · To encourage more customers to use solar, Xcel launched a program two years ago that offered customers a $2.50-per-watt renewable energy credit and a $2-per-watt rebate for residential solar systems.

The Utility Solar Assessment (USA) Study, produced by clean-tech research and publishing firm Clean Edge and green-economy nonprofit Co-op America, provides a comprehensive roadmap for utilities, solar companies, and regulators to reach 10% solar in the U.S. by 2025.

The problem: Walker Industries and the Region have tried - so far unsuccessfully - to turn that landfill's gas into cash ever since it closed eight years ago. "I've got to admit, the project seems to have been a little cursed," Watt said. The company first offered to pipe gas from Glenridge to a co-generation plant at Brock University in 1999.

The SRP EarthWise Solar Energy program is designed to help reduce the cost of installing a new solar electric or solar water heating system for residential and business customers who invest in the clean, zero-emissions energy source. An incentive of $2.50 per watt is available for business customers that install solar electric systems larger than 10 kilowatts.

Much of the industryÂ’s effort is aimed at making LED lamps that emit as much light as a 60- or 75-watt incandescent bulb. Cree, a leading maker of LEDs, showed a new version of its LED ceiling fixture that uses 6.5 watts, compared with 11 watts for last yearÂ’s model, to create the light of a standard 65-watt lamp.

The researchers claim that nanotechnology, in combination with sunlight concentrated through mirror systems, can bring about the creation of the world's most energy-efficient solar cell, with costs of only 0.5 euros US $0.62 per Watt peak.

That, along with potential demand gains from a new solar subsidy in China, would further lower costs for Chinese manufacturers, who already boast processing costs of 90 cents to $1 per watt of generating capacity — narrowing the gap with ultra-low-cost First Solar and giving Sharp and Taiwanese thin-film makers such as NexPower ...

The school broke ground on its new 1,800-watt, 50-foot-high wind turbine project on May 20 and celebrated itÂ’s completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 15.

Currently, he uses a 500-watt generator and a 200-watt generator, along with four solar panels, a 170-watt panel and three 20-watt panels. He built all of them himself with parts salvaged from other things. For example, the 500-watt generator's alternator, he said, is a car alternator that he modified to use for the generator.

And with cost leader First Solar bringing panel manufacturing costs down to 76 cents per watt and reporting conversion efficiency — the proportion of sunlight received that is converted to electricity — of 11.2 percent in the latest second quarter, BIPV makers have their work cut out.