Tag Archives: Solar power

Shell Employees Urged to Revolt as Oil Giant Faces Internal Backlash for Ditching Renewables

“Shell bosses sacrifice our safety for short-term profits, even their employees see it,” said one campaigner. “No point waiting for them to grow a conscience.”

By Julia Conley. Published 9-29-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: rawpixel

Anti-fossil fuel campaigners on Friday urged employees of oil and gas giant Shell to speak out as loudly as possible about their objections to the company’s pivot away from renewable energy, after thousands of workers expressed support for an angry open letter penned by two of their colleagues.

On the company’s private platform, a letter published by Lisette de Heiden and Wouter Drinkwaard of Shell’s low-carbon division garnered 1,000 “likes” and 80,000 views earlier this month and was reported on by Reuters Wednesday.

Continue reading
Share Button

Cheaper solar power means low-income families can also benefit – with the right kind of help

Solar power is becoming more common for households at all income levels. These homes in Richmond, California, went solar with the help of GRID Alternatives. GRID Alternatives, CC BY-ND

Galen Barbose, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Eric O’Shaughnessy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Until recently, rooftop solar panels were a clean energy technology that only wealthy Americans could afford. But prices have dropped, thanks mostly to falling costs for hardware, as well as price declines for installation and other “soft” costs.

Today hundreds of thousands of middle-class households across the U.S. are turning to solar power. But households with incomes below the median for their areas remain less likely to go solar. These low- and moderate-income households face several roadblocks to solar adoption, including cash constraints, low rates of home ownership and language barriers. Continue reading

Share Button

Promoting Renewable Future, Solar Companies and Nonprofits Rush to Puerto Rico

Several groups and companies have launched initiatives to aid the storm-ravaged island’s recovery and its long-term resilience

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-13-2017

Tech leaders and solar companies are coming together to promote rebuilding Puerto Rico’s power grid with renewable energy technology. (Photo: SolarCity)

As Congress on Thursday approved a $5 billion loan that will further burden the already bankrupt U.S. territory, various solar companies and nonprofits continued working together to offer aid to the storm-ravaged island while also promoting a more sustainable future and resilient energy system.

On Thursday, the nonprofit Empowered By Light and Sunrun—the nation’s largest residential solar company—partnered with local leaders to install a 4kW solar array with battery storage at the Barrio Obrero fire station in San Juan. A second system will be installed at another fire station on Friday. Continue reading

Share Button

China Leaves U.S. in Dust With $361 Billion Renewable Energy Investment

World’s largest energy market looks to leave fossil fuels behind, while incoming Trump administration denies climate change and doubles down on dirty energy

By Nika Knight, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-5-2017

China already has the world’s largest installation of wind turbines. (Photo: Sandia Labs/flickr/cc)

While climate activists in the U.S. mount a resistance to the incoming climate-change-denying Trump administration, on the other side of the Pacific, environmentalists have reason to celebrate: China on Thursday announced that it will invest $361 billion in renewable energy by 2020.

Reuters reports: Continue reading

Share Button

America just Blocked India’s Solar Program

By Vandita. Published 3-10-2016 by AnonHQ

Walking to the solar panels. Photo: Kiran Jonnalagadda from Bangalore, India (Walking to the solar panels) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Solar panels near Leh, India. Photo: Kiran Jonnalagadda from Bangalore, India (Walking to the solar panels) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Solar power sees unprecedented boom in the United States – solar power grew by 6.2 gigawatts in 2014; and 1 million American homes have solar panels as of February 2016. However,  the United States dragged India to the World Trade Organization claiming that India’s efforts to boost local production of solar cells and solar modules violated WTO rules.

Just recently, a WTO panel has ruled that the domestic content requirement (DCR) imposed under India’s National Solar Mission (NSM), is inconsistent with its archaic treaty obligations under the global trading regime. The requirement in question mandates a percentage of components to be sourced locally, to boost homegrown production of solar cells and solar modules. Continue reading

Share Button

Move Over Shale, Solar Is Shining Brighter With Each Passing Day

Developments show how booming demand and support for solar is shaking up energy paradigm

Written by Jon Queally, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published April 26, 2015.

Solar panels at California solar ranch. Photo by Pacific Southwest Region from Sacramento, US (Solar Panels at California Valley Solar Ranch 1) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Solar panels at California solar ranch. Photo by Pacific Southwest Region from Sacramento, US (Solar Panels at California Valley Solar Ranch 1) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Move over dirty fossil fuels, the solar revolution is coming.

That, at least, is the buried headline contained in new reporting from Reuters on Sunday which looks at the ability of the solar industry to upend the world’s energy system in ways similar to recent innovations which allowed oil and gas companies to squeeze previously unattainable deposits from underground shale formations.

With a focus on Japan, Reuters catalogs how the rising capacity and falling prices of solar energy—even as it currently survives without contributions from a fleet of dormant nuclear plants —has led the country to turn off its “giant oil-fired power plants” one after another. Continue reading

Share Button

Locally-Controlled, Renewable Energy Championed as Key to Climate Justice

Published on Friday, December 05, 2014 by Common Dreams
Wind turbines, Vendsyssel, Denmark. Photo by Tomasz Sienicki  (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-1.0, GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Wind turbines, Vendsyssel, Denmark. Photo by Tomasz Sienicki (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-1.0, GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons


As progress at the UN climate summit in Lima, Peru has been reported as “slow” by many observers so far, green campaigners on Friday called on world governments participating in the talks to end their continued dependence on outdated fossil fuel- and nuclear-powered energy systems and urged investment and policies geared toward building clean, sustainable, community-based energy solutions.
Share Button