Free Photovoltaic software and calculators!

Free Solar photovoltaic software.
Inverters software for photovoltaic (PV) system design.
AC and DC electrical wire voltage drop and energy losses online calculator .
Sun position calculation, sun time, and others.
How to calculate the annual solar energy output of a photovoltaic system.
Financial Analysis of Photovoltaic systems.
And More!

http://www.photovoltaic-software.com/free.php

Free software for the Renewable Energy Industry!

The System Advisor Model (SAM) is a performance and financial model designed to facilitate decision making for people involved in the renewable energy industry:

• Project managers and engineers
• Policy analysts
• Technology developers
• Researchers

SAM makes performance predictions and cost of energy estimates for grid-connected power projects based on installation and operating costs and system design parameters that you specify as inputs to the model.  SAM's performance models make hour-by-hour calculations of a power system's electric output, generating a set of 8,760 hourly values that represent the system's electricity production over a single year.   SAM is available for free download.

https://sam.nrel.gov/

Professional football installs sustainable energy in stadiums across the country

Professional football touches almost every segment of American culture. Over the past three years, NRG has worked with stadiums across the country to install sustainable technologies that engage and educate consumers on their energy choices and encourage them to get off the sidelines and into the game.

http://www.nrg.com/news/executive-blog/post/nrgs-ticket-to-stadium-sustainability

Innovative Aggregation Expands Access to Large-scale Renewables

This week, the largest renewable energy project built in the U.S. through an alliance of diverse buyers reached commercial operation. The buyers aggregated their demand and negotiated as a group to capture large-scale cost economics. Each buyer entered into their own power purchase agreement (PPA) for a share of the renewable output from Summit Farms.

No capital investment was required from any of the buyers.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2017/03/innovative-aggregation-expands-access-to-large-scale-renewables.html

Bright future for solar energy in the north

Many Nordic regions have potentials for exploiting solar energy matching that of the solar giant Germany.“We’ve heard earfuls about how Norway isn’t suited for solar energy. That isn’t necessarily true,” says Espen Olsen, associate professor at the Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB).
“Large regions of the Nordic countries are really quite suitable for solar energy. It’s old news for us. It’s in the textbooks, but it isn’t well enough known outside our profession,” he asserts.

 http://sciencenordic.com/bright-future-solar-energy-north

A Renewable Energy Journey in the Pacific

The pursuit of high penetration of renewable energy in the Pacific involves good planning and skilled navigation to stay safe and on course, and holds the promise of rich rewards.  

Throughout the Pacific, island communities are embracing ambitious renewable energy targets, many as high as 100 percent over the next decade or two. 

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/print/volume-20/issue-2/features/solar/a-renewable-energy-journey-in-the-pacific.html

Tesla Teams With Tiny Hawaiian Utility to Store Solar

A 33,000-member electric power cooperative on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian archipelago is emerging as a leader as it moves from fossil-based power generation to renewables, and deploys what ranks as one of the world’s largest arrays of lithium-ion battery packs. Under terms of the deal with Tesla, KIUC will buy power for 20 years at the rate of 13.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (KWh).

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/tesla-teams-with-tiny-hawaiian-utility-to-store-solar

Google: 4 out of 5 US homes have solar power potential

Project Sunroof has checked the viability of 60 million US rooftops.  A five kilowatt rooftop solar installation now costs just $12,500 on average after tax credits, and pretty soon, installing one might soon be a matter of re-tiling your roof. 

https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/15/google-4-out-of-5-us-homes-have-solar-power-potential/

Greenhouse roof generates solar power while allowing sunlight to pass through to plants below

The greenhouse will serve as a laboratory to probe the solar energy production, plant growth and costs of growing food in such systems.  By controlling climate, water use and plant nutrition, greenhouses can produce food using a fraction of the land and water when compared with traditional field agriculture

http://www.pe.com/articles/power-827258-building-translucent.html

Can Australia Teach the US Real Estate Market How to Value Solar?

The leading real estate site in Australia, Realestate.com.au (3 million visitors a month), has been using an Energy Score since late 2015 that provides prospective buyers and tenants an idea of how energy efficient listed homes are or if they included a solar system.

Below is a sample score for a property...

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc/articles/2017/02/24/can-australia-teach-the-us-real-estate-market-how-to-value-solar.html

The impact of these standard practices in real estate transactions has been profound, and the U.S. could benefit from similar standards.