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Homeowners adding solar panels study energy savings and break-even costs, but they should also call their insurer: Some increase premiums and some cancel policies. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – As electric bills surge and the federal government offers generous tax incentives for renewable energy investments, more and more Florida homeowners are seriously considering rooftop solar systems. But in calculating system costs vs. electric bill savings, many would-be solar owners are neglecting to consider how a solar system will affect their home insurance bill – or how difficult it might be to find a company that will insure them at all. And...

California .. the bill is coming due. ... no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle. Many are already winding up in .. contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium. Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled ... The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of waste... “The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the...

Speaking to reporters from the briefing room Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to justify President Joe Biden's invocation of the Defense Production Act to build solar panels. Jean-Pierre justified Biden's use of the DPA by falsely claiming there is a current electricity shortage that solar panels can help alleviate. Jean-Pierre was also asked about the benefit of the move to the Chinese Communist Party. Given the DPA is reserved for times of war and true emergencies, Jean-Pierre's explanation shows Biden is using the extreme measure to push the left's climate change agenda and forced transition away...

KYIV—Ukraine is under attack by its aggressive neighbor Russia, and Climate Czar John Kerry couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Kerry immediately hopped in his private jet, picked up a stack of solar panels, and flew them into war-torn Ukraine to airdrop them to citizens and soldiers about to get hit hard by the Russian army. "This will help offset your missiles' carbon emissions!" Kerry shouted down at the surrounded Ukrainians. "You're welcome!" Kerry says he hopes the solar panels will help the Ukrainians achieve carbon neutrality in the midst of a full-on attack by Russia. The move comes...

Europe’s energy crisis has led to a shortage of natural gas supplies, and France could pay the price. French natural gas pipeline operator GRTgaz warned that gas stockpiles are much lower at this point in the year than they have been during years past. France's energy problems have been exacerbated by the lower-than-usual capacity at the country's nuclear power plants. ... The Brits aren't the only European nation to find itself on the verge of a full-blown energy crisis... French natural gas pipeline operator GRTgaz warned that French gas stockpiles are much lower at this point in the year than...

Musk's finally ready to admit that government subsidies distort markets and that government actors are terrible at capital allocation."Say tomorrow, you get a phone call from Joe Biden," asked Wall Street Journal tech columnist Joanna Stern to Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a Monday night forum. "And he asks: What are your needs from this [$2 trillion spending] bill? How do you answer him?" "We don't think about it at all, really," Musk said, channeling Don Draper to the tune of the audience's uneasy laughter. "It might be better if the bill doesn't pass," Musk added. "The federal budget deficit...

On the Finnmark plateau, between Kautokeino and Karasjok, temperatures dropped down to -35°C on Sunday. The forecast for the coming week shows a temperature anomaly for the last days of November of 10°C below the reference period 1961-1990, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute informs. Coldest out is Nikkaluokta near Gällivare in Norrbotten with -36°C. In times of climate change, the current freeze comes in sharp contrast to last fall, when meteorologists reported about the hottest October and early November ever measured, with an average of 6,7°C above normal across the Arctic. Cold weather even sweeps the coast of northernmost...

Europe's first cold spell of the heating season has arrived, pressuring power prices higher as freezing temperatures ushers in increased power demand to heat building structures across the central-west region. German day-ahead power prices jumped to the second-highest level ever, 273.89 euros per megawatt-hour. Day-ahead power prices are also higher in France and Netherlands. The Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), the German Meteorological Service, released a weather note on Tuesday warning of frigid and snowy weather.

I have been researching putting Solar Panels on my home and would like to know out there who has done this. How did it work out and what suggestions or opinions do you have. I live in Arkansas and my home seems to be a good candidate for Solar Panels, it is finding the right company and getting the price that makes sense. So far on Monday I dealt with a company here in Arkansas and I received a estimate for $35,000, without a battery backup system. That would cost and extra $25,000. Well I can't make those numbers work...

The Biden administration faced a big question: Should it take a stand for human rights during the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs in western China? Or should it mute its criticism to hopefully get a symbolic agreement with the Chinese government on climate change? At a climate conference this week, special presidential envoy John Kerry made the administration’s answer clear: Screw the Uyghurs. When presented with an opportunity to condemn the human rights abuses the Chinese Communist Party is carrying out against the Uyghur Muslims, Kerry declined. Instead, he said he was just “the climate guy” and said condemning China’s detainment...

Biden administration climate czar John Kerry holds $1 million stake in Chinese private equity fund, Hillhouse China Value Fund, tech company blacklisted for human rights abuses and major shareholder of solar panel firm connected to Uyghurs labor abuses. Human rights groups and U.S. lawmakers have accused LONGi of sourcing raw materials from companies using forced labor in Xinjiang, a region the Chinese government abusing the Uyghur population and other ethnic minorities. Hillhouse is also a funder of a tech firm connected to Beijing’s surveillance of Uyghurs, a revelation last week leading Republican senators urging Biden to fire Kerry over ethics...

Industry leaders called for 'urgent action' after the National Grid warned electricity supplies would be 'tight'.. ... Latest sign of a grim winter outlook for UK with economy clobbered by rising inflation and supply chain issues.. The supply of electricity to Britain this winter will be 'tight' and there is a greater risk of blackouts, the National Grid warned today - as soaring energy prices leave families facing sky- high bills. ... Gas is in high demand due to the reopening of the global economy, colder temperatures, and reduced wind and solar output due to unfavourable conditions. ... Omni Energy...

Solar panels aren’t as environmentally friendly as you may think. And now an industry group is saying looming tariffs will cripple the industry... ...a group is claiming China-made panels are coming via countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand in order to skirt tariffs. In August, the American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (A-SMACC) asked the Commerce Department to investigate "unfairly traded" imports from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam of solar cells and modules that are "unlawfully circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties on China."... ...This has triggered a response from the SEIA, claiming that tariffs would cripple the industry....

The Chinese Communists don’t like having their oppressive regime called out for human rights abuses and they let U.S. climate envoy John Kerry know that in no uncertain terms. ... The reason their solar panels are being sanctioned is that the Communists are engaging in unfair trading practices by deliberately selling the products at a loss to undercut the viability of the U.S. solar panel industry. The Chinese were also using slave labor to produce the panels. It’s harder to sell those solar panels because the Chinese are cheating and got caught. Should we lift the restrictions because of human...

Solar panels are an increasingly important source of renewable power that will play an essential role in fighting climate change. They are also complex pieces of technology that become big, bulky sheets of electronic waste at the end of their lives—and right now, most of the world doesn’t have a plan for dealing with that. But we’ll need to develop one soon, because the solar e-waste glut is coming. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will have reached the end of their life, and that the world will...

If the Public Utilities Commission OK's Xcel’s largest ever rate increase, electric bills for Colorado customers will have increased 20% since the start of the year.. Xcel Energy has proposed a massive transmission project to help move power from rural areas to the urban Front Range. Xcel Energy is pushing for a record $344 million rate increase it says it needs to build a smarter, greener electric grid. But consumer advocates and state regulators are pushing back over the price tag. A major concern is that along with an earlier rate increase and other pending requests since the start of...

DENVER — Xcel Energy customers could see higher bills in 2022. The company submitted a proposal to raise rates to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. They say the increase will help fund “next-generation technology investments that expand and strengthen the reliability of the electric grid for customers, advance Colorado’s clean energy policies, and increase capacity to meet growing customer needs and expectations.” Xcel said that since 2019 and through 2022, it will spend for $4 billion on the investments. How much will my bill increase? Residential customers would see their bills increase by an average of $9.46 a month, or...

California's Independent System Operator has issued a statewide flex alert for Thursday June 17 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Cal ISO issued the voluntary call to conserve energy Wednesday afternoon as temperatures in the Bay Area soared in the first heat wave of the season and record breaking heat blankets the West Coast this week. By Wednesday, Fairfield reached triple digits. Many other spots in the East Bay, including Fremont, Walnut Creek and Concord are already getting close. The heat is expected to peak on Thursday, with an excessive heat warning in effect through Friday night for many areas...

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the regulatory agency that manages Texas’ power grid, said tight grid conditions are expected this week due to high number of forced generation outages, and urged Texans to conserve energy. The announcement came one month after it published its latest seasonal assessment projecting a less than a 1% chance of blackouts occurring this summer. It also came just four months after the state’s historic power grid failure left millions of Texans in the cold and dark. Without heat and water during sub-zero temperatures in mid-February, 111 Texans died. On Monday, ERCOT asked Texans...

British researchers say the world’s production of solar panels is being fueled by forced labor from Uyghur Muslims in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. An investigation by Sheffield Hallam University says some 45 percent of the world’s supply of a key component in the panels—polysilicon—comes from Xinjiang and is obtained through a vast system of coercion involving the Uyghur ethnic minority. In Broad Daylight, the report from the university’s Helena Kennedy Center for International Justice, says the world’s four biggest panel manufacturers use polysilicon tainted by forced labor, and urges producers to source the substance from elsewhere. It cited an...