“Smart imports” could be the solution Hawaii needs. Two new bills that would allow smart imports are pending this month in Hawaii’s 2020 legislative session.

The community-scale market segment has been plagued by ongoing policy neglect, and otherwise poor policy choices. Will policymakers heed the track record of demonstrated failure and finally create new programs that address previous problems?

A once red state’s embrace of a renewable portfolio standard could be a boon to ratepayers. The Virginia Clean Economy Act is currently working its way through Virginia’s General Assembly and, if passed, would be the most ambitious clean energy policy in the state’s history.

Is First Solar stalled in innovation and growth? Markus Beck, a thin-film solar expert and former chief scientist at First Solar, provides an industry perspective on the fate of thin-film PV in the U.S.

Daren Goldin, CEO of Goldin Solar, describes the flaws in reasoning behind fixed-rate increase proposals and suggests that utilities instead focus on creating value for customers and exploring business models to benefit customers and their bottom lines.

A new report released by The Brookings Institute looks at the land density and communal opposition issues raised by new renewable development, offering both logistical and policy-driven solutions.

New Jersey can reach its clean energy goals at almost the same cost as “business as usual,” according to a state energy plan. Counting health gains, the cost of clean energy is lower. The plan includes electrification of most transportation and heating.

A rare profitable quarter has anchored an even rarer profitable year for SunPower, as confidence in the decision to split off the company’s module manufacturing business into Maxeon Solar Technologies rises.

California has long led the way when it comes to solar deployment – both on the rooftop and at utility scale. The state is now pushing forward with a solar mandate for new homes, which could be a ‘eureka moment’ for the U.S. solar sector.

Jigar Shah of Generate: “Load flexibility is the giant issue nobody is talking about…Extensible Energy’s load-flexibility software is a win-win for the solar contractor and the building owner. Building owners get a higher ROI and faster payback time, and the solar contractor can offer an easy-install demand charge solution with or without batteries.”

Jinko shipped 14.2 GW of modules in 2019, up 33% from the previous year, the high mark in another year dominated by Chinese manufacturers.

Plenty of innovative hardware at the show that isn’t a module, battery or racking — as well as services and the Solar Games.

EMP/solar flare-hardened gear, storage-behind-the-PV-module and Generac made appearances at the Intersolar show in Southern California last week.

It depends. We attempt to do the math. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

Illegally re-badged panels were sold to Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Turkey and Syria. Italian authorities found 60 tons of panels.

Also in the brief: an 18 MW community solar portfolio proposed in Oregon, Sunnova partners with Generac and more.

As a California installer has said, “I kind of compliment PG&E because they’re our best marketing department when it comes to battery storage. Now the challenge is there’s a very limited number of battery storage systems that are going to meet the reliability threshold.”

Idaho regulators have amended an earlier ruling, now stating that the legacy rate given to customers who installed residential solar systems before December 20, 2019 applies to the system, not the customer.

Also in the brief: Solar Support partners with SEMIKRON to tackle utility-scale inverter stack shortage, investors say changes at Hawaiian Electric can ‘happen fast,’ Dynamic Energy sells 11 MW solar + storage portfolio to Amp Energy and more.

Solar contractors added another 1.8 gigawatts of small-scale solar in the ten sunniest states last year. In Hawaii and California, solar groups described their ambitious policy goals to keep the momentum going.

Researchers from Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have used molybdenum oxide as the hole-selective contact in a heterojuction silicon cell. The scientists claim the compound can compete with traditional contacts despite a lower level of optimization.

Presidential budget requests rarely make it through congress. Nevertheless, this budget reveals the administration’s radical goals. Bad news for ARPA-E , EPA and Energy-Star.

MIT scientists have developed a solar desalinator which sends heat from the sun through a ten-stage process of evaporation and condensation. The group estimates that a $100 device incorporating their innovation could provide the daily drinking water needs of a family.

Solar module manufacturers should begin testing new technologies in higher-value niche markets, say scientists at the U.S. institution. For example, bringing perovskite technology directly to the mainstream market remains prohibitive in terms of initial investment but segments such as building-integrated PV or microelectronics may offer better routes to commercial maturity.

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are working to quantify the effects of abundant snowfall on a PV system and identify cost-effective strategies to mitigate energy losses and reliability issues caused by the presence of snow and ice.