The U.S. senator and presidential candidate announced the plans for a targeted expansion of renewable energy development on public lands along with a moratorium on new fossil fuel leases and other measures.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s second annual Solar in the Southeast report shows that while North Carolina is still top dog in the region, a strong 2018 pushed Florida past Georgia and poised the state to take the top spot.

Good morning! In today’s pvMB we also bring you Enphase’s upgrade program hitting 2,500 users, the mayor of South Miami going off-grid, and more!

The utility is dredging up the trope of the cost shift as it plans for 100% “clean” electricity – on its terms.

California’s grid operator reported breaking 11 GW of instantaneous power from large-scale solar power on Saturday at 1:50 PM. Twenty minutes beforehand, the CAISO grid was exporting a record 1.5 GW of electricity, and last Wednesday it hit 93% clean electricity for a moment.

The global market for solar trackers expanded by 20% in 2018, with total international shipments spiking 36% year-on-year to surpass the 20 GW mark, according to a new report by Wood Mackenzie. NEXTracker and Array Technologies maintained their industry dominance, but a number of smaller competitors claimed a greater share of the global market in the 12 months to the end of December than ever before.

The eagle flies on Friday, and in today’s pvMB we bring your Fluence’s new CTO, ET Solar making a comeback, Pason & Chint’s integrated energy storage solution, and more…

Macquarie has closed on funding for a third portion of a 340 MWh project in Southern California, and LADWP is planning 1.8 GW of batteries.

REC Group has begun production of its residential N-Peak Black series, reaching up to 325 watts. Concurrently, Trina Solar has released four new modules within its Tallmax, Duomax, Duomax Twin, and Honey series – some of which reach up to 415 watts.

PanelClaw announced the launch of its flat rooftop 10° clawFR solar module racking platform. The company reports an installation manual, autoCAD blocks, and that the racking solution is approved by UL to work with its first tranche of solar modules.

In this #Solar100 Interview, Jason Kaminsky, COO of kWh Analytics, speaks with Dan Siegel, vice president of Renewable Energy Business Development at U.S. Bank.

The Vermont utility has set a plan to decarbonize more aggressively than even Washington DC, as the second utility known to pv magazine to set a 100% clean electricity target.

Washington is looking to become the fourth state to make the move to 100% renewable electricity, with only a Senate review and the hand of Governor Inslee left in the way of SB 5116.

By using high projected costs for solar, low costs for natural gas, and capping solar installations at 500 MW per year, the Tennessee Valley Authority “did not optimize for what is best for Tennessee Valley residents,” says a citizens group.

In response to updates of California’s proposed 12 GW Integrated Resource Plan, SEIA has suggested deeper evaluation of the grid value of solar+storage vs. solar alone, more consideration to transmission of solar generation, and a consistent procurement model to support business continuity.

Hawaiian Electric Companies has laid out plans to source the equivalent of 135 MW of solar and 1,378 MWh of energy storage – as well as load shifting and frequency response from distributed energy resources through aggregators.

Hello and thank you for starting your workweek with the pvMB. Today we’ll be looking at SEIA’s response to the ongoing Hanwha ITC investigation, a potential vote on the 500 MW Spotsylvania project, a free utility planning model from Arizona State and everything else you need to know in the onset of this week in the solar industry.

The state has unveiled a straw proposal of its new Clean Peak Standard, which appears to focus on mitigating future “duck curve” effects, as well as meeting winter peak energy demand. And this is good news for solar + battery storage.

The Department of Energy announced a new tranche of $130 million to fund research in up to 80 new solar power-related research and development projects. As well, ten projects were announced as winners of $36 million in awards to increase solar situational awareness during power grid disruptions.

An analysis by Station A shows a potential for siting 48 GW of solar plus 22 GW / 42 GWh of energy storage in California commercial and industrial locations, meeting 19% of the state grid operator’s legally binding “Resource Adequacy” requirements.