MISO’s renewables mix is set for a potential shift from wind to solar — if it can confront the challenge of transmission costs.

Cutting costs and integrating clean energy with local reactive power generation.

“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.

At Solar and Storage Northeast in Boston, panelists comprised of solar experts, policy directors and national community solar leaders sat down to discuss what can be done for the symbiotic relationship between community solar projects and agricultural landowners.

The leaders in solar module-level power electronics are profitable and making enormous jumps in revenue. All signs point to a strong 2020 for residential solar — which could keep the momentum going.

Also in the morning brief: Maine’s renewable procurement, Scatec Solar’s big South African solar plant, Silfab Solar’s manufacturing expansion in Washington, plus the NABCEP conference is next month.

Pennsylvania’s solar trade association and a state renewables association both call for an update of the state’s solar and renewable goals.

Also in the brief: Safari Energy completes 60th commercial solar development, a 28 MW installation in New Jersey, Nautilus Solar acquires 3.5 MW Rhode Island project, solar aircraft designed to stay aloft for a year makes maiden flight.

Tesla has secured approval from the Berlin-Brandenburg administrative court to start clearing 91 hectares of forest for its first European “gigafactory,” which is scheduled to start operations in summer 2021.

Yotta has a potential solution for solar-plus-storage in the urban environment. Will the micro-storage startup become the next SolarEdge or Enphase? Or the next JLM energy? And whatever happened to SolPad?

Module efficiencies will continue to increase, while the price of an individual module will stay the same. Not only will this hardware produce more power, it’ll work far longer — with predictions of 30-year module warranties, roughly the projected lifetime of gas assets.

S-5! working with a metal roofing company to install two unique products on one site, SMA has launched a containerized medium voltage transformer that ties directly to their big inverters, and – so far – module pricing is flat in China. Send your hardware and service announcements USA-Editors@pv-magazine.com

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.

The solar industry, which represents 2.6% of overall U.S. electricity generation, already employs twice as many workers as the U.S. coal industry.

State-owned China Energy Engineering said the PV capacity will be developed in two phases in a deal worth $500 million.

Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and venture capital.

Also in the brief: NYSEIA forms the Long Island Solar & Storage Alliance, Sol-Ark named a finalist for “American-Made Solar Prize,’ Gas South and Cobb EMC break ground on solar + storage project and more.

A likely profitless 2019 will bring Bloom’s streak to 76 profitless quarters. Its most recent business math error has the firm restating years of earnings.

An international group of scientists has developed a method to track the microscopic processes at work in lithium batteries. Employing a ‘virtual unrolling’ model developed for ancient manuscripts too sensitive to be opened, the group peeked inside the layers of a commercial battery to gain a better understanding of the processes at work and the degradation mechanisms affecting them.

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 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.