Trump Administration opens up $105 million in funding for solar research
The DOE has issued a call for projects to apply for funding in the areas of grid integration, PV, CSP and workforce diversity.
SEIA reports 18 companies reducing solar deployment, workforce in 2018
The national solar trade organization has listed cancelled investments and hiring as well as job losses in its comments supporting requests for exclusion from Section 201 tariffs.
Rocky Mountain Power’s incremental evolution
Rocky Mountain Power’s 20 year Integrated Resource Plan has been accepted by Idaho regulators. The plan calls for more wind and solar, greater efficiency, and very little net demand growth.
Another gas plant spurned as renewable energy takes over in California
The Glendale, California City Council voted 4-1 to put a gas generation plant upgrade on hold to explore renewable energy and storage options.
Kentucky anti-solar legislation killed
The bill to allow utilities to impose fees and change compensation for customer-sited solar PV has been sidelined in the Kentucky Senate.
Solar ownership still tilts towards high income, but evolving
An analysis of more than 800,000 solar installations has found that the median income of pv adopters is $32,000 per year higher than the median of all households, but the median income of buyers is on a downward trend.
New Jersey passes wide-ranging energy legislation on solar, batteries and nuclear power
The two bills will increase the state’s RPS to 50% by 2030, require 5% of electricity to come from behind-the-meter solar by 2021, set a 2 GW energy storage goal and bail out nuclear plants.
Maryland report shows distributed solar’s real power is people
An analysis submitted to Maryland regulators found that distributed solar’s economic benefits – mostly labor associated revenue – was worth six times the value of the electricity to the grid.
Illinois smart inverter rebates to benefit solar deployment
The availability of smart inverter rebates for Illinois medium and large nonresidential PV systems in Illinois can go beyond being able to work better in a grid to impacting net metering, energy storage and other policy issues.
Utilities win in South Carolina solar vote
A bill to lift net metering caps in South Carolina fails, after a technicality was used to force the bill to secure a 2/3 majority.
