As the Illinois Shines program approaches 4 GW of approved capacity, it’s offering a closer look at one special traditional community solar installation with agrivoltaic and pollinator-friendly attributes.

Salt River Project and NextEra Energy Resources have signed a power purchase agreement for 3,000 MW of solar to be built in Arizona through 2027.

The U.S. clean energy sector set a blistering pace in 2025, with utility-scale solar, wind, and energy storage accounting for 91% of all new power capacity added to the domestic grid.

New federal data shows solar and battery assets will comprise nearly 80% of all new utility-scale power additions planned for the U.S. electric grid this year.

The state agency has launched its tenth annual solicitation for Tier 1 Renewable Energy Certificates, seeking proposals from mature wind, solar and hydroelectric facilities, with a focus on eligible projects seeking to access expiring federal tax credits.

CEA’s 2026 manufacturing quality report finds that yield rates vary widely based on the age of solar module assembly facilities, with mature Chinese firms nearing 100% and U.S. outlier facilities ranging all the way down to 30%.

Propelled by a select group of high-capacity manufacturers including T1 Energy and Canadian Solar, Texas is set to exceed 15 GW of solar PV module production in 2026, accounting for nearly half of all U.S. silicon-based manufacturing and serving as the primary hub for the inaugural Solar Manufacturing USA conference in Austin this September.

The Portland, Tennessee “Mega Facility” consolidates three existing sites and marks a $30 million investment in domestic solar and energy storage supply chains.

The California-based nonprofit, backed by a $28 million state energy commission grant, aims to provide an open-access pilot manufacturing line for battery startups to scale their technologies without the need to raise massive amounts of capital.

The upcoming Solar Manufacturing USA 2026 conference in Austin will focus on real U.S. solar manufacturing progress, shifting attention from capacity announcements to actual production, costs, yields, and technology choices across the full value chain. It will also examine how policy changes and tariffs are driving domestic expansion in ingots, wafers, cells, and modules, while highlighting competing technologies like back contact, heterojunction and TOPCon.

The Pew Charitable Trust DER playbook offers examples of success stories for policy makers and regulators to follow to scale critical power options in the United States.

The projects, totaling 6.44 MW of capacity, add to Aspen Power’s distributed generation portfolio that covers more that 160 assets across 19 states.

Battery technology company Unigrid has developed a sodium-ion chemistry that can theoretically last for more than two decades while retaining more than 80% of its initial energy storage capacity. Company CEO Darren Tan says that will inevitably lead to a new zero-down leasing model that locks in a long-term source of revenue while delivering benefits to end users.

As energy storage developers navigate the tightening squeeze of FEOC compliance and a bifurcated lending market, unlocking the embedded value of project real estate is emerging as a critical, non-dilutive strategy for securing the pre-construction capital needed to meet 2026 supply chain deadlines.

Bolstered by a sixth consecutive quarter of margin expansion and a stabilizing U.S. footprint, the inverter giant is pivoting toward its Nexis platform and AI data-center power solutions.

The company will use its orbit-to-grid energy technology to provide resilient power for Department of War operations in “logistically constrained environments.”

Sense and ev.energy open windows on ratepayer and utility sides of distributed energy resource management.

The 1.6 MW Nexus pilot project in California has demonstrated that solar panels installed over irrigation canals can significantly reduce water evaporation and algae growth by 85%, while also showing operational efficiency.

The May 1 go-live of the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) marks the first time Western utilities can coordinate large-scale solar and storage resources 24 hours in advance, a move projected to significantly slash curtailment and boost regional reliability.

Researchers in Canada designed an air-source heat pump integrated with an air-based solar collector and radiant floor heating for cold climates, showing that the proposed system configuration could improve the coefficient of performance from 2–4 to 2–6 and reduce significantly annual energy consumption.