Iowa

A recent analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy shows the Midwest and Plains States in the lead, but the coasts are on a track to catch up thanks to mandates.

Sean Gallagher of SEIA comments on the burgeoning regional solar market at the Solar Midwest conference in Chicago.

Known more for its wind than its solar resources, Alliant Energy Iowa has brought a 6.2 MW solar project online.

Two newly released reports explore diversity efforts for solar installation jobs in California and overall job growth in the Midwest.

MISO plans to conduct a multi-year study of how increasing amounts of solar and other forms of renewable energy will impact its territory and how to manage expected growth.

This is the first time that U.S. wind and solar have met more than 10% of demand in a single month; however individual states led by California and Iowa have reached much higher penetrations.

The Republican senator from Iowa has stepped in to the debate, expressing concerns about the study’s credibility and whether or not its conclusion has been pre-determined.

SEPA’s annual utility list shows utilities in North Carolina, Iowa and Utah among the top 3 in its lists for solar installed on an absolute and per-customer basis. The organization also published new lists of the top utilities for storage deployment.

Under a new rule proposed by Interstate Power and Light and accepted by the Iowa Utilities Board, the amount of energy eligible for net metering will be capped at a percentage of the customer’s previous-year’s energy use.

The national solar association is setting up a committee to focus on solar expansion in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin in a move designed to refocus the association on state-level policy battles, which are where most observers believe the future of solar will now be decided.