Nevada

Veteran reporter Frank Andorka gets granular with some shocking numbers from The Solar Foundation’s Diversity Study – and wonders aloud why women of color are getting the fuzziest end of the lollipop.

In a victory for rooftop solar in the states, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission rejected NV Energy’s attempts to use Assembly Bill 405 to institute usurious rate changes that would have made solar’s economics tight for many potential customers.

As the Nevada PUC puts NV Energy’s rate plan on an accelerated approval schedule, companies race to register their opposition before time runs out.

The EV, battery and solar company continues to raise record amounts of cash as it ramps Model 3 production. At the same time, it’s emphasizing profitability from its solar business, which has undergone a significant transformation since the company bought SolarCity.

The Nevada utility holding company’s response to mostly losing the latest battle over net metering in the state is to attempt to ram through a significant rate redesign which the solar industry says would impact not only solar but low-income customers.

South Carolina and Pennsylvania also saw significant increases in solar permits granted, but California and Colorado both dropped by nearly 30%, according to the latest OhmHome report.

In this interview from the Intersolar North America 2017 trade show, pv magazine talks with visionary author Tony Seba about developments in the solar, battery and electric vehicle markets, and how the predictions that he made in his 2014 book Clean Disruption look three years later.

This quarter’s report on policies and rate design that affect distributed solar showed many of the same themes as previous reports, but also a glacial shift in approach.

The renewables arm of the French energy giant has bought the Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2 projects for an undisclosed sum.

The Italian inverter maker will supply its devices for a large-scale PV project under development in Nevada.