United States

Open Energy’s program funds projects costing between $250,000 and $2 million. The capital lease program hopes to finance 70 MW of projects through the end of this year.

A new report sheds light on primarily states, primarily in the sunbelt, that dampen (or drown) rooftop solar through bad policies, or none at all.

The bill to allow PV systems up to 5 MW in capacity to participate in net metering has been reported out of committee and will now go to a vote of the full House, it’s last stop before the desk of Governor Sununu.

The thin film solar maker is also reviving its EPC division with a goal to build 1 GW of solar projects each year, as well as increasing its presence in O&M services.

The 1.2 GW factory will employ 500 workers. The new facility is expected to First Solar’s total capacity to 7.6 GW by the end of 2020.

Wacker Chemie has said it is gradually ramping up production at its beleaguered U.S. polysilicon production site, with product expected to be again available in Q2. The shutdown has affected its Q1 earnings, with sales down 18% compared to a year ago.

In this op-ed, Environmental Defense Fund’s Dick Munson explains how FirstEnergy’s federal bailout request poses a serious threat to competitive, clean energy, and why FirstEnergy’s attempts to block the sun and stop the wind present an existential threat.

1366 Technologies, “recipient” of an undisbursed $150 million manufacturing loan guarantee, has received an aggressively-worded letter from the U.S. Department of Energy as it seeks a Section 201 exemption.

The developer says the facility is one of the few NERC-CIP compliant control centers run by a solar company, and will manage nearly 2 GW of solar projects in 14 states.

The Empire State state has announced a solicitation for 1.5 million megawatt hours of renewable electricity, to be delivered by 2022.