United States

Murray Energy lobbied on a bill to roll back renewable energy “mandates” in Ohio, while it fought for government intervention to bail out coal-fired power plants.

The lawsuit alleges customers were misled on savings from solar leases and whether liens could be placed, in aggressive sales situations.

Tennessee safety authorities have submitted their report on the hydrogen explosion at the polysilicon plant of the German manufacturer in Charleston. They demand $25,400 in fines from Wacker Chemie for violations of various regulations, and the company continues its efforts to resume production.

President Trump has exempted the two nations from 25% import duties on steel and 10% duties on aluminum, and has further left the door open to any nations with which the United States has a “security relationship”.

The Chinese PV giant is now planning to employ only 1/4 the number of workers previously planned in one PV module factory, which will be online by the end of next year.

Facebook’s new datacenter in Georgia will be 100% renewable and powered by hundreds of megawatts of solar power, while Fifth Third Bank has also gone 100% renewable with an 80 MW North Carolina solar farm.

Researchers in the U.S. have confirmed the existence of a novel state of the element manganese, first proposed in a journal dating from 1928, which could allow for the development of low-cost, high performance batteries for grid level and other energy storage applications.

The national solar installer has acquired Haleakala Solar, and plans to hire 1,000 new employees in Hawaii over the next two years.

The North Carolina developer has followed its expansion into commercial rooftop development, by adding asset ownership tools to the corporate customer sale process.

The residential solar installer says that it is ready to begin growing again this year, as it continues to transform its business in a shifting industry.