Last month New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced the retirement of the aging Indian Point Nuclear Energy Center (IPEC) by April 2021. Now, a new report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Riverkeeper presents six scenarios to the state on how to replace energy produced at the facility. The report found that increasing energy efficiency, improving transmission infrastructure and increasing the development of renewable energy sources can cost-effectively replace the 2,000 megawatts produced by IPEC.

Georgia Power introduced its new voluntary solar option, Georgia Power Simple Solar, for customers unable to install solar on their homes and businesses, but that want to use clean energy. The program charge customers an additional 1-cent per kilowatt hour used and purchases renewable energy credits from the utility’s solar facilities that offset and match the subscriber’s electricity use.

Residential solar provider, Vivint Solar announced that it now has more than 100,000 residential rooftop solar customers across 15 states. In less than six years, the company has installed 634 megawatts of residential solar. Its customers are also saving an average of 10 to 30 percent on their electricity bills relative to current utility rates, according to the company.

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) announced that all utilities in the state have either reached or exceeded, the state’s 10 percent renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requirement established in 2015. With nearly $3.3 billion invested in clean energy development, almost 1,670 megawatts of renewable energy projects were online in the state at the end of 2016 in its annual report. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that between December 2011 and December 2016 solar exploded in the state by nearly 800 percent. In 2011 the Empire state had only 83.6 megawatts of solar installed, by the end of 2016 it had 744 megawatts of solar installed in 64,926 projects installed and an additional 886 megawatts in development. 

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) announced plans to accelerate its solar development throughout the state by nearly tripling its current solar generating capacity of 335 megawatts to 935 (MWs) by early 2018. The utility will build eight, 74.5 megawatt solar plants consisting of a total of 2.5 million photovoltaic panels. The projects are expected to employ 1,600 to 2,000 workers during the peak of construction.

In a move to preserve natural beauty, public health and local economies, Pueblo, CO, and Moab, Utah, are the 22nd and 23rd cities in the US that have committed to transition to 100 percent renewable energy. Both have joined the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign. The Pueblo City Council committed to 100 percent sustainability through the development solar and wind by 2035, while Moab’s city government approved its commitment to 100 percent renewables by 2032.

For a second time, Texas’ El Paso Electric is attempting to raise rates on its rooftop solar customers more than on all of its customers. The utility filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to raise rates for residential and small commercial rooftop solar customers an average of $14.09 per month under a new rate class.

Xcel Energy is partnering with battery manufacturers, Sunverge Energy and Northern Reliability (NRI) in a two-year pilot project to study the performance of rooftop solar with residential and utility-scale battery storage systems in two Denver neighborhoods. Xcel will evaluate cost, reliability and environmental viability in a small, concentrated study area as part of the Innovative Clean Technology Program in order to understand how to accommodate more solar into its electric generation network.

Dominion Energy is investing $1 billion to install 500 megawatts of solar in Virginia by 2020.  Nearly 398 of the 500 megawatts of solar are now complete or under development. Most are utility-scale solar facilities for large business, like those slated to power Amazon’s data centers and smaller commercial installations for government buildings and schools throughout the state. Of the 398 megawatts installed or under development, 80 percent of the costs are financed by large business and government entities at no cost to current Dominion customers.