As more wind and solar come online in the U.S. and around the world storing electricity to make sure there’s always power is becoming more of a concern. Battery technology is drawing billions of dollars investment, but now MIT researchers are proposing a new take on an old technology, flow batteries, that relies on gravity to store and discharge energy. 

The U.S. is expected to install 41 gigawatts of solar power and 56 gigawatts of wind power by the end of 2021. That’s enough to keep the country on top of the pile for EY’s RECAI (Renewable energy country attractiveness index) report. But throughout much of the rest of the index, which saw a refresh of how EY evaluates countries for the index, many countries saw a change in ranking.  

Today (May 26) the Baltimore Ravens and Constellation Energy flipped the switch on a new, 400 kilowatt rooftop solar array at the team’s headquarters in Owings Mills, MD. The new array will provide about 15 percent of the electricity needed at the headquarters.

Of the 8.1 million people who work in renewable energy worldwide more 2.8 million work in solar photovoltaics than in any other renewable energy industry. That’s according to a new report from International Renewable Energy Energy Agency (IRENA). The new report showed that renewable energy jobs are on the rise, increasing about 5 percent across the globe, in 2015.

The Brookings Institute is out with a new report showing that residential solar net-metering is a net benefit. The report comes as utilities are pushing back against an incentive for homeowners that choose to go solar that helps them control their energy costs while providing clean energy to the grid. 

Between May 23 and 24 nearly $200 million in rooftop solar funding was unlocked through two new, separate rounds of financing. In separate announcements Spruce Finance and Vivint Solar announced new rounds of funding to bring no- and low-upfront cost solar to homeowners across the country. 

It should actually be called a renewable subway system after all SunPower’s panels will provide about 42 percent of the power needed to run the subway system in Santiago, Chile. Another 18 percent will come from Vestas wind turbines. It’s the first time solar power will supply such a significant amount of power for a subway system and given that it’s the second largest subway system in Latin America with 100 stops, it’s no small feat. 

The U.S. Commercial solar market is set to grow by 30 percent in 2016, according to GTM Research’s latest report, U.S. Commercial Solar Landscape 2016-2020. The report found that the commercial solar market will see over 1.3 gigawatts of solar power installed in 2016. Looking farther ahead it will grow to 3 gigawatts in 2020. 

With conventional solar panels, like the silicon panels in most solar installations, the photovoltaic (PV) cells can only convert a certain spectrum of light into electricity. A lot of it, particularly thermal heat, is lost. But now researchers at MIT created a solar thermal photovoltaic (STPV) device that absorbs a broader spectrum of the sun’s energy and converts it into electricity. 

Earlier this month Spain’s Gamesa, which has installed more than 32 gigawatts of wind power worldwide, introduced a new hybrid power plant that combines solar, wind, energy storage and diesel generators into an off-grid system that can produce up to 2 megawatts of electricity. The system could power places like remote villages, rural areas or islands or mines. The system could help