The Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon is coming Denver! The biennial event began in Washington, D.C. and since moved to California. Now the world’s first solar decathlon series of events will make Denver its home in 2017. The 2017 event will be held near Pena Station, a new development close to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge and Denver International Airport. 

One of the biggest criticisms of renewable energy is that low-income people don’t have access to it and that they, in fact, pay for others to go solar and are unable to see the benefits of clean energy first hand. A new partnership between PosiGen, NewWorld Capital Group, and Constellation Technology Ventures aims to change that by offering fully financed solar photovoltaic and energy efficiency services to low- to- moderate income homeowners in Louisiana, New York, Connecticut and Florida.

NASA has selected four proposals to develop game-changing solar array technologies for space exploration. Don’t expect the newest technologies being tested and promoted by NASA to end up on rooftops anytime soon, but the new technologies selected by the space agency are important nonetheless as such technologies can trickle down into more consumer-friendly technologies.

Today (March 11) Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed a sweeping new renewable portfolio standard into law requiring the state to source 50 percent of its electric generation from renewable energy like wind and solar and end its use of coal-fired electric generation—completely. In passing the law it’s the first state to pledge to completely eliminate its use of coal-fired power generation. 

Patagonia comes out of the cold and gets into rooftop solar—again. Today Patagonia announced that it and Kina’ole Capital Partners have partnered to lead the creation of a new, $35 million fund to support rooftop solar installations in a number of states. 

Last year the U.S. installed 7.3 gigawatts of solar power, raising the total to 27.4 gigawatts of operating solar power throughout the country by the end of 2015. Basically in one year the U.S. installed more than a quarter of the solar power that's now online. 

Today (March 8) Whole Foods Markets announced that it will install up to 184 solar arrays on its stores across the U.S. under partnerships with NRG and SolarCity. The new agreements will reaffirm the premium grocery company’s position as a leader in clean energy and will keep it among the 25 largest commercial rooftop solar users in the country. 

While many college students are celebrating spring break on beaches or visiting their folks or doing some amazing, fun things Grid Alternatives is hosting its own spring break program, installing solar power on 17 low-income houses in Colorado and California between Feb. 29 and March 25. Under its Solar Spring Break program more than 100 college students from 10 higher education institutions are getting hands-on experience with solar installations while helping people out.  

A new report out from the World Bank Group’s Lighting Global and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) found that internationally the off-grid solar power market is growing and will become a $3.1 billion opportunity by 2020. That’s from essentially a non-existent market less than a decade ago. The report recognizes that there are still 1.2 billion people across the world without access to the power grid. 

Maybe those aren’t the best comparisons, but that’s according to the latest annual Advanced Energy Now 2016 Market Report from Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) and Navigant Research. But some beer companies are also producing energy from their waste gasses so maybe it’s a fitting comparison after all. The bottom line is solar, wind and other advanced energy sources are becoming an increasingly important and valuable source of jobs, economic growth and activity in the U.S.—and the world, which saw a record revenue of $1.4 trillion in the advanced energy economy.