The predictions for the U.S. solar market keep coming in. The late 2015 extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for multiple years impacted many analysts’ expectations for 2016 and beyond. Now IHS anticipates that the U.S. will install 15 gigawatts of solar power in 2016, 67 percent increase of 2014. 

Last week it came to light that fully 17 percent of Hawaiian Electric Co.'s (HECO's) customers have installed solar power. That penetration of distributed solar power is a record for any state or utility in the U.S. It’s ensuring that the utility modernize and develop a stable grid that can handle the increased use of distributed energy resources. So yesterday the utility and Gridco Systems announced a new partnership to use Gridco’s power regulators to help the utility deploy even more solar power.

Yesterday (Jan. 28) the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to uphold net metering throughout the state. It’s the latest victory for rooftop solar and net metering. The decision is in line with Gov. Jerry Brown’s and the state legislature’s support of solar and renewable energy and will help ensure that California remains the U.S. leader in solar power. 

New international research at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was able to create highly efficient silicon solar cells in only seven steps. By simplifying the steps to make solar cells it can help reduce the costs of making solar panels, thereby reducing the cost of solar power overall. 

Earlier this week Vote Solar and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) released their Freeing the Grid 2015 report card rating the states on net metering and interconnection standards. The policies are widely regarded as two of the most important to encourage the wide-spread use and adoption of solar power. Overall the report found the policies are getting better in most states, though a few are not doing as well, like Nevada. 

A report published earlier this week showed that the U.S. can increase renewable energy production, reduce carbon emissions by up to 78 percent below 1990’s levels in 2030 and keep electric costs at roughly where they’re at. The magic bullet, an interstate for the grid, that’s according to new research from NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder.

New, preliminary research from GTM Research found that fully 59 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic power was installed across the world in 2015. That’s a 34 percent increase over 2014 and 2016 is expected to be even bigger. 

Renewable energy just got another boost. Yesterday the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition voted unanimously to rebrand as the the Governors’ Wind & Solar Energy Coalition, showing the increased importance of solar power to the nation’s energy supply—not just its clean energy supply. 

Last year Duke Energy added 300 megawatts of solar power in North Carolina. The company plans to keep adding more solar in 2016. It’s already announced 75 new megawatts of solar for 2016. 

As solar power and wind power have come down in cost and have become more widespread technologies their impact on the grid has become more worrisome as intermittent resources and the need to balance energy on the grid. The solution, energy storage. That’s been expensive but those technologies are coming down in cost too. To help speed adoption of the technologies the Department of Energy announced that it will help fund six solar energy storage projects with a total of $18 million.