Solar power will become a bigger part of the world’s electric supply, particularly as the world works to stem climate change. While it’s an inexhaustible, clean and renewable energy source, it will still pose challenges to the world’s electric grids. New research from MIT and the Institute for Research and Technology (ITT) at Comillas University in Spain looked into what that will transition will require—it won’t be simple or straightforward. 

Earlier this month EnergySage introduced a new survey of solar installers. The survey found that solar installers are competing more intensely at the same time that consumers are becoming better educated and more savvy about their solar power options. 

Under a new partnership announced today (Dec. 29) residential solar company Vivint Solar and solar company BlueWave are working together to sell memberships in two community solar projects in Southeastern and Central Massachusetts. The agreement will allow both companies to focus on their core strengths while benefitting customers in the region.

Last week Virgina Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced plans for the Commonwealth of Virgina’s facilities to start increasing its use of renewable energy swiftly. In the next three years it will source 8 percent of its energy from solar power. 

Lead is a problem, it’s highly toxic, it’s in a lot of stuff and still ends up in a landfills sometimes. One big source of lead is batteries, specifically car and and other vehicle batteries like golf carts. Thankfully lead can be used in a lot of things, like solar panels, particularly newer ones that use perovskite crystals. So MIT came up with a way to inexpensively recycle the heavy metal for use in these solar cells. 

There will be no reindeer prancing happily on Nevada’s solar rooftops this Christmas. The Nevada Public Utilities Commission just took action against rooftop solar in a big and disparaging way. It just passed new regulations reducing the net-metering rates for solar rooftop customers and not just future rooftop solar customers—but for all of them. 

Anyone will agree it’s been an interesting year for clean energy. Prices continued to fall, incentives expired, were set to expire and most recently, some of the most important were extended just last week at the federal level. Now, at the state level, Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) offers it’s top 5 legislative issues for renewable energy for 2015—for better or for worse.  

The southeastern U.S., including Florida (the Sunshine State) have a great solar power resource and are underutilizing it—except in North Carolina and perhaps Georgia. That’s according to recent data from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), which reports on the U.S. energy infrastructure on a regular basis and has been beefing up its reporting on solar power lately. It found that the majority of utility-scale solar power in the southeast is being installed in those two states with the majority being installed in North Carolina. 

Earlier this week San Diego passed a Climate Action Plan that will make the city of roughly 1.4 million people the largest city in the country to be powered entirely by renewable energy like wind and solar power. The bipartisan city council passed the mayor’s plan unanimously showing the strong support for clean energy in the city. 

Today’s crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels could be widely deployed by mid-century to help mitigate climate change. However, new nanomaterials could make for better, more efficient and less expensive solar panels in the future.