When people talked about the solar coaster in the past it referred to the quickly changing in prices in the solar industry. Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey just changed that by announcing a giant new solar power array that will power its rides, including the newly announced Batman Coaster.

A new study from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) came out today (March 31) showing that 2014 was the best year yet for renewable energy with 103 gigawatts coming online across the world. Meanwhile investments in renewable energy, particularly solar and wind were up by 17 percent last year to $270 billion internationally after declining in previous years. The news comes despite the sharply lowered prices of crude oil. 

Today the leading renewable energy industry advocacy groups released a handbook aimed at helping states better understand how solar and wind power can help them comply with EPA regulations. The handbook is intended to help states comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which proposes regulations to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants. It will be updated when EPA finalizes the rules.

A new study by UCLA's Luskin Center for Innovation and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) for the Los Angeles Business Council, Los Angeles Solar: Now and into the Future, found that the city could have the largest local solar program in the country. However, the study found that there are needless delays in its solar programs. 

Earlier this month The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a narrowly focussed report on certain subsidies to the energy industry at the behest of Reps. Fred Upton (R), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Ed Whitfield (R), Chairman of its Subcommittee on Energy and Power. Conservatives pounced on the bait claiming that renewable energy received more subsidies than other energy sources, but the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has poked holes in their logic. 

Who woulda thunk it. Just a few years ago solar power made up less than a percent of California’s electric generation. Now it’s up to more than 5 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) Electric Power Monthly. 

Photovoltaic solar cells using multiple layers to absorb more sunlight is nothing new, the PV cells and arrays used for satellites and concentrated PV devices have been using them for years. But these are expensive devices that use rarer, expensive materials, making them too expensive for more common applications. That might be changing. 

South Carolina hasn’t been known as a solar stronghold but with its new Solarize South Carolina program the state is changing that. It wants to put solar on 2,000 homes within the next 18 months. The program was designed as a partnership between SmartPower, Dividend Solar, Alder Energy Systems and Sunstore Solar with the support of the utility SCE&G. 

Today (March 19) President Barack Obama (D) signed an Executive Order requiring the federal government to increase its use of renewable energy to 30 percent and to reduce its emissions. Under the order federal agencies will reduce their emissions by 40 percent from 2008 levels by 2025. 

Target's logo might be red but the company just got a lot greener thanks to a new agreement the discount retailer with Greenskies Renewable Energy unveiled on March 17. Under the newly signed agreement Target will install solar arrays on the roofs of 180 Target stores and distribution centers across the U.S.—by the end of 2016.