South Carolina is the latest solar victory in 2014, according to The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC), and overall it’s a been a good year for solar. In all, TASC says that seven states expanded their solar net metering programs in 2014 and no states repealed or reduced their net metering programs this year. 

States across the country have and are implementing programs that help homes, businesses and utilities go solar. Some, like California, Massachusetts and Hawaii have already seen huge successes in increasing the amount of clean solar, wind and other forms of renewable power in their states, while others, like New York and North Carolina are in the midst of drastically increasing the amount of solar power in their grid systems. 

First Solar is one of the U.S.’ largest producers of photovoltaic solar panels and while it’s building some of the largest PV farms in the U.S. and the world, hardly any of them are on homes in the U.S. That’s because its CadTel thin-film modules are inexpensive but currently not as efficient as silicon PV—so it would take more space on a roof to produce as much energy as silicon modules do. But now, through a new partnership with Colorado’s Clean Energy Collective (CEC), homeowners are able to get a piece of the solar action through a community solar garden with First Solar modules. 

Over the past few years the amount of new solar power coming online continues to eclipse previous growth. In keeping with what will hopefully remain a tradition the U.S. again surpassed the previous third quarter record for installed solar photovoltaics. In the third quarter of 2014 the U.S. installed 1,354 megawatts of PV that’s up 41 percent over the same period last year when 963 megawatts of new PV came on. The figures are from the quarterly U.S. Solar Market Insight Report released by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association's (SEIA) today (Dec. 9).

Taking a cue from his neighbors New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has introduced a new statewide Solarize New York program. The new initiative, Community Solar NY, was instated under the NY-Sun initiative in an attempt to make it easier for people to go solar by accessing economies of scale to bring on the cost of solar in the state.

As 2014 comes to a close as well as the third quarter earnings season companies are getting a glimpse into how solar manufactures are performing in terms of sales. Over the past few years Chinese manufacturers have dominated the scene and continue to do so, but according to research firm IHS a reshuffling of the top 10 PV manufacturers is underway. 

A new report, the "California Advanced Energy Employment Survey," from the Advanced Energy Economy shows that clean energy, like solar and wind, energy efficiency and some advanced fuels are providing 431,800 jobs in California—5 percent more than in 2013. That’s not all the good news for the Golden State’s clean energy industries—it’s slated for an increase of 17 percent or 70,000 more jobs in 2015. 

Soitec has broken the world record for PV cells once again. On Monday (Dec. 1) the company announced that its newest champion PV cell was able to convert fully 46 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity, surpassing its previously held world record of 44.7 percent.

Jackie Chan might be taking on his biggest challenge yet—and he doesn’t even have to act. That’s because researchers at Northwestern University exploring how to increase the performance of solar cells by changing their surface coating to increase light absorption. What they found was that the data pattern on the Blu-ray disc for “Supercop 3”, a Jackie Chan movie, efficiently increased the light absorption of solar cells. 

On and off Colorado’s been one of the best states for solar power. The Solar Energy Industries Association ranked it 10th in its 2013 Top Ten Solar States and Solar Power Rocks rated it fifth in its ratings. While the state has a great solar resource and one of the nation’s best renewable energy portfolio standards its suffered from a boom-bust solar industry cycle created as incentives for solar quickly dry up.