The Department of Energy’s loan program for new solar and clean energy technologies is proving more successful than ever imagined. The DOE has loaned $34.2 billion under the program. It has already received $810 million in interest payments and $3.5 billion in principal payments—these are on loans with an average repayment period of 22 years! 

In a first of its kind agreement for the U.S. and China both of the world’s superpowers have agreed to reduce carbon emissions significantly. Under new agreement between the two countries, made during Obama's visit to Asia, Obama announced a new target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 while Jinping of China announced targets to peak CO₂ emissions around 2030. Jingping also announced a target of using 20 percent non fossil-fuel-based energy sources by 2030. In doing so China agreed to deploy an additional 800-1,000 gigawatts of nuclear, wind and solar power by 2030.

A Texas company, Oncor Electric Delivery Co., recently commissioned a study that looked into deploying 3 to 5 gigawatts of energy storage for the grid in Texas. The cost of deployment could reach $2 billion but the study found that deploying energy storage would provide a net benefit for consumers by reducing energy costs while increasing grid reliability and making the grid more solar and renewable energy-friendly. 

Today (Nov. 10) Ford announced that will install wind and solar-powered systems at four of its dealerships under a new pilot program with partner Wind Energy. Under the partnership the Ford dealerships in Michigan, California and New York will install the Windy System wind turbine and a 7 kilowatt solar array. Ford is investing roughly $750,000 in the hybrid systems. 

The U.S. Export-Import Bank said that it anticipates investing $200 million in fiscal year 2014 to support renewable energy projects—like wind and solar industry projects—using U.S. companies’ products overseas. The news comes a day after the bank announced that it authorized roughly $20.5 billion in financing in 2014, supporting 164,000 U.S. jobs.

This week’s mid-term elections saw a dramatic but somewhat anticipated shift across the nation to a more conservative political nature. During campaign season many conservatives espoused support for fossil fuel projects like the Keystone tar sands pipeline or drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They didn’t—at least at the federal level—largely express support for renewable energy like wind and solar. Now that the Senate will be led by Republicans and they have expanded their gains in the House it could be a more perilous time for solar than any time since President Obama was elected. 

Perhaps in no other market has a large solar incentive program been as successful as in California. As the program’s successive incentive offerings were fulfilled incentives were reduced until now, when almost all incentives have been exhausted—two years before planned. Yet over the past year or so a growing number of people in California have said it’s a good thing. 

Today (Nov. 4) SunPower Corp. announced plans to build out a new a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel manufacturing facility in Cape Town, South Africa. The new facility, which will start producing PV modules there in 2015, will be capable of producing up to 160 megawatts of PV modules annually when the facility is completed. 

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are looking into using metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, which are likened to chemists’ tinkertoys, as part of developing a new generation of photovoltaic devices. In this instance the researchers are investigating combining MOFs with dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). To further their research the lab was recently awarded a $1.2 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative.

It appears the bad days for solar manufacturing in the U.S. are on the wane. SolarCity recently announced its GigaFactory in New York, where it will produce photovoltaic modules based on Silevo’s technology. Meanwhile San Antonio’s Mission Solar Energy started producing PV modules last month and now SolarWorld, the stalwart PV manufacturer with a long history of manufacturing in Oregon, is expanding production to 530 megawatts and hiring 200 people in 2015.