SunEdison’s TerraForm Made a big purchase today when it bought Capital Dynamics’ U.S.  solar portfolio  For $250 million. The purchase consists of 39 solar projects across the U.S., totaling 77.6 megawatts. The projects are in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. On average the projects in the portfolio have power purchase agreements  that last for 19 more years.

SunPower held its third-quarter 2014 earnings call today (Oct. 29), surpassing all its anticipated results despite a relatively soft margin. The company is different from many solar companies in that it manufactures, sells and installs solar panels in arrays of all sizes, from small home installations to some of the largest solar projects in the world. The results were enough for at least one analyst to reaffirm his outperform rating on the publicly traded company. 

While the overwhelming majority of solar panels today are shades of black or blue, numerous companies are working to make a new generation of solar cells and modules that aren’t black. These include transparent solar panels and colored panels. Once companies are able to realize these technologies they could vastly increase the applicable spaces for solar panels. Now the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) has announced that it has developed the world’s first white solar modules. 

Earlier this week Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz said the federal government would support continued research into reducing the costs of solar further through more than $53 million in grants, which will support 40 solar powered research and development (R&D) projects. The projects are aimed at reducing the cost of solar power through technology development. 

Solar Power Rocks, which tracks state solar incentives and rebates for homeowners across the U.S., released its 2015 Solar Power Rankings earlier this week. While some of the top 10 states were previously in Solar Power Rocks’ rankings for 2014, the list saw some significant changes as incentives in some states dried up and other states increased their solar incentive offerings, including renewable portfolio standards (RPSs). Each state could receive up to 5 points in the rankings. New York topped the list with 4.4 out of 5 points.

Today both Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) spoke up for solar at the Solar Power International (SPI) conference at Las Vegas calling it critical to the US and its energy future. The remarks follow a new effort from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to extend the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which Reid supported in earlier remarks at the show. 

Mosaic, which launched by crowd funding commercial-scale solar projects at schools and community centers is quickly moving into residential solar financing. Yesterday (Oct. 21) the company announced that it partnered with an affiliate of global reinsurer PartnerRe Ltd. on a $100 million new financing facility to support home solar loans. 

The cost of energy may be going up just about anywhere. But while that’s happening the cost of locally sourced solar power—read solar rooftops or distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems—continues to fall dramatically. According to a report, which came out today (Oct. 20), prices for distributed solar power dropped by 12 percent to 19 percent across the U.S. in 2013, which means it’s cheaper than ever for homeowners to go solar—and it’s getting even less expensive in 2014.

Earlier this week the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) introduced the third version of its annual Solar Means Business report finding that for the second straight year businesses, nonprofits and governmental institutes across U. S. have installed a cumulatively more than 1,000 MW of new Solar photovoltaic installations. SEIA has also added an interactive map showing solar installation locations throughout the country. 

In the past most large funds that solar installers or financiers have announced have been made with banks. Now a new partnership with Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) in Massachusetts and Sungage Financial has created a new $100 million residential solar loan program.