Two new reports from the International Energy Agency (IEA) introduced today (Sept. 29) show that solar power could be the dominant form of energy on the planet. The reports show that solar photovoltaics and concentrating solar power (CSP) could make up 16 percent and 11 percent of the world’s electricity supply by 2050. That would put solar power ahead of fossil fuel, wind, hydro and nuclear-based electric generation.  

The IRS is evaluating the negative tax implications of Value of Solar Tariffs (VOSTs). The issue came about because an Austin homeowner filed an Information Letter Request about VOSTs in Austin, which homeowners in the region are subject to instead of net-metering. 

Earlier this week N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) broke ground on the new SolarCity GigaFactory at Riverbend in South Buffalo. The new GigaFactory will make 1 gigawatt of solar PV modules annually, using technology developed by Silevo. Once completed it will be the largest PV manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere. 

Yesterday (Sept. 23) Mission Solar Energy, LLC. officially opened the doors on its new, 240,000 square-foot facility in San Antonio’s Brooks City-Base. The new facility is the result of a collaboration between CPS Energy, Mission Solar Energy and OCI Solar Power. At the factory Mission Solar Energy will make N-type solar cells and modules, which are generally more efficient than the more common P-type PV cells that many companies produce. As such they’ll be suitable for homes as well as giant solar farms.

Perhaps it’s fitting that the decedents of Standard Oil’s John Rockefeller are turning away from oil and fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy. After all, when Rockefeller became the world's richest man by investing in oil, oil was among the cutting-edge energy sources. Now today’s cutting edge energy sources are wind, solar energy and other renewable energy sources. 

Earlier this year Google, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and partners announced the Little Box Challenge, an attempt to help create a much more efficient and power-dense inverter to reduce the cost and size of the inverters that convert solar power into AC-electricity usable in homes and businesses. The challenge carries a $1 million prize. Now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has agreed to test the inverters submitted to the challenge. 

One of the dirtiest pieces of land in the U.S., Sullivan’s Ledge, in New Bedford, Mass., is now remediated and generating solar power. That’s thanks to a 1.8 megawatt PV array installed by SunEdison and Blue Wave Capital. 

Today (Sept. 18) the Obama Administration announced a series of steps to increase solar in the U.S. and promote energy efficiency. The new steps are partly a result of a Solar Summit the administration geld with numerous states earlier this year and come a week before the international summit on climate change. But they’re also far-ranging and include future actions that will be taken to increase solar deployment in the U.S. while decreasing the costs of solar.

New reports from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory find that the price of solar continues to decline across all categories but perhaps most surprisingly in the residential sector, the price declines are starting to come from soft cost drops rather than just the costs of PV modules themselves.  The news was praised by both the Solar Energy Industries Association and Vote Solar. 

U.S.’s SunPower announced yesterday (Sept. 15) that it surpassed a significant milestone in photovoltaic (PV) production, manufacturing its 1 billionth solar cell. While just a number, it represents significant growth in the industry and that in conjunction with the company’s new 350-megawatt manufacturing facility (coming online soon), show that an industry many feared was on the ropes in the U.S. a few years back is still kicking.