Colorado-based community-solar garden developer Clean Energy Collective (CEC) announced today (Jan. 15) that it’s building new community solar gardens in Massachusetts. The solar gardens will allow the majority of Massachusetts residents and businesses to harvest the benefits of solar—even if they can’t put it on their roof or in their yard—by purchasing a part of the garden’s panels and then using the power produced to offset some or all of their electric bill. 

Germany’s Conergy, which like SunPower, both manufactures and installs soar arrays, today announced (Jan. 14) that it launched the Conergy Fund I program, a $100 million fund to support the development of large-scale projects in the U.S. The fund will finance solar projects between 500 kilowatts and 25 megawatts in size.

MidAmerican Solar and SunPower said that the first part of the 579-megawatt Solar Star development, the two co-located projects in California’s Kern and Los Angeles counties, is now online in California. When they’re completed, the projects—owned by MidAmerican Solar and designed and are being built by SunPower, will represent some of the largest photovoltaic (PV) systems to ever come online, which should come online by the end of 2015. 

Over the past few years New York, under Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has made solar a priority. Under that leadership the state has installed nearly 300 megawatts of solar—since 2012. Now the governor and his administration reaffirmed their commitment to solar with a 10-year commitment to the NY-Sun Initiative and plans to fund 3 gigawatts of solar throughout the state. 

California is still the dominant market for solar. It’s the most populous state in the U.S. and one of the most forward looking. With some of the largest installations in the world, it’s likely to be the leader in the Western hemisphere for a while. 

In one year, 2013, California installed 1 gigawatt of rooftop solar. In 2014 the U.S. is anticipated to install 5 gigawatts of solar. So last year California installed about 20 percent of what the whole nation is anticipated to install this year on rooftops alone. 

An administrative law judge in Minnesota has ruled that a solar proposal is a better deal for Minnesotans than a competing natural gas proposal. The proposal by Geronimo Energy would include up to 100 megawatts solar arrays between 2 megawatts and 10 megawatts in size at up to 31 sites across Xcel Energy’s service territory in Minnesota. The StarTribune, which broke the story, said the proposal would cost about $250 million to implement—without state subsidies. 

In all the solar sector drew almost $10 billion in venture capital, debt and public market financing in 2013, up 25 percent from the $8 billion it raised in 2012. That’s according to clean energy consulting firm Mercom Capital Group’s “2013 Solar Annual and Q4 Funding and M&A Report,” which found that while venture capital funding was down for the year, following recent trends. 

A couple of years ago New Jersey lawmakers passed the Solar Act of 2012, which was intended to encourage more solar development in the state. Instead the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has used the law to obstruct development of renewable energy projects, which were already underway with millions of dollars spent. Now lawmakers and the New Jersey Solar Grid Supply Association (NJSGSA) are calling on BPU to allow these projects to ahead, with the association filing a 16-count, $500 million legal suit against the commission.

Solar panels on cars are nothing new. The Toyota Prius has has offered solar panels on its roof for a number of years. But they only power a fan to ventilate the vehicle. Solar-powered cars zoom across the Australian countryside every other year as part of the World Solar Challenge. But these are one-off vehicles made by universities designed purely for the competition. Ford’s doing something different with solar this year the Consumer Electric Show in Las Vegas next week—it’s charging the C-MAX Solar Energi Concept car with the sun using concentrating photovoltaics.