That’s the conclusion of a report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released last week (Dec. 12), which found that a new photovoltaic installation on a home leads to a $5,911 price boost per kilowatt installed—at least in California, where the report, “Exploring California PV Home Premiums” gathered data from. The report is an important sign that not only is solar good for the current homeowner, it’s also becoming more attractive to future homeowners. 

‘Tis the holiday season, starting with Hanukkah and Thanksgiving and stretching through to New Year’s Eve. It’s a time to think of loved ones and others, and while you might not be thinking about putting solar on your roof during the shortest days of the year, maybe you should. You could be doing more than just putting solar power on your roof by supporting nonprofits—all without adding extra costs to you.

Yesterday (Dec. 11) a crowd of hundreds gathered in Denver's chilly noon chanting “Fair credit!” and other slogans as they delivered a petition with nearly 30,000 signatures to Xcel’s Colorado headquarters calling for Xcel Energy to not gut its net-metering policy as is. The utility, the largest in state, filed with Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission to lower the amount it pays for solar power produced by its net-metered customers.

Today (Dec. 11) the Department of Energy (DOE) said it is supporting solar manufacturing in the U.S. by investing a total of $13 million in five solar companies across the country. The funds are matched by $14 million in private funding and are designed to help the companies improve manufacturing of solar equipment in the U.S.

It’s the second time that GTM Research and with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) have had to say that it’s the second best quarter for solar in the U.S. and it’s a good sign for the solar industry as 2013 comes to a close. Moreover it was the best quarter for residential solar—ever.

Last week DuPont announced the completion of a new, 548 kilowatt solar array, which on its own, wouldn’t be too amazing. But the chemical company completed the array using its own modules on its own Superfund site in Newark, Del. And doing anything with a Superfund site means unique challenges. 

Earlier this week the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) released the Northeastern portion of the 6th annual Renewable Energy in the 50 States report. The report focuses on the state of the renewable energy industry across the U.S. and is released in four stages. The most recent release finds that some of fastest growing states for renewable energy are in the U.S. Northeast, led by New York and Pennsylvania. It also anticipated that by the end of 2021 the distributed solar power market (rooftops, small solar farms, commercial buildings, etc.) will grow to 2 gigawatts from 250 megawatts in 2012.

President Barack Obama (D) issued a Presidential Memorandum on Dec. 5, directing the federal government and all its entities to source 20 percent of their energy from Renewable energy like solar power, wind and other sources by the end of the decade. The move was hailed by conservation organizations as well as renewable energy advocates. 

Building on a solar sale-leaseback fund created just over a year ago, SunEdison and financier De Lage Landen announced that they were expanding their previous partnership to support commercial and municipal solar installations. Last December, DLL and SunEdison created a $52.2 million fund. On Dec. 3 the companies announced they were investing more than an additional $100 million in such projects, with all of the projects covered by the fund slated for completion before the end of 2013. 

The idea of parity for solar power, the day when energy from solar panels costs as much as other electric generation sources like coal or natural gas, is coming closer. But when exactly will we hit that mark? The Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative seeks to reach that point by the end of this decade—and some other analyst companies see that as possible and have made recent predictions to that effect. But today Lux Research reported it anticipates the world will largely reach solar parity by 2025.