Energy efficiency is always the first step toward making the planet cleaner and also a great way to make taking additional sustainability steps—like going solar—easier and less costly. This is especially important at the municipal level, because an energy-efficient municipality can save hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars by reducing their energy consumption before it even considers solar power. 

On Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce imposed preliminary anti-subsidy tariffs on polysilicon imports for photovoltaics from select manufacturers in the U.S.: REC Silicon and Dow Corning’s Hemlock Semiconductor. The anti-subsidy tariffs are on top of the anti-dumping duties that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce imposed on the same manufacturers in July, bringing the combined tariffs on polysilicon against them as high 63.5 percent. The move is the latest in a solar trade war that has been escalating between the two countries since 2011.

SolarWorld has jumped into the fray of companies that offer solar under a third-party ownership (TPO) arrangement through its new Freedom Plan. The company is now introducing the plan in the Hawaii market, which has some of the most expensive electric costs in the U.S. 

In the waning hours of California’s legislative session, the state’s lawmakers have passed two solar bills, one that will change electric rate structures in California as well as remove the cap on net-metering, the other will allow Californians to purchase renewable energy from their energy utility. 

Earlier this week, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo. where he launched a trio of new efforts to increase the amount of solar, wind and other clean energy in the U.S. He launched on Sept. 11 the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF)—a new research facility focused on clean energy grid integration. Moniz also introduced a new research collaboration with Toyota and the Army and Peregrine, a new supercomputer at NREL that’s dedicated to investigating how to integrate all this new, clean energy. 

In the second quarter of 2013 the U.S. saw 832 megawatts of photovoltaics installed in the 28 leading states, making it the second-largest quarter for solar in the U.S.—ever. That’s according to the GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2nd Quarter 2013, which was released Sept. 12. The second quarter achievement is also 100 megawatts more than the amount of solar photovoltaics (PV) installed in the first quarter, which reached 723 megawatts.

In an effort to create its own renewably-powered utility, Boulder, Colo., is reaching out to the solar industry to explore how the city will transition from its current electric supply from Xcel Energy to renewables. Boulder’s efforts to create its own utility have drawn national attention from utilities and the renewables industries. 

The nonprofits GRID Alternatives and Homeboy Industries have partnered with SunEdison to install solar energy systems on six homes in California. Most recently (Sept. 10), they installed a 2 kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) array on the home of a nurse in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood. 

An effort to bring group purchasing discounts to Connecticut, CT Solar Challenge has gone statewide after a successful pilot in a number of communities earlier this year. 

Two great opportunities to learn more about solar are about to occur: The National Solar Tour and The Solar Decathlon. The former is an annual event across the U.S. and the latter is a biennial event. Both allow people across the U.S. to get an in-person view of solar and how it works.