The Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office (LPO) loaned $16 billion to the renewable energy projects with 85 percent going to solar projects as part of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Guess how much it lost during the nation’s worst recession since the Great Depression? Less then $1 billion. Overall, the LPO has about $34 billion in funds that have supported new technologies, from Tesla Motors (which paid back its $465 million loan in May) to nuclear power to new fossil fuel technologies. 

Just over a month ago Georgia’s Public Services Commission (PSC) voted to approve Georgia Power’s plans to add in 525 megawatts of solar. Now companies are moving forward with plans to start installing new solar projects. For instance, Inman Solar has broken ground on its 1 megawatt solar farm, the first of four 1 megawatt solar farms that it is building out under Georgia Power’s Advanced Solar Initiative (ASI).

Texas and Colorado are the states with the lowest installed solar costs, according to the latest version of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s annual Tracking the Sun, which tracks the annual costs of installed solar photovoltaics (PV). The report found that overall, the lowest cost of solar was in Texas, followed by Colorado. It also found that installed solar costs fell significantly in 2012 and have continued to do so in the first half of 2013. 

Most solar photovoltaic systems convert the direct current (DC) electricity produced by PV panels into the alternating current (AC) used in homes and businesses with inverters, which can be centralized or set up in strings depending on the size of the array. There are also microinverters, which are attached to each panel and convert the electricity into AC current at each panel. Such systems are typically used on home or small commercial operations. But now that Vine Fresh Produce in Ontario, Canada has installed a 2.3 megawatt solar rooftop array on its greenhouse using Enphase microinverters, that may be set to change. 

Residential leasing giant SolarCity announced plans earlier this week to purchase Paramount Solar. The purchase was made as the third-party ownership company announced that it plans to have 1 million customers and 6 gigawatts of solar energy deployed in the next five years and that it raised its full-year 2013 guidance to 278 megawatts of installations. SolarCity is already the nation’s largest thrid-party ownership company for residential solar installer with more than 3,300 employees and 400 megawatts of solar deployed nationwide. 

On Aug. 13, the Moapa Band of Paiutes in Nevada announced that its partnered with Herbst Energy and Stronghold (the largest minority woman-owned EPC in the U.S.) to develop up to 1.5 gigawatts of clean energy. Under the partnership, the three organizations have created Moapa Energy, which will develop and deploy the 1.5 gigawatts of clean energy on tribal lands. 

Residents in the Big Easy can now get a 4.5 kilowatt Stealth Solar Kit, thanks to a partnership between GOES and Stion. In fact, right now residents within 50 miles of New Orleans can still register for a chance to win a free solar array from the two until Sept. 15.

SolarCity is the nation’s largest residential solar installer and solar leasing company and with its second quarter as a publicly traded company (of the year as well as overall) under its belt, the company is showing that the residential solar third-party ownership model is viable. However, even though the 2Q results were above Wall Street consensus, SolarCity still posted a loss for the quarter promoting an after hours sell-off.

Vivint Solar’s residential solar leasing program just got a big vote of confidence, a $200 million vote of confidence. The Utah-based company, an offshoot of home services company Vivint, is the latest company to create a large fund to support third-party ownership for residents, making it easier for homeowners to go solar with little up front costs. 

Thirteen might be an unlucky number, but it seems like a better number when you consider that in 13 states—including the most populous ones like California and New York—solar offers a better return on investment than investing in the S&P 500. That’s just another way to look at why solar is a better investment today than many other investments people can make.