The theoretical efficiency limit of a conventional silicon-based photovoltaic cell is 33.7 percent, but companies like Soitec and Solar Junction are already surpassing that limit with specialized PV cells which use multiple layers of materials to absorb photons from different spectrum of light and convert them to electricity. The world’s current leader in this category is Solar Junction, which has produced a PV cell that can convert 44 percent of the sun’s rays into electricity at a concentration factor of 947 suns. However, Soitec says its new cell, which debuted at 43.6 percent efficiency, could reach efficiency levels of 50 percent under concentration. 

The Garden State, sometimes derided as New York’s trash bin, may now have an opportunity to do something with all that Big Apple trash lying in its landfills. Under a proposal from New Jersey’s largest utility, Public Service Gas & Electric (PSE&G), the state could invest an additional $447 million to expand the statewide use of solar energy. A majority of this investment would be used to redevelop landfills, brownfields and other abandoned industrial sites. But that will only happen if New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities approves the proposal, which could happen as soon as May 29.  

The giant Ivanpah solar electric generating system (SEGS) in the California desert is more than 92 percent complete as BrightSource continues construction on the behemoth concentrating solar power (CSP) system, which generates electricity via a steam turbine. Once complete, its three towers will provide a combined 377 megawatts of solar generation for Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric under long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). 

Solar and renewable energy standards in general have come under increasing attack in the past year as fossil-fuel companies and some utilities are starting to feel the heat and competition from renewable energy generation. Few places have seen such vicious attacks as North Carolina, where Republican legislators pushed legislation forward through committees, despite overwhelming outcries against bills that would have repealed the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS). But even there, the bill that would have gutted the RPS finally failed to move forward, revealing that such tactics aren’t popular with the public. 

The U.S. Department of Energy will help three Native American tribes go solar this year through its Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) program. Under the DOE's program, tribes in Arizona, California and Colorado will receive assistance to go solar.  

Virginia hasn’t been the hotspot for solar development, partly due to anemic incentive programs and a relatively toothless voluntary renewable portfolio goal—as opposed to a standard, utilities are not required to add in more renewables. Still, a new low-income project at an apartment building shows that even in Virginia, solar can still provide energy savings. 

Solar photovoltaic manufacturers must be starting to breathe again. Over the past few years, they’ve struggled to keep their heads above a tide of overproduction that’s been washing out weaker competitors and strengthening others. Now, a growing body of evidence shows that the tide is changing. Case in point, a new report from Lux Research anticipates that the solar market will recover by 2015 and grow to a $155 billion annual industry by 2018.

Homeowners in Massachusetts are going solar in a big way. The commonwealth’s solar market is moving along at a good clip and the state is already looking at its renewable energy goals in the rear-view mirror as it drives for more. But, while in many states that would mean a lot of growth in commercial and utility-scale markets, it appears that the solar growth in Massachusetts extends to homeowners in a big way. 

Colorado’s pine and spruce forests are being devastated by beetles that bore under their bark, reproducing and spreading tree-killing fungi. As the world gets warmer the problem gets worse. Spurred by warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons, mountain pine beetles are now reproducing twice annually, compounding the problem. These assaults are leaving wide swaths of tree carcasses throughout the evergreen stands that are among the magnificent hallmarks of the Rockies, offering ready fuel for wildfires—or perhaps electricity. That’s the aim of a new pilot project announced by Xcel Energy in Colorado this week. 

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., which owns over 1,100 high-end hotels and resorts throughout the world, including the W, Sheraton and Westin brands, has partnered with NRG Energy to use renewable energy onsite. Already, NRG will install nearly 3 megawatts of solar photovoltaics (PV) at three Starwood locations. In forming the partnership with NRG, Starwood is joining a growing number of hotels across the world, and might be one of the first times an international hotel chain has partnered to install solar at multiple locations.