Solar San Antonio, a local solar advocacy organization operating in and near San Antonio, Texas, is raffling off a 4.8 kilowatt solar photovoltaic array. The organization is raffling off 250, $75 tickets for a PV array valued at $16,500.

First Solar reported its results for the first quarter of 2013 yesterday (May 6) and while the company’s results were positive with diluted earnings per share of 66 cents, the results did not necessarily live up to the company’s bullish guidance issued in April. 

Based on the falling costs of solar and rising electric prices, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), one of the largest utilities in the country that serves northern California, may not be able to compete with residential solar soon. That’s according to a recent piece at think tank, The Energy Collective by energy expert Douglas Short, President of Exas Consulting, LLC and a former Vice President at Constellation Energy. 

A contested bill in North Carolina that would repeal the state’s renewable portfolio standard is moving forward despite what appeared to be committee that voted against it. The bill was moved out of the Senate Finance Committee by State Senators Bill Rabon and Bob Rucho, both Republicans, who co-chair the committee. The senators held a voice vote on the legislation and despite a video of the vote showing that more senators appeared to be against the bill than for it, the Rabon said it passed and refused to do a headcount of votes.    

In a forthcoming report, Citigroup is naming what it’s calling the top 10 disruptive technologies. These are the technologies that it thinks will change markets or create new markets in coming years. Some are new things like 3-D printing, while others (like solar) aren’t all that new. This year solar makes the list for its “Moore's-law-esque cost decline rate.” The news comes as solar prepares for an explosion of growth over the next few years.

SunPower’s first quarter 2013 results were much better than expected, surprising at least one analyst somewhat. In larger terms, SunPower’s results—and early indications from First Solar (it reports first quarter 2013 results on May 6)—are starting to show signs that the solar manufacturing industry may be recovering from the tumultuous past few years. But back to SunPower, the company produced 22 cents of earnings per share on $635 million in revenue. That’s a significant increase over the $494.1 million in revenue and loss of 12 cents per share for the previous year’s first quarter.

Massachusetts now has 250 megawatts of solar energy installed, according to Gov. Deval Patrick’s (D) office. It’s a significant number for such a small state, particularly a northeastern one, and even more significant because it means the state reached its goal—four years early.

It looks like Colorado is set to expand the amount of renewable energy in the state once again now that Colorado Senate Bill 252 passed Colorado’s House of Representatives. The bill passed through the House on Monday, April 30 and was passed again by the Senate. It now heads to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) desk. The bill would expand the amount of renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal that the state’s large rural co-operative and municipal utilities must have in their electric generating portfolio to 20 percent by 2020. 

Amonix, which makes concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems, has once again broke a world record for real-world efficiency testing. In real-world testing, the company’s latest CPV technology reached a peak conversion efficiency of 36.2 percent at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. The new record broke Amonix’ former world record of 34.2 percent by 2 percent.

Boulder recently announced that Clean Energy Collective’s 500 kilowatt community solar garden, the Boulder Cowdery Meadows Solar Array in South Boulder County, Colorado, is now switched on and providing energy for its subscribers. While it’s not Colorado’s first community solar garden, it’s still noticeable for a number of firsts. It’s the first community-owned solar garden since Colorado’s legislature officially authorized community solar gardens in the 2010 Colorado Community Solar Gardens Act (HB 10- 1342), the first solar garden in an investor-owned utility’s service area and the first completed under Xcel’s Solar*Rewards Community incentive program.