The US community solar market, which already has more than 1 gigawatt of projects installed, is set to boom. It’s expected to grow at least 50 times in size and up to 80 times in size by 2030. That means there could by at least 57 gigawatts of community solar projects in the US and up to 84 GWs by then, enough to serve nearly 9 million people in the US and provide 2.5 percent of the US’s electric generation. 

Nonprofits don’t have the same access to finance solar projects at lower rates as commercial entities and homeowners do. But some companies like Greenworks Lending and CollectiveSun are working on ways to change that with their new Collective PACE offering.

One major way to help increase gender equity in most industries is to ensure pay equity. That includes in the solar industry and Sunrun just made the announcement that it’s reached pay parity, meaning that all employees regardless of gender, who perform similar work in similar locations across the United States are paid equally.

The Trump Administration continues to push to keep more costly coal and nuclear power plants online and would cost ratepayers up to $35 billion to do so. Meanwhile reports show renewable energy is becoming even cheaper and becoming more of the US’s energy supply. 

The Trump Administration continues to attempt to keep expensive coal and nuclear power plants online, a move that could cost US taxpayers up to $35 billion a year. That’s despite these energy sources providing no clear advantage over clean energy alternatives like wind, solar and natural gas, for the US electric grid. 

The most efficient solar panels ever made use multi-junction photovoltaic cells. These cells absorb different wavelengths of sunlight in different layers, allow them to capture more energy from the sun. However, they’re expensive because they use rare materials and require more manufacturing steps. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has revamped an older technology that could make these solar cells cost competitive with conventional silicon solar panels available today. 

Solar and wind are likely the fastest growing new electric generating sources since cities started electrifying in the late 1800s. A new report out from Environment America shows that the amount of solar power in the US energy mix was just a percentage of a percentage (0.05 percent) to 2 percent of the US’s electric generation mix, an 39-fold increase in just a decade.

The Apple gets greener with its latest investment, a $300 million fund its investing in with manufacturing partners in China to invest in clean energy projects with 10 of its suppliers. The company aims to invest in more than 1 gigawatt of clean energy projects in China through the fund.  

Last week was a week of reports and new studies in the world of solar and fighting climate change. One report found that homeowners are increasingly turning to solar loans to finance rooftop solar, while another report showed California is making significant gains in reducing its emissions.

California proves that states can be environmentally friendly while still growing its economy significantly. As it moves towards more renewable energy generation the state cut its climate-changing emissions by 13 percent since their 2004 peak, bringing them below 1990 levels—a goal the state had set for 2020. Meanwhile the state’s economy has grown by 26 percent over the period.