Georgia will soon have what will likely be the largest PV manufacturing facility in the US, a plant capable of producing 1.6 gigawatts of solar panels a year. That’s because yesterday (May 30) South Korea’s Hanwha Q Cells announced that it will build a solar panel manufacturing facility in Whitfield County, GA.

With the completion of a 1.1 megawatt solar rooftop solar array at its North Las Vegas fulfillment center, Amazon has installed 17 rooftop solar arrays in the US in the past 14 months. The company is looking to become the latest IT giant to become 100 percent powered by renewable energy, like its peers Google and Apple. 

Solarize campaigns in New York are working. By using the power of collective purchasing the campaigns have lowered the cost of solar for residences and businesses. Through the NY-Sun Initiative, the state has supported 81 Solarize campaigns across the state since 2014 with nearly $830,000 in technical and marketing support. That’s led to 2,439 solar power projects either already completed or underway.

Last week RGS Energy announced its Dow Solar Shingles may offer the lowest-cost solar power roof. Solar also came out on top in New Jersey where the governor signed new laws boosting solar in the state and made major gains in the PJM Interconnection to help reduce costs. 

Solar power continues to come to the Sunshine State with the announcement that Tampa Electric will phase out a coal plant early and convert another to natural gas while adding in 600 megawatts of solar power in the next three years. It’s the second announcement related to a four-phase plan to become a greener utility. 

The PJM Interconnection, the electric grid that serves 65 million from the mid-Atlantic to Illinois, just released the results of of its most recent annual competitive capacity auction. The amount of annual capacity of solar power that was approved in the auction increased 570 to megawatts approved, compared to 125 MWs in 2017. 

Today New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a major piece of legislation reinvigorating and expanding the state’s renewable energy industries. The law aims to stabilize the solar market through 2021 and expand the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 50 percent by 2030. 

Even before Elon Musk introduced the Tesla Solar Roof Dow Chemical Co. had introduced its Powerhouse Shingles. However, when it introduced them in 2009, they never really took off and in 2016, they announced they were halting production. Now, under a new agreement with RGS Energy, they’re back with version 3.0, which promises lower prices.

Last week saw more support for renewable energy across the country. A major poll showed a majority of people in the US, regardless of political affiliation, want more renewable energy. Meanwhile, the most new energy jobs were in renewable energy and energy efficiency. 

Contractors, environmental groups and more are suing Connecticut’s government in federal court over the legislature’s misuse of renewable energy and energy efficiency funds. They allege the government misappropriated $175 million from Conservation & Load Management, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and Clean Energy funds to the General Fund to fill a budget gap over two years.