Rooftop solar is back in Nevada! That’s thanks to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada’s (PUCN’s) decision today (Sept. 1), requiring NV Energy to charge solar and non-solar customers alike the same fees and to net-meter customers with solar. The ruling ensure customers are compensated for the energy they put back on the grid. 

Perovskite crystals are one of the most promising new solar photovoltaic technologies, they’ve already proved highly efficient at converting sunlight into electricity and promise to be cheap to produce. But researchers are trying to figure out how to best make these into durable, long-lasting solar panels and devices. Stanford researchers think they may have found an answer in an unlikely place—fly eyes. 

Today (Aug. 31), Tesla announced that it’s started moving toward mass production of its solar roof tiles at its Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, NY, hiring on hundreds as it ramps up production. The company also said that it now plans to produce 2 gigawatts of solar cells annually at the facility once it’s at full-scale production. At almost the same time details about how the tiles work and connect as opposed to traditional solar panels. 

In Colorado Xcel Energy could invest $2.5 billion to build out up to 700 megawatts of solar, 1 gigawatt (GW) of wind and 700 MWs of natural gas in the state by 2026, while retiring two coal plants earlier than anticipated. At that point, roughly 55 percent of its electric resources would be renewables. 

Over the past few years solar power has popped up in all sorts of places—even some where people might not expect it to, like auto manufacturers and at car dealerships, to help them cut their energy costs. While it might not be surprising to see solar power at a Tesla dealership—it owns SolarCity. But did you know a growing number of Chevrolet, Ford, Honda and Toyota dealerships have solar power, too?

Plants have used photosynthesis from the first time some ancient ancestor first unfurled its first green leaf to harvest the power of the sun to grow. It works. But chlorophyll, which plants use to harvest sunlight and which gives leaves their green color is inefficient at the level that humans want to harvest solar energy to convert it into useful compounds for fuels and products. Now scientists have created cyborg bacteria that can produce useful compounds for fuels and products inexpensively.

Yesterday (Aug. 28) Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) announced that Rocky Mountain Power, governments and the state’s solar industry, came to an agreement on the future of rooftop solar and net-metering in the state. Under the agreement existing rooftop solar customers are grandfathered into their net-metering rates through the end of 2035 and new rooftop solar customers will be transitioned to a new program crediting them for the energy their solar panels put back on the grid. 

The quickly dropping costs of solar power and infrastructure have led to more rapid growth than optimistic models have projected, according to a new study by the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). The research found that by 2050 solar power could make up between 30 percent and 50 percent of the world’s energy needs. That’s up sharply from the 5 percent to 17 percent or the world’s energy generation that the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had projected.

Already 12 homeowners in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, WI, have signed up for a total 52 kilowatts of solar power through the Milwaukee Shines and Solar Tosa solar group purchasing programs. That’s surpassed the 50 kW goal the programs had meaning that all the homeowners that signed up will receive rebates for their rooftop solar systems. 

A new roadmap from The Solution Project shows that 139 countries could convert to 100 percent renewable energy like wind and solar power by 2050 while creating tens of millions of long-term jobs in the process. That’s just part of the renewable energy news that made waves last week. In other news research shows that multi-layer silicon photovoltaics have reached 36 percent efficiency levels.