States and municipalities across the US are showing support for President Obama’s (D) Clean Power Plan. Now they’re urging President-Elect Donald Trump (R) to keep the plan in place, which would reduce power plant emissions in the US by the equivalent of 160 million cars (70 percent of the annual emissions the nation’s passenger cars).

One of the most contentious issues for renewable energy is how it should be developed to address the issues of climate change. A new study, Utility of the Future, introduced last month by the MIT Energy Initiative and the Institute for Research in Technology at Comillas Pontifical University looks into how to best integrate distributed energy resources like wind, solar and the technologies to enable better integration of those sources like energy storage. 

The last few weeks of 2016 saw some interesting things for the solar industry. While climate change is still an issue, people, like the World Economic Forum are seeing it as an opportunity for investment. Meanwhile even Republican leaders, at least at the state level, are warming up to the solar industry. 

As 2016 comes to a close it’s already proved a record year for solar and other renewable energy sources. With a new administration coming into power in the US and a Republican Congress, the industry could face new challenges in the US, but over the past few years solar power has continued to beat expectations with lower prices and more installations than anticipated in the US and the world. It’s also becoming increasingly apparent solar power has a key role to play in fighting climate change even as global energy demand increases and many in the industry and outside of it anticipate positive things for the industry in 2017 and beyond.  

Minnesota wants more solar products to be made in the state and it’s putting its money where its mouth is with a locally-made incentive program that’s already helping almost 1,100 solar systems across the state. Now it’s re-opening applications for the Made in Minnesota Solar Incentive Program from Jan.1 to Feb. 28, 2017, as part of a larger effort to increase the northern state’s small-scale solar power capacity by about 65 megawatts. 

It looks like the US is on its way to meet its emissions reductions targets under the Paris Climate Agreement, at least if the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) findings earlier this year are any indicator. Earlier this year the agency found that energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell to its lowest level for the first six months of 2016 since 1991—that’s 25 years. 

Ithaca College in New York is now getting 10 percent of its electricity from the sun thanks to a new, 2.9-megawatt solar array. The new array, actually located 40 miles away in Seneca, NY, will help the college meet its goals to become carbon neutral by 2050 and will help it maintain its place on the Princeton Review list of top “green” colleges in the US. 

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will soon host the 16.5-megawatt solar farm, upping the base’s total solar generation to 28.8 MWs. The latest project is being built on a Superfund site where the military dumped waste until 1984—much of it undocumented. 

As the cost of renewable energy has come down and the costs of fossil fuels have gone up, investing in renewable energy is becoming a no-brainer. That’s according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), which observed in its latest report that, among other things, renewable energy sources are increasingly less expensive than fossil fuels and green power bonds are returning 6 percent. 

Tesla’s Gigafactory in New Buffalo, NY, will actually be a Panasonic manufacturing facility. Under the agreement jointly announced by the companies today Japan's Panasonic will cover capital costs for the manufacturing facility in New York, which Panasonic has said will be in excess of $256 million.