The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has introduced a new guide, Diversity Best Practices Guide for the Solar Industry, to help the solar industry be more inclusive. The new guide builds on previous efforts by the organization to encourage more women and people from diverse backgrounds to become a part of the industry and includes information on best practices and more.

On Nov. 10 Clenera and Swinerton Renewable Energy (SRE) announced that the 108 megawatt (MW) Grand View PV Solar Two projects will come online by the end of November 2016. The project is the largest to date in Idaho and makes it one of the few states in the US with solar projects that are 100 or more megawatts in size. 

Renewable energy organizations and companies are ready to work with President-elect Donald Trump (R). Over the past eight years, the renewable industries like wind and solar power have grown from handfuls of fledgling companies to strong companies employing hundreds of thousands of Americans. 

On Tuesday (Nov. 8) Florida’s voters realized Amendment 1 for what it was, a piece of proposed legislation that appeared to be solar friendly but really would have limited people’s options for installing solar power. The piece of legislation, supported by utilities with more than $26 millions, fell far short of the 60 percent of votes it needed to pass. 

The days of silicon remaining the top dog in commercial solar have never looked so numbered. The University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed new perovskite solar cells that achieve an average steady-state efficiency of 18.4 percent, with a high of 21.7 percent. 

For a while now Boulder, CO, has wanted to green its energy supply and not just the city or county buildings, but the whole place. Earlier this year it announced that it will go 100 percent renewable by 2030 and years ago it began an investigation to determine if it could create its own municipal utility that runs solely on renewable energy like wind and solar power, cost effectively. Turns out, it can and could save $100 million over 10 years in doing so.

Over the next three years SunPower will donate more than 2 megawatts of its solar panels to provide enough panels to power roughly 550 homes. That’s through a new partnership with GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit installing solar on low-income homes and offering solar job training in lower income communities. 

The election is upon the US and by the end of the week, the country should have some idea about the direction of the country for the next four years. Currently, the solar industry seems to be chugging along even amidst controversies like the Standing Rock protest and Florida’s Amendment 1.

Soon, Canada will be known as the great green north. The US’s northern neighbor announced that its government is going 100 percent renewable by 2025, making it one of—if not the first—the first federal governments to commit to sourcing all of its electric needs from renewable energy sources. The government already announced $2.1 billion in repairs and retrofits to government buildings and to green government operations.

Already Miami-based Origis Energy, has a portfolio of over 600 megawatts of completed solar projects worldwide. Now the company will expand that portfolio of projects, thanks in part to raising $100 million in growth capital from Belgium’s Baltisse, a private investment firm owned led by Filip Balcaen, who now becomes a member of Origis’ board.