To gain greater economies of scale and reduce the costs of equipment Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island partnered on the three-state Clean Energy RFP. Earlier this week, Oct. 25, the Clean Energy RFP announced that the effort has resulted in the selection of seven wind and solar projects that will supply the states with up to 461.2 megawatts of clean energy generation.

The US is still the world’s most attractive market for renewable energy investments. That’s according to the bi-annual EY Renewable energy country attractiveness index (RECAI), which found that the top five most attractive countries to invest in for renewable energy remain the US, China, India, Chile and Germany, in that order. 

The US has made strides towards reducing its climate targets, at least in part because of President Obama’s actions to, well, sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, but also in increasing the use of renewable energy. But already it’s expected the US will fail to make its goals. That’s why the Center for Biological Diversity today (Oct. 26) urged Obama to install solar panels on all federal buildings, to show what can be done.

LG has quickly made a name for itself across the world with its electronics. Now, it’s entering the residential energy storage business thanks to a new partnership with Sunrun. 

Virginia keeps rolling ahead with more solar power. Today (Oct. 25) Dominion Energy’s Dominion Virginia announced that construction is now underway on new utility-scale solar projects in Isle of Wight, Louisa and Powhatan counties that will produce enough electricity to power 14,000 in the Commonwealth. 

It’s getting close to every day that perovskite crystals are becoming the next likely solar superstar with the low-cost materials getting ever closer to commercial production and potentially even supplanting silicon-based photovoltaics as the dominant form of solar power generation. Most recently a cross-Atlantic team of researchers from Stanford and Oxford Universities have produced a dual-layer, perovskite crystal-based solar cell that’s 20.3 percent efficient in laboratory testing. That’s nearly as efficient as many of the leading silicon-based solar cells commercially available in 2016.

Just like importing fruits, veggies and goods, Invenergy is proposing importing energy to Long Island, a lot of it. The renewable energy developer just announced a new proposal for Long Island that would use a high-voltage DC (HVDC) transmission line called the Clean Energy Link to send 701 megawatts from four new wind (478 MWs) and two new solar farms (223 MWs) that will be built in the 12-state PJM regional power market.

It’s election season and in one state solar is on the ballot. In another solar will replace coal plants. Meanwhile, the nation’s biggest box stores have swapped solar leadership places, peer-to-peer home sharing members get a special discount on solar. That’s all in this week’s solar news in review.

This past week Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced two new solar projects in the state as he updated the state’s 2014 Energy Plan. The new installations include a 20-megawatt solar farm and installations at six schools. 

This election season is one of the most raucous to date and it’s not just led by the ugly clashes of the Presidential nominees. In Florida, the battle for rooftop solar power and the ability to go solar is up for fierce debate as voters will decide whether or not to approve Amendment 1, a misleading piece of solar legislation promoted by utilities in the state that would negate other solar legislation.