Last week Vivint Solar announced that it was entering one of the US’s richest states for solar power, Florida. It becomes one of the first large, multi-state rooftop solar third-party ownership companies to enter into the market with zero-down solar financing options.

The nation’s capitol, Washington, DC, recently increased its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) target to 50 target by 2032 requiring 5 percent of it to come from solar power at that point. Previously it was at 20 percent by 2020 with a 2.5 percent requirement of solar power by 2023. However, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that the city’s electric generators are already often falling short of their solar goals. 

As students return to California State University, Chico, they’ll find they’re now able to charge their mobile devices and their laptops via a solar charging station designed and built by students. The students who designed the system also say it’s the first solar charging station in the US that uses thin-film solar as opposed to silicon solar panels to power its battery bank. 

The Swedish furniture giant is continuing its trend of installing some of the most massive rooftop solar arrays by installing a 1.18 megawatt solar array on its upcoming in Renton, WA, which will serve the Seattle area. When it’s completed it will be the largest rooftop solar array in the state. 

The Southern Ute Tribe will soon have a 1.3 megawatt solar array, the Oxford Solar Project, to power some of its buildings in Ignacio, CO. The solar farm will offset roughly 15 percent of the tribe’s energy usage at 10 of its buildings while reducing its energy costs. 

The largest solar power conference in North America, Solar Power International (SPI) is returning to Las Vegas, starting Sept 12 and running through Sept. 15. It’s an event that brings the industry together to showcase the latest and greatest solar technologies as well as discussing what’s next for the industry. This year the event is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in the Westgate Hotel. 

The Solar Decathlon is coming Denver! In 2017 the Department of Energy will bring the olympics of solar power, the Solar Decathlon, to Denver from Oct. 5 through Oct. 15. It’s also the first time event will offer cash prizes to competing teams. 

Today (Aug. 25) one of the US’s most ambitious and far-reaching innovations, the National Park Service, reached the milestone of 100 years of service. As the parks under its purview age and work to meet their multiple purposes of preserving and showcasing the nation’s amazing natural resources and beauty to the public and world for the next 100 years or more, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is helping the park service green its energy supply with solar, wind and other installations.

The median cost of residential solar power in the US reached $4.10 per watt in 2015, down from roughly $7 per watt in 2010. That’s according to the latest figures from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) Tracking the Sun IX, which showed that residential solar prices fell 20 cents per watt or 5 percent from 2014. 

One might expect California to be the leader in solar power in the US and they’d be right. But the state that’s in second place—particularly in terms of third-party owned solar might be a surprise. Rather than a state like Nevada or Arizona in the sunny southwest, it’s North Carolina, according to the Energy Information Administration.