A lot of states are being aggressive about turning to renewable energy but Hawaii’s biggest utility may just have unveiled the most ambitious plan yet and it includes a very significant commitment to rooftop solar on homes and buildings. Under the plans submitted to the Public Utility Commission The Hawaiian Electric Companies (HECO) plans to source 65 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and nearly triple the amount of rooftop solar it has in its network—all while reducing electric bills significantly—by 20 percent.

As expected Vivint Solar has filed a form S-1 for its initial public offering (IPO). If approved, the IPO will allow the company to raise funds through public offering of common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker VSLR. The company has filed to offer up to $200 million in stock. 

California’s Solar Permitting Efficiency Act (A.B. 2188) is awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) signature. The legislation could reduce the time and costs of installing solar in California. The legislation would simplify and streamline permitting and inspections for small solar inspections by unifying such procedures across the state and restricting local jurisdiction’s ability to levy fees. 

New York is making it easier for companies and residents to go solar—and for the government to help them go solar by simplifying the state’s solar incentive programs into a statewide NY-Sun Incentive Program. The consolidation, made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), is designed to more effectively deploy $1 billion in state solar incentives to add more than 3 gigawatts of solar power across the empire state by 2023 with the ultimate goal of transitioning the state’s solar market into a self-sustaining industry.

A company called JPods is planning to build what might be the first solar-powered personal rapid transport (PRT) network in Secaucus and the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The system will consist of a network of overhead PodCars that fit up to six people and travel by overhead rail that the company calls Horizontal-Elevators. 

Has Michigan State University (MSU) cracked the see-through solar debacle? Maybe. Companies and universities have been working for years to develop see-through or transparent solar panels. If they’ve realized a transparent solar photovoltaic device that’s efficient and inexpensive they could open up all sorts of possibilities, from windows that power a building or home to smartphone screens that power the device while your looking at it in the sun. 

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) anticipates that rooftop solar power will be at parity with local retail electric prices by 2017 in more than half of the states across the U.S. This is a lot quicker than some thought we would reach this threshold and shows the continued declines in prices people are seeing as solar becomes more popular. 

Car batteries, not the fancy lithium-ion batteries in today’s electric vehicles, are usually of the lead-acid variety and if improperly disposed can leach lead. Solar panels still primarily of the silicon variety, are seeing a lot of advances. One of the most promising technologies are perovskite crystals, which are made out of organolead halide, which can be refined from, you guessed it—lead! New research from MIT shows that the lead from one automotive battery could be changed into enough solar panels to power about 30 homes. 

As solar manufacturers ramped up volume production over the past few years, in an attempt to compete on the lowest cost per watt, something was lost, an emphasis on research and development that was raising the efficiency of PV modules. The new PV Equipment Quarterly report from NPD Solarbuzz suggests that that emphasis is changing. 

Through a partnership with DTE Energy Ford’s headquarters in Detroit will soon have a solar-powered carport that will cover 360 parking spaces. The solar array will also have 30 charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles (EVs). In all, when the the 1,038 kilowatt PV array is completed in early 2015, it’s expected to generate enough electricity to power 158 homes annually.