Adding large solar farms throughout New York could help reduce demand of electricity from other sources by up to 9.6%, a new Cornell University study found. However, winter poses a different problem for solar power, ramping.

Facebook is already 75% powered by renewable energy and with a new power-purchase agreement (PPA) for a 122 megawatt (MW) solar farm in Utah, the company is well on its way being 100% powered by renewable energy. A goal it set for 2020. 

On the day Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed seven pieces of clean-energy bills into law on May 30, he introduced a roadmap that would move the state to 100% renewable energy by 2040. The roadmap would create green jobs and, promote energy efficiency and clean transportation. 

Most forms of renewable energy are already cost competitive with fossil fuels and are often cheaper than most lower end of costs of fossil fuel-based power across the world, a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) found. However, by next year (2020), onshore wind and solar photovoltaics (PV) will be cheaper than fossil fuel power across the world without subsidies. 

The solar industry is claiming the decade of the 2020s as its decade and is launching a new campaign to help it expand. States are also boosting their renewable energy goals and targets. In Maryland the state’s renewable energy standard is up to 50% and Xcel committed to closing the last of its coal plants in Minnesota and the upper midwest early.

Maryland’s Democratically controlled legislature passed Senate Bill 516 the Clean Energy Jobs Act. But the state’s Republican Governor, Larry Hogan declined to sign it, saying he wanted a plan that moves the state to 100% clean energy by 2040. 

Most solar panels are made of silicon but the future of solar panels may lie in another technology completely, perovskites. To help foster the development of new Pervoskite technologies, and speed the transition to low-cost renewable energy, numerous institutions in Europe have bended together as the European Perovskite Initiative (EPKI).

Yesterday (May 20) Xcel Energy announced its latest move toward become 100% carbon free. The utility said it will close its last two coal plants in the upper midwest a decade early plans to add in 1,850 megawatts of wind in 2022, and more than 3,000 MWs of solar by 2030. 

The solar industry aims to up the amount of solar power installed in the US to 20% of the nation’s electric generation by 2030 under a new campaign called The Solar+ Decade. That’s up significantly from the 2.5% of the nation’s electric generation that solar now provides. 

Hydropower is one of the world’s largest renewable energy sources, but unfortunately hydropower—particularly large hydropower—disrupts waterways and flora and fauna, like salmon runs in the Northwest, and it’s expensive to build and maintain. But a new report from The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that wind, solar and energy storage systems can now meet the world’s climate and energy needs without needing to build more hydropower.