After being announced in 2016 the highly anticipated Tesla Solar Roof is finally coming to rooftops. The Solar Roof is highly anticipated because its photovoltaics are designed to look exactly like existing rooftop tiles and are available in multiple styles. 

With so much going on the renewable energy world it’s no wonder that the Interstate Renewable Energy Council had to recognize four states in its IREC’s 2017 Clean Energy States Honor Roll across different categories. This year it recognized Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota and Utah for their policy efforts to bring more renewable energy into their borders. 

Yesterday (Jan. 9) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) unanimously denied Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposal for special subsidies for nuclear and coal-fired power plants—a decision supported by renewable energy industries, grid operators and others. Instead FERC is requiring grid operators to submit information on electric grid resilience. 

Solar power and renewable energy look like they’re off to a sunny start‚ at least at the state level. Within the first week of 2018 new legislation in Florida was proposed to pilot the use of solar and energy storage in disaster recovery, New York’s Governor pledged to end the use of coal power in the state and SunEdison emerged from bankruptcy.

SunEdison is back—kinda. Once likely the largest renewable energy company in the US, the company's Icarian growth spurt, which saw it pioneering new financing models for renewable energy projects like YieldCos and attempting to gobble up other renewable energy companies like Vivint Solar and First Wind, led to its bankruptcy in April 2016. Now it's an echo of its former self and has now emerged as a private company. 

On Jan. 2 Florida State Rep. Holly Raschein (R) introduced the “Energy Security and Disaster Resilience Pilot Program Bill” (HB 1133), a $10 million bill that would use energy storage and solar power to create a more resilient electric grid that can withstand natural disasters. The bill would create a pilot project in the Florida Keys to study how on-site solar power and energy storage could provide electricity to critical infrastructure, like hospitals, during natural disasters like Hurricane Irma, which caused power outages in two-thirds of the state. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) outlined ambitious proposals to increase the use of renewable energy in the state and end coal plants in the state by 2020 in his State of the State address today (Jan. 3). He also proposed a plan to add more than 1.5 gigawatts of energy storage and more wind and solar. 

As 2017 came to a close and 2018 began states and cities continued to take action to boost renewable energy growth and support actions aimed to reduce climate change. At the federal level the renewable energy industry has fared decently despite expectations that Republicans in charge would make it less affordable. 

When fossil-fuel friendly President Donald Trump (R) took office in early 2017 and with both houses of Congress led by Republicans the renewable energy industry—wind, solar, tidal and other technologies—was set to brave a tempest. The industry has weathered multiple challenges from the federal government, including the unpopular tax bill—which could have gutted the industry had certain provisions remained and the so-called reliability review from Trump’s Energy Department.

The international Chicago Climate Charter launched earlier this month out of the North American Climate Summit and already cities are jumping to join it. The agreement reaffirms that cities will take actions to reduce their climate impact in accord with the goals of the Paris Agreement, including increasing use of renewable energy, despite President Donald Trump (R) pulling the US out of the agreement.