In its quarterly Q2 2017 edition of The 50 States of Solar, the NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) found that 39 states and Washington, DC, made solar policy changes in the second quarter. The report found that overall 140 state and utility-level distributed solar policy or rate changes were proposed, pending, or enacted in Q2 2017 and most were considering major changes to net metering and successor tariffs.

The Sunvia trade petition, which SolarWorld supported earlier this year, could upend the US solar industry and the hundreds of thousand of jobs it now supports. Now, a coalition of conservative groups, The Energy Trade Action Coalition (ETAC), have joined the fight against the trade petition, arguing that the free market should be allowed to work. 

With Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate don’t expect it to pass anytime soon, but last month Democratic Representatives introduced the “100 by ’50 Act” to transition the US to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. The legislation was previously introduced in the US Senate in April.

On Aug. 4 Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the sequel to the popular An Inconvenient Truth, is opening nationwide. The followup focusses on progress made since the original came out over a decade ago, as well as the challenges to progress, like President Trump’s (R) controversial decision to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement, the world is making on climate change.

A new federal bill proposed by Sens Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) would create a national community solar market. The bill, The Community Solar Consumer Choice Act of 2017 (S. 1670), would make a Department of Energy program that provides technical assistance to state and local governments to promote community solar, permanent. It would also encourage the federal government to participate in community solar nationwide.

Last week news leaked that a pending report from the Department of Energy (DOE), expected to be damning to wind and solar power’s inability to provide baseload power, may not be so damning after all. As if to show that that’s the case, one utility in Hawaii has already had its plans to 100 percent renewable, ahead of state regulations. Meanwhile companies, schools and more are adding more solar power. 

To help New York reach its 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 goal and make it easier for solar developers and end users to finance larger solar projects, like community solar projects in the state, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) developed a Solar PILOT Toolkit. The toolkit is designed to help municipalities understand and negotiate payment-in-lieu-of taxes (PILOT) agreements for solar projects over 1 megawatt in size.

The biggest utility in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Electric Companies (HECO), will source all of its electric generation from renewable sources by 2045—of not sooner. The utility, which previously announced its plans to go 100 percent renewable, received approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to make the transition. 

Southern Co. is wading into energy storage with the new McCrary Battery Energy Storage Demonstration project in Pensacola, FL. The project is testing a 250 kilowatt/1 megawatt-hour Tesla Powerpack lithium-ion energy storage system over a two-year period to evaluate it for industrial and commercial customers, as well as its potential future use in saving customers energy costs, while making its electric delivery system more reliable. 

Solar panels usually produce DC electricity. Multiple panels are connected together and then the combined output is converted by an inverter into AC electricity like that used in homes. LG has partnered with Enphase Energy to introduce its NeON 2 ACe, AC solar panels using Enphase microinverters to cut installation time by half and help all solar panels in an array produce as much energy as possible.