While the US loves its beer, it looks like it loves its advanced energy more. Last year the industries that are part of the advanced energy economy in the US, ranging from solar and wind to energy efficiency, energy storage, electric vehicles and more, employed more than 3.3 million and contributed $200 billion in revenue to the US economy. Worldwide it contributed $1.4 trillion to the economy last year. Beer contributed $105 billion, according to the Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, released yesterday by advocacy organization Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) and prepared by Navigant Research.

Today (March 7) Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management and TerraForm Global, TerraForm Power, announced that Brookfield will purchase both of the renewable energy YieldCos, which were launched by the now bankrupt SunEdison. The yieldcos were formed to own and operate wind and solar projects and allow others to invest in the projects once they were completed. 

While most of the solar power being installed around the world currently uses photovoltaic technology, solar thermal technology offers some unique features like providing cost-competitive baseload energy akin to that from a natural gas or nuclear power plant. Chile will be one of the next countries to benefit from this power with the 450 megawatt (450) Tamarugal Solar Project in the Tarapacá region of Chile, which just received environmental approval from the country.

Connecting developing nations to the Internet and cellular services are paramount to helping developing nations grow and create education and entrepreneurial opportunities. Peace + Freedom Services has partnered with Solar Ship to purchase two aerostats to bring such connectivity to remote areas in Great Lakes Africa with South Africa. Solar Ship is also developing solar-powered airships capable of delivering goods to remote locations. 

Last week in US solar news, Energy Information Administration (EIA) figures showed the US’s solar industry had a monster year, installing 11.1 gigawatts (GWs) of new power. Meanwhile states are taking both good and bad actions toward solar power.  

Already 48 schools from 25 New York school districts have signed power purchase agreements to go solar through the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA’s) K-Solar program. Now NYPA is expanding the program with two additional solar power vendors to help more of the 700 public school districts and non-public schools go solar. 

Last year was a big year in energy for the US. In the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) most recent Electric Power Monthly report it said that more than 27 gigawatts (GWs) of electric generating capacity was added to the US power grid in 2016—the most since 2011. Of that more than 60 percent came from utility-scale wind (8.7 GW) and solar (7.7 GW) projects—a total of 16.4 GWs. 

It’s not the first time that the Toyota Prius has donned solar panels, but now Panasonic Corp. has developed its 180 watt "HIT Photovoltaic Module for Automobile,” which was developed for the new Prius Prime or PHV. The company also said it’s looking to expand the use of the rooftop beyond the Prius. For instance, it could be an option for the new Tesla Model 3, a Panasonic partner.

An MIT startup, Sistine Solar, has developed its proprietary SolarSkin, a means to camouflage solar panels on a roof. The panels can be hidden under the skin to look like a home’s existing roofing, whether its Spanish tiles, an American flag, asphalt tiles or anything else. 

Arizona’s largest utility, Arizona Public Service (APS) reached a settlement with a broad coalition of stakeholders on its rate increases. Under the new proposal, which was submitted to the Arizona Corporate Commission (ACC) for approval, APS would be allowed an overall revenue increase of 3.3 percent, but existing customers with solar power would have 20 years of full retail-rate net metering under their current plan. The move was approved by numerous stakeholders including the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), Vote Solar and more.