Oftentimes utilities are seen as opposed to distributed energy resources (DERs). Since they run counter to the centralized energy generation structure they’ve grown accustomed to over the past century. That’s starting to change, according to a new report from GTM Research, which found that utilities in the Europeand North America invested  $2.9 in DERs since 2010 with $1 billion in investments in 2016 alone.

Tonight (Feb. 28) President Donald Trump (R) will deliver his first address to Congress. With the moves he’s already made in office, as well as changes he’s promised, it’s already got plenty of clean energy advocates, as well as advocates for the environment, ready to take action. 

Yesterday (Feb. 27) SunPower and Moss Construction began building the 56-megawatt Gala Solar Power Plant in Crook County, OR, which is slated to come online by the end of 2017. The new project was hailed by the Governor and local officials as an opportunity to get low-cost renewable energy and a good jobs creator. 

A bipartisan group of legislators and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith (D) announced a new effort to commit the state to getting 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, creating 1,500 jobs annually in the process. It would place the state among a handful that have implemented such a high standard.

Renewable energy is continuing to grow across the US and now the group of industries it includes employ more than the retail industry does the US. At the same time states are quickly growing their renewable energy resources. 

Sunlight Financial, a provider of rooftop solar loans offered through solar installers, will expand its services and offerings thanks to a new, $130 million investment from Route 66 Ventures. The new investment will allow Sunlight to expand its Charlotte, NC, operations, introduce new financing products and partner with more solar installers. 

On Feb. 22 MetLife announced that it met its goal to become carbon neutral through green investments of $9.7 billion and more, becoming the first US insurer to do so. The insurer said it’s invested $3 billion in renewable energy and has ownership stakes in 37 wind and solar farms, as well as equity stakes in 48 LEED-certified properties.

As the two pillars of the modern renewable energy story, wind and solar power have long been associated with each other. Now, a new project in Minnesota coming online this August aims to bring them even closer together, integrating the two renewable energy sources into a single commercial project at Red Lake Falls, a first for the US.

The efficiency of solar cells based on the most common semiconductors, silicon, continues to creep up, edging ever close to that theoretical Shockley–Queisser limit of 33.7 percent. Earlier this week Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute pushed the efficiency of a multicrystalline silicon solar cell to 21.9 percent, surpassing the 21.3 percent efficiency record set by Trina Solar. 

Citing statistics from the Department of Energy’s recent U.S. Energy and Employment Report, a group of clean energy organizations show that the US now now has more than 3 million jobs in the clean energy sector. To help protect the people in those well-paying jobs and continue growing the US economy the groups organized #CleanEnergyJobs campaign, a social media campaign to encourage companies and workers to share their stories of employment in the clean energy industries.