Last week, even as President Donald Trump (R) was sworn in and removed all mention of renewable energy from the White House website, lawmakers in Massachusetts were proposing a bill that would commit the state to sourcing all of its energy from renewable sources by 2035. If passed it would be the most aggressive renewable portfolio standard in the US, surpassing even Hawaii’s RPS, which requires the state to make the transition to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2045.

One day solar power will be integrated into the very fabric of buildings, in the paints and windows that cover them. But for now, such building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) will have to be solar panels like those that Quixotic Systems installed at the Urban Health Plan’s (UHP’s) Simpson Pavilion in the Bronx in New York City. 

The Apple is ripening in the sun. At least that’s one quippy take on the technology giant’s new solar contract with NV Energy in Nevada. The company signed a contract with the utility to support its Reno, NV, data center with 200 megawatts of solar energy by early 2019. 

Communities are showing an increased interest in microgrids, which can more easily integrate renewable energy resources and react to extreme weather events. At least that’s according to a new report from the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), “Microgrids: Expanding Applications, Implementations, and Business Structures.”

A common argument from utilities is that incorporating more distributed solar power into their network costs them money and requires upgrades. That might not be the case found the recently published Full Cost of Electricity, an interdisciplinary study from The Energy Institute at the University of Austin. 

New research from Park Associates shows that up to 15 percent of the US households with broadband internet are interested in installing solar power in 2017. That’s in addition to the 8 percent of broadband households in the US that already have solar panels installed. 

The next generation of solar cells and devices are on the way, which could replace the dominant solar panels on the market today—those made with silicon. One of the most promising materials are perovskite crystals and now researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Northwestern University and Rice University have figured out a way to flip the orientation of the crystals in solar devices. They recently published their findings in the journal Nature.

Last year Tesla made a splash when it announced that it and SolarCity were introducing a solar roofing product that actually integrated solar cells into solar panels. Now GAF, one of the largest North American roofing materials company in the US, is getting into the solar roofing business with its DecoTech Roof-Integrated Solar System. 

Newly minted President Donald Trump (R) struck a strident note in his first minutes as President last when he removed all mention of renewable energy from the White House website. This could illustrate a cloudier future for solar power—even as prices hit record lows and record highs for installations. 

The solar industry may face gray smoggy skies ahead. Today (Jan. 20) Donald Trump (R) was inaugurated as the new President of the US. One of his Administration’s first big changes was eliminating mentions of renewable energy and clean energy from the White House’s website.