The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is focussing on empowering women and diversity within the solar industry with a new series of discussions and will host its first event on the West Coast at San Francisco’s The Box SF on Oct. 20. The event, hosted by SEIA’s Women’s Empowerment committee, is intended to help women understand the opportunities for women and diversity in solar power, amplify women’s voices within the industry and amplify the work of supporting organizations.

This week Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore were on hand in Florida campaigning at Miami-Dade College where they discussed solar power, climate change and Florida’s Amendment 1, which will be on the ballot this November. The controversial measure, which would increase the amount of solar in the state, is backed by utilities, but deplored by the solar industry and others. 

The exciting atmosphere of professional sporting arenas are increasingly becoming high profile  demonstrations of how environmentally sustainable design and practices can be integrated into an electrifying fan experience. The NBA’s Sacramento Kings have announced that the Green Building Council has certified their new home arena, Golden 1 Center, as a LEED Platinum building. 

With 75.6 points out of a possible 100, San Francisco topped WalletHub’s listing of green cities in the US. It was followed closely by Honolulu, HI, which achieved 74.5 points out of the total 100 available. WalletHub used a host of metrics to decide which cities were the most 'green.' For instance, San Francisco topped its rankings in its lifestyle and policy rankings and Honolulu topped the rankings in the environment category. 

Fluidic Energy will install its zinc-air energy storage system at a home in Scottsdale, Ariz. It’s a first for the company in North America even though it’s based in Arizona and has deployed more than 75,000 batteries across the world. The new battery system will be energized by both a solar array at the home and the grid, offsetting demand during peak hours. 

It’s undeniable that solar power is on the rise. It’s growing all over the US and the world. But the there are still those who want to hold it back. For instance, last week the Institute for Energy Research, an organization funded in part by the Koch Brothers and fossil fuel industry. But now the Centers for Biological Diversity have fought back against the accusations.

The third quarter of 2016 was strong for the solar industry, raising $3 billion in investments across all its segments, nearly double the $1.7 billion raised in the second quarter of the year. However, Mercom Capital’s Q3 2016 Solar Funding and M&A report observed that for the year of 2016, investments are still down compared to 2015. 

Last week the White House celebrated the first Green Sports Day on Oct. 6 with the White House launching a number of new actions with these partners to help green sports. Sports, professional, collegiate and even at younger peeves provide a high-visibility, important arena to showcase reasons for adopting green technologies like solar power. 

A new report out by the World Energy Council, World Energy Scenarios 2016: The Grand Transition, found that the even as the demand for electricity worldwide will double by 2060, wind and solar power could provide up to 39 percent of the world’s energy supply under its “Unfinished Symphony" scenario. That’s despite solar and wind now accounting for roughly 4 percent of the world’s power generation.  

So far, only a handful of utilities have a gigawatt of solar power in their electric grid and today (Oct. 7) that handful got a little larger as Arizona’s APS announced that it surpassed the threshold. In fact, it’s the first time a utility outside of California has surpassed that level of solar. What’s more, the company said its solar power is almost evenly divided between distributed resources like rooftop solar and utility-scale solar.