Earlier this week Apple announced that it joined the RE100 initiative with a pledge to source 100 percent of its energy from green sources and to help its suppliers to do as well. Already it’s making good on that promise and its latest 50 megawatt solar project, the Bonnybrooke plant, to power its Global Data Command Center in Mesa, AZ, is the most recent example. 

To help cut the costs of solar farther SMASHsolar has introduced a new, direct mount system for installing solar power. The company said that it can halve the amount of time it takes to install a system, reducing the cost of solar installations by 15 cents per watt. 

The RE100 initiative is gaining steam. At Climate Week NYC this week already 10 companies from Apple to VF Corp (owner of The North Face, Timberland and other lifestyle companies) to Bank of America, annoyed that they will commit to 100 percent renewable energy. 

On Sept. 19 the Abu Dhabi Electricity and Water Authority (ADWEA) announced a new low for solar power, 2.42 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s the lowest bid yet for a project in the world. It’s also the second time this year that a project in the middle east broke records in terms of the lowest cost bids for solar power. The initial project size was slated for 350 megawatts but it could be significantly larger, according to news sources.

The Navy and Georgia Power completed a new 30 megawatt (MW) solar farm at Naval Submarine Base (SUBASE) in Kings Bay near St. Marys, GA. The new project is on-base and is the first of more than 150 MWs of projects the Department of the Navy (DON), the Army and Georgia Power have planned. 

Nevadans with solar rooftops breathed a collective sigh of relief today as it was announced that they will again receive the benefits of net-metering, allowing them to receive the incentives they anticipated when they signed up for solar power. The unanimous decision by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) means that roughly the owners of some 32,000 homes in the state with solar power will receive retail rates for the energy that their systems send to the grid.

General Motors, one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers, says that by 2050 all of its electricity will come from solar, wind, landfill gas and other renewable energy sources by 2050. Considering that in 2015 GM consumed 9 terawatt hours (9 million megawatt hours) of electricity across 350 operations in 59 countries, it’s no small feat to convert to renewable energy.

Yesterday (Sept. 14) The Department of Energy announced three new efforts to help advance solar technologies by funding 40 projects with $42 million in funding and up to $65 million in future funding for advancing solar technology. 

Solar panels continue to get better, more durable and longer lasting. But they can still get better. That’s why the national labs are forming a new consortium, the Durable Module Materials (DuraMat) National Lab Consortium, to develop and improve durable solar photovoltaic (PV) materials that also help lower the cost of solar power. The consortium is funded with roughly $30 million from the SunShot Initiative over the next five years. 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). However, clean energy advocates are arguing that the new plan, which has been developed over the past eight years, will effectively end development of renewable energy on millions of acres of federally managed lands in Southern California.