Grand Rapids, MI-based Brewery Vivant recently installed a 54 kilowatt solar system atop its brewing facility and The Chapel, its pub. The 192 panel system installed earlier this month is expected to produce 20 percent of the facility’s energy needs. The brewery is sourcing the rest of its energy from Consumers Power’s Green Generations Program. The company is celebrating the new solar array with an official toast and ribbon cutting ceremony being attended by Grand Rapid’s mayor and other city officials on July 19.

Solar is heating up in San Diego this summer as five fire stations and one maintenance facility in The North County Fire Protection District (NCFPD) covert to solar, allowing the six facilities to meet and exceed their energy needs. Energy savings from the projects are expected to total over $65,000 annually and any extra power generated is returned to the grid. One of the fire stations is even utilizing the net metering-aggregation tariff with San Diego Gas & Electric, allowing the station to transfer its excess energy to electrical meters on nearby properties; in this case a local communications tower, meeting room, ballpark and a well pump.

Earlier this week (July 11) the Connecticut Green Bank used the state’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program and the CT Solar Lease Commercial program, to finance and install the state’s largest solar rooftop, a 995 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic system for local Bloomfield-based furniture company, Lesro Industries. 

Last week (July 5), Horizon Solar Power launched its “Acts of Sunshine Program,” a community support initiative, under which the company is partnering with local organizations in Southern California to provide reduced-cost solar installation services, while also helping low-income residents gain access to skills development and renewable energy education. In the first partnership under the program, Horizon is collaborating with The Growing Experience (TGE), to install an 8.19 kilowatt (kW) ground-mounted solar array which is expected to generate 24% of the greenhouses’ energy needs in Long Beach.

This week Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) signed into law four clean energy bills that will expand the use of solar power and other renewables in the nation’s tiniest state. The bills expand the state’s renewable energy standard, allow zero-down style third-party financing options for rooftop solar and virtual net metering arrangements like community solar gardens. 

Florida residents are becoming more confident in customer-owned renewable energy. That’s according to a report released this week by the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC). The report revealed that electric generation capacity from renewable energy systems increased 35 percent statewide over the prior year, reaching 107,545 kilowatts (kW). The number of homeowners interconnected to the grid reached 11,626 by 2015—a 36 percent increase from 8,571 in 2014. 

GRID GLA and its team of volunteers and job trainees are installing rooftop solar for 500 low-income families in Los Angeles this summer providing up to 1.6 megawatts (MW) of new rooftop solar in the City of Angles. By installing solar electric systems for low-income residents at no cost through the LA 500 pledge, the group will help families in single and multi-family homes reduce their utility bills. 

First Solar announced that it will expand production of its Series 5 thin-film photovoltaic modules  at its solar power plant in Kulim, Malaysia. In doing so, it also announced that it will halt production of its silicon solar panels. 

Organizations in San Jose came together last week to help Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose save energy, educate youth and provide life and job skill training. The solar company SunPower donated 90 panels at the iconic downtown museum. Clean Solar, along with students participating in the San Jose Conservation Corps, will install the solar panels.

The World Bank Group announced a new collaboration on June 30 with the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which will result in $1 trillion in solar investments by 2030. The investments will mobilize financing to develop and install affordable solar across the globe. The World Bank also signed an additional agreement to loan $1 billion to finance solar projects in India.