France’s grid operator reports that the nation has reached 6.19 GW of solar PV, enough to meet 1.6% of electricity demand.

A proposal put forward by President Obama would increase clean energy R&D from $6.4 billion to $12.8 billion by 2021, however the budget must be agreed with the opposition Republican Party.

The new funding includes US$13 million to states to support development of deployment strategies, and $8 million to speed technology evolution.

The company’s latest report finds that under current policies residential solar will reach grid parity in 42 states by 2020, but expects policy changes to undermine these economics.

Both SMA Solar Technology AG and SolarEdge have reported strong quarterly results in recent weeks, which IHS Technology credits with their position in the U.S. inverter market.

Iran will authorize 1 GW of solar and wind contracts in March and plans to put 5 GW online over the next decade.

While the World Bank says that the Noor 1 plant will bring down the cost of concentrating solar power, the future of the technology does not look promising.

The bill would require state regulators to account for the benefits of distributed solar before changing net metering valuations, and would prevent the sort of retroactive changes that Nevada has imposed.

The firm forecasts a 60% year-over-year growth in the U.S. solar market in 2016, but contraction next year.

The Nevada utility’s press statements had proposed allowing existing net metering customers to stay under the original “up to 20 years”, but the devil is in the details.