Politics & Society

Regulators at the California Energy Commission have recommended approval of a new plan for the Palen solar CSP project with a single solar tower and reduced acreage. A final decision on the controversial project will be made on October 29.

The U.S. state of Massachusetts has proposed not setting aside any capacity in 2016 for traditional solar PV projects larger than 650 kW under the new SREC II program. The state’s solar industry warns that this will have major impacts.

As outlined in an initial draft, the ambitious program will work with state governments to set up a series of solar parks and mega-solar projects. Mercom Capital says that the announcement is good sign for solar policy under the Modi Administration, but questions remain.

The city council in the capitol city of the U.S. state of Texas has passed a sweeping resolution to strengthen solar policies and goals for its municipal utility. This includes procuring an additional 600 MW of utility-scale solar, another 100 MW of local solar and deploying energy storage.

A new report by Environment America looks at the top 10 U.S. states for solar electric installations, and finds that while California’s installed solar capacity is impressive, other states have greater densities.

Dr. Rodrigo Sauaia serves as executive director of ABSolar, the Brazilian Solar Industry Association. The following interview was conducted at the Intersolar South America trade show, and addresses the barriers and promise of Brazil’s solar market.

Citing a “ministerial error”, the U.S. Department of Commerce has cut in half duty levels for solar products made in Taiwan by Motech, and has reduced tariff levels for most other Taiwanese solar PV makers as well.

The Bachelet government has announced a large number of land concessions and modest policies to encourage distributed generation. However, much of the progress in Chile has been without government support, and the current administration has a lot of work to do to improve policies.

Sweeping energy reforms signed into law this week include multiple changes to the electricity sector, many of which favor solar and other renewable energies.

Enabled by legislation at the state level, counties across California have launched property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs. This represents a revival for PACE, a promising mechanism for property owners to finance solar systems and energy efficiency improvements, and the program administrator expects CaliforniaFirst to support US$250 million in solar PV systems in 2015.