The Colorado State Senate gave its final approval for a bill that stands to raise the state's renewable energy production. Awaiting final signature from Democratic Governor Bill Ritter, the new legislation will require Colorado power utilities to increase the amount of energy that they purchase from renewable sources from 20% to 30% by 2020. You will remember from SolarTown's news article, last year California raised its mandate to 33%. With its new renewable energy standard, Colorado will be able to boast the second highest renewable energy standard in the United States.

Property Assessed Clean Energy is gaining traction throughout the country, including here in Washington, D.C. There is now even a website devoted to gathering information about all of these programs. According to this site, a "PACE bond is a bond where the proceeds are lent to commercial and residential property owners to finance energy retrofits (efficiency measures and small renewable energy systems) and who then repay their loans over 20 years via an annual assessment on their property tax bill." Berkeley issued the first bond in January 2009. According to the Center for Resource Solutions, 16 states and 300 cities across the country will have enacted PACE legislation by the end of this year. Now PACE is coming to Washington, D.C.

The solar power industry got a big boost last week when the Department of Energy announced a $1.37 billion loan guarantee for a solar thermal power complex in the Mojave Desert. BrightSource Energy, the recipient of the loan, plans to construct three solar thermal facilities with a collective generating capacity of 392 MW. According to a report from the Washington Post, the money will be drawn from resources given to the Department of Energy under the economic stimulus bill of 2009.  The Obama administration emphasized that the new project would bring clean energy jobs to the region.

A new bill passed by the California State senate may provide even greater incentives to residential solar energy projects. This draft legislation would significantly raise the net metering cap for electric utilities from 2.5% to 5%, but there are some opponents to the legislation.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate's green jobs subcommittee, recently introduced the 10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water Heating Act of 2010. The legislation is aimed to encourage the installation of solar energy systems and solar water heaters on the rooftops of residential and commercial buildings by 2019.

The US Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance (US PREF), a program of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), outlined the interaction and feasibility of financing utility and commercial scale renewable energy sources as a response to federal policy and lending programs at the recent Renewable Energy Technology Conference. US PREF is a non-partisan association whose objective is to unlock financial capital for renewable energy by networking private capital and investment firms with utilities, various levels of government, and other major stakeholders. Designed as an educational program for finance training in policy decisions to maximize government efficiency and to develop sound legislation, PREF provides pro bono analysis of how policy decisions will affect the market, and makes recommendations on policy that will spur private sector involvement.

Earlier this week Suntech Power Holdings, China's largest manufacturer of solar panels, announced its plan to build a new production facility in Goodyear, Arizona. According to Solar Daily, the new production plant will be Suntech's first manufacturing outlet in the United States.

In an effort to bolster the solar energy industry in New York State, the New York State Power Authority (NYPA) announced a plan to increase the state's solar electricity generation by 100 megawatts over the next four years, representing a 500% increase on New York's current solar generating capacity. Announced on Wednesday, this initiative is in line with Governor David Patterson's "45 by 15" goal that calls for 45% of the state's electricity to come from renewable resources by 2015.

In an effort to promote sustainable business development, the federal government has taken to funding innovative technologies that will increase solar energy's efficiency and scope of applications. At the beginning of 2010, the Obama administration and the Department of Energy announced funding of $2.3 billion tax credits to 183 companies for new clean energy technology initiatives.

There are several states that are trying to wrest the solar mantle from California, which has been the major hotbed of solar activity. Although not known for their sunshine, several states in the mid-Atlantic region have adopted progressive agendas to motivate growth in the solar industry-and there are enough solar rays to go around. Maryland is the latest state to strengthen its solar agenda. Governor Martin O'Malley released his 2010 energy agenda earlier this week.

The growth of solar continues to be driven by economic incentives. Most of these incentives are based on capacity or output or price, but here is a new one from France, aesthetics. France's answer to those who may deride the aesthetics of solar photovoltaic systems is to provide additional incentives for solar shingles or building-integrated photovoltaics installations.

Possibly it is a reflection of the maturing of the solar industry that the debate has shifted from whether to go solar to where to go solar, like in whether to put solar panels on your roof or in a huge array in the desert.

Thin film technology has been increasing its market share over the last couple of years. As reported in Greentech Media, according to Navigant Consulting thin-film shipments accounted for 11 percent of the global market in 2007, 14 percent in 2008, and possibly as much as 25 percent in 2009. But with the price of crystalline PV coming down, the thin film industry is under siege. Thin film has generally been recommended for its low cost, its ease of installation, its attractive appearance and its output in low light situations. But the major drawback is that it is significantly less efficient than the competing photovoltaic technology and requires much more space to produce the same output as crystalline panels.

Renewable energy, and solar in particular, are real solutions in solving the energy issues faced by the United States. However these resources take space, and lots of it. As the result, the problem of where to place all of these solar power plants has arisen. One solution is through the redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites. Brownfield land sites- abandoned industrial or commercial areas with ground contamination that has been determined to be non-hazardous, number over 400,000 sites in the US and cover approximately 15 million acres. Much of this land goes undeveloped for decades, because the clean-up costs are prohibitively expensive so projects are done elsewhere. This results in slow economic growth in surrounding areas and increasing regional sprawl as new land is developed for commercial and industrial use.

The convention at Solar Power International 2009 wrapped up last week, but the news media and blogosphere are still discussing the speech by the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

If the health care debate and Afghanistan were not enough on the plate of President Barack Obama, it appears that he has not given up hope of quick passage of the energy bill, and more importantly of a deal in Copenhagen at the United Nations Climate Change Conference that is set to begin on December 7.

Vice President Biden announced a new national program, a part of which is modeled substantially on the Berkeley approach to provide financing for solar installations. We at SolarTown believe that the number one impediment to the adoption of solar energy in the United States today is financing. Even with the generous incentives currently available from the federal government and many states and local utilities, the upfront costs continue to present a high hurdle for those looking to place solar panels on their roofs. The creative financing approach innovated in Berkeley, California has received considerable attention and has been seen as one of the solutions to the financing quandary. The new program attempts to address this substantial challenge to the solar industry.

The feed-in-tariffs, under which the consumer may sell excess energy back to the utility, have been both praised and demonized in Europe. They have been at the center of the debate in the leading solar countries of Germany and Spain. And they are beginning to creep into the United States, slowly but surely. California became the latest state to adopt some form of a feed-in tariff.

New technologies incubating now will hit the market in the next few years, changing the entire complexion of solar energy products. Dow Chemical has announced a new product in the building integrated photovoltaic market that it hopes will dominate the market in the next several years.