Permitting and inspections are notoriously tedious tasks. In the rooftop solar industry, they’re also very costly — when industry members say they don’t need to be.

To fix the issue, the Solar Energy Industries Association and The Solar Foundation today launched the Solar Automated Permit Pro​cessing (SolarAPP) initiative, which is designed to streamline permitting and slash the cost of installing solar on homes and businesses. The new endeavor comes as one of the largest solar industry conferences in North America, Solar Power International, kicks off this week in Anaheim, California. 

"Reforming the solar and battery permitting process is one of the most significant steps our country can take to making solar more

More than a half trillion dollars has been invested in renewable energy globally over the past two years. Over that same period, energy and natural resource consultancy Wood Mackenzie has built the world’s leading renewable energy market intelligence business. Today, Wood Mackenzie formally introduces its new division: Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.

Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables will provide research and consulting on the transformation of the global power landscape. The 115-strong team based in 15 countries is made up of the solar, energy storage and grid edge experts formerly of GTM Research, the wind consultants and analysts from MAKE, and the global power

Oil and gas companies are used to taking big risks, but they’ve also grown accustomed to large payoffs. 

That paradigm doesn't necessarily translate easily to the renewables market, where relatively low risk translates to low, but mostly guaranteed, returns. 

“That’s the key pushback we get when we speak to companies like ExxonMobil, Total, or any of the oil and gas majors,” said Tom Heggarty, a senior solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the author of a new report assessing the place for majors in clean energy.

“Although they understand from a risk perspective the projects are a much lower risk

We start this week’s jobs column with women making moves across clean energy.

The New York Power Authority has hired Sarah Orban Salati as CCO to oversee all wholesale retail operations for the nation’s largest public utility. Salati was most recently at AES, where she was managing director of new energy solutions.

NYPA is no old-school power authority. Instead, it has taken a first-mover approach on the distributed energy transformation, using its business model to invest in and deploy new technologies in bold ways that can often exceed the speed of the regulated distribution utilities in the state. 

Louise Wood

There is no doubt that the Trump Administration’s tariffs on solar modules slowed procurement of solar in the United States, with front-of-the-meter utility photovoltaics (PV) taking the biggest hit.

Through the second half of 2017, as the U.S. International Trade Commission deliberated on Suniva’s trade case, relatively few new power purchase agreements (PPAs) were signed as developers waited to see how severe the tariffs would be, amounting only to a total of 2.0 gigawatts.

Once the tariffs were passed, it was clear utility solar would see the largest increase in total system price on a percentage basis. However, since the implementation of tariffs in January, new project

With governments squeezing carbon out of their power grids, zero-emission buildings will emerge as an important tool for reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century. It’s already happening in California.

Two of the state’s universities, the University of California and Stanford University, are taking new steps to eliminate carbon emissions in their buildings.

Earlier this month, the University of California announced a new sustainability goal: the massive public university system would seek to achieve 100 percent clean electricity across its campuses and medical centers by 2025. UC had previously announced its intent to be carbon neutral by that same year.

The 100 percent

As election season heats up, so is a fight over a ballot initiative to boost Arizona’s renewable energy portfolio standard to 50 percent by 2030.

In November, residents will vote on whether or not to enshrine the increase in Arizona’s constitution under Proposition 127. The state’s current RPS is 15 percent by 2025. 

Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest utility, is strongly opposed to the increase. In July, Arizonans for Affordable Electricity, a political action committee funded by APS’ parent company Pinnacle West Capital Corp., filed a lawsuit to keep the renewable energy initiative off the ballot. The PAC claims proponents