PITTSBURGH — The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club based in Pittsburgh announced March 16 it will donate more than $422,000 to 10 nonprofit organizations across Pennsylvania and New York to fund the purchase and installation of new solar projects that will be completed throughout 2015. The Sun Club is a crowd-funding organization sponsored by Green Mountain Energy Company based in Austin, Texas.
CANTON, Mich. — Beginning in spring 2015, Ikea will be installing more solar panels on top of its expansive Detroit-area store. The project will be the state’s largest rooftop solar array.
Ikea is planning a 44,000-square-foot expansion for the eight-year-old store. The expansion will also add 40,000 square feet of new solar panels. The addition will consist of a 240.9-kW system comprising 765 panels that will produce 287,490 kWh more of electricity annually for the store.
WASHINGTON — More than half a million U.S. homes and businesses are generating solar energy, according to a new market report released in early September.
ST. LOUIS — Ameren Missouri, a power and energy company based in St. Louis, has selected MC Industrial Inc. to construct the largest investor-owned solar energy center in the state of Missouri. The firm will manage the design and construction of the O’Fallon Renewable Energy Center, which will be located in O’Fallon, Mo.
HONOLULU, Hawaii — The Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), the local utility that serves 95 percent of the state’s 1.2 million residents, recently turned heads with its proactive approach to upgrading its grid to better facilitate the integration of large solar arrays. The company’s actions earned it the approval of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), a non-profit based in Latham, N.Y., that strives to increase the use of renewable energy sources across the country.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida is currently in the process of going solar, with plans in place to have panels of photovoltaic cells installed by November.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Governor Jerry Brown signed several major pieces of energy legislation last week, keeping California on the cutting edge of the green industry boom.
Senate Bill 594 (SB 594) allows utility customers to apply the financial credit from solar installations to their overall energy bill for a plot or connected plots. Previously a utility customer could only apply credits from a solar array to the meter the installation was attached to.
