Solar Energy News Buffet

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As noted in an article yesterday, I’ve been very busy in the past month (well, months…) moving into a new home and following the birth of a sweet little cleantech lover. Inevitably, “roundup articles” of important or interesting cleantech news we didn’t cover dropped off as a result. With a big backlog of stories I wanted to share, I’m breaking them up into even more articles than normal. Here’s one on solar energy news.

Check out some insane solar power growth in this chart above. (Solar Love)

KB Home and SunPower are working together on a home solar energy storage partnership. In other words, things are starting to get really interesting. (Planetsave)

Residential solar and storage will become a $73.6 billion market by 2023, according to a report from Navigant Research. (Solar Love)

Need a bit of a feelgood story? Check out this one on Dell’s solar-powered computer labs in Nigeria & South Africa. (sustainablog)

Check out these 7 plans for DIY solar chargers. (sustainablog)

Dawn Killough takes a look at programs that make solar power more accessible to less advantaged populations. (Green Building Elements)

The northern coast of South Africa is set to develop three new solar projects. (Solar Love)

Solar energy facts for homeowners who might want to go solar, bundled into a 7½-minute video. (Shrink That Footprint)

Black silicon takes a step forward at Rice University. (Renewables International)

The Koch Brothers’ attack on solar power. (New York Times)

The Sunshine State, oddly, is a solar power laggard. We all know why — politics and too many politicians trying to stall the revolution. (sustainablog)

The US Department Of Commerce has introduced new tariffs via a June 2 ruling on solar panels imported from China. Also not very helpful in the effort to grow solar power. (Solar Love)

Karl-Friedrich Lenz discusses the German Economy Ministry’s sly efforts to “put the brakes on” solar power in Germany. But we’ll see if the language swap actually results in anything. (Lenz Blog)

Just getting into the solar topic? Check out this “intro to solar” video. (Solar Love)

http://youtu.be/4n-QsidgnO4

Looking to sell your home and have a solar lease tied to it? Concerned about how that will work out? Sunrun says it’s nothing to sweat about, but experts help. (Sunrun)

Following up on that, a recent report has found that some home-sellers are actually having difficulties selling homes that come with solar leases or PPAs. (Solar Love)

Small solar installers have been getting squeezed out of the US solar installation market, but Jonathan Doochin convincingly argues that there’s still a bright future for small solar installers. (Greentech Media)

Helvel Solar has started producing tandem-junction a-Si thin-film solar cell modules in Russia. (Solar Love)

Greenpeace is supporting solar power independence in an Indian village. Naturally, the project involves the use of a microgrid. (Greenpeace)

Germany’s solar market has practically collapsed, but putting that into perspective, the US would have to install 20 gigawatts of solar power to relatively match Germany’s expected 2 gigawatts for this year. (Renewables International)

France has some unique solar policies that, as you might expect, revolve around the country’s large nuclear fleet. (Renewables International)

Mike Munsell discusses 4 residential solar trends to watch out for in the second half of 2014. I fully agree with his take, and I think most of you are already well aware of them as well, but still a fun read. (Greentech Media)

Understanding solar yieldcos. (Forbes)