Falling solar costs in Africa can drive solar boom on the continent as prices fall to $1.30 per watt for large-scale PV, and $1.90 per watt for mini-grids, finds new IRENA report.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has today published a report outlining how tumbling solar costs are making PV one of the cheapest means for powering many parts of Africa.

The report, titled Solar PV in Africa: Costs and Markets, finds that solar home systems now meet the annual electricity needs for off-grid households in Africa for just $56 per year – which is already below the cost of traditional off-grid power sources such as diesel and kerosene, and prices are continuing to fall.

When Florida real estate developer Syd Kitson began conceptualizing Babcock Ranch, a planned community located some 20 minutes from Florida’s Fort Myers in 2006, he had a singular goal in mind: prove that a new development could exist in harmony with the environment around it.

A decade later, Kitson’s initial vision is about to become a reality. Coinciding with Earth Day, Babcock Ranch had its official reveal on Friday, April 22, with construction on the community’s homes set to begin this summer.

In celebration of Climate Week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that solar capacity has nearly quadrupled since the start of his Administration, and will provide 96 MW of electricity, compared to 25 MW at the beginning of the de Blasio Administration.

The Department of Buildings will issue permits for more than 3,000 solar panel installations this year alone and that will bring the citywide total to more than 8,000 installations in 2016. That is an increase from 1,819 installations at the start of the administration. This solar growth puts the City on track to meet its OneNYC goals of installing 100 megawatts (MW) of solar power on public buildings and spurring the installation of 250 MW on private buildings by 2025.

The International Energy Agency said today that it was significantly increasing its five-year growth forecast for renewables thanks to strong policy support in key countries and sharp cost reductions. Renewables have surpassed coal last year to become the largest source of installed power capacity in the world.

The latest edition of the IEA’s Medium-Term Renewable Market Report now sees renewables growing 13% more between 2015 and 2021 than it did in last year’s forecast, due mostly to stronger policy backing in the United States, China, India and Mexico. Over the forecast period, costs are expected to drop by a quarter in solar PV and 15 percent for onshore wind.

In Maricopa County, Ariz., the U.S. government will hit a clean energy milestone: what officials are calling the largest procurement ever of renewable energy by the federal government, in this case from a desert solar array.

The new 150-megawatt, or million-watt, Mesquite 3 solar array is located in Arizona, but the electricity it generates will be sent to California’s electric grid and will power roughly one-third of the electricity needs of 14 naval installations in the state, including San Diego’s naval base and the Marines’ Twentynine Palms and Camp Pendleton.

The race to build the world’s largest solar power plant is heating up. California-based energy company SolarReserve announced plans for a massive concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Nevada that claims to be the largest of its kind once built.

The 110 MW Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant near Tonopah, Nevada was the first utility-scale facility in the world to feature advanced molten salt power tower technology. The developer wants to build 10 more of these at an undisclosed location in Nevada.

SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the $5 billion endeavor would generate between 1,500 and 2,000 megawatts of power, enough to power about 1 million homes. That amount of power is as much as a nuclear power plant, or the 2,000-megawatt Hoover Dam and far bigger than any other existing solar facility on Earth, the Review-Journal pointed out.

As the global climate justice movement continues to grow and grow with an increasingly exciting energy, it manifests at its loudest, most colourful, creative, and radical on university campuses across the UK and the world. With a fresh wave of fossil fuel divestments announced alongside People & Planet’s 2016 University League, universities across the country now know full well that sustainability is a core concern for their staff and students, and it is here to stay.

Shell is continuing to highlight how global collaboration is important in the development of more and cleaner energy solutions by bringing to life another smart idea.

The company is working with an innovative energy start-up GravityLight to help provide residents living in off-grid communities across Kenya with lighting devices powered by gravity.

It is the latest step in the Shell #makethefuture campaign, which is bringing alternative energy technologies to people who need them most.

Barack Obama, outgoing president of the U.S., has stepped directly into the climate debate. He believes that the U.S. is on the way to a “clean energy” world and he delivers four reasons why he thinks the shift is now irreversible.

U.S. solar employs more workers than any other energy industry, including coal, oil and natural gas combined, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s second annual U.S. Energy and Employment Report.