With so much happening at a state level in solar power and energy efficiency, it is difficult to keep up with the variety of approaches and perspectives. So the Yale Center for Business and the Environment is here to help by launching “States of Clean Energy Innovation,” an online news hub with customized clean energy data and stories about the United States and Puerto Rico. Each state is different. Each state has thoughtful leaders working on our transition to clean energy. And each state deserves its own dashboard.

There is a strong groundswell of support for solar power and energy efficiency in Oregon. This has boosted the state’s programs and amplified their accomplishments, according to Janine Benner, director of Oregon Department of Energy. In this interview, she said Oregon is using these technologies to offset the environmental impact of its growing IT industry.

Since Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has been a productive location for entrepreneurs who are eager to get involved in installing solar power and energy storage. One of them is Alejandro Uriarte, CEO of New Energy Consultants & Contractors. In this interview, he describes the rocky road that the island territory has encountered as it seeks to build out clean energy.

As Missouri’s clean energy policies go back and forth like a ball in a game, advocates are doing their best to negotiate, said James Owen, executive director of Renew Missouri, in this interview. Net metering and other policies are being actively debated by state decision makers. The outcome is still up in the air.

Jon Powers, a military veteran who served as Chief Sustainability Officer for the Obama administration, spoke with Clean Energy Finance Forum on Feb. 22 about what challenges the nation faces in the short run, what public policy measures should be supported and saved, and what a carbon tax could do for sustainable energy.

Washington, DC is already on track to surpass the building energy efficiency goals it set seven years ago, according to the DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). DOEE has achieved this through a unique public-private partnership participation in the Better Buildings Challenge. It also has a suite of other renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

There was a full house when speakers offered strategic advice on energy storage financing at the Solar Power Northeast conference. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) held this conference in Boston on Feb. 5-6. Solar energy storage systems are not yet widely used. And this lack of popularity can make storage systems difficult to finance.

Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has recently merged with Solar Energy Finance Association and created the Solar Energy Finance Advisory Council (SEFAC), a new entity with the goal of facilitating wide-scale solar deployment by providing better access to capital.

Quietly, while the United States focused on its national election, a set of federal clean energy incentives phased out at the end of 2016. Now that they have vanished, states may seek to create replacements to keep these markets alive and help them grow. For example, New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) is now strategically replacing the missing incentives for renewable heating and cooling.

Just when it seemed as if the United States solar investment tax credit (ITC) was running out of energy, federal legislators charged it up for another few years last Friday. Barring other changes, by the time the credit winds down gradually, it will have put the national solar industry on a smooth glide toward a profitable future. The credit applies to both residential and commercial projects. It will taper from 30 percent through 2019 to 26 percent through 2020, 22 percent until 2022, and 10 percent thereafter.