As the price of electricity continues to rise, homeowners are looking for ways to cut energy costs without sacrificing comfort or convenience. And many cost-conscience homeowners are considering solar panels, which convert the sun’s energy into clean electricity. Solar-powered systems have come a long way in the past decade or so. They’re much more powerful and sensitive, so they’ll work in virtually any region—not just the Sunbelt. The widespread availability and popularity

The solar industry in the U.S. is now so large that 2 million separate installations are in service across the country, according to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). Projects can be as big as a few square miles, but most are small, with 96% of the installations on residential rooftops. This type of installation is the specialty of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN), and Vivint Solar (NYSE:VSLR). The big projects are b

We’ve known for a few years now that solar power is surging in the U.S. and the rest of the world: costs have been falling for a while and countries like the United States, China, and India have been building so many solar panels that solar was the world’s fastest growing energy source in 2016. But thanks to a recently-published report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, we now know the full extent of that trend. The EIA report looks at the costs and spread of en