Rooftop Solar Power Is Struggling to Take Off in Hong Kong. What Went Wrong?

The SunZia project (a 916-turbine, 550-mile transmission wind energy system in New Mexico) now delivers up to 3.65 gigawatts of clean electricity to Arizona and California. Since testing began in April 2026, it's already driven record-breaking wind power generation five times on California's grid.

Moldova used government regulations and local installations of solar panels and biomass systems to respond to the Russia energy crisis, empowering local communities to create their own renewable energy cooperatives. These have helped increase the nation's renewable energy from 3% to 25% and reduce heating electricity costs in participating towns.

Utah legislators passed a bill exempting small-scale balcony solar installations from utility interconnection regulations to replicate Germany's successful approach, but the absence of national electrical standards and safety certifications have so far prevented widespread adoption and impact in the U.S.

France’s cities, including Paris, are among the world’s most expensive to live in. In 2015, France passed rent control laws that restrict outlandish rent increases through the Rent Observatory that oversees the different zones and contracts, as well as a website that tells residents if their prospective landlords are charging too much. One year later, the regulations have been effective at controlling the rent by 30% in Paris.

Los Angeles used to be a hotbed of racial profiling and unrest. Now, in the wake of Ferguson and the police killings in Brooklyn, Chief Charlie Beck thinks his force could be a model for the rest of the nation. The dept. has worked hard in recent years to create a police department that reflects the city it serves and has made fundamental progress on key civil rights issues.

In 2020, Nigeria's Rural Electrification Agency installed a 50-kilowatt solar-hybrid system at Gombe State Specialist Hospital, providing uninterrupted electricity to critical units, including the ICU and emergency departments. Since its installation, maternal mortality dropped from 15-20 deaths monthly to 1-2 per month, and neonatal deaths also decreased from 50 to 20-25 monthly. The system has also helped healthcare workers perform life-saving surgeries without interruption, as these surgeries were often delayed or impossible due to power outages.

Balcony solar (balkonkraftwerk)—affordable, plug-in solar panels that can be installed without an electrician—has been adopted by over one million German households, particularly renters previously excluded from rooftop solar, following policy changes that simplified registration and made landlord approval mandatory.

The Perinjanam Solar Initiative successfully combined government subsidies, cooperative bank financing, and a community-governed consumer committee to bring rooftop solar to over 1,000 households. Altogether, this cut monthly electricity bills by up to 80% and reduced carbon emissions by 192,000 kilograms, however such initiatives have failed elsewhere in Kerala due to the absence of government mandates, standardized financing frameworks, and the political will needed to scale the model statewide.

A small community in the mountains of North Carolina, Hot Springs, relied on a solar-powered microgrid with battery storage when the substation that supplied its power washed away in the flooding after Hurricane Helene. Microgrids like that could be a critical part of building extreme weather resilience elsewhere, too.

Several nonprofits are running a solar cooperative in El Paso, Texas, that helps homeowners come together to buy and install solar panels in bulk, which makes them more affordable.