Solar News This Week - October 25, 2026
Virginia staff: reject the $67 billion Dominion–NextEra merger
The $67 billion merger between Dominion–NextEra hit a wall this week. On Monday, staff at Virginia's State Corporation Commission recommended rejecting the deal, concluding the companies haven't proven that the merger will best serve the public and that it may result in higher prices.
PJM's independent watchdog, Monitoring Analytics, also asked federal regulators to reject the merger, arguing the deal would give NextEra an "unprecedented amount of economic and political power" and deter competition.
Governor Abigail Spanberger also chimed in, advising that commissioners should reject the merger unless the utilities freeze residential rates for six years and triple monthly bill credits. She's also pushing to eliminate Virginia's rooftop solar cap.
The three commissioners must decide by January 15, 2027. If they miss that deadline, the merger is automatically approved.
Solar and storage drove wholesale prices down 42 percent in Texas, 51 percent in California
As affordability becomes a major issue ahead of the midterms, a new analysis from the Solar Energy Industries Association shows that solar and storage are cutting electricity costs in both red and blue states.
From 2021 to 2026, average wholesale electricity prices fell 42 percent in Texas and 51 percent in California — even as demand grew. In Texas, demand surged 30 percent, yet the price fell from about $55 per megawatt-hour to about $32. In California, use grew 2.5 percent, while the price fell from about $78 to about $38.
So what drove these falling prices? Over five years, solar generation rose 421 percent in Texas and 90 percent in California, while battery capacity grew more than 26-fold in Texas and nearly sevenfold in California.
This past summer alone, solar and storage saved Texans about $3.55 billion and Californians about $2.5 billion versus the summer of 2021 according to SEIA.
But even as the cost of generating electricity fell, total residential bills still went up over the same period: 3 percent in Texas and 22 percent in California. The reason is the other part of the bill — transmission and distribution costs, which rose enough to swamp the generation savings, especially in California.
National Plug-In Solar mandate proposed
New Jersey Congressman Rob Menendez has introduced the Socket Full of Sunshine Act, which would require every state utility commission to consider plug-in solar rules — unless that state's legislature has already passed similar rules or voted them down.
The bill follows laws already adopted in 10 states. It defines a portable solar device as up to 1,200 watts, plugging into a standard 120-volt outlet, built to National Electrical Code standards and certified by UL or a similar lab. Systems over 400 watts would need a power control system.
Menendez says families are getting squeezed by rising electric bills, and plug-in solar is a simple, affordable way to cut them — but outdated rules and unnecessary fees stand in the way.
The bill also offers rebates up to $1,000 for low- and moderate-income households, funded at $100 million a year through 2032. But these rebates would only be available in states that bar landlords from blocking tenants' plug-in solar, and only for American-made devices with more than 55 percent domestic content.
But timing is tight: the bill expires with the end of Congress on January 3rd and Congress has only scheduled about 26 working days for the balance of 2026.
Jinko releases 510 W Residential Solar Panel
It's official, solar panels are getting bigger.
JinkoSolar has unveiled its Tiger Neo 5.0, an all-black residential panel built on a new cell technology called TAC — a combination of TOPCon and heterojunction.
The first version, a 48-cell module, delivers 510 watts at 25.52 percent efficiency — about 30 watts more than conventional back-contact panels.
The uniform black color is designed to blend into premium rooftops. Jinko says the cell itself peaks at 28 percent efficiency, near the theoretical limit for monocrystalline silicon.
Base Power brings 50 MW of home batteries to a Georgia
Base Power is taking its home-battery model outside Texas for the first time, partnering with the Central Georgia Electric Membership Corporation.
It plans to place 2,500 Base Core batteries in members' homes — 50 megawatts of dispatchable capacity, and about 100 megawatt-hours of storage. Homeowners pay a one-time $95 setup fee, no monthly fee, and get whole-home backup.
Base Power then controls the units as a virtual power plant, selling stored power to the grid on days when demand is high. First installations are set for 2027, across a co-op serving more than 61,000 homes in 16 counties between Atlanta and Macon.