Some bright spots, dots for a beleaguered solar industry

The only thing hotter than the sun? The collars of American solar execs, as they sweat out a distressing moment in their nascent industry’s history.  

Solar power was having itself a nice year — through April, it accounted for 77.7% of all new capacity added to US energy grid in 2025 (now up to 11% of America’s power capacity overall).

And then the GOP passed its One Big Beautiful Bill.

The legislation will roll back federal subsidies on solar (and wind and EVs), likely slowing the growth of clean energy initiatives across the country. 

What now? 

Political winds may be blowing against them at the moment, but solar innovation remains on the up and up: 

• Leading solar-tech firm First Solar just announced a deal with a quantum dot producer, UbiQD, to add its microscopic spheres to the underside of its social panels. It’s the widest expansion of nanotechnology in the field to date, per The Wall Street Journal.
  
  • Why it matters: the dots could double efficiency where applied.  If solar is about to get less affordable, then it’s a particularly good time to get more effective. 
  • Why you may have heard of quantum dots before: it’s what the Q in QLED TVs stands for. Screens are their most common application — for now.

Beyond utility-scale, more localized solar applications are taking off across the globe:

• Staff at Osaka’s ongoing Expo 2025 have sported solar-powered cooling vests this summer. Sewed into the vests are solar panels as light and thin as paper, but they’re effective enough to power wearable neck fans.
• Soma Bags, which makes solar panel-festooned backpacks with a built-in reading light, sold 36k units in Africa last year. The bags promote child literacy by enabling more night reading.

If you want to stretch even further for some solar wins…

Ironically, one win is found where the sun doesn’t shine: up our noses. “Everyone is talking about solar scents” this summer, according to New Beauty. 

• What the hell is a solar scent, you may wonder? The on-trend fragrance category is “relatively new” and includes warm, vibrant scents — like citrus, florals, coconut, amber, or vanilla — that are evocative of a sun-kissed day. 

And listen, morale is down in the solar sphere since the big bill passed, so let’s just give them this one, too:

The Orlando Solar Bears, a minor league hockey team, hired a new coach last week. Matt Macdonald has a winner’s pedigree, having won a Kelly Cup with the Cincinnati Cyclones in 2008.