[Editor’s note: We’re trying a new morning green energy briefing which should deliver every day at 9am ET. Please comment below]

India Investing $1.8B on Lines to Transmit Solar Power – The whole world is racing to upgrade their infrastructure to take advantage of cheap, fuel free and clean solar power at peak times. The US, Germany and China have recently made headlines about lacking infrastructure – India watched, listened and hopefully is acting soon enough.

A good job if you can get it: America’s solar workforce is heating up – a 14% jump in jobs in the solar industry. 250,000 direct employees – 700,000 indirect employees. And the industry is going to keep on going. 50% outside, 50% sales/engineers/office/etc.

Researchers give ultra-efficient solar cells a further boost – Every day I could post a certain update to solar cell efficiency. Each of these small evolutions adds into a broad picture of technology spreading across the world. The key is not any particular evolution though – it is that there are tens of thousands of scientists and researchers and corporations doing this every day.

Arizona puts an end to net metering for solar customers – Arizona is a challenging state, but the dynamics of this argument have deeper implications than just state politics. The Edison Institute makes a tough argument – it is tested in AZ and then pushed to the rest of the USA. Watch this state to see how the anti-solar groups will attack elsewhere later.

Japan lowers FIT rate for 2017 – the Japanese market exploded to number three in the world because of an outrageous FIT rate. There were challenges interconnecting the new volume. The high rate got the country going: got installers working, and got expertise and supply chains built. The market will continue growing.

Polysilicon prices increasing – Solar panels make up 15-25% of the price of an installation. The silicon inside of the solar panels represents 25% of that cost. An increase in pricing at the lower ends will bubble up, but not a lot – a 10% increase here means 1-2% of the total system price.

I just wanted to add a nice looking picture:

December in Utah has turned Three Peaks Solar into a winter wonderland. Check out these gorgeous shots of the 108 MW solar plant from above! pic.twitter.com/QGHthMdkud

— SOLV Energy (@SOLVenergyteam) December 20, 2016

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