Monday's energy & climate stories

Apartment dwellers and renters can still get solar panels
As solar power's technology becomes more cost-effective, utility companies are making moves, per the AP.
What does that mean for me?: You could go off the grid and install your own solar panels, but for a lot of people — like apartment dwellers or citizens of Seattle — a personal solar array isn't an option. Utility companies are well aware that many would like to utilize solar energy but cannot, so they're both trying to get ahead of the curve and preserve their own business by investing in community solar projects.
Community solar?: You'd agree to buy or lease solar panels at an array maintained by your utility and the panels' energy production credits your account. One such proposed plan: pay $70 upfront for a share in power potential from a community array, which estimates say should pay for itself in 3 years, allowing customers to rack up the savings from that point on.
Can I get in on this?: 4 states (CA, CO, MA, and MN) already mandate their utilities to get involved with community solar projects by law. Even beyond that, utilities now maintain 20% of community solar programs, representing 70% of potential output, in 32 states across the country. And Duke Energy, the largest electricity utility in the country, just announced a massive community solar project of their own.

Hot in Silicon Valley: tech at Super Bowl 51
Tech companies with Super Bowl ads: The list included Intel, Wix, Google, and Squarespace, and others. Airbnb made headlines with its pro-immigration and diversity theme. The company bought the 30-second spot on Thursday and filmed the ad that same day with some of its employees, according to co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky.
Bonus: Intel provided 300 drones for Lady Gaga's halftime performance. The drones flew in various formations, though the sequences were pre-filmed as FAA regulations prevent them from flying above the stadium.
97 companies band against Trump's immigration restrictions: On Sunday, a group of mostly tech companies filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to express their opposition to Trump's recent executive order on immigration, according to media reports.
Missing: Amazon, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Cisco, IBM, and Palantir, among others, including Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX.

