A group of pro-solar people are returning a solar panel to the White House tomorrow, September 10, and hope to convince President Obama to Put Solar on the White House roof.

Earlier this month, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue signed a bill that extended a generous tax credit for investments in renewable energy and increased the tax credit for investment in facilities that manufacture renewable energy equipment.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a law August 17 requiring power utilities to get 6 percent of their energy from solar in 2015 and every year thereafter.

Maine is sweetening the pot to try to get homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient this summer. The state is offering a $1,000 cash bonus for home energy improvements completed by August 31, 2010, according to the Morning Sentinel. The new incentive is in addition to the $3,000 cash incentive that has been in effect since January to homeowners of all income levels, as well as up to $1,500 in federal tax credits.

Recently, Oregon announced a new solar program in which utilities will pay premium rates to people for generating solar power with small-scale systems.

Today President Obama is in the San Francisco area and will visit the Solyndra solar panel production factory in Fremont, California. Obama will discuss jobs and the economy while at Solyndra. In recent days he has said that the United States needs to boost its support of renewable energy sources, so that China doesn’t own the alternative energy market.

Down in the Sunshine State, Governor Charlie Crist plans to hold a special session of the state legislature to address the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to oil, he wants to focus on renewable energy policies, especially those that do not raise electricity rates or energy costs—including measures such as solar rebates and solar incentives.

A Vermont clean energy board announced April 21 that the state government has made available $5.5 million to support the installation of solar and small wind projects at homes and businesses in the state.

The New York Public Service Commission set aside $279 million in incentives over the next five years for small-scale renewable energy projects. About $170 million of the total has been tagged for solar-technology projects. The Commission’s approval came on March 25.

Early this week, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill into law setting a new Renewable Energy Standard that requires the state to get 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.