*By Alisha Haridasani*
California, the state most aggressively pursuing clean energy policies, became the first in the country to require almost all new homes have solar panels.
The new rule, adopted by the California Energy Commission on Wednesday, will apply to all residential buildings up to three stories tall built after January 1, 2020.
This change in the building code is expected to add around [$10,000](http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/2019standards/documents/2018_Title_24_2019_Residential_Standards.pdf) to the cost of a new home. But the commission [estimated](http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2018_releases/2018-05-09_building_standards_adopted_nr.html) the panels could save home owners around $80 a month on utility bills, and will slash greenhouse gas emissions “by an amount equivalent to taking 115,000 fossil fuel cars off the road.”
The requirement is part of California’s push to get half the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The state already relies on renewables for around 25 percent of its electricity, and it is expected to rise to around 33 percent by 2020.
The California Building Standards Commission must formally adopt the rule, which it is expected to do, said Mark Kaufman, Mashable’s science reporter. “California is really keen on solar, just like Texas is really keen on wind,” Kaufman said.
Shares of solar companies, such as SunRun and First Solar, rallied on Thursday.
Google is moving forward with its previously-announced plan to delete inactive accounts and all associated data.
The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year's elections, Meta said Thursday.
Elon Musk had some harsh words for advertisers who have left his platform X over rising hate and anti-Semitism on the platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The first commercial airliner to cross the Atlantic on a purely high-fat, low-emissions fuel flew Tuesday from London to New York in a step toward achieving what supporters called “jet zero."
A new study examined the link between mental health and internet use and didn't find that it was consistently linked to negative psychological outcomes.
Amazon announced that it's launching 'Q,' a business ChatBot powered by generative AI tech similar to ChatGPT.
A ransomware attack has prompted a health care chain that operates 30 hospitals in six states to divert patients from at least some of its emergency rooms to other hospitals, while putting certain elective procedures on pause, the company announced.
Amazon rolled out its palm-based identity service for businesses.
North Korea claims that its first spy satellite was able to photograph images of the White House, the Pentagon and U.S. military bases.
