Tag:

distributed solar

Florida Voters Reject Utility Sponsored Solar Amendment

by Steve Hanley November 9, 2016

A coalition of utility companies and fossil fuel companies spent more than $20 million to shove a weasel worded amendment to the Florida constitution down the throats of Florida voters. The amendment would have forever prevented Florida residents from taking advantage of rooftop solar power. Because it was a constitutional amendment, it needed approval from 60% of voters to pass. It got 51%.

Florida Solar Amendmnet

The amendment was deliberately constructed to mislead the public. It was as one person involved in the process called it, a bit of “legislative jiu jitsu.” It’s title said one thing but the body of the proposal said exactly the opposite. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and chairman of SolarCity tweeted that the proposal was a “calculated attempt to deceive Florida voters.”

The proposal illustrates how terrified the utilities and fossil fuel thugs like the Koch Brothers are of distributed solar power. In state after state, from Nevada to Arizona, and Florida to Hawai’i, the utilities are petrified that distributed solar may take away what they believe is their God given right to a monopoly on the generation and distribution of electricity. Blessed with a guaranteed rate of return which is double or triple what most investors can earn today, they fear their fat profits will be eroded if people are allowed to generate their own electrical power.

Solar power comes in two flavors: centralized solar, in which utility companies build large solar farms and distribute the electricity from them via the traditional grid, and decentralized solar, in which individuals and small businesses use the space available to them on their own roofs to generate electrical power for their own use. Any excess is then sold to the local utility. Heaven forfend than any private citizen make a few kilowatts of extra electricity and sell it to a neighbor! That would be contrary to the Ten Commandments, The Constitution, and the Geneva Convention, wouldn’t it?

Make no mistake. The utility companies like Duke Energy and fossil fuel companies like Kockh Industries are doing everything in their power to hang onto the obscene profits they generate in their “business as usual” little worlds. What the Florida campaign taught us is that their is one sure way to tell when either of them are lying. Their lips are moving.

Source: Miami Herald Photo credit: Miami Herald video

November 9, 2016 0 comment

Pew Research Shows Americans Strongly Favor Solar Power

by Steve Hanley October 6, 2016

written by Steve Hanley

In an election year in which one candidate is hell bent on expanding the use of coal as an energy source, a new poll by the Pew Research Center shows that 89% of all Americans favor expanding the use of solar power to make electricity thanks to its many benefits. This finding means that the vast majority of US citizens support solar power regardless of age, political affiliation, class, race, or sex. The Pew Research Center report also found that 4% of homeowners have a rooftop solar system. Many more — 40% — say they have given serious thought in the past 12 months to adding one.

Pew research on solar power

Homeowners living in the western half of the country are more likely to say they are considering adding rooftop solar panels. 52% said the thought has crossed their mind. 14% already have a residential solar system on their home.

Compare that to people in the east: Only 2% of them have a solar system already and just 37% say they have seriously considered it.

The US Energy Information Agency says it expects 9.5 gigawatts of electricity from large-scale solar farms to be added in 2016, with another 2 gigawatts from distributed solar sources such as rooftop solar. Total demand for electricity in the US stands at about 1,070 gigawatts, which means solar power only accounts for about 1% of all the electricity used in this country despite recent advances.

October 6, 2016 0 comment

cps energy offering free solar rooftop installation © cps energy

Going Solar Rooftop Solar

Texas CPS Energy Installing Free Solar Rooftop Panels

by Aisha Abdelhamid April 3, 2015

written by Aisha Abdelhamid

Currently working on contracting with a third party to install solar panels, free of charge to its customers, CPS Energy is gearing up for its new “Rent the Roof” solar program in San Antonio, Texas. The pilot program, set to launch in mid-2015, is still in the request-for-proposals (RFP) phase, evaluating contractor proposals for installing the solar rooftop panels.

CPS Energy offering free solar rooftop installation. © CPS Energy.

CPS Energy Also Offers Enough Rent “To Get People Interested”

Raiford Smith, vice president of corporate development and planning at CPS Energy, speaking to KSAT12 Reporter Jenna Hiller, explained, “We have this purchase power agreement where essentially we will contract with a third party to install solar panels, essentially at no charge to the customer.”

Around 300-400 homes are expected to be signed up for the one megawatt solar energy generation pilot program. San Antonio resident Oscar Samano told Hiller that he would sign up for the CPS Energy program, “if he could avoid the roughly $30,000 cost of installing panels on his own.” Samano related, “I have a large awning and a large roof. It’s a three-bedroom house.” He continued, “We don’t have room for the wind turbines, so solar panels would be the best project.”

In exchange for a contract with CPS Energy to buy the output for the 15-year expected lifetime of solar panels, homeowners will receive free installation, and a monthly rent payment in the form of a credit on their CPS Energy bill. Although it has not yet been determined how much “rent payment” customers will receive, the utility company has said “it would be enough to get people interested.”

Planned Growth to 50MW Community Rooftop Solar

Since 2007, reports CPS Energy, just over 20MW solar generation has already been installed on San Antonio home and business rooftops. “We’re excited about the prospect of increasing the amount of rooftop solar in our service territory by making it available to more customers.” said Cris Eugster, executive vice president and chief generation and strategy officer. If successful, the 1MW community rooftop pilot program will be expanded to 25 or even 50 MW over the next few years.

Anita Ledbetter, interim executive director of Solar San Antonio and executive director of Build San Antonio Green said, “This program has the potential to bring solar power to the rooftops of people who couldn’t afford it before.” Ledbetter continued, “CPS Energy is our utility. It’s owned by us, the people of San Antonio. And the idea of our utility putting solar on our people’s rooftops, instead of building another centralized power plant – it’s a very exciting thing, and Solar San Antonio is very supportive.”

CPS Energy distributed rooftop solar program. © CPS Energy.

April 3, 2015 0 comment

Activism Community Solar Solar Incentives Solar Policy

6 Principles For Distributed Solar Power

by Jake Richardson October 7, 2014

written by Jake Richardson

VoteSolar has produced a tip sheet on principles for distributed solar generation policies and rates. On the surface of it, this type of information might not seem all that appealing to the average consumer, but it is actually quite important because distributed solar allows consumers more freedom of choice.

Freedom of choice generally gets consumer attention, because consumers like flexibility. Historically, utility companies have had something of a monopoly on electricity and gas, so consumers did not have much flexibility. However, because of the dramatic decrease in the cost of solar power, rooftop and other distributed solar types are set to increase. Most consumers may not want to abandon the utility-backed grid systems. At the same time, distributed solar power generation is attractive because it can provide electricity at lower rates. Community solar parks, for example, have been constructed and used in some states, like Colorado.

You can tell we are all in a transitional phase in terms of where energy is coming from. Vote Solar wants to make sure consumer awareness is high and that consumers are able to access power at affordable rates. Let’s look at its six principles.

1. Preserve individual customer rights to self-determination
Each customer can choose the amount of energy to purchase from the grid, the amount to self-produce and consume, and the amount to save through efficiency measures that reduce consumption.

The self production might be the most important point. In the very near future, homeowners and business people are likely to be producing more of their own energy. No utility or other entity should be allowed to place limits on how much energy can be produced. Placing such limits would be sort of like blocking individuals from growing unlimited amounts of food in their own gardens.

2. Capture the Full Range of DSG Benefits and Values:
Customer-sited solar generation offers many benefits to the electric utility system and, by extension, to non-solar customers. These values and benefits should be quantified, and solar customers should be adequately compensated for the value their solar energy is delivering to all customers.

Once customers are generating their own power, the power they can share should not be undervalued. In other words, their power should be sold at a rate that is fair to them.

3. Promote Policies and Rates Favorable to Next-Generation Distributed Technologies:
Tariffs and policies should not inhibit the deployment of DSG, demand response, combined heat and power (e.g. fuel cells), storage or other innovative energy technologies that are currently available or will be available in the forseeable future.

This point is also about consumer fairness. Consumers don’t make high-level policies but are still impacted by them. Utilities might have an incentive to block the growth of energy production that can’t control or manage. They also have the ability to influence public policy in their own favor.

4. Insist Upon Non-Discriminatory Rate Practices and Policies:
Utility rates should treat reductions in utility revenues due to net metered solar and other DSG in a manner that is fully comparable to reductions due to other consumer behaviors including energy efficiency and demand response. Any rate treatment that is not generally applied to all similarly situated customers must be cost-justified and seek to avoid unintended consequences.

This one is a more detailed extension of the previous one about fairness to consumers. currently, solar power generation is an emerging trend, so it must be protected in order to expand further.

5. Adhere to Due Process:
A transparent and data-driven analysis, which allows stakeholder participation and ensures protection of due process rights, should be followed in order to optimize the chances for an outcome that is best for customers.

Because the trend is an emerging one, it isn’t completely clear what all the legal aspects will turn out to be. So, customer rights to fairness in legal proceedings must be ensured as well.

6. Ensure Rooftop Solar Benefits are Shared with Low-Income Customers:
Within resource and grid planning processes, regulators should ensure that utilities effectively realize the present and future benefits that distributed solar provides, including freeing up distribution and transmission capacity and reducing the need for infrastructure upgrades. These cost savings must be shared equally among all customers, including low-income customers, through thoughtful rate design.

Low-income customers can benefit the most from a decrease in energy bills, because they pay a disproportionate amount of their income for energy.

October 7, 2014 0 comment

Policy Research PV Rooftop Solar Solar $Solar Policy Solar Research

Solar Power Benefits & Costs (Report)

by Zach July 27, 2013

written by Zach

Rooftop solar panels from underneath. Credit: Zachary Shahan (CC BY-NC-SA license)

The Rocky Mountain Institute’s eLab has created a new report on solar power benefits and costs (distributed solar PV benefits and costs, to be specific). This is a critical effort, and a very useful report to help that effort along. Better valuation of distributed solar PV (DPV) is sorely needed in order to steer the quite complicated electricity system in the right direction (technically, financially, and politically).

“This analysis of current structural misalignments (including net-metering and volumetric rates) offers a foundation to support smart policymaking and electricity pricing structures across the country—which can help avert the impending collision of solar costs and grid prices,” an email to me from a Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) staff member noted.

“Deciphering the costs and benefits of distributed energy services is critical to ensure better technical integration and economic optimization. As the penetration of DPV and other customer-sited resources increases, accurate pricing and market signals can help align stakeholder goals, minimize total system cost and maximize total net value.”

A huge thanks to RMI for putting this report together. Here’s the full news release from earlier this week:

Rocky Mountain Institute’s eLab Releases Review of PV Benefits and Costs
Comprehensive study builds foundation for accurately valuing distributed solar

Snowmass, Colo.—July 22, 2013—Today, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) announced the release of a report from the Electricity Innovation Lab (e^–Lab), entitled “A Review of Solar PV Benefit and Cost Studies.” This robust discussion document provides a critical framework for understanding the benefits and costs that increasing levels of distributed solar photovoltaics (DPV) on the electricity grid offers utilities, customers and technology developers.

A review of 15 leading assessments exploring the economic value of DPVs, the eLab study offers a foundation for accurately assessing the costs and values of distributed solar that can support smart policymaking and electricity pricing structures across the country.

“As the penetration of distributed solar continues to grow, it is vital to see it as an integral, fundamental part of the electricity system and not just as a ‘bolt-on’ solution,” said Lena Hansen, principal at RMI and co-author of the study. “Appropriately valuing solar PV and the other distributed energy services provided by every actor in the energy equation is part of this process of realignment.”

The increasingly rapid adoption of distributed energy resources—primarily DPV—is driving a heated debate about whether they create net value for the electric system due to their unique siting, operational and ownership characteristics compared to conventional centralized resources. Yet, while methods for identifying, assessing and quantifying the benefits and costs of distributed resources are advancing rapidly, important gaps need to be addressed before these methods can provide an adequate foundation for policymakers and regulators engaged in determining levels of incentives, fees, and pricing structures.

“Understanding the costs and benefits of distributed generation is the most significant issue facing the energy industry in our generation,” said Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff. “Balancing the cost and benefit equation will determine whether consumers pay reasonable costs for new energy infrastructure development or pay for costs that may be unnecessary and wasteful.”

Today, the wide variation in analysis and quantitative tools used by different parties in different jurisdictions is inconsistent, confusing and frequently lacks transparency. And, while individual regions must adapt approaches based on their local context, greater standardization of categories, definitions and methodologies is possible.

“Deciphering the costs and benefits of distributed energy services is critical to ensure better technical integration and economic optimization.” said Virginia Lacy, RMI senior consultant and co-author of the study. “As the penetration of DPV and other customer-sited resources increases, accurate pricing and market signals can help align stakeholder goals, minimize total system cost, and maximize total net value.”

About RMI
Rocky Mountain Institute is an independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit think-and-do tank with offices in Snowmass and Boulder, Colorado. RMI emphasizes integrative design, advanced technologies, and mindful markets in fulfilling its mission to drive the efficient and restorative use of resources. RMI’s strategic focus is to map and drive the U.S. transition from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables by 2050. Please visit http://www.rmi.org for more information.

About eLab
The Electricity Innovation Lab (e-Lab) brings together thought leaders and decision makers from across the U.S. electricity sector to address critical institutional, regulatory, business, economic, and technical barriers to the economic deployment of distributed resources. A multi-year “change lab,” e-Lab regularly convenes its members to identify, test, and spread practical solutions to the challenges inherent in these questions. e-Lab is a joint collaboration, not a consensus organization, convened by RMI, with participation from stakeholders across the electricity industry.

July 27, 2013 0 comment

Market Research Rooftop Solar Solar $Solar Research

220,000 MW Of Distributed Solar Power By 2018 (Navigant Research Report)

by Zach April 18, 2013

written by Zach

Another day, another market research report is out (well, hundreds probably came out today). As always, though, it’s hard to pass up one on solar power. And the one today is even on distributed solar power.

Former Maldives President Nasheed installing solar panels on his home. Photo Credit: 350.org/ Mohamed Ali (some rights reserved)

According to Navigant Research (formerly Pike Research), 220 gigawatts (GW) — 220,000 megawatts (MW) — of distributed solar power capacity will be installed between 2013 and 2018.

“The global electric power industry is evolving from a financial and engineering model that relies on large centralized power plants owned by utilities to one that is more diverse, in terms of both the sources of generation and the ownership of the generation assets,” a press release about the new report states. “Distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems offer the benefit of producing electricity onsite, thereby reducing the need to build new transmission capacity and avoiding line losses.”

The new solar power capacity is supposed to represent about $540 billion in revenue.

April 18, 2013 0 comment