While the PUC will ultimately rule on net metering, a group of interested parties—including the state’s utilities and the Granite State Hydropower Association—agreed on a settlement that calls for the rate to stay the same for two years.

The settlement also calls for the electric utilities to file a NEM time-of-use rate two years from the approval of what they’re calling NEM 2.1. In response to claims that NEM shifts costs to non-solar ratepayers, the settlement calls for the utilities to impose application fees for net metered projects to reduce the administrative costs borne by non-net-metering customers. Fees suggested range from $200 to $1,000 per project.

The state’s leading clean energy advocacy group, Clean Energy NH, has sent a rallying cry in support of the settlement. Executive director, Sam Evans-Brown told pv magazine USA that he’s hopeful that the commissioners won’t cut the current compensation rate, but he said “we have seen with this commission that they are hostile to certain types of utility programs. This was most evident in their order in the Energy Efficiency docket from 2020, which was overturned unanimously on a bipartisan basis by New Hampshire lawmakers.”

Much evidence has been entered into the record for Docket 22-060, yet Evans-Brown said in the past, the order in the previous docket was not based on any evidence that was entered into the record, so Clean Energy NH is afraid that history may repeat itself.

The history of net metering in New Hampshire goes back to 1998 when NEM, a policy that provides credit to rate payers on utility bills for the amount of solar energy sent to the grid, was first enacted in New Hampshire. At the time it supported both solar generation as well as small-scale hydropower and it provided net credits at the retail rate which was 17 cents per kWh.

In 2017 NH’s NEM was cut to around 14.7 cents per kWh for small (<100 kW) systems and 10 cents per kWh for large projects compared to between 13 and 25 cents per kWh in Maine, and about 16 cents per kWh in Vermont.

Source: Clean Energy NH

While the net metering rate has been low in NH, the cost of electricity is high. New Hampshire currently has the 8^th highest electricity rate in the country, averaging 23.1 cents per kWh.

Furthermore, while solar would ease this cost burden for many ratepayers, the state is not known as a solar energy powerhouse. The state currently gets 1.94% of its electricity from solar, compared to neighboring Massachusetts that gets 23.75% of its electricity from the sun. NH and is ranked 41^st in the nation according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. That rank is expected to drop to 45^th over the next five years.

If the NH PUC chooses to reduce or eliminate net metering in New Hampshire, solar in the state may be affected. pv magazine USA spoke with Dan Weeks, vice president at ReVision Energy, New Hampshire’s largest solar installer. Weeks said that net metering has been “the critical foundation for thousands of families, plus housing authorities, nonprofits, businesses, and towns to go solar and get at least a portion of the value that they provide to the grid back in net metering credits.”

Weeks noted that right now net metering in NH is good through 2040, which is only 15 years away. With 20 years being the “minimum accepted duration for investing in projects,” he said ReVision is hoping the PUC leaves net metering in tact and extends the duration.

“We think that’s a very modest task,” said Weeks. “And the fact that all of the regulated utilities, as well as the consumer advocates, plus industry and environmentalists are in alignment should make it an easy decision for the PUC commissioners. But we’re also reading the signals showing that they could go in a very drastic direction, and that concerns us very much.”

California’s current solar conundrum is an example of what could happen to New Hampshire’s solar market. The updated net metering rule that was implemented in April 2023, called NEM 3.0, cut compensation for exported rooftop solar generation by roughly 80%. Since then interconnection queues show an 80% drop in installation applications. The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) reported that nearly 17,000 rooftop solar jobs, about 22% of the workforce, were lost this year as a result. Solar Insure, which backs many installation companies in the state, told pv magazine USA that its data shows 75% of solar installers are now in the “high risk” category following CPUC’s decision to implement NEM 3.0, with SunPower being the most notable bankruptcy among many.

Comments on the potential rate change can be emailed to ClerksOffice@puc.nh.gov. Clean Energy NH advises that comments be sent by August 30, 2024.

The Energy Information Administration reported in its monthly electric power industry report that battery adoption rates are rising among solar customers in California.

In October 2023, about 20% of California solar shoppers opted to include a battery energy storage system in their installation. In April 2024, that number has climbed to over 50%.

The change to battery-included systems is largely due to the transition to Net Energy Metering 3.0, a regulatory structure that decreased the amount paid to customers for sending solar production directly to the grid. Due to an hourly mismatch of peak solar production and peak electricity demand, regulators shifted compensation rates to place an emphasis on storing and dispatching solar generated electricity when it is needed the most.

A 50% or greater battery attachment rate is a significant change for the state’s solar industry. Solar-plus-battery systems make up about 9% of all installed residential net metering capacity in California. Over 40,000 new systems were added between October 2023 and April 2024, accounting for 232 MW of new battery storage capacity in the state, said EIA.

While NEM 3.0 achieved its intended effect of encouraging more battery installations, the rulemaking decision was unpopular with solar advocates. The change increased the overall sticker price for installing solar, and while you get the added benefit of battery backup during outages, the amount of time it will take to breakeven on a solar investment in California has increased. This has led to a decline in installations, with Q1 2024 having the lowest installed capacity in a quarter since 2021 with a little over 300 MW of solar installed.

California now has more than 12,000 MW of installed solar capacity in residential net metering systems smaller than 1 MW. Residential installations account for more than 70% of installed net metering capacity, and about one-third of total installed solar capacity in the state.

“Our data show that during the third quarter of 2023, 83,376 new residential net metering photovoltaic systems were installed, compared with 70,152 systems connected under the old NEM 2.0 rule during the same period in 2022. However, we cannot differentiate the systems that requested to be grandfathered to NEM 2.0,” said EIA.

The first quarter of 2024 saw an additional 46,631 systems installed. Since January 2022, an average of 21,000 solar systems were added every month.

The N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) released its 50 States of Solar: Q2 2024 report that looks at state regulatory and legislative discussions that affect the distributed solar market in various states.

The report finds that many states are taking a close look at solar policies due to the influx of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) going to state agencies and clean energy projects. Q2 2024 saw 44 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico take a total of 182 distributed solar policy actions.

In addition to states are examining the interplay of IRA funding and solar programs, other trends are seeing states initiate formal studies to inform net metering successor efforts, and states are modifying existing community solar programs.

The greatest number of actions address net metering policies (64), and residential fixed charge or minimum bill increases (48), and community solar policies (42). Most of these actions were taken in California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Virginia.

Top five distributed generation solar policy actions

In Q2 2024, six states issued decisions, passed legislation, enhance programs or initiated studies that pertain to solar policy:

California—Regulators at the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued two major decisions on community solar and income-based fixed charges. The CPUC approved income-tiered residential fixed charges for the state’s investor-owned utilities, which range from $6.00 to $24.15. The CPUC also approved a new Community Renewable Energy Program and modifications to existing Green Tariff programs. The new community energy program will use existing procurement mechanisms like the Renewable Energy Market Adjustment Tariff and PURPA Standard Offer Contract as the foundation of the program.

Alaska— Alaska lawmakers passed legislation requiring the Commission-regulated utilities to offer community energy programs. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska is to develop several program specifications, including bill credit rates that consider the full economic value provided by community energy facilities. The Commission is also authorized to adopt a separate rate for capacity provided by energy storage as part of a community energy facility.

Colorado—Legislators in Colorado approved changes to the states’ community solar garden program. The revised program will begin in 2026 and focus on inclusive community solar development. It requires that at least 51% of a facility’s subscriptions be reserved for income-qualified customers and allows for the donation of excess credits to income-qualified customers. For income-qualified customers, the subscription charge is limited to 75% of the value of the bill credits, while this decreases to 70% if the project is receiving IRA funding for energy communities and 50% if IRA funding is being used to provide bill savings.

Connecticut and Washington—Lawmakers in these states initiated net metering studies. Connecticut’s study will consider whether the Renewable Energy Solutions Program should be extended and possible successors. Washington’s study will examine the value of distributed solar and storage and options that may be used after the net metering cap is reached.

Kansas—The Kansas legislature enacted legislation in April that increases the aggregate cap for net metering, as well as the individual system size limit. The aggregate cap will increase by 1% (of the utility’s highest annual peak demand since 2014) per year until reaching 5% in July 2027. The bill increases the system size limit to 150 kW for all customers and also provides guidance for net metering crediting under time-of-use rates.

“States are beginning — or rather, re-beginning — to study net metering programs, outside of the valuation of distributed solar,” said Rebekah de la Mora, senior policy analyst at NCCETC. “These investigations focus on program redesigns and successors, looking at the policies, economics, results, and future projections of net metering programs. Some of these investigations are already baked into law, like in Puerto Rico, while others were proposed by newly-passed bills, such as those in Delaware and Washington.”

One other state that made a big move as a result of federal funding is Mississippi, where the Public Service Commission has suspended multiple solar and storage incentives/programs in the state due to Solar for All funding.

As expected, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted on changes to its utility-backed community solar program despite strong opposition from industry groups, community solar developers and even Assemblymember Chris Ward who introduced the original version of the bill (AB 2316).

Community solar enables small businesses and residents who are renters or who otherwise cannot put solar on their roof to subscribe to a portion of an off-site solar facility, receiving a utility bill credit for the power it generates. In California, approximately 45% of California households are renters who don’t own their roofs and, therefore, can’t install a solar system.

The Community Renewable Energy Act (AB 2316) put forth by Assemblymember Ward was sponsored by the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), and supported by the Solar Industries Energy Association, GRID Alternatives, Vote Solar, the Sierra Club, and more. Notably, investor-owned utilities, which serve over 75% of the electricity usage in the state, opposed the bill.

Riding on the tail of the CPUC’s net metering change, which dealt a serious blow to the residential solar industry, developers and other industry experts expect this new legislation will stall the buildout of community solar in California.

California was previously the leading state in solar energy; however, the tide is turning. Aaron Halimi, founder and president of Renewable Properties, a community solar developer, said that this recent decision by the CPUC will prevent California from being a leader in community solar. An increasing number of states are implementing pro-active community solar policies just as the market is starting take off.

Calling the new rules a “misguided decision”, Halimi said it’s unlikely the industry will invest in building community solar and energy storage projects in California.

“The CPUC’s decision primarily benefits the financial interests of utilities and does not support the State’s climate goals or the aim of reducing electric bills for low-income Californians, which was the purpose of AB 2316,” said Halimi.

Derek Chernow, Western regional director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) released a statement saying that the ruling “ignored the will of the California Legislature and the broad coalition of ratepayer, equity, environmental, labor, agricultural, and business groups who have demanded a functional community solar program for more than a decade”.

The legislation passed with a 3-1 vote, and CCSA thanked the lone dissenter, Commissioner Darcie Houck, for her vote and remarks for how this Decision will fail to reach community solar’s full potential.

The CCSA characterized the CPUC’s choice to accept the utilities’ proposal as doubling down on failed programs that “have not — and will not — establish a viable community solar market that would provide affordable energy to Californians that need relief the most”.

“It’s also further evidence that California’s utilities are doing everything they can to stifle distributed energy generation in order to tighten their grip on the state’s electricity grid. The vote solidifies California’s place near the bottom of community solar markets nationwide, ceding leadership to other states to truly democratize solar energy and fulfill national energy equity goals,” said CCSA.

SunPower announced it will now be offering Tesla Powerwall 3 as part of its portfolio of residential solar and storage products.

“Homeowners are increasingly turning to battery storage to protect themselves against ongoing utility rate hikes and grid outages. We witnessed record-breaking battery storage sales in 2024 and see a future where almost all solar systems are paired with storage,” said Shawn Fitzgerald, SVP corporate development and product strategy at SunPower.

Tesla launched the Powerwall 3 in 2024 after it was unveiled at the RE+ trade e show in September 2023. It has the same storage capacity as the Powerwall 2 (13.5 kWh) but a key differentiator is that it can provide at least 50% more power at 11.5 kW of continuous power. It is a hybrid battery with the solar and battery inverter fully integrated, and is designed for new solar installations as opposed to retrofits. Some of the innovations over the Powerwall 2 are that it is reportedly easier to install, and it is smaller and lighter, while slightly deeper.

“Pairing Tesla Powerwall 3 with our industry-leading SunPower Equinox solar system was a natural progression in offering homeowners the best products on the market.” Fitzgerald said.

According to a report by Wood Mackenzie, one in every four American homeowners who install rooftop solar this year will also add battery storage. Reasons include resiliency as well as changes in net metering policy such as California’s  NEM 3.0, which cut payments for exported solar energy by about 75%.

Powerwall was the choice in over half of home battery installations last year, according to Wood Mackenzie.

“Expanding access to Tesla Powerwall 3 allows us to offer homeowners a comprehensive energy solution under one roof including sales, financing and installation,” said Joe Holstein, owner of SunPower by Quality Home Services, a SunPower Master Dealer.

SunPower Financial reported it has expanded its suite of solar financing options to include loan and lease financing through Mosaic for Tesla battery installations. SunPower reports that qualified customers can finance a Powerwall 3 with no down payment.

SunPower specializes in residential solar installations, a market that has been hard hit by rising interest rates and policy changes such as NEM 3.0 In April SunPower announced it planned to close business segments as it restructures to lower costs. At the time the company’s stock was trading 96% lower than all-time highs and was down 86% over the past year.

SunPower’s revenues reported last December reflected a 28% year-over-year decline, while operating expenses increased, and net income resulted in a loss of $123.9 million. The company said that after a short transition period, all project pipeline operations from pre-installation through system activation would be conducted by Blue Raven Solar and other installation partners and SunPower certified dealers.

The U.S. recently exceeded five million solar installations, with the residential sector accounting for 97% of all solar installations in the U.S., according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.

A recent report, The state(s) of distributed solar—2023 update from the Institute of Local Self Reliance (ILSR), estimates that 29 GW of solar capacity was installed in 2023; 31% of which is distributed solar. Distributed solar is solar that is owned by individuals, small businesses and public entities—and is generated at or very near the site where it is used.

The map below shows how much distributed solar was installed in each state through 2023, relative to population.

For the purposes of the map, community solar in Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon is included as distributed solar.

To arrive at these figures, ILSR added its own figures on state community solar capacity to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) figures on small-scale photovoltaic capacity by state. This sum was divided by state population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, resulting in a figure of watts per person. The U.S. EIA did not collect data from Alabama or North Dakota.

A key finding is that 21 states and the District of Columbia have a distributed solar saturation of more than 100 watts per capita.

California, Arizona, Nevada, and Massachusetts all land in the top ten for both distributed solar saturation and total solar generation capacity.

California, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina have the largest overall capacity whereas Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and California have the greatest distributed solar saturation, as measured in installed distributed solar capacity per capita.

Several state solar markets have made significant changes since ISLR’s 2022 update. Installed distributed capacity grew by more than 1 GW in Texas (6 GW), California (4.7 GW), Florida (2.5 GW), Ohio (1.8 GW), Virginia (1.2 GW), and Colorado (1.1 GW).

Five states doubled or more than doubled installed capacity in 2023, including South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Arkansas. While doubling capacity is good news, it still may not amount to much as both South Dakota and West Virginia are considered “solar laggards” according to PV Intel’s analysis, based on EIA data.

Other states that saw strong growth include Wisconsin, Indiana, Montana, Louisiana, Maine, and Michigan.

Community solar

Community solar provides a way for people to benefit from solar energy who may be unable to install solar either due to financial restrictions or because they do not have a suitable rooftop for solar.

ILSR’s 2024 Community Power Scorecard states that “a model community solar policy has no cap, has a fair compensation rate, simplifies the billing process for subscribers, meaningfully accounts for the challenge of reaching low- and moderate-income (LMI) subscribers, and rewards other beneficial development or small subscriber-friendly practices”.

ILSR reports that state policies like community solar, net metering, simplified interconnection rules and a renewable portfolio standard carve-out for distributed energy are crucial in promoting the adoption of distributed solar.

The distributed solar report notes that 19 states and the District of  Columbia currently have community solar policies and highlights nine states that ILSR calls “solar-enabling” for their strong community solar policies and installed capacity.

Total installed community solar capacity at the end of 2023:

1. New York 1.72 GW
2. Minnesota 904 MW
3. Massachusetts 852 MW
4. Illinois 251 MW
5. Maryland 149 MW
6. Colorado 147 MW
7. New Jersey 137 MW
8. Oregon 29 MW
9. Hawaii 4 MW

ILSR tracks these policies and others in its Community Power Map. According to the ILSR’s Community Power Scorecard, 26 received failing grades in 2024, suggesting that many states have much room for improvement.

ILSR’s State(s) of Distributed Solar analysis is updated annually. For a historical snapshot, explore archived analyses of distributed solar by state in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

Plug Power’s $1.6 billion loan guarantee for clean hydrogen facilities The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office announced a conditional commitment for loan guarantee to help finance construction of up to six facilities across several U.S. states to produce clean hydrogen using Plug Power’s own electrolyzer technology.

U.S. solar exceeds five million installations Over half of all U.S. solar installations have come online since the start of 2020 and over 25% have come online since the Inflation Reduction Act became law.

No ceiling on U.S. glass opportunity With PV module capacity ramping up, glass suppliers have been investing in new solar glass production capacity. As in India and China, new facilities are popping up in North America, with unique twists to ensure competitiveness, such as using recycled material.

‘We must push back on net billing’ With California’s NEM 3.0 legislation having gutted panel sales and Arizona heading a bevy of other US states preparing to reduce solar-export payments, it’s time the United States solar industry stepped up, for ourselves as well as our customers.

Faulty installations often to blame for battery fires The Electric Power Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and German battery analysis specialist Twaice have jointly evaluated 26 battery fires between 2018 and 2023. They say that the diversity of components plays a critical role in igniting fires.

U.S. solar industry week in review pv magazine USA spotlights news stories of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.

The U.S. multi-pronged approach to onshoring solar manufacturing The U.S. aims for a domestic solar supply chain, but the industry’s capacity to serve the early stages in solar manufacturing are minimal. Will its recent industrial policy efforts make a difference?

FERC transmission rule to shore up the nation’s power grid The ruling, which is being praised by industry groups, is the first time in more than a decade that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has addressed regional transmission policy as well as the need for long-term transmission planning.

Solar powered electric truck stop opens in California WattEV’s 5.7 MW solar-powered truck stop, with demand charge management driven by solar-;plus-storage, has begun operations in Bakersfield, California.

Powering drones with ultra-thin, flexible perovskite PV cells An Austrian research team has demonstrated that lightweight, flexible and ultra-thin perovskite solar technology can power palm-sized autonomous drones.

Trina Solar records 65.21 GW of solar module shipments for 2023 Trina Solar says its solar panel shipments reached 65.21 GW in 2023. The Chinese module maker achieved a turnover of $15.75 billion and a net profit of $768.2 million in fiscal 2023, with an annual module production capacity of 95 GW by the end of December.

Two approaches to save net metering in Puerto Rico A solar trade group wants the White House to appoint new pro-solar members to the federal oversight board that has challenged Puerto Rico’s net metering law, while the former president of the Puerto Rico Senate advises considering amending the law.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed the Brighter Tomorrow Act (SB 783) into law, making solar accessible to all, regardless of income.

What the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is hailing as “landmark legislation” is expected to bring the state closer to its solar energy targets while also expanding solar access to low- and moderate-income Marylanders. A year ago Maryland’s governor announced the state had set a goal of 100% clean energy by 2035.

“The Brighter Tomorrow Act is one of the most consequential pieces of clean energy legislation ever passed in Maryland. The new law will significantly boost solar deployment by lowering installation costs and making rooftop solar accessible for Marylanders of all incomes,” said Leah Meredith, mid-Atlantic senior manager for SEIA. “Empowering localities to adopt automated solar permitting will also go a long way to save local governments money and resources that can be spent on other important public services.”

Maryland has long been a solar-friendly state with both supportive and forward-looking policies. For example, last year the state passed a new community solar program that allows projects to exceed certain size limits if they’re built on specified site types, such as rooftops, brownfields, or industrial areas. Not surprisingly the state has made great strides in solar capacity, jumping from a ranking of 30^th in 2023, according to SEIA, to 19^th in 2024. The state currently has 2 GW of solar installed and gets over 6% of its electricity from solar.

One way of moving the needle on solar energy adoption in the state is to facilitate faster solar permitting, and the Brighter Tomorrow Act empowers municipalities to expedite permitting through SolarApp+.

SolarApp+ was released in 2021 by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). The free web-based platform was developed for the purpose of lowering the costs and timeframe associated with solar permitting, and is said to cut about 12 days off the permitting process.

The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) received $4.48 million from the Department of Energy (DOE) to support adoption of SolarAPP+. Municipalities can also use SolarAPP+ to permit other forms of clean energy including home battery storage storage systems.

The Brighter Tomorrow Act raises the cap on net metering  and implements a solar renewable energy credit (SREC) multiplier as a bridge to long-term reforms. It had included support for a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) structure for ground-mounted solar installations, but this was amended out.

“This achievement is a direct result of Maryland’s statewide taskforce to study solar incentives, and it will play a critical role in facilitating the state’s transition to clean energy and strengthening the electric grid for our communities,” said Meredith. “The solar and storage industry greatly appreciates the partnership from Governor Moore, state lawmakers, environmental advocates, and community organizations for delivering this win for Maryland’s economy and environment.”

This was amended on May 14, 2024 to state that the PILOT structure was not a part of the final bill that passed.

The NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) released its Q1 2024 edition of its 50 States of Solar report, which looks at changes in policies on net metering, distributed solar valuation, community solar, residential fixed charges and more.

NCCETC is a public service center administered by the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, with a mission to advance a sustainable energy economy by educating, demonstrating and providing support for clean energy technologies, practices, and policies. The Center is known for its DSIRE database that tracks incentives in all 50 states for renewable energy and energy efficiencies.

The Q1 2024 report finds that 43 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico took a total of 163 actions related to distributed solar policy and rate design. The map above summarizes state actions related to compensation for distributed generation (DG), rate design, and solar ownership. Of the 163 actions cataloged, the report authors note that the most common were related to DG compensation rules (56), followed by residential fixed charge and minimum bill increases (42), and community solar (37).

Trends spotted in the report include legislation to enable community solar, net metering reform considered by new states and states clarifying time of use rates for net metering customers.

Community solar is a way for homeowners, businesses and other organizations to invest in the benefits of clean energy when they have unsuitable conditions for rooftop or on-site ground-mounted installations. While installations of community solar contracted in 2022, Wood Mackenzie forecasts the U.S. community solar market to grow 118% over the next five years, with at least 6 GW expected to come online in existing markets between 2023 to 2027.

The NCCETC report finds that an increasing number of states are considering community solar legislation. For example, Pennsylvania recently passed a bill that would establish a community solar program, and similar bills are pending in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Legislators in Missouri are taking a slightly different approach with bills introduced that direct electric suppliers to create three-year community solar pilot programs, and similarly, West Virginia lawmakers intend to create a pilot program. Alaska, Georgia and Iowa also have community solar bills pending.

It comes as no surprise that more states are considering changes to their net metering rules, following in the footsteps of California’s NEM 3.0, which has become the solar policy story of the year. In Delaware, for example, lawmakers  approved legislation to conduct a net metering cost-benefit study, and regulators in Wisconsin are also conducting a value of solar study. In Kentucky, Duke Energy wants to implement a net metering successor tariff that would involve real-time netting and reduced compensation for exported energy for new customer-generators. A Washington utility is preemptively amending net metering tariff language to close the tariff upon reaching an aggregate cap.

States and utilities are increasingly moving to time-of-use rates because they vary the cost of electricity according to when it’s used. For example, a solar-powered home generates electricity during the day, when rates are cheaper, but the household may use the most electricity in the evening, when it is more expensive. Examples of states taking steps to clarify how net metering is conducted on a time-of-use rate basis include Kansas, Maryland and North Carolina.

Maryland’s Public Service Commission recently directed its rate design working group to examine utility tariffs and propose any needed charges for net-metered customers under time-of-use rates. In South Carolina pending legislation would increase the state’s net metering system size limit, but only for customer-generators on time-of-use rates.

The Q1 report noted top solar policy developments, which are both good and bad for electric customers generating their own solar electricity. In Massachusetts, which has especially solar-friendly policies, regulators voted to allow electric customers to transfer credits across utilities. Plus some systems are exempt from the state’s net metering caps.

Virginia, historically a coal state, voted in 2020 to close all the state’s coal power plants by 2024. This is part of the forward-looking Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires the state’s utilities to switch to 100% clean energy by 2050, while also adding 16 GW of solar and onshore wind, 3 GW of energy storage. Now legislators have gone a few steps further by passing bills that increase the capacity of Dominion Energy’s community solar program and direct regulators to set up a community solar program for Appalachian Power customers. Other bills under consideration in Virginia would expand solar leasing and power purchase agreements.

West Virginia, another former coal state, adopted net metering reforms that sets export credit rates at 8.91 to 9.343 cents per kWh in Monongahela Power & Potomac Edison’s rate case.

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) approved a request from major utility Arizona Public Service to raise electricity rates for all customers, assess fixed charges, and to single out those who have invested in rooftop solar with the largest of such charges. The approved charge equals $0.242 per kW of on-site generation for customers on standard time-of-use rates and $0.215 per kW for customers on the time-of-use rate including a demand charge. The report notes that several participants have filed petitions for rehearing to overturn the grid access charge.

To produce the quarterly 50 states report, NCCETC reports that it looks at important proposed and adopted policy changes affecting solar customer-generators of investor-owned utilities and large publicly owned or nonprofit utilities serving at least 100,000 customers.

EnergySage maintains a leading marketplace for residential solar and energy storage, providing personalized quotes and connecting prospective customers with local installers. The company released its 18th annual Solar & Storage Marketplace Report, noting declining costs for both solar and energy storage.

For the first time since 2021, quoted solar prices decreased on the marketplace, falling 3.5% to $2.80 per watt for quotes in the second half of 2023. The median system size over that period was 11.3 kW, leading to an average quoted system price of $31,640 (before any associated tax credits or incentives). These prices are the lowest since mid-2020.

Energy storage meanwhile decreased for the first time since EnergySage started reporting storage data in 2020. During the second half of 2023 energy storage prices declined about 6% to a median $1,265 per watt.

EnergySage said the drop in prices was driven in part by a 19% decrease in quoted storage prices in California, where energy storage attachment rates for solar projects reached 45% in the second half of 2023.

For energy storage providers, Enphase represented nearly half of the energy storage quotes provided, while Tesla was the second most-quoted, and FranklinWH reached third, continuing its climb in market share.

For inverters, microinverter provider Enphase Energy gained market share, reaching nearly 70% of quoted systems of EnergySage marketplace. It was followed by SolarEdge, Hoymiles, and Tesla.

The top quote solar panel brands were a more diverse mix led by REC Group, Qcells, Silfab Solar, Panasonic, and others. During 2023, 90% of quotes on EnergySage had solar panels with power ratings of 400 W or greater, up from only 2% of quotes in 2020.

Among the largest residential solar markets, many saw declines in per watt quoted prices. California median prices dropped sharply by 20% from the first half to the second half of 2023, reaching $2.70 per watt. This drop was driven by installers trying to improve the economics of residential solar for customers under the new Net Metering 3.0 rate structure. Meanwhile, Florida and Texas median prices were $2.35 per watt, while Colorado median prices were $3.10 per watt and Nevada $2.55 per watt.

The lowest quoted median per watt price was in Arizona, with $2.30 per watt, while Tennessee median prices were the highest at $3.65 per watt. California had the smallest median system size at 8.07 kW, while Kentucky had the largest with 14.50 kW for the median in the second half of 2023.

Nationwide, median loan rates for residential solar projects rose from 4.99% in the first half of 2023 to 5.5% in 2023. High interest rates have posed a challenge for residential solar installers, who were accustomed to a median loan rate of 2.99% in the second half of 2022.

Median estimated payback period, or the time it takes to achieve breakeven on investment, remained relatively flat throughout 2023. It improved from about 8.3 years in the first half of 2023 to about 8.1 years in the second half.

EnergySage also noted that solar is reaching a broader set of markets. Residential solar historically thrived in markets with high average electricity rates, but this year only three of the top 10 states for solar installations had electricity rates higher than the national average. The company said this marks a good sign for the solar industry in general, suggesting solar is evolving from early adopter markets to the mainstream.

Renewables and storage interconnection backlog grew about 30% last year  The wait for transmission interconnection studies constitutes a “major bottleneck” for solar, storage and wind projects, which accounted for over 95% of all active capacity awaiting studies at the end of 2023, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has reported.

S-5! unveils new mounting systems for rooftop solar  S-5!, a supplier of mounting systems, plans to release two new mounting components for rooftop PV systems, including a new mount that allows for module-level power electronics to be attached directly to solar panel frames.

A guide to help homeowners understand how to go solar Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory published an open access guide to rooftop solar and battery energy storage that covers costs, incentives, policies and more.

New quantum solar cell material promises external quantum efficiency of 190% The new material consists of an heterostructure combining germanium, selenium, and tin sulfide, which also integrates atoms of zerovalent copper. It features an average photovoltaic absorption over 80% and could help photovoltaic cells break the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, according to its creators.

California’s electricity multi-crisis can be aided by virtual power plants By operating distributed resources like solar, batteries and demand response devices in concert, California ratepayers could be paid $500 to $1,000 per year while improving resource adequacy.

California Supreme Court to review rooftop solar net metering The state’s highest court granted review to a lawsuit challenging a “regressive” rooftop solar policy called NEM 3.0.

As more and more homeowners go solar, neighbors are increasingly wondering how they get on board the clean energy train. To help people get started, Pacific Northwest National Laboratoryn(PNNL) researchers have published an open-access guide to rooftop solar and BESS in Renewable Energy Focus, a journal of ScienceDirect. 

The PNNL researchers analyzed utility rates, net metering policies, installation costs, financial incentives and more. The guide is aimed at consumers, but is also useful for those in the industry, as it provides facts and figures that can help dispel misconceptions.

“We want to demystify this process of adding rooftop solar and battery energy storage,” said Kerby, an energy systems engineer at PNNL. “We want to empower people with the understanding of how this complicated system works.”

For utility customers thinking of putting in solar with a battery backup system, the guide explains how energy storage can be used to lower their electricity costs. For example, it explains the time of use structure, in which utilities charge more for electricity during times of high demand and less when demand decreases. Because the battery system can store the sun’s energy during the day, that energy can come from the battery in the evenings, when electric rates are highest.

Kerby notes that the rates for the off-peak times are always lower than the utility’s flat rate, while the on-peak times will be higher, so “that’s a huge opportunity for solar and storage.”

The guide also looks at the flip side, which is if the utility charges a flat rate for electricity, explaining that in this case a battery may not help the electricity customer to save on their bill. But Kerby notes that homeowners could use battery energy storage as a safety backup in the event of power outages.

The guide also tackles the topic of net metering and explains how, in some states, it can speed up the payback period of the solar investment.

“Depending on what state you live in, selling excess electricity production back to the utility could help recover the cost of solar panels and energy storage systems over time,” Kerby said. These policies are evolving, so make sure to review your state’s policy before making any decisions.

Five states are chosen as case studies to show the results of net metering policies, utility rate structure, and the average utility price. The five states include Massachusetts, Colorado, Rhode Island, Georgia and Tennessee.

The report authors point out that the differences noted between the states highlights the importance of state support for solar, and in some cases battery storage. Also noted are price signals because “benefits of residential renewable systems are best realized in states with net metering policies facing the challenge of above-average electric utility rates.”

Clean energy investment and green jobs: Since passage of the IRA, over $240 billion has been invested in clean energy manufacturing and infrastructure projects. This includes over $86 billion invested in nearly 300 new solar, wind and battery energy storage projects, according to a recent report from Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America. In addition, over 170,000 direct jobs have been created since IRA and the Intersolar report forecasts as many as 1.5 million new jobs in clean energy can be expected by 2030.

Battery prices tumble: From July 2023 through summer 2024, battery cell pricing is expected to plummet by over 60% due to a surge in EV adoption and grid expansion in China and the U.S. Driven by these price declines, grid-tied energy storage deployment has seen robust growth over the past decade, a trend that is expected to continue into 2024. The U.S. is projected to nearly double its deployed battery capacity by adding more than 14 GW of hardware this year alone.

Another California misstep: California missed another opportunity when the California Public Utilities Commission asserting in its proposed decision on the Community Renewable Energy Act that the Net Value Billing Tariff outlined in the Act “conflicts with federal law and does not meet the requirements” of the bill. Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA, a national trade association and the bill’s sponsor, said the CPUC missed an opportunity to become a national leader in community solar.

IRS final guidance on elective pay for clean energy tax credits: The IRS issued its final guidance on the elective pay rules for clean energy tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act. The guidance removes any temporary regulations and enacts the final rules. The IRS provided updated elective payment frequently asked questions, which includes a step-by-step guide on how to become eligible for direct pay or credit transfers, and how to file these transactions.

New York bill would increase rooftop solar tax credit to $10,000:  Senate Bill S3596B aims to increase the maximum state income tax credit for those who install residential solar projects at their residence. Since 2006, New York’s Solar Tax Credit has been capped at $5,000 per household installing solar. The new bill would double that cap to $10,000, allowing customers to offset state income taxes with a credit. For eligible low- to moderate-income residents, the tax credit would also be available to be collected as a tax refund.

Massachusetts expands net metering: Bucking the national trend of squashing net energy metering, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts instead expanded access, showing a commitment to distributed energy. It used to have an exemption for small systems of 10 kW or less, but this cap is now lifted to 25 kW, and behind the meter systems over 60 kW, and up to 2 MW are now exempt from the cap. The Department of Public Utilities expects to save ratepayers $10 million with the regulatory change.

U.S. residential solar prices drop, strong interest in storage The 18th edition of the EnergySage Marketplace Report finds the residential solar segment in the U.S. is rocked by persistent inflation, the California NEM 3.0 and rising loan fees. Yet prices have fallen and consumer interest in storage is strong.

Grid operator PJM could add 5.5 GW of renewables with grid-enhancing technologies Deploying GETs technologies in the PJM grid region would have a 70-to-1 benefit-cost ratio, finds an analysis by Quanta Technology. The nonprofit RMI published the analysis, and aims for it to be replicated to evaluate GETs in interconnection studies.

Investment opportunities in Africa’s clean energy transition Leaders from over 15 African countries will meet with U.S. stakeholders to discuss how to ensure the continued, equitable growth of renewable energy projects in each country.

Shoals to invest $80 million in Tennessee manufacturing expansion The electrical balance of systems provider serving the solar industry will move its manufacturing and distribution center to a new, larger facility.

Beaming radio frequency solar power from space Researchers at the California Institute of Technology successfully beamed solar power from space to Earth in July. The experimental microwave-beaming satellite was tested for eight months, uncovering existing strengths and weaknesses that will guide future developments of space solar power.

PV goes portable Portable solar generators are making their way from the fringes of solar and energy storage to become a mainstream consumer item. The rise has been charged by a range of factors that have created massive brands. Where did the sector emerge from, who was buying before, who is buying now, and what’s next?

Nearly 800 MW of solar bound for the Texas grid Enel North America announced its 297 MW Fencepost solar project is operational, while Clearway Energy Group‘s 452 MW Texas Solar Nova complex is complete.

The 18^th edition of the EnergySage Intel: Solar & Storage Marketplace Report looks at pricing trends, equipment preferences, financing terms, consumer interest and more.

EnergySage, an online comparison-shopping marketplace for solar, provides solar quotes from local, vetted solar companies in 41 states and Washington DC. The marketplace report is compiled by assessing those quotes submitted by solar companies to shoppers throughout 2023, comparing the first half of the year to trends over the second half of the year.

A key finding is that despite inflation and increased financing fees, solar prices dropped for the first time since 2021, falling by 3.5% to $2.80 per watt. The report finds that the median price of $2.80 W in H2 2023 is in line with solar pricing from mid-2020, and  4.5% higher than the low point from summer 2021.

Recent price drops were offset by larger fees charged for lower interest rate loans. The most frequently quoted solar loan was a 25-year loan with a 3.99% interest rate. But the report found that the average fee on the most quoted loan product reached 47% of the cash project cost in the second half of the year.

Storage

Consumer interest in battery energy storage is up, with 61% of solar quotes on EnergySage including a battery in the second half of 2023—an increase of ten percentage points over the first half of 2023.

Quoted storage prices also dropped for the first time since EnergySage started tracking them in 2020, falling by 6.4% in the second half of the year. Previously the median price for batteries quoted on EnergySage increased during every six-month period, but that changed in second half of 2023. This drop in prices is driven by a 19% decrease in quoted storage prices in California, where the attachment rate has been 45% since NEM 3.0 went into effect. The report finds that in the first six months of 2023, Calif. had the lowest level of storage interest of any state on EnergySage.

The change in California’s net metering policy came after the original NEM helped the state become the leading rooftop solar market, achieving Governor Schwarzenegger’s million solar roofs initiative, and under NEM the state has since reached two million solar roofs. The Calif. residential solar market came to a screeching halt after the NEM 3.0 rulemaking decision lowered compensation for exported solar production by about 75%, thus making batteries an essential component of a residential solar project. Assemblymember Laura Friedman recently  introduced a bill calling for the CPUC to re-evaluate net metering.

As storage installations increased over the last three years, the specific batteries quoted and installed through EnergySage have evolved rapidly, yet a few brand choices remain on top. Enphase and Tesla are the most quoted, while FranklinWH jumped from 1% of quotes in H2 2022 to 11% of quotes in H2 2023.

Enphase Energy recently launched the new Enphase Energy System with the IQ Battery 5P, and the company reports that its system is optimized to support the new NEM 3.0 rules by enabling self-consumption and exporting energy at the appropriate times to create maximum value.

Tesla launched its latest battery, the Powerwall 3, last September. The FranklinWH integrated battery and control system was launched in 2022.

The drop in pricing is driven by Tesla and FranklinWH. These two brands were included in one-third of quotes and were priced similarly to each other at around $1,100/kWh-stored. Only one battery brand, LG Energy Solution, was included in more than 1% of quotes and priced below $1,000/kWh-stored on average in the second half of the year.

Seven out of 10 solar shoppers requested battery quotes on EnergySage throughout 2023. For the most part, very little separated the three drivers in the second half of 2023: main
financial savings, maximizing self-consumption, and backup power each accounted for more than 30% of consumer interest in storage.

The NEM 3.0 factor is evident in the Marketplace analysis of California shoppers because it wasn’t until H2 2023 when interest in energy storage spiked. In fact, prior to that Californians had the lowest interest in backup because of the favorable net metering rates. After rates were slashed by NEM 3.0, the state saw the fifth-highest storage interest rate in the country with four out of five EnergySage shoppers requesting storage quotes.

Pricing by state

EnergySage looked at Marketplace quotes for the second half of 2023 for the 10 states with the most cumulative solar electric capacity installed through the third quarter of 2023 based on data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.

According to SEIA the top five solar states are: California, Florida, Texas, Colorado, and Nevada. All of the top five, with the exception of Colorado,  had median quoted prices below the national median price. In California half the  quotes on EnergySage were priced below $2.75 W in the second half of the year (up from 20% in H1), driven by companies trying to improve solar economics when NEM 3.0 became policy.

Puerto Rico program to bring low-cost solar and batteries to 30,000 households Applications open February 22 for the DOE’s Solar Access Program for eligible single family homeowners in Puerto Rico.

Survey finds 26% of battery storage systems have fire detection and suppression issues The Clean Energy Associate’s survey also found 18% of the energy storage systems had issues with the thermal management system.

Reducing cost of residential solar financing with virtual power plants Solrite Energy says its new power purchase agreement has more agreeable finance terms due to the ability of distributed solar-plus-storage to make money as part of a virtual power plant.

California introduces bill to reevaluate rooftop solar net metering  Assemblymember Laura Friedman introduced a bill that would require the California Public Utilities Commission to consider the costs and benefits of rooftop solar and its non-energy benefits when designing net metering rates.

Solar panel glass plant planned for Georgia Solarcycle plans to invest an estimated $344 million in a solar glass manufacturing facility, bringing 600 new full-time jobs to Polk County and bolstering the U.S. solar supply chain.

Wyman’s, a 150-year old grower of wild blueberries, has partnered with ReVision Energy and REC Solar to install more than 17,000 solar modules on 35 acres of non-productive land in Maine. Wyman’s owns 55,000 acres of land in Maine and is a top-selling brand of frozen fruit in the U.S., according to Nielsen data. 

ReVision Energy is installing the project, which will have both Hanwha Q Peak Duo 400 W and REC380 solar modules. It is expected to generate 8.5 GWh of clean energy in the first year of operation, offsetting an estimated 8 million pounds of carbon every year, or the equivalent carbon sequestration of planting 60,735 trees.

This project is designed to offset 73% of Wyman’s energy use through net energy billing credits, meaning that the Maine utility, Versant Power, will give Wyman’s credit against its electric bill for every kilowatt hour generated. REC is the investor and owner of the solar plant, which Wyman’s will have a right to purchase after 20 years.

“For 150 years, we’ve been driven by the desire to produce healthy food, provide gainful employment, and protect natural resources,” said Tony Shurman, Wyman’s president and chief executive officer.

Wild blueberries took root in Maine more than 10,000 years ago and Maine is the only state in the U.S. where wild blueberries are commercially grown in abundance. These berries grow in their natural ecosystem, so there’s no artificial breeding or genetic modifications, and the plants are connected by an underground root system called rhizomes.

Wyman’s is not the first project to bring solar power to blueberry production. Solar was part of a pilot program at the University of Maine. The 4.2 MW solar project was built on a 10-acre blueberry farm. The project was developed by BlueWave, which worked with CS Energy, the EPC partner, and Navisun, the owner operator, and University of Maine, the research partner, to study solar construction techniques as well as ways of harvesting blueberries that are grown among solar panels.

Wyman’s is also partnering with the University of Maine on a research study that is  exploring how conditions caused by climate change, such as heat, drought, erratic rainfall patterns, and early frosts, impact production.

“The decision to go solar fits squarely with our ethos to do the right thing and seek a better way. Being powered by the sun is an important opportunity to ensure Wyman’s continues to provide healthy fruit for another 150 years and beyond,” said Shurman.

Most of the time when residential PV systems are designed, they are optimized within the limitations of the already-built roof. It is not often that roofs are designed to optimize PV production. But that is the exact opportunity that I get while building not your average dream home.

With years of experience in solar, I assumed that this would be one of the easiest parts of the process – especially for a one-story home with such a high roof surface area to square footage ratio. I thought that all I would need is the right azimuth and tilt. Well, I quickly learned that it’s a bit more complicated.

Luckily, the azimuth was straightforward since the lot is completely open without any obstructions. However, since most houses are designed to align with the road, completely ignoring this rule of thumb feels contrarian. At the same time, using solar orientation and the sun’s ecliptic feels both organic and instinctive to this process. It made me take a step back and wonder how society has distanced itself so much from the natural world that we use something as arbitrary and temporary as a road to orient something as important as our homes. But there was no time for philosophizing when there were important calculations and opportunity costs regarding the roof angle and energy production to consider.

When I was originally dreaming up the house design, I had envisioned a single-pitch roof, with an angle optimized for solar. Since Minnesota has a latitude of about 45°, that is typically the recommended angle for solar panels since that puts them horizontal to the sun during the equinox. But a roof with such a high angle introduces several setbacks. Such a steep roof adds extra volume, increasing build and system installation costs, and therefore the system payback period. Plus, it would create a very inaesthetic and unbalanced building design, with the north exterior wall being double the height of the south wall. In terms of power density, the higher angle creates more surface area, supporting a small C&I system at a 30 kW – much larger than I need.

That’s when we evaluated the clerestory roof, with two differently-angled sloping sides and a vertical, dividing wall. This roof type adds in some additional lighting and ventilation options, while also overcoming many of the challenges of the shed design. Unfortunately, it also creates some weight-bearing structural complications at such a high angle that make the build cost inefficient.

After that, we tried a saltbox roof, which is a pitched roof with unequal sides, one short and high and the other long and low. The thought around this design is that it creates a large surface for a power dense roof.

According to SolarEdge’s Designer tool, if the long, south-facing side were at 34°, I could fit a whopping 55 solar panels for a 22 kWp system to achieve 33 MWh of annual energy production. But this angle is significantly lower than the standard recommendation of 45°, meaning that the energy density would be compromised.

According to Chris Bunch, VP of design and engineering at Powur, the 45° recommendations is “only part of the equation. I think the more important thing is when is electricity going to be used. Is it mostly in the summer? Is mostly in the winter? What sort of energy is driving the heating in the winter and the cooling in the summer? And the anticipated electrical demand throughout the year is important.”

Unfortunately, without an electric bill to show energy usage patterns, this type of information is hard to know in a new build. And it can be even more difficult to estimate for a passive house that is specifically being designed to reduce energy demand. However, in general, houses in Minnesota have a higher energy load in the winter due to the extremely cold weather. And as I’m planning for the house to be all electric, with no gas connection, this will likely hold true. As we were contemplating options, other suggestions arose such as a flat roof or even a ground mount PV system.

But then lightning struck when I suggested turning the saltbox roof 180°, so that the short and high side of the roof would face the south. While that leads to less surface area at a higher angle of 40°, making it less power dense, it becomes more energy dense and better optimized for the higher energy demand in the winter.

With this new roof design, I can fit on a 12 kWp PV system with an annual yield of 18.6 MWh. While this would be 55% the size of the 22 kWp systems mentioned above, its yield would be 56% of the 34° roof and 59% of the 18° roof. And an added benefit of a steeper roof angle according to Bunch is that it can help with snow shedding.

With Minnesota being a standard net-metering incentive structure, this process was more straightforward than it would have been if I were building in a state with a more complex rate structure, such as time of use. As Carina Brockl, CRO of Aurora Solar noted, “Generally south-facing PV systems with less shade are going to do well, but certain net metering programs like the Net Billing Tariff in California actually favor a southwest orientation.”

The other benefit to designing the roof for optimal solar production per Bunch is the ability to plan for all the ventilation and plumbing to be on the north-facing side to both maximize system size and prevent any energy losses from shading.

Now that I have a roof to put over my head, I still need to decide on the components and appliances for energy production, consumption and potentially storage. I’ll be diving into the product choices and the different types of appliances, plus energy efficiency considerations further into the process.

Jessica Fishman is a strategic marketing leader with nearly 20 years’ experience, including seven years as head of global public and media relations at inverter maker SolarEdge. Passionate about addressing climate change by accelerating the clean energy transition, she has worked at leading renewables companies, building marketing and communications departments.

Read the first in the series Building not your average dream home. The second in the series on finding an architect can be viewed here. The third in the series on finding a builder can be viewed here.

Community collaboration for solar success is key to minimizing opposition  Affirmative arguments for how solar energy will offer tangible benefits like improving the local economy, providing landowners with a steady source of revenue through long-term rent payments, and lowering electricity bills can cultivate a good working relationship between the developer, landowner, and community.

After a banner year, U.S. solar industry back on roller coaster through 2026  Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie report estimates that 33 GW of solar was added in 2023. Despite economic challenges in the near future, solar is expected to be the largest source of generating capacity by 2050.

Lithos approach to scaling battery systems for the non-commercial automotive sector  Lithos low- and high-voltage battery systems are working toward reducing the clean energy gap in the non-commercial automotive sector.

Agrivoltaics may increase forage quality in semi-arid regions New research from the United States showed agrivoltaic plants on grassland may not only maintain grass productivity but also increase forage quality. The scientists took their measurements at the Jack’s Solar Garden (JSG), an elevated, south-oriented agrivoltaic research facility using single-axis-tracking systems near Longmont, Colorado.

Largest solar installation in Mississippi begins operations The 135 MWdc Delta’s Edge solar farm will provide clean energy to over 14,000 homes in the state.

Tesla Cybertruck can power your home and more  The company’s recently launched truck offers 11.5 kW of power output to homes, and 9.6 kW of output via five plugs.

DEPCOM Power begins construction of Puerto Rico’s largest hybrid solar project The company is developing a 90 MW solar / 51.5 MW energy storage project with an agrivoltaic pilot program.

California “added insult to injury” latest anti-solar ruling CPUC has now disallowed using battery-tied solar exports to offset delivery charges. This comes after it moved to slash the value of standalone solar exports as a way to encourage pairing systems with battery storage.

SolarEdge expected to drop from S&P 500  Poor Q3 results are the result of a slow market environment that are, in part, the result of high interest rates and reduction in net energy metering credit values.

California’s lithium reserves could power 375 million EV batteries, say researchers  The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory prepared a report, funded by the US Department of Energy, to thoroughly quantify the amount of lithium in an underground reserve in the Salton Sea, California.

What drives solar adoption not equal across income levels  Lawrence Berkeley researchers studied how solar buying decisions are influenced across varying income levels and offer rationale for policy changes and incentives to spur adoption among low- to middle-income households.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has made another anti-rooftop solar decision, ruling that solar-plus-storage customers cannot export electricity to the grid in exchange for an offset of their utility delivery charges.

Under current billing structures, rooftop solar owners are encouraged to attach batteries so that they can export electricity during times of high demand on the grid. This dispatch of electricity helps reduce the amount of inefficient natural gas “peaker” plants in operation on the grid and smooths supply and demand, leading to stable pricing across the grid. Now, under the new ruling, “delivery” and “generation” charges on utility bills are classified separately, and customers are not allowed to use solar-battery exports to offset “delivery” charges set by the utility.

“While the solar and storage industry adapts to an abrupt shift to net billing, the CPUC has added insult to injury with a series of damaging decisions that completely change the environment for rooftop solar in California,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and chief executive officer, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

California’s once-flourishing rooftop solar market is now reeling from a year of rulemaking decisions by CPUC, which has shown a proclivity to support the interests of its major investor-owned utilities Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric.

Last December, the CPUC transitioned to a net billing format for single-family rooftop solar customers, pushing the state into NEM 3.0. Checks of utility interconnection queues show that requests for new solar array connections have fallen by about 80% since the transition to net billing was made. Nearly 20,000 solar workers have been laid off following the decision.

In another anti-solar move, this past November the Commission moved to make cuts to the value of rooftop solar export compensation for multi-metered accounts like apartment buildings, schools, and farms.

The justification for these cuts was to help restore balance to the imbalanced supply and demand caused by intermittent generation. The net metering rate cuts were promised by CPUC to incentivize more battery energy storage adoption alongside solar, making beneficial upgrades to an increasingly renewables-dominated grid.

However, this recent third ruling that negates part of the value of solar-plus-storage systems flies in the face of CPUC’s purported goals for supported more distributed storage on the grid. Analysts estimate that the ruling will shave another 10% to 15% off the savings provided by a solar-plus-storage system, thereby extending the average return on investment from about four to seven year to nine years or more.

SEIA estimates the residential solar market will decline by 40% next year, and the state’s commercial rooftop sector is expected to decline by 25% from 2024 to 2025 as a result of recent rulings.

“The solar and storage industry is calling on state leaders and the CPUC to change course before they cause more damage to America’s leading clean energy market,” said Ross Hopper.

Unfortunately for Californians, more damage may be on the way. The state’s major investor-owned utilities have pushed forward proposals to assess fixed monthly charges on all ratepayers, whether or not they are pulling any electricity from the grid. The new income-based fixed charges would average $50 to $70 per month and are expected to have an outsized negative impact on Californians that currently pay small electric bills.

California rooftop solar installations drop 80% following NEM 3.0  Over 17,000 layoffs have occurred, representing 22% of the industry. More job losses are expected.

EV adoption can help curb urban air pollution  The correlation between toxic emissions and cognitive impairment in the most vulnerable communities paints a sobering picture of inequality and environmental injustice. Yet, amidst this gloom, the electric vehicle revolution shines brightly as a beacon of hope.

Battery prices down 14% this year, says BloombergNEF  BloombergNEF says it has recorded a 14% decline in battery prices this year, mainly due to cheaper raw materials, following an unprecedented rise in 2022.

More than 50% of Kentucky manufacturing facility to be powered by solar  The clean energy upgrade at the R.A. Jones facility in Covington will be complete with over 3,000 solar modules and six electric vehicle charging stations.

Think Microgrid, a coalition that serves as a unified voice for the microgrid industry, said microgrids can play a critical role in the U.S. energy picture. The organization recently completed a study of microgrid deployment in each state in its State Scorecard 2023. Unfortunately, it found that no state is performing well with microgrid deployment, and the report offers recommended pathways to improvement.

Microgrids are groups of distributed energy resources, such as solar modules on a home, connected to a battery system, that can disconnect from the grid and operate independently during a power outage. The U.S. Department of Energy has a vision that 30% to 50% of electricity generation will come from distributed resources by 2035, with microgrids playing a key role in the transition. However, getting there is not without challenges, as noted in the Think Microgrid study.

The U.S. microgrid market reached 10 GW in the third quarter of 2022, with more than 7 GW in operation and the rest in planning or construction stages, according to analysis from Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Service.

Think Microgrid gained early insight from an upcoming annual report from Wood Mackenzie, which indicates that annual growth in microgrids is expected to be close to 20%. The drivers include increasing demand for resilience, federal incentives, favorable state policies and expanding corporate commitments to environmental social good (ESG) investment goals.

Wood Mackenzie analysis finds that the most significant barrier to deploying microgrids are state laws that prohibit private or community-owned electric infrastructure across property lines. Secondarily, Wood Mackenzie identifies a lack of tariffs or other market pathways designed for multi-customer microgrids.

To assess each state, the study considered the policy and market conditions in across five critical dimensions: deployment, regulation, resilience, market access and equity. The result is that only a few states received even a B and many received a C or D.

While some states received an A for activity in specific categories, there is no state that where Think Microgrid believed an overall A is warranted, and this reflects in the policy landscape. While some states have innovated in certain categories, “barriers still inhibit advancement towards commercialization,” according to the report authors.

Deployment

No state earned the highest score; however, Hawaii, Texas, Colo. and Conn. all earned a received B grades for deployment.

Deployment scores are based on overall capacity deployed compared to electricity consumed in that state. Note that a state with high overall capacity and diverse projects deployed scores higher because it indicates a broad range of projects serving various customer and grid needs, according to report authors.

Policy

No state earned the highest score in policy; however, the same four states earned a B.

Think Microgrid looked at microgrid programs and incentives, tariffs to facilitate interconnection and services compensation between microgrids and distribution utilities, as well as reforms to regulatory processes or state law to incentivize or remove barriers to microgrid development. The report indicates that successful microgrid policies support “an ecosystem robustly incorporating private, utility ratepayer, and public sector capital”.  What they found was that most state policies including incentives, programs and tariffs support ratepayer-recovered, utility-owned projects.

Resilience

Texas achieved the rare top score for resilience, with Hawaii, Colo. and Conn. each earning a B in this category.

Think Microgrid looked at regulatory activity, legislation, and state planning activities related to electric grid resilience, as well as engaged in collaborative activities with energy regulators and energy offices.

To achieve a high score, state policy activities must include microgrids as a targeted resilience solution.

The authors noted that effective policy allows communities to tailor microgrid configurations to local resilience needs.

Grid services

For grid services, Hawaii earned the lone top score, with Texas earning a B. Colorado and Connecticut were the lowesst in this category.

The report identifies three potential market interfaces with which microgrids can engage to receive compensation for services: wholesale markets, retail tariffs and distribution-level markets. Successful retail tariffs, the authors contend, provide compensation pathways for a range of microgrid services, including: energy exports during periods of excess generation, load-shifting during peak demand periods, resiliency services, and utility distribution investment deferral or non-wires alternatives.

Equity

In the equity category, Colorado and Connecticut rose to the top. Hawaii had th next highest score, with Texas trailing behind.

Community microgrids can provide benefits to all residents, including resilience, clean air, workforce development, and economic development to vulnerable communities, so the report looked at how well the states prioritize such equity. This is accomplished by identifying and/or mapping vulnerable communities and actively seeking to stimulate investment in those areas.

The reports note that states approach equity differently, with some establishing equity laws that provide mandates, carveouts or directives for infrastructure that supports low-income, outage-vulnerable, rural, and tribal community resiliency and economic well-being. Some states offer state or regulator-approved programs that incentivize or fund projects in specific communities. And yet another approach is when state agency programs support communities with funding or technical assistance to capture federal funding for microgrids. The report authors gave high scores to states that take a coordinated approach.

The State Scorecard 2023 scores the states while also identifying practical next steps available at all levels of government and community engagement. The authors recommend that legislators or utilities develop a microgrid roadmap to guide the coordinated efforts between utility commissions, energy offices, and stakeholders. The report also sees an effective roadmap as identifying opportunities where microgrids can address grid vulnerabilities and state public policy goals, and more.

New York announces largest state investment in renewable energy in U.S. history  Fourteen solar energy projects were announced along with offshore and ground-based wind and a return-to-service hydroelectric facility, all of which will generate a combined total of 6.2 GW of clean energy.

California proposes “blatant seizure of property” in solar ruling The California Public Utilities Commission is set to vote on a virtual net energy metering program would force renters to sell solar generation to the utility and buy it back at a higher rate, outlawing them from consuming their electricity directly.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is soon to vote on a proposed decision that is expected to be harmful to the value of rooftop solar for renters in multifamily housing, farms, and schools.

The decision would disallow residents of multi-meter properties to consume their own rooftop solar production, even if they own the solar array. The policy forces customers to first sell their solar production to the utility, and then buy it back at higher rates.

“The CPUC is proposing a blatant seizure of property,” said the Solar Rights Alliance.

California’s existing Virtual Net Metering and Net Energy Metering Aggregation programs allow properties with multiple meters to install a single solar array for the entire property, sharing one system’s electricity and associated net metering credits with all customers and meters on the property. The proposed decision states that these customers should be limited in how much of their own solar production they can use, even if it is stored in their own battery.

“It would force customers in multi-meter properties—such as renters, small farmers, schools, and colleges—to sell all of their generation to the utility at low rates and buy it back at full retail rates,” said the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA).

“Under this scheme, [multi-meter customers] would lose all of the savings that single-family homeowners get,” said Solar Rights Alliance.

The decision to not let multi-meter properties consume electricity from a system they own and operate comes with a clear motive: profit protection. If a rooftop solar owner is using their own electricity, they aren’t buying it from the utility.

The proposed decision is gaining public infamy similar to the NEM 3.0 decision that has wreaked havoc on single-family rooftop solar in California. Despite round after round of anti-NEM 3.0 public comments and rallies that drew in thousands of California citizens, CPUC pushed the decision forward. Now, residential solar is experiencing a massive market contraction nationwide as a result.

The NEM 3.0 decision was backed by the three major investor-owned utilities in California based on a rationale that renters were being left behind by lucrative single-family home installations. Now a year later, CPUC and the three large utilities are coming after renters’ rights.

While the NEM 3.0 outcome was undesirable for California citizens, the many months of protest did bear some positive results. CPUC attempted to pass a similar invasion of personal property in NEM 3.0, disallowing customers from directly using their rooftop solar electricity generation and instead forcing them to cycle it through the utility’s meter first. Protest and public comment forced CPUC to throw out the decision, and instead implement an 80% cut in net metering payment rates.

“However, if the CPUC takes away the fundamental solar right for renters, there’s no doubt they will try again for homeowners at some point,” said Solar Rights Alliance.

Solar Rights Alliance is sounding the alarm for renters, farmers, and affordable housing advocates to voice their opinion on the proposed decision, which was recently pushed forward to November 2.

The organization has details on how to submit public comments and speak with legislators here.

People working in residential solar are familiar with the “solar coaster;” an experience of boom and bust the industry has experienced as market and regulatory changes cause wild oscillations in business results. The residential solar sector is currently suffering a deep drop on the “solar coaster.”

A few macro forces are crushing the sector today. High interest rates have worsened the attractive loan packages made available to homeowners, and loan dealer fees have skyrocketed. Utility electricity prices have stabilized and even lowered from last year, making the prospective savings for a rooftop solar customer murkier.

Major residential solar stocks have shed 30% or more of their value in a single day following a foreboding Tesla earnings call, and reports of bankruptcy filings have surfaced.

Most installers are increasingly moving towards a third party-owned lease or power purchase agreement model as loan terms have become increasingly unattractive to customers.

What’s more, California, which represents about half of the United States’ residential solar market, essentially set its residential solar market on fire with its new net metering rules. As the backlog of customers who rushed in to secure legacy Net Energy Metering (NEM) 2.0 rates dries up, the devastation of NEM 3.0 has begun to reveal itself.

NEM 3.0 slashed compensation for delivering local, clean electricity generated by a rooftop solar array to your neighbors. Rates paid by the utility for exporting solar were cut by about 80%. Installations have pulled back by 40% to 80% in California following the decision.

The onslaught may continue for California, as its commission mulls enabling investor-owned utilities to assign income-based fixed charges to its customers. It is also weighing a decision to limit the value of multi-family rooftop solar installations, despite spending the past two years justifying NEM changes based on a desire to make solar more accessible to renters and low-income customers.

Bernadette del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) said that the state’s utility commission has taken the approach of “the beatings will continue until morale improves” for residential solar.

Dan Javan, chief executive officer of installer Suntuity appeared on a Roth Capital Partners webinar, revealing that over 100 residential installers filed for bankruptcy over the past few months. This is six times the amount of bankruptcies filed by installers in the last few years.

Javan warned that the regulatory changes like the ones seen in California may just be the beginning of an assault on residential solar-supportive policies nationwide. Major markets like North Carolina, Arizona, and many others are already moving anti-rooftop solar policies through their regulatory commissions.

The “solar coaster” of residential solar is showing its downside under the unfriendly rate and regulatory environment. Ohm Analytics expects a 10% downturn in residential solar in 2024. For an industry that is buoyed by high valuations based on massive growth projections, a reversal of growth can spell doom for investors.

Following the Tesla earnings call, Tesla stock is down over 15%, major microinverter provider Enphase is down 25%, and SolarEdge fell over 30% in a single day. The two major inverter providers have fallen over 70% from their peaks last winter.

While the residential solar sector has survived the highs and lows of the “solar coaster” in the past, the hundreds of bankruptcies an unfortunate casualty of state commission boards like the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)  

During last week’s pv magazine Roundtables US 2023, Del Chiaro issued a warning to other states to not follow California’s leadership in the instance of rooftop solar regulation as the fallout from an aggressive and anti-consumer NEM 3.0 policy begins to reveal itself.

Grid-forming inverters will enable a high-renewables grid As renewable generation increases, so does the need for grid-forming inverters to provide the same functionality that rotating synchronous generators provide. The UNIFI Consortium is coordinating industry progress on the new inverter technology.

Partially developed 12 MWac brownfield solar site up for auction in New York  The 111.5 acre former iron ore mine has undergone zoning and interconnection work by New York’s NYSERDA team to minimize risks associated with developing projects on sites that the state deems ideal for hosting solar power projects.

Sonnen unveils “NEM-proof” function for solar batteries The company released an optimized time-of-use solution to unlock value under California’s net energy metering 3.0 electric rate environment.

How local governments are driving solar energy growth The solar industry has much to gain by developing constructive partnerships with local governments to help communities achieve sustainability, resilience, and equity goals.

New York provides pre-development support for solar and storage for LMI housing  A New York State program helps bring solar power to low- and moderate-income (LMI) housing by providing pre-development grants and technical assistance. The Clean Energy States Alliance considers the program a model for other states.

SolarEdge joins Xcel Energy’s virtual power plant incentive program in Colorado The Renewable Battery Connect initiative will call on home battery owners to discharge power to the grid when electricity demand is especially high, and provide them with financial incentives in return.

Arizona to vote on 37% slash to solar net metering  A proposed amendment would supersede the 10% reduction cap currently enforced by law.

Microsoft invests in 6.6 MW solar facility in Mississippi Clearloop received an upfront payment for long-term renewable energy credits from Microsoft, a decarbonization investment in the Panola II Solar Farm.

Texas to activate its first virtual power plants A pilot project tests how consumer-owned small energy devices like batteries, generators, electric vehicle chargers and more can be virtually aggregated and participate in the wholesale electricity market.

The Arizona Corporation Commission is set to vote on August 24, 2023 on an amendment that would rapidly reduce the payments made to solar customers for exporting local rooftop solar production to the electricity grid.

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Nick Myers filed an amendment that would cut net energy metering (NEM) rates to $0.053 per kWh, a reduction of 37%, which would take place suddenly in September. This would supersede the legal foundation that set a 10% NEM rate reduction per year, which would have led to a rate of $0.076 per kWh.

The proposed amendment was justified based on “cost-shift issues,” a utility-backed argument that non-solar customers were cross-subsidizing rooftop solar customers by increasing utility system costs. Utility Arizona Public Service (APS) provided data to the Corporation Commission claiming, “the magnitude of cost shift within the residential ratepayer class is within the range of $800 to $1000 per year.” This would amount to an $18 million cross-subsidization.

However, numerous studies by national labs and state groups have debunked utility claims of such a significant cost-shift. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that at current levels of rooftop solar adoption, the cost shift is negligible. At solar adoption rates of 10% of electricity generation mix or more, the cost shift was found to be a miniscule $0.005 per kWh.

If the 37% cut is approved, APS will essentially buy local solar generation for $0.053 per kWh, and then sell it to neighboring Arizonans for nearly triple that price, as APS customers often pay retail rates ranging $0.12 per kWh to $0.17 per kWh.

The Corporation Commission deemed that the valuation of solar exports should be based on the “avoided cost” methodology. It further notes that only utility costs should be considered when designing the rates, ignoring any kind of societal or environmental externality associated with the technology, be it a benefit or a harm.

The Commission determined, “use of utility-scale solar obligations represents the most reliable and objective avoided cost proxy for rooftop solar and diminishes concerns for the inclusion of societal and environmental factors and other externalities in valuing solar DG exports, which are speculative and inappropriate for ratemaking purposes.”

Health and environmental benefits, significant cost savings and stability for ratepayers, and resilience to extreme weather or national security events are benefits to Arizonans that adopt solar but are not relevant factors in the Arizona Corporation Commission’s evaluation of ratemaking and the technologies it wishes to support. Utility costs and profits take precedence over these significant externalities.

If approved in the vote, the NEM rate cuts will take place immediately on September 1, 2023. The move is expected to cause damage to the residential solar industry. After California passed a similar net metering rate cut, demand in the subsequent quarter fell by 38%, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Biden-Harris Administration launches interagency task force to build clean hydrogen economy  Under the new task force, federal agencies will coordinate efforts related to hydrogen across multiple areas, which includes enhanced outreach with tribal communities and other historically underserved communities.

Multi-day energy storage increases grid capacity by factor of ten  Form Energy released a white paper that provides further evidence that multi-day energy storage, like its iron-air technology, can substantially reduce the costs for New York to achieve its ambitious decarbonization targets.

Commerce finds solar antidumping violations: An industry reacts  pv magazine USA shares solar industry reactions to the finding that five major solar panel providers are in violation of U.S. antidumping laws.

California solar generation grew twentyfold in a decade  New data shows that the energy mix in California is moving away from fossil fuels, and embracing wind, solar and other clean resources.

KiloVault introduces solar-ready DIY off-grid battery  The battery is available in sizes between 4.3 kWh to 27.6 kWh, comes pre-wired with a single-phase AC inverter and can directly receive electrical loads.

Multi-generation photovoltaic leaf to produce electricity, thermal energy, water  A UK research team has developed a photovoltaic leaf concept that can produce electricity, water and thermal energy in a single device. The system, inspired by a leaf, is based on a biomimetic transpiration (BT) layer that cools down the embedded PV unit and utilizes excess heat from the cell to produce water and heat energy.

With solar jumping from 2,609 GWh to 48,950 GWh in the past decade, and coal nearly completely phased out, data from the California Energy Commission shows that the state is on the path to achieving its goal of being carbon neutral by 2045.

Senate Bill 100, which was passed in 2018, requires 100% of California’s electric retail sales be supplied by renewable and zero-carbon energy sources by 2045. Last year Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1020, establishing interim targets of 90% clean electricity by 2035 and 95% by 2040.

According to the state’s Total System Electric Generation report, renewables including solar and wind are on an upward trajectory, while fossils are losing share. In the past year, solar generation increased just over 24% from 39,458 GWh in 2021 to 48,950 GWh in 2022, an increase of 9,492 GWh.

The state monitors progress through its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which tracks the power mix of retail sales. The latest data show that in 2021 more than 37% of the state’s electricity came from RPS-eligible sources such as solar and wind, an increase of 2.7% over the prior year. Combined with other carbon-free sources, such as large hydroelectric generation and nuclear, California receives nearly 59% of its retail electricity sales came from non-fossil fuel sources.

California energy mix:

• Coal   2.15%
• Natural gas 36.38%
• Solar 17.04%
• Wind 10.83%

In addition to total utility generation, rooftop solar increased 10 times, generating 24,309 GWh of clean power in 2022. This may change, however, with NEM 3.0, the recent highly controversial change to the state’s net metering policy. ROTH Capital Partners projected that residential solar demand may fall 30% in 2023, following the adoption of NEM 3.0 in California. NEM 3.0 moves from the current retail time-of-use based rates to a far lower rate based on the “avoided cost calculator”.

Adding energy storage to rooftop solar systems was once a costly undertaking, but under the new net metering rule, systems paired with batteries are expected to have the same payback period as standalone systems. As such, California’s solar installers will look to add battery energy storage to their offerings to remain competitive. 

“This latest report card showing how solar energy boomed as natural gas powered electricity experienced a steady 20 percent decline over the last decade is encouraging,” said Siva Gunda, vice chair, California Energy Commission. “Even as climate impacts become increasingly severe, California remains committed to transitioning away from polluting fossil fuels and delivering on the promise to build a future power grid that is clean, reliable and affordable.”

As weather disasters increase in the state, such as unprecedented heatwaves and tropical storm Hilary, the California power grid is repeatedly challenged. In response, Governor Newsom signed legislation in 2022 to create the Strategic Reliability Reserve to try to shore up the grid in the event of emergencies. The reserve consists of demand response programs and other power resources that can be deployed in the event of an energy emergency.

Preparing for the clean grid of the future, the California Public Utilities Commission has ordered 18.8 GW of new clean resources to come on-line by 2028, and efforts are underway to increase deployment of long-duration energy storage and offshore wind energy projects.

Enphase releases solar products optimized for NEM 3.0  The solar microinverter and battery energy storage provider released updates to its product suite to maximize returns under the new net metering rates regime in California.

First Solar explores potential of quantum-dot solar modules In a joint development effort with UbiQD, thin-film solar manufacturer, First Solar, is exploring the potential use of quantum dots in enhancing solar photovoltaics.

Nikola announces recall of battery electric vehicles, pauses sales after fire investigation The company said the voluntary recall will not affect its hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles currently in production, as they have a different design.

Nautilus acquires 23 MW of community solar assets in Maryland  Nautilus is no stranger to community solar in Maryland, having been an early participant in the community solar pilot program. The company owns and manages nearly 90 MW of operational and late-stage development projects in the state.

Research shows bats stay away from ground mounted solar plants New research from the United Kingdom claims that ground mounted PV facilities have a negative effect on bat activity. According to the scientists, the panels may be causing some bats to alter their flight paths, potentially resulting in further fragmentation of the ecological landscape.

First Solar reports forced labor in supply chain  A third-party examination revealed that employees employed by four subcontractors at manufacturing sites in Malaysia were subject to unethical labor practices.

Ohio tightens screws on large solar facilities  The Ohio Power Siting Board has unveiled new regulations after its five year rule review, including 350 foot setbacks, sound regulations, and an underground drilling contingency plan, addressing the state’s extensive network of fracking pipes.

Arizona sues Vision Solar and lead generator Solar Xchange Arizona’s attorney general is suing Vision Solar and Solar Xchange for alleged utility impersonation, Do Not Call breaches, incentive misrepresentation, and misleading finance processes that had customers paying for solar loans before their bills were reduced.

Private investments in clean energy and manufacturing top $270 billion  While the U.S. has the financial capacity, technology and human capital, the question is whether government policy will allow for the clean energy infrastructure to be built out fast enough to achieve clean energy dominance.

California puts multi-meter rooftop solar at risk in proposed decision  The California Public Utilities Commission has returned with another proposed decision to stack the deck against rooftop solar.

GAF Timberline solar shingles recalled for fire hazard  The solar roof provider has recalled the product following property damage from thermal incidents.

Solid-state lithium-ion batteries based on foil-based negative electrodes  Georgia Institute of Technology researchers used aluminum foil-based negative electrodes with engineered microstructures in an all-solid-state lithium-ion cell configuration. They have reported hundreds of stable cycles with practically relevant areal capacities at high current densities.

2 GW Meyer Burger solar cell factory in Colorado, hints of more coming  The Swiss-German solar machine and module manufacturer has announced it will redirect solar cell manufacturing machines planned for Germany to Colorado in order to get the factory up by the end of 2024, which would make all of their Arizona solar modules qualify for the IRA”s “domestic content”.

Interfaith group uses moral suasion to advance solar power for Philadelphia  A Philadelphia interfaith group seeks to persuade the utility serving the region to contract for more solar and wind power. Pennsylvania’s renewable generation ranks 45th out of 50 states, said the group’s executive director.

How will the latest change to net metering impact solar adoption in California?  With the changes to net metering incentives introduced in April, homeowners and installers alike are faced with the unknown. Amir Cohen, general manager, SolarEdge Technologies, discusses what installers need to do now to help their businesses and customers thrive in the California solar industry’s ‘new normal’.

Solar contractor tool helps quote roofing and solar in one  SumoQuote partnered with EagleView to expand its roofing tool to also offer quotes on new solar installations.

State climate policies that can make a difference Rocky Mountain Institute presents updated climate policy scorecards for 20 states, tracking progress to 2030.

The last net-metered project in Indiana A 1.3 MW, behind-the-meter solar project had to meet a six-month deadline in order for the project to be exempt from Indiana’s 2017 law that revoked net-metering.

Solar powers manufacturing of concrete utility poles  The solar installation is enabling Valmont to create utility transmission and distribution poles at scale with lower greenhouse gas emissions.

How smart electrification can unlock the potential of solar PV Integration  The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) explains how many smart electrification solutions are already available and ready for commercialization, with pioneering companies creating, trialing and deploying potentially transformative innovations.

Texas curtailed 9% of solar generation in 2022  Transmission and energy storage limitations are leading to wasted renewable energy.

Pegasus Solar introduces roof mount with integrated sealant  The InstaFlash pre-installed sealant is designed for composite tile roofs

Reimagined Power Guidance Energy Group (RPG) partnered with Florida-based Castillo Engineering to build a PV model meant to power automation and instrumentation manufacturing company Endress+Hauser’s measuring and control devices in Greenwood, Ind. Constructed with bifacial solar panels and ballasted racking, the project is expected to save Endress+Hauser $140,000 in operational costs in the first year.

The instrumentation manufacturer produces flow meters for liquid, gas and steam systems, and this project is expected to help Endress+Hauser offset the production of thousands of flow meters annually. 

That savings in energy and cost is due to the company’s adherence to a six-month deadline to meet specific regulatory and operational guidelines that exempted them from Indiana’s 2017 law that revoked net-metering. They had to apply for and receive permission to connect to Indiana’s utility grid from local utility companies within six months of finishing construction.

“We knew we could trust Castillo Engineering’s extensive expertise to help us meet the tight timeline for delivery of both the electrical engineering for interconnection and structural feasibility analysis required for construction,” said vice president of Design and Engineering at RPG Energy Group, Colton Cooper.  

From 2004 to 2017, residential and commercial PV system owners could, through net metering, sell their unused solar at the end of each month to utility companies at the same rate those businesses charged them for electricity. Another option was re-generating unused power month to month indefinitely on a credit-based system. 

Al Bacon, vice president of Operations and Engineering at Endress+Hauser, said RPG was the only company that could meet tight deadlines for achieving the net metering requirement that afforded them such savings. “We went from initial proposal to completion in eight months,” he said. 

The new bill cuts what customers could have earned selling back excess solar power to utility companies by 70%. “The rates are so unpalatable that only two Northern Indian Public Service Company (NIPSCO) customers have installed rooftop solar since July 1, 2022,” said Ben Inskeep, program director at Citizens Action Coalition (CAC). The company is reported to serve more than 1.2 million customers worldwide. 

“We are grateful to have had this additional opportunity to work alongside RPG to deliver substantial long-term savings to this business,” said Christopher Castillo, CEO of Castillo Engineering. “RPG’s expertise in industrial scale, behind-the-meter solar projects was crucial in the success of this project, which had two separate electrical services and meters that had to be assessed to maximize energy offset and utility bill savings.”

Two Michigan representatives have introduced bills that would significantly slash the cost of residential solar and energy storage systems for low- and moderate-income (LMI) ratepayers. The bills would encourage widespread adoption of these technologies as a means of bolstering resiliency, reducing pollution and lowering energy costs.

State representatives Jenn Hill (D-Marquette) and Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit) introduced HB 4840, which would require utilities to offer rebates to customers to  offset the costs of solar and storage systems by thousands of dollars.

A companion bill, HB 4839, would require the Michigan Public Service Commission to create a virtual power plant (VPP) system which would aggregate solar plus battery systems into the grid when needed.

McKinney’s bill, HB 4840, would establish a rebate to customers of $500 per kW for a new solar system and $300 per kWh for a new battery storage system, which would be doubled for LMI customers.

The companion bill introduced by Hill would support a VPP framework, including load reduction, demand response and voltage support.

“An in-home battery paired with solar can keep vital medical equipment or refrigerators full of food running for days, protecting households during outages cause by extreme weather,” Hill said. “As an additional benefit, behind-the-meter storage systems can provide excess power back to the grid during periods of peak energy demand.”

“These bills will help build a more equitable and just Michigan while also making our state greener,” McKinney said. “In recent years, my district has been heavily impacted by power outages due to wind, ice and other causes, which have hindered many residents’ access to power. This legislation mitigates against those negative consequences. It also ensures that low-income areas receive opportunities to access alternative energy.”

The new legislation would boost Michigan’s residential solar market. Net metering ended in the state in 2018, replaced by the “Distributed Generation Program.” This program is similar to net metering because solar users get credit for all the excess energy they send to the grid—but only during the day. The credits vary by utility and are used to offset the power supply portion of their electric bills.

Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer in the Spring of 2022 announced the Michigan Healthy Climate Plan, which proposes that the state gets to 60% renewable energy resources and build infrastructure to accommodate millions of electric vehicles by 2030. The state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) states that 15% of the state’s energy consumption must be from renewable sources.

Through Q1 2023, Michigan ranked 25^th in the U.S. for solar development, with 1.04 GW of total installations and a 2.61 GW pipeline of projects to be deployed over the next five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Alaska is the largest U.S. state by area and the most sparsely populated. With diminishing oil reserves and residents in extremely rural areas reliant on diesel fuel for power, it is surprising how little solar energy provides power to Alaskans. While one deterrent to relying on solar may be the lack of sun in the winter, particularly in northern areas, they also have an equal number of days of sunshine. According to the Department of Energy, annual insolation and thus, power production per capacity, is similar to Germany, which has been a leader in worldwide solar power use.

A similar insolation level, however, is where the comparison to European countries ends. Alaska has 18 MW of solar installed, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), ranking it 49^th, down from 48^th last year. Only South Dakota has less solar installed. The state receives 0.23% of electricity from solar. And while SEIA anticipates that 50 MW will be installed over next five years, Alaska will drop into last place in the U.S. for solar installations.

Unfortunately, this is in a state that has some of the highest electric rates (20.02 cents per kWh) per Energy Information Administration. A cost of living study by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation revealed that utility costs in some cases are 33% higher than the national average.

Incentives

As in all states, federal incentives apply to solar projects in Alaska. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 established an Investment Tax Credit that covers 30% of the installed system costs. Considered the most significant climate legislation in history, the IRA encourages clean energy adoption in overburdened communities. For example, the IRA includes the Justice40 Initiative, which supports programs that improve clean transit and workforce development while also investing in programs that make clean energy more affordable and accessible and strengthen resilience to climate change in underserved areas.

While federal support for solar adoption in all states is currently at an all-time high, Alaskan state policy lags behind. One policy, however, allows for municipalities to decide whether solar installations are property tax-exempt, meaning that even though the assessed value of property may rise as a result of a solar installation, property taxes will not rise correspondingly.

The state also has a net metering policy for systems of up to 25 kW. Payment for excess energy generation is credited to the customers’ next bill and it carries over indefinitely, according to DSIRE.

The state may soon have a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), as Alaska Senator Löki Tobin introduced Senate Bill 101 in March to establish a RPS for the Railbelt region in Alaska. Representative Jesse Sumner followed with House Bill 121, companion RPS legislation. The Railbelt is the interconnected power grid that runs from Fairbanks through Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula. The legislation would require the five utilities in the area to generate 25% of their electricity from renewable resources by the end of 2027; 55% by the end of 2035; and 80% by the close of 2040. The bill aims to foster collaboration by imposing penalties only if the whole region fails to meet the standard.

Landmark installations

Energy49, a spinoff of Renewable Independent Power Producers (IPP), is the Alaskan solar developer of the 8.5 MW Houston solar project, which will be the largest installation in Alaska. Renewable IPP is also responsible for the 1.2 MW Willow solar project, previously the largest in the state.

Construction began last year on the Houston project, which is owned by New York-based CleanCapital, and expected to provide enough electricity to power 1,400 homes. The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) provided a $4.9 million loan from its Power Project Fund to the project and CleanCapital provided the balance of project equity financing. Instrumental in getting the project off the ground is Launch Alaska, a non-profit with a goal of supporting deployment of $1 billion in climate tech projects across Alaska by 2030.

The Houston project, on track to be completed in August, will cover 45 acres with ballasted bifacial solar modules. Matanuska Electric Association has committed to purchasing all energy generated at the solar farm.

Another Alaskan solar installation was recently completed north of the Arctic Circle in the village of Shungnak, where residents had become accustomed to burning diesel fuel for its electricity.

A solar-plus-battery energy storage project funded by the Department of Agriculture and the Northwest Arctic Borough is changing how the village sources its electricity. With equipment developed by Blue Planet Energy, the solar and battery project forms a microgrid that is designed to meet the numerous challenges of operating in an extreme climate.

A 225 kW solar array offsets much of the village’s energy needs, which generally ranges between 200 kW and a peak of 300 kW. LG 405 W NeON 2 bifacial solar modules were selected for the array. The microgrid is intelligently designed to operate and supply power in times where diesel generation would be most expensive.

“Thanks to the energy storage system, we can turn the diesels off but keep the lights on in the community. It also gives the local utility the ability to run on 100% clean energy for hours at a time,” said Rob Roys, CIO, Launch Alaska.

Alaska’s future energy plan

Launch Alaska conducted a survey in early 2023 in which the IRA was shown to have major implications for Alaska project deployment. The non-profit will have a hand in Alaska’s future energy plan as Isaac Vanderburg, chief executive officer of Launch Alaska was recently appointed to the Governor’s Energy Security Task Force, charged with developing strategies to lower the cost of electricity statewide and think comprehensively about Alaska’s energy plan.

The pv magazine USA tour of 50 states of solar incentives last stopped in California, and will conclude the series with a final stop in Hawaii. For the full tour to date click here.

The top causes of solar performance issues  A staggering 62% of inspected projects were identified to have critical or major issues in a report by HelioVolt.

The benefits of local ownership of clean energy  A report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance emphasizes that to fully realize the benefits of local energy ownership, policymakers, organizations and local advocates need to make sure all communities have equitable access to clean energy ownership.

Standard Solar acquires 2.61 MW solar project at Lehigh University  Lehigh University’s solar installation is expected to fully power its campus athletics facility, allowing the school to meet 100% of its electricity demands while offsetting 8% of its local grid power consumption needs.

SolarEdge unveils bidirectional EV charger  SolarEdge’s new bidirectional DC-coupled electric-vehicle (EV) charger enables vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid applications and can seamlessly integrate with its home energy systems. It is scheduled for release in the second half of 2024.

Five solar e-posters from the CleanPower Expo In May, the CleanPower Expo in New Orleans convened over 8,000 energy professionals. Here are five posters on solar energy that caught our eye.

The 2023 US Distributed Energy Resource Outlook recently released by Wood Mackenzie indicates that the U.S. market will nearly double between 2022 and 2027, to reach almost $68 billion per year.

Behind-the-meter capacity will grow 3.7 times more over this period than it did in the previous five years, according to the report. But perhaps the most significant market change is that the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is responsible for much of that growth.

The distributed energy resources (DER) covered in the report include EV chargers; distributed storage, solar and fuel-based generation; and residential and non-residential demand flexibility.

For this report, Wood Mackenzie defines DERs as:

• Customer-sited – Resources located physically on a customer premise, whether that premise is interconnected at the distribution or transmission level. Community-owned assets on the distribution system are also included.
• Primary use – No maximum MW capacity is applied, but we enforce a primary use restriction, under which, to be included, a resource must serve or control a customer(s)’ local load for electricity and, potentially, heat. Community-owned assets are considered as satisfying.
• Embodiment – A DER must be embodied as a physical asset, whose primary purpose is energy management. Flexibility in customer energy demand, including the willingness to raise temperature setpoints or shut down production lines, is not considered a DER.
• Voltage – A voltage restriction of 69 kV is used for non-CHP generators. This includes all EV infrastructure deployments, which are connected at distribution grid voltages.

Wood Mackenzie analysis shows that 262 GW of new DER and demand flexibility capacity will be installed from 2023 to 2027, nearly matching the 272 GW of utility-scale resource installations also expected during that period.

For the first time, EV charger annual installed capacity will overtake distributed solar and will reach 3.5x solar annual additions by 2027. This market is expected to reach $20 billion by 2027, led by the residential Level 2 ($6.5 billion) and public DC fast chargers ($5.6 billion) segments. Residential charging capacity still holds the majority but will decrease due to infrastructure for buses and trucks reaching 18% of total charging capacity by 2027.

Policies that are driving the growth are federal incentives, not the least of which are the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits along with the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Grant program, expected to drive public charger growth along highway corridors. Also driving the growth is grid insecurity of homeowners and businesses owners, which the report says will cause the distributed fuel-based generation market to grow 240% from 2022 to 2027 and the distributed storage market to grow 460%, with storage reaching nearly $10 billion per year.

“Federal incentives, headlined by the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits and National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure grant program, represent the greatest catalysts for growth in the US DER market. Continued failure of system operators to reduce the time and cost of interconnection would be a tailwind, forcing utilities and corporates to look to distributed resources to achieve reliability and clean energy goals,” said Ben Hertz-Shargel, lead author of the report and global head of Grid Edge at Wood Mackenzie.

Another driver is the California NEM 3.0, which initially will cause an estimate 38% contraction of the market in 2024, but then will significantly increase storage attachment rates going forward.

Despite a price decline of 13% over the next five years, distributed solar will still represent 46% of DER capital expenditure through 2027.

Oregon’s largest city, Portland, carries the historic nickname of Bridge City. A state with more than 7,000 bridges, including more than 50 picturesque covered bridges, it’s hard to not imagine rivers, timber and snow-capped mountain peaks just outside of its cities.

As such, hydropower from its riverways represented more than 51% of the Beaver State’s power mix last year. Wind power followed behind with 14% of the state’s power mix, which is more than 70% renewable energy, according to the Energy Information Administration.

In 2022 Oregon’s solar market grew from under 100 MW of installed capacity per year to a respectable 1.4 GW, with more than 176 MW deployed in 2022. The state ranks 21^st in the U.S. for solar generation and will move up to 19^th place in five years, based on a strong 2.5 GW backlog of projects, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Incentives

With about 15 rural electric cooperatives and two investor-owned utilities, Portland General Electric (PGE) and PacifiCorp, the state’s utility regulator allows residents to generate up to 25 kW of residential and 2 MW of commercial and industrial solar.

For PGE and PacifiCorp customers, net excess generation (NEG) is carried over to the customer’s next bill as a kilowatt-hour credit for a 12-month period. The annual billing cycle concludes at the end of the March billing cycle each year. Any excess generation credits remaining at the end of a 12-month period is credited at the utility’s avoided-cost rate to customers enrolled in Oregon’s low-income assistance programs.

Customers outside of the northern and southernmost utility’s cities can see excess generation purchased at the rural electric cooperative’s avoided-cost rate or credited to the customer’s next monthly bill as a kWh credit. At the end of the year, remaining credits are enrolled in a low-income assistance program, credited to the customer outright or to other local use, according to DSIRE’s database.

Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Oregon residents and all U.S. residents alike are offered the Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The credit applies to 30% of the installed system cost and can be rolled over if you do not have a large enough tax appetite in year one.

Community solar

Enacted in July 2022, the Oregon Public Utility Commission under legislation UM 1930 allows for utility customer subscription to three of the state’s utility-assembled community solar projects located in PGE, PacifiCorp or Idaho Power service territory.

According to the state’s community solar database, about 60 community projects ranging from 300 kW to 5.6 MW are available or under development across the state, with projects in PGE and PacifiCorp territories allowing for up to 40% of residents in low-income communities to participate.

Agrivoltaics

While its community solar program might not provide full accessibility to all ratepayers, Oregon has seen a blossoming agrivoltaics market crop up in recent years. Agrivoltaics, or the shared land use of solar energy generation and agriculture applications, has put Oregon State University’s agrivoltaics program on the map for progressive farming and energy land use.

Located in Aurora, Ore., Oregon State University in October 2022 began construction of the five-acre Solar Harvest project at the school’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center, 20 miles south of Portland. The ground-mounted solar photovoltaic project is projected to generate 326 kW upon completion and at $1.5 million capital cost, is the result of a partnership between Oregon State and the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative, which developed the solar system. Additional financing came from a grant from utility PGE’s Renewable Development Fund, and nonprofit Roundhouse Foundation, a climate-focused impact fund based in the Sisters, Ore.

The Solar Harvest project is designed for agrivoltaics research, with panels that are more spread out than traditional project and able to rotate to a near vertical position to allow farm equipment to easily pass through.

Maggie Graham, facility research assistant at OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, tells pv magazine USA in May 2023 that Solar Harvest project was 98% complete in recent weeks. “We have an assortment of interdisciplinary research projects going on this spring including vegetables, forages, nursery stock, (and) potted trees” at the agrivoltaics research site, Graham said.

The OSU agrivoltaics program is also engaged with fourth-generation family farmer Jack Southworth to test cattle grazing agrivoltaics use cases on the beef cattle farmer’s 12,700 acre farm in Bear Valley, Ore., which is seeing a 1.5 MW solar system deployment on an eight-acre tract on the farm that dates back to 1885.

Notable project

Avangrid, a power development company owned by the Iberdrola Group, in April announced the commercial operations of the Pachwáywit Fields solar farm in Gilliam County, Ore., becoming the largest operating solar farm in Oregon at 205 MW(DC) power capacity.

Pronounced Patch-Why-Wit, meaning “sun” in the Sahaptin language of the Columbia River, Oregon-based Native American tribe, the project is located on ceded lands of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.

Avangrid spokeswoman Mariel Huerta Meza told pv magazine USA the project location was determined based on interconnection, transmission and offtake interest, solar resource, willing landowners, permitting, and constructability. For many years, Avangrid has brought clean energy jobs to Oregon communities near the Boardman power plant, a retiring coal generating facility. The Pachwáywit Fields location is also adjacent to operating Avangrid wind facilities, providing easier interconnectivity with existing infrastructure, she added.

Up next 

Last time, the pv magazine USA tour of state solar incentives reviewed Washington, and next up, we will head to sunny California. For the full list to date, click here.

Optimus Energy Solutions, a Mount Dora, Florida-based commercial, industrial and residential solar installer, sees market expansion opportunities in its neighboring state of Georgia as a new opportunity for securing new commercial PV projects and deploy EV charging stations.

Ben Pauluhn, chief executive officer and founder of Optimus Energy, told pv magazine USA that the developer sees Georgia as its strongest market for new commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects and EV charging systems, where it is an installer of ChargePoint AC and DC fast charging systems. For now, though, the Floridian solar installer said he does not see a need to set up a second office in the Peach State.

At a current installation rate of about 2 MW per year of C&I projects (two-thirds of its revenue) and some residential projects (one-third of revenue), Pauluhn said Optimus aspires to deploy 3 MW to 5 MW of solar installations per year across both segments over the coming years. Additional projects in its home state and new projects within Georgia Power service territory could bring more business in for the developer as it expects to grow from its current 11 employee base into a larger organization.

Pauluhn founded the company in 2018 and in its first five years has doubled its installation rate each consecutive year as the company procures projects from Jacksonville, Fla., down to Tampa and the southern portion of the Sunshine State.

With favorable net metering framework across the state, Pauluhn said Optimus averages three residential installations per week and over the last year has deployed 2 MW per year of C&I market projects.

As a licensed American Solar Energy Society installer, Optimus’ residential contracts are performed by about half of its staff, which primarily services the central Florida region, while about half of its work in the region is sub-contracted out to local contractors, he said.

In the commercial market, Optimus installed projects for the hospitality, automotive dealership, consumer goods and various other markets across the Florida peninsula.

For energy storage, Pauluhn said Florida residents previously had a mismatched perception of how much battery storage is needed at homes to drive down electricity costs when Floridians typically require continuous use of air conditioning systems, creating a huge load drain on the electric grid.

“Air conditioner usage pushes for much larger solar systems, especially because gas service is not that prevalent in Florida, so almost all power consumed in the home is electric,” Pauluhn said.  The mismatch on air conditioner sizing to batteries is evident as battery sizes are needed to be upsized to start up multiple large loads like compressors and wells used in HVAC or home solutions, he said.

Nowadays, Optimus is deploying about 10% of rooftop residential projects with an attached storage system using Enphase, SolarEdge or DuraCell Power Center battery systems, while the company regularly uses REC Solar panels for residential PV installations and JinkoSolar panels for C&I projects, he said. The company also uses SolarEdge microinverters and Ironridge racking systems, he added.

In EV charging, the company has deployed a single-digit attachment rate worth of charging stations to primarily residential customers across Florida. Optimus is an exclusive ChargePoint installer of Level 2 AC charging and DC fast charging products for the growing Southeast EV market.

In its first five years, Optimus has secured sizable C&I contracts around its home state. Just last month, the installer secured a 1.51 MW commercial project for Legacy Vacation Resorts, a resort hotel operator, to deploy 200 kW to 760 kW rooftop PV systems across four hotel properties in central Florida.

After the Legacy projects, Pauluhn said Optimus has another two C&I projects in the works for Q3 2023, which would add another 1 MW of installations to the company’s development schedule for the year, rounding out the year at more than 2.5 MW.

Asked about the Inflation Reduction Act and domestic content sourcing, Pauluhn said the regional solar developer aspires to source as much components as possible in the coming years from local resources and U.S.-made systems. For Legacy, Optimus is procuring 3,700 domestically-assembled JinkoSolar 410 W modules, which are being distributed straight from the supplier’s Jacksonville, Fla., facility to instate project sites, providing an easy procurement for the developer, Pauluhn said.

Climate First Bank, a regional FDIC-insured community banking group, is a financial partner of the company and has securitized financing of the company’s Legacy resort portfolio. Pauluhn said the bank, which finances Southeastern clean energy developers and corporations with sustainability goals, is also a commercial bank lender to the small business.

Asked about Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, Pauluhn said since the governor took office in 2019, he has taken a pro-rooftop solar and small business-friendly stance. On April 27, 2022, DeSantis vetoed state legislation, HB-741, which would have ended net metering in Florida as proposed by its various utilities.

To date, Optimus Energy has been self-funded by management and sees itself as an employee-run company, Pauluhn said.

Enphase launches IQ Battery 5P residential battery in U.S. and Puerto Rico The IQ Battery 5P works in conjunction with the Enphase Energy System and can be configured for self-consumption, savings, or full backup functionality.

Minnesota expands community solar program to allow more LMI customers, projects to 5 MW Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed HF 2310 into law, which opens up the state’s community solar program to more residential subscribers, specifically low-to-moderate income (LMI) households, and expands the project sites from 1 MW to 5 MW community gardens.

Flexible demand through participation by large customers in wholesale markets  Large industrial users of electricity that could use less electricity at high prices, or more electricity at low prices, could bid prices for their demand in day-ahead wholesale markets to help set market prices, integrate renewables, and lower system costs, according to an ESIG report.

U.S. House fails to override President’s veto on overturning solar tariff moratorium  The moratorium is intended as a bridge put in place temporarily while the United States rapidly ramps up manufacturing to supply its burgeoning solar industry.

Solar energy in New York state covered record 20% of state power demand During the noon hour  on May 18, 2023, NYISO reported that consumer and utility-side solar resources generated 3.33 GW of clean energy output, while the behind-the-meter portion of 3.2 GW and utility-operated 130 MW accounted for 20% of the state’s electricity demand.

U.S. Government eyes $9 billion liftoff for long duration energy storage by 2030  The U.S. DOE has published a report outlining the requirements for LDES to achieve technical and financial self-sustainability by the end of decade. An estimated $6 billion to $9 billion dollars in capital investment would be necessary, potentially leading to 6 GW to 10 GW of project deployments.

Suntuity Renewables, a Holmdel, N.J.-based residential solar installer, announced plans to go public this week through a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Beard Energy Transition Acquisition Corp., a $249 million SPAC platform operated by Gregory A. Beard, a former investment principal from Apollo Global Management, a global private equity firm.

“Since 2017, Suntuity’s mission has been to support the transition to a 100% clean and renewable energy future by simplifying residential solar power,” said Dan Javan, president and chief executive officer of Suntuity. “In taking this next step to become a publicly traded company, we intend to accelerate our growth, broaden our focus to include comprehensive home electrification solutions and services across the country, and establish ourselves as a significant industry participant in the renewable energy transformation.”

New Jersey-based Suntuity provides residential solar installation solutions in 25 U.S. states and has deployed 9,500 systems to date. Since 2017, the company has originated more than 200 MW of aggregate solar and storage systems, as well as third-party financing solutions.

Suntuity’s industry relationships with top-tier suppliers and financing partners have contributed to its 26.7% installation compounded annual growth rate for the past three years, as well as a $55 million backlog for more than 1,152 projects whose cycle time from deal acceptance to installation is 59 days.

The company has forecast growth of 79 MW of installations in 2022 increasing to 125 MW of 2023 solar installations across its 25-state market. Suntuity breaks down its top state markets primarily in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic markets, such as New Jersey (33%), Pennsylvania (22%), Connecticut (6%), Massachusetts (6%) and Maryland (6%).

Suntuity uses a mix of in-house and outsourced solutions and capabilities to deploy home solar, storage and EV charging solutions. Outside of its key states, Suntuity has an outsourced installation crew in additional states in Ohio, Illinois, Nevada, California and Texas, among other states capable of installing the company’s systems, with outsourced crew hubs in Utah, Texas, Florida, South Carolina and across the Northeast.

Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will be named Suntuity Inc. and its shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker, “STY.” The business combination has been approved by the boards of directors of both Suntuity and Beard, and is expected to close in Q4 2023, subject to regulatory and stockholder approval.

Citigroup and Roth Capital Partners served as underwriter and capital markets advisor on the SPAC transaction, while Loeb & Loeb LLP is Suntuity’s legal advisor. Vinson & Elkins advised Beard.

Suntuity’s senior management are expected to continue to serve in their existing roles following the SPAC transaction. Current Suntuity employees are expected to retain a 40% ownership of the company at closing, assuming no redemptions by the SPAC’s public shareholders.

“When searching for a potential partner in this transaction, we sought to identify a high-growth business in the renewable energy space with a clear path to scalability and a public-ready management team; we believe Suntuity satisfies each of these criteria and much more,” said Beard.

Beard formed his energy transition SPAC platform in March 2021 with $250 million of capital commitments. Other members of the SPAC team held prior roles across the energy market, including Riverstone, Intervale Capital, Athlon Energy and Caelus Energy, both of which are historic oil and gas producers.

Institutional shareholders in Beard include the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (2.8%), Cantor Fitzgerald (4.6%), Sculptor Capital (4.7%), Adage Capital Partners (5.4%) and Saba Capital (7.7%).

The intermittency of renewable energy created the use of distributed energy tools such as energy storage and virtual power plants. But with new technologies at the grid and consumer level, utilities and regional transmission operators have turned to grid controls and maintenance software to orchestrate, aggregate and monitor the dispatch of clean power when the sun stops shining and the wind stops blowing.

Bidgely, a California-based energy data software start-up company, released the 8760 Energy Model, a data set and report that provides utilities and industry stakeholders with behind-the-meter energy data tracked at the hourly level throughout the year.

The data tool provides a new approach to grid planning, EV charging analytics, non-wire alternatives and load forecasting that aggregates the data across a full year, 24 hours per day.

With insight on how the daily load curve of each utility customer contributes to the grid, utilities have the ability to identify trends, predict future grid patterns, encourage grid-stabilizing customer behaviors and understand the load impact on grid assets, such as distribution transformers, feeders and substations, the company says.

To download the full Bidgely 8760 report click here.

“Energy consumption is constantly changing. As a result, utilities must develop agile responses to evolving pressures on the grid,” said Abhay Gupta, chief executive officer of Bidgely. “Our 8760 insights let utilities see their grids in high definition across time. They can use this insight to develop new rates, products, services and infrastructure investments that deliver greater value on both sides of the meter.”

With 8760, energy consumption data patterns are broken down by the hour and illustrated across 12 different appliance types, which includes EV charging and residential solar systems, across different geographic areas and utility rate plans. This analysis enables utilities to identify trends and plan strategically for grid management, especially based on daily challenges from the intermittency of renewables, EVs and extreme weather events that can affect predictability on the grid level.

In 2022, the system pulled data from the record-setting heatwave in the Pacific Northwest, when the region saw sustained daily temperatures of 100 degrees for consecutive days. The data was provided to the regional utilities to allow for future grid planning and resiliency measures as much of the U.S. sees rises in temperature and extreme weather due to climate change.

Using Bidgely’s data system, utilities can implement or track non-wire alternatives for managing the grid and target customers with load-shifting programs such as virtual power plants and demand response.

At the consumer level, 8760’s load curves analyzed will show grid asset resources with spare capacity and those regions near capacity. The data shows when a customer is running a pool pump and for how long the appliance will run, revealing a targeted list of utility customers who run the same appliance at peak times. This enables the utility to offer the customers load-shifting programs and incentives for lowering the usage of such home appliances as seen in the accompanying Bidgely screenshot.

For consumers running the same appliance, the 8760 data can make recommendations for the utility’s customer to change their Time-of-Use (TOU) rate plan, run the appliance during off-peak hours, buy an energy efficient appliance, or add a residential solar array for additional energy savings.

Bidgely’s UtilityAI and other solutions are used by more than 30 North American electric and gas utility companies and 29 million households that enable “future ready” means for grid flexibility. The company is partnered with digital meter provider Itron as well as EnergyHub and Salesforce for its artificial intelligence-functions and cloud-based accounting systems used in UtilityAI systems.

Founded in 2011, the company is based in Los Altos, California and has raised $82.7 million in growth equity from Constellation, Khosla Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Future Energy Ventures, Innogy and Accurant International.

PosiGen, a residential solar installer for low- and moderate-income families, has lined up a $250 million funding commitment from the direct lending infrastructure fund of Brookfield Asset Management.

The new funding commitment will provide expansion into additional markets nationwide for PosiGen, with a direct focus on serving households with high energy burdens who stand to benefit the most from transitioning to clean energy. PosiGen said the funding will be put to use in new states and communities prioritized by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with an emphasis on Energy Communities and Low-Income Communities.

Based in Metaire, Louisiana, PosiGen works to close the clean energy affordability gap by making solar and energy efficiency available to all homeowners regardless of income. To date, the company has deployed solar and residential energy efficiency solutions to more than 25,000 customers in 10 U.S. states.

“Deploying clean energy is no longer enough,” said Thomas Neyhart, chief executive officer of PosiGen. “It’s clear that for us to meet our climate goals as a nation and create an inclusive economy, we need to focus our efforts on clean energy jobs and equitable access to these technologies that provide savings to those who need it most.”

In conjunction with the Brookfield credit facility, PosiGen is renewing its long-term credit structure with the Connecticut Green Bank.

“Our partnership with PosiGen began in 2015 when an RFP to support low- and moderate-income homeowners was launched, bringing PosiGen to Connecticut,” said Bryan Garcia, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Green Bank. “The successful public-private partnership Solar for All helped increase solar deployment in LMI communities by 320% between 2015 and 2020. PosiGen continues to run campaigns in underserved communities helping those with the highest energy burden access solar and energy efficiency to reduce their costs.”

On April 4, the Internal Revenue Services issued guidance on energy communities, a section of the IRA that affords an additional 10% tax credit to the existing 30% solar investment tax credit for projects that are installed in designated energy communities. These include:

1. A brownfield site – defined as real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant and certain mine-scarred land.
2. Statistical area – a metropolitan statistical area or non-metropolitan statistical area with a 0.17% or greater unemployment rate and 25% or greater tax revenues related to fossil fuel extraction, processing, transportation, or storage. These areas must also have an unemployment rate at or above the national average unemployment rate for the previous year.
3. Coal closure – a census tract (or a census tract directly adjoining such census tract) in which a coal mine has closed after December 31, 1999, or in which a coal-fired electric generating unit has been retired after December 31, 2009.

Formed in 2011, PosiGen has raised over $223 million in equity and debt to date from investors that include Magnetar Capital, Emerson Collective, Irradiant Partners, Activate Capital, The Builders Fund, SJF Ventures and the Kresge Foundation. The company has historically deployed solar and energy efficiency solutions such as heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) upgrades for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities.

Colorado had installed about 2.3 GW of solar capacity through the end of 2022, enough to power the equivalent of over 450,000 homes, said the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). SEIA expects the state to more than double its capacity over the next five years, adding 3.2 GW along the way. 

The Rocky Mountain State is home to nearly 400 solar companies, employing over 7,000 people. It also is the site of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden. 

Over 6.3% of the state’s electricity generation comes from solar, higher than the national average. Colorado has over 300 sunny days per year and was among the first states to enact a renewable energy standard. 

Incentives 

Colorado was an early adopter of solar incentives, which may explain in part why it has the 13th most solar capacity among the states despite being the 21st most populated state. 

Residential solar customers are offered net metering, a program in which excess solar production is exported to the grid during the day and is credited for nighttime usage. The state’s largest utility, Xcel Energy, offers net metering for all projects 1 MW and smaller. Net metering helps secure a desirable return on investment for solar arrays, even when not paired with energy storage. 

Colorado also places tax exemptions on solar. There is no sales tax when purchasing a system, and it is property tax exempt, meaning that even though it will increase the value of your home, it will not increase your property taxes. 

Xcel Energy has a solar rewards program, under the program, you agree to sell renewable energy credits (RECs) to the utility in exchange for cash payments. RECs are intangible assets created by the generation of clean electricity. By agreeing to sell 20 years of RECs, Xcel will pay $0.07 per kWh for 10 years for the credits. This equates to a payment of $6,500 over 10 years for a 6 kW system. 

Holy Cross Energy offers $500 per kW up to 6 kW, and Energy Smart Colorado supports installations with rebates up to $2500 for Pitkin and Eagle County, Eagle Valley, Vail, and Summit County. 

Like all solar installations in the United States, Colorado solar projects are eligible for the federal Investment Tax Credit. The credit covers 30% of installed system costs, and can be rolled over year to year if the customer lacks the tax liability to take advantage of the credit in one tax session. 

Colorado also supports a microgrid grant program. Microgrids are a connected series of distributed energy resources like solar, paired with backup battery systems, and often connected with smart appliances and meters. Microgrids are particularly beneficial to communities that are exposed to extreme weather or experience frequent outages. Available to remote communities, the grant program allocates $400,000, with maximum individual rewards of $36,000. 

Notable installation 

On the edges of Boulder, Colorado sits Jack’s Solar Garden, a community garden that grows crops and local pollinator supporting plants. This community garden is far from ordinary, as it houses a 1.2 MW solar array that shares the same land as the crops below. 

Jack’s Solar Garden is the largest commercial agrivoltaics research site in the United States. The 24-acre plot is part of a research study being conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Colorado State University and the University of Arizona to understand the microclimates created by the panels and how they impact vegetation growth. 

The electricity generated by the single-axis tracker mounted array is enough to power 300 average Colorado homes annually. The power is sold to various subscribers via utility Xcel Energy’s Solar Rewards Community program, where customers receive a percentage of the net metered production as credits against their monthly electric bills.  

Fifty residents, five local businesses, and two local governments subscribe to the plant. Jack’s Solar Garden donates 2% of its power production to low-income households through the Boulder County Housing Authority. 

A study by Oregon State University showed wide-scale installation of agrivoltaic systems could lead to an annual reduction of 330,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. while “minimally” impacting crop yield, the researchers said. 

Up next 

Last time, we toured the solar incentives of Utah, and next we will move south to the sunny state of Arizona. For a full list the state articles to date, click here.

Powering energy-intensive sectors of the U.S. economy with renewable energy would go a long way toward achieving the Biden Administration’s climate goals of reducing emissions by at least 50% from a 2005 baseline by 2030 and achieving net-zero pollution by 2050.

A recent study conducted at Northeastern University looked at how solar could power U.S. manufacturing. It found that solar mounted on industrial rooftops could meet the electricity demand of 35% of manufacturers.

According to the researchers, the industrial sector accounts for 38% of global energy consumption and 37% of greenhouse gas emissions. And with on-site sources of renewable energy currently supplying less than 0.1% of industrial electricity demand in the U.S., the opportunities for carbon reduction are great.

The study, Environmental Research: Sustainability and Infrastructure, published in IOP Publishing’s journal, looks at the feasibility of meeting these electricity demands through on-site rooftop solar installations for different regions and manufacturing sectors across the United States.

Using the U.S. Department of Energy Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey from the Energy Information Administration, the researchers compared the potential electricity generation of rooftop solar arrays against the electricity demand per unit of floor space for the average manufacturing building.

Monthly solar generation potential per unit area was calculated using the system advisor model (SAM) for on-site roof-mounted panels for the capital of each U.S. state. SAM is a techno-economic analysis and energy simulation model, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories.

The model used 476 W (DC) SunPower solar modules with a 22% nominal efficiency on a fixed-mount solar system. The modeled ABB inverter has a  97.5% California Energy Commission weighted efficiency, maximum power of 20,000 W (AC) and maximum power point tracking of 800 V (DC), with an actual DC to AC ratio of 1.20. They ran the performance model based on hourly timestep simulations to calculate each system’s output by month, and they assumed that 90% of the rooftops were available for solar modules. They also conducted an alternative analysis on with modules that have a 16% nominal efficiency with only 80% of the roof covered with solar.

The researchers compared supply and demand on a net annual basis, under the assumption that facilities will make use of net metering.

The results show that rooftop solar arrays could fulfil the electricity requirement of 5% to 35% of U.S. manufacturing sectors, depending on the season. They found that manufacturers of furniture, textiles, and apparels set to benefit most, representing 2% of U.S. manufacturing electricity use and 6% of floorspace.

“Currently, less than 0.1% of the electricity required by the manufacturing sector in the U.S. is generated through renewable, on-site sources,” said Dr. Matthew Eckelman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University. “This must change if we are going to meet decarbonization goals, and in many cases rooftop solar panels are now a feasible option for supplying low-carbon energy.”

The alternative rooftop array design model was found to substantially shrink the range of supply intensities, from a high of 411 kWh m⁻² yr⁻¹ for the base case to just over 300 kWh m⁻² yr⁻¹, which is just within the range of demand intensities for the least electricity-intensive sector of furniture and related products. The researchers determined that the alternative model is not tenable for all of the other sectors in any U.S. location.

The study found that light manufacturing sectors such as furniture and apparel can cover their average net annual electricity demand with rooftop solar on their locations across the country. Other more intensive manufacturing industries can achieve electricity self-sufficiency, but in a smaller subset of U.S. locations.

An added benefit to pursuing on-site PV installations is that it enables manufacturers to maintain limited operations during periods of grid disruption, especially when coupled with on-site energy storage. Seasonally, manufacturing facilities with rooftop solar could fulfill their electrical needs in in nearly 40% of U.S. locations could in the spring and summer..

“Greater policy attention on the feasibility and potential benefits of rooftop solar panel arrays will help industries to achieve renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions goals,” said Eckelman. “Our research provides an indication of the locations and sectors for which rooftop solar arrays could significantly help manufacturing firms to reach these goals.”

(Read: “U.S. Warehouses can host enough solar to power nearly 20 million homes“.)

Multiple parties have suggested that the residential solar market would slow down in 2023 after having a very strong 2022. One quarter into 2023, the slowdown is evident, but it is showing in a more complex manner than most projected, with California NEM 2.0 applications beating industry expectations while many other states in the West and South are performing less well due to the effects of interest rates.

Higher rates have led to third party-financing ownership increasing in multiple state markets, according to Ohm Analytics, with Nevada and Arizona seeing increases from 8% and 12% in late 2022 to 12% and 19%, respectively, in March 2023. Sunrun also noted the strong performance of its subscription-based Shift product in the California post-NEM 2.0 landscape in its recent earnings call, suggesting that California could see a bigger rise in third-party ownership.

Several months ago, Ohm Analytics told pv magazine USA that they believed 2023 would experience slower growth. Ohm based this prediction on increasing interest rates, as well as a possible lull in California after NEM 3.0 rolled out in mid-April. However, Ohm also believed there would be regional differences due to variations in electricity pricing, incentives and installation costs, all of which influence return on investment.

During a recent conversation with pv magazine USA, reflecting back on the year so far, Ohm Analytics’ Joseph Wyer and Rohan Humphrey said that much of what’s happening in the residential solar sales market in Q1 2023 was foreshadowed in its “Q4 2022 DG Solar and Storage Market Report.”

Wyer explained,

“What we’re seeing in the data is divergent regional growth with a lot of the southern Sunbelt and Mountain States seeing slower demand on the year, initially because of the challenges around financing and interest rates, but then also some installers losing access to M1 payments. This has put financial pressures on installers, particularly in some of the southern states.”

M1 refers to the first solar project milestone payments, where traditionally a portion of the payment was paid out to the installer when the contract was signed, then another is paid after permit submission, installation, and other stages, Wyer said.

It was suggested that larger companies were reallocating resources toward solar markets with higher electricity rates or greater incentives. Humphrey said higher interest rates could result in monthly loan payments approaching or exceeding current electricity bills.

Humphrey also noted that as with all businesses, specifically in the high capital expenditure construction industry, cashflow is important to the residential solar market. Contractors that were using loan products and getting an upfront cash injection once they signed project contracts were using cashflow to finance salaries, and general business expenses. With these advance payments slowing down, cash is tighter for installers.

Sunrun and Sunnova also gain additional financial benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act and general solar finance that regular homeowners do not. As commercial entities, these groups can gain an additional 10% tax credit if they use domestic content or install in energy communities. Moreover, they are allowed to depreciate assets associated with solar projects.

One thing that surprised many was the strength of the solar market in California leading up to the end of Net Metering 2.0 on April 14, 2023. Ohm says that the number of people that signed up for solar prior to the April date are enough to build large books of business and support solar installation teams for months.

Ohm is releasing its updated market forecast and insights to customers over the next few weeks in its “Q1 2022 DG Solar and Storage Market Report.”