People on the move: Green Lantern, FTC Solar, Perch Energy and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

PNNL unveils Grid Storage Launchpad to bring together researchers to tackle energy storage tech A new building at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory aims to unite researchers and stakeholders to push forward advancements in grid storage technologies.

What happens when solar is installed without homeowner’s permission A Connecticut couple and several companies including Sunrun have been sued by the state’s Attorney General for forging signatures, faking a voices, and unlawfully installing solar panels on a home without the owners’ consent.

Aurora Solar introduces solar models powered by EagleView EagleView brings its geospatial data and imagery library to Aurora’s solar modeling function, helping installers to design, plan and validate solar projects.

Pivot Energy partners with Microsoft to develop up to 500 MW of community solar  The portfolio is planned to be developed in locations across the United States from 2025 through 2029.

The Connecticut Attorney General has initiated legal action against two individuals and three companies for committing multiple crimes, including impersonation of homeowners and unauthorized installation of solar panels.

The state’s lawsuit targets Sierra Howes and Dakota Grumet, principals at Elevate Solar Solutions, Bright Planet and Sunrun, the company responsible for the installations and system ownership. This action addresses three distinct cases in Connecticut, namely the Windsor, Stafford Springs and Wethersfield transactions.

In one particularly bold instance, known as the Windsor Transaction, Howes and Grumet proposed a residential solar project costing $306 per month to a homeowner who rejected the offer. Subsequently, an employee from Bright Planet is alleged to have forged the homeowner’s digital signatures. The lawsuit also includes a recorded call of a Bright Planet employee impersonating the homeowner to Sunrun:

The Sunrun representative then asks Sierra Ford to put the consumer on the line to confirm the details of the transaction. The consumer is female. However, the voice purporting to be the consumer’s on the recorded call is a deep male voice. The voice purports to confirm the consumer’s name, but erroneously reverses the first and last names, as was done on the contract.

On October 9, approximately a week after the deceptive call, Sunrun, notably efficient on this occasion, installed a 14.22 kW residential system without permits.

The Stafford Springs and Wethersfield transactions similarly showcase unethical practices. In Stafford Springs, a homeowner consented to a solar agreement, but claims to have never received a contract to review, later discovering the total cost would exceed $135,000 over 25 years. In both instances, the solar panels were installed in late 2022 without initial permits, which were only later approved by local authorities. To date, neither system has been activated.

In all three instances, the solar modules are still on the respective homes. The Attorney General’s complaint enumerates fifteen counts of legal violations, with four charges each against Sunrun, Bright Planet and Elevate Solar Solutions. These charges include unfairness, deception, per se violations (violations that are inherently illegal), and willfulness.

In the broader context of door-to-door sales, several U.S. states have taken similar legal actions. Minnesota, for instance, recently sued four of the nation’s largest solar finance companies. Vision Solar has faced lawsuits in multiple states, including Connecticut and Arizona. Additionally, Vivint Solar, prior to its acquisition by Sunrun, was sued in New Mexico. Most recently, Rhode Island enacted a law requiring background checks for residential solar salespeople.

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.

The U.S. power grid in use today was built in the 1960s and 70s and is hard pressed to handle the extreme weather events caused by climate change, let alone the renewable energy needed to meet energy goals.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 70% of transmission lines are over 25 years old and approaching the end of their typical lifecycle. Grid upgrades that deploy modern grid technologies are sorely needed, and federal funding is available through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program, which recently closed applications for up to $2.7 billion in DOE grant funding under a second round.

Grid modernization has been underway in some states more than others, and the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center recently released The 50 States of Grid Modernization: Q1 2024 Quarterly Report, which looks at legislative and regulatory action related to smart grid and advanced metering infrastructure, utility business model reform, regulatory reform, utility rate reform, energy storage, microgrids, and demand response.

In Q1 2024, according to the report, 49 states plus DC and Puerto Rico took a total of 567 policy and deployment actions, the most common related to policies (133), financial incentives (108), and utility business model and rate reform (93).

Five top policy developments

Maryland: Lawmakers passed the Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE) Act in Maryland that directs the Public Service Commission to develop a program for utilities to establish virtual power plant (VPP) pilots to compensate owners and aggregators of distributed energy resources for distribution system support services.

Massachusetts: Eversource, National Grid and Unitil filed final electric sector modernization plans in January 2024. The plans include a variety of programs and investments, such as VPP programs, advanced distribution management system and distributed energy resource management system investments, resilience upgrades, heat pump integration, and non-wires alternative

Connecticut: The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) issued a set guidelines for utilities’ advanced metering infrastructure plans, including a directive to include advanced time-of-use rates and to use Green Button Connect functionality. Later in the quarter, PURA filed a straw proposal on performance incentive mechanisms (PIMs), which includes four PIMs based on non-wires solutions, equitable reliability, distributed energy resource interconnection, and avoided service terminations.

Colorado: The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved guidelines and directives for VPP implementation in Xcel Energy’s service territory.

Maine: The Governor’s Energy Office in Maine released its final long-duration energy storage (LDES) study that identifies policy considerations and actions for the state to support LDES. The PUC also released a study that examines utility control or ownership of energy storage, finding that utility ownership of storage should only be allowed under certain circumstances.

Top trends

Grid-enhancing technologies can boost the use of any existing transmission system, according to a study by The Brattle Group, which looked specifically at advanced power flow control, topology optimization and dynamic line ratings. The NC State report said use of grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) is a notable trend and noted the following actions:

• Virginia lawmakers enacted a bill requiring utility integrated resource plans to include a comprehensive assessment of the application of GETs and advanced conductors. In
• Maine legislators enacted a bill requiring the PUC to conduct a review of available GETs that large investor-owned utilities may use to reduce investment needs in grid infrastructure.
• Minnesota lawmakers introduced bills requiring utilities to file plans regarding the implementation of GETs to prevent grid congestion at the transmission level.
• New York legislators introduced bills that would allow the Department of Public Service to approve requests from distribution companies to develop GETs.

Other states considering legislation initiating studies on GETs include Connecticut and New Hampshire.

Virtual power plants

VPPs give grid operators a utility-grade alternative to new generation and system buildout by automating efficiency, capacity support and offering non-wire alternatives, according to Jigar Shah, director of the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office. “By deploying grid assets more efficiently, an aggregation of distributed resources lowers the cost of power for everybody, especially VPP participants,” Shah said in an article in pv magazine USA.

According to the NC State report, a state policymakers and regulators are taking steps to develop frameworks for VPPs in their states:

• Pennsylvania regulators issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking seeking input on VPPs as a potential resource for the state.
• Maryland lawmakers passed a bill directing the Public Service Commission to develop a program for utilities to establish VPP pilots, with each investor-owned utility required to propose a pilot or temporary tariff by July 1, 2025.
• Colorado PUC issued a decision outlining rules for VPP pilots and acquisition.
• California and Hawaii regulators are also advancing expansive programs to promote VPPs.

Microgrids

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.

The NC State report found that a growing number of states are evaluating the potential for microgrids to provide resilience or other benefits in their states.

• Colorado Energy Office is currently developing a microgrid roadmap, which will examine how microgrids can improve grid resilience and reliability in the state.
• New Hampshire lawmakers recently passed a bill requiring the state’s Department of Energy to study the potential benefits, risks and other factors of developing a microgrid framework.
• Rhode Island PUC issued request for proposal for a study related to microgrid program design.
• Puerto Rico Energy is examining revisions to its existing microgrid revisions.
• Arizona regulators issued a decision prohibiting Arizona Public Service from providing microgrid services.

Lawmakers in California, Iowa, New Jersey, and New York also considered legislation related to microgrid studies during the quarter.

The Coalition for Green Capital (CGC), a non-profit group focused on generating financing for climate technologies and clean energy projects, says public and private investments in its network increased over 50% in 2023 to $7 billion compared to $4.6 billion in 2022. The preliminary figures will be amended in the 501(c)(3) organization’s forthcoming annual report.

The CGC does business as the American Green Bank Consortium (AGBC), which consists of over 40 green banks and financing entities.

According to the preliminary reporting, which represents data from about half of the AGBC network accounting to date, $2.5 billion of the 2023 investments were from the members’ own capital, while $4.5 billion came from private capital they attracted. Reed Hundt, CGC’s founder chief executive officer, said in a statement that he expects total investment will reach $10 billion for last year when all data are reported.

Cumulatively, the organization says it has helped attract $21 billion in investment since 2011. It was founded in 2009 with a mission to address climate change by attracting investment in clean power and related technologies.

Rather than directing the financing to individual projects, the CGC works to promote so-called green banks in individual states, which in turn work to attract investors in projects and technologies. For example, the affiliated CGB Green Liberty Notes LLC, a subsidiary of the Connecticut Green Bank, recently announced a new offering in its crowdfunding campaign to attract investments that has enabled small businesses to take out $100 million Small Business Energy Advantage loans.

Such loans are part of a Connecticut program to encourage small businesses to modernize their facilities to improve energy efficiency and use of green energy. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced selectees that will receive $7 billion in grant awards through the Solar for All program to develop solar projects for those who might not be able to buy PV installations themselves. The role of the green bank in this case is to alert financial institutions that the government program exists and that a reliable entity is on hand to assure that investment.

Bryan Garcia, CEO of the Connecticut Green Bank and also chair of the CGC, told pv magazine USA that green banks are essential for pairing funded government clean-energy programs with public and private lenders that might otherwise be wary of the risk.

“The impetus is really around enabling ambitious public policies like, for example, a zero-emission renewable energy credit for commercial solar, to be affordable and accessible to everyone, even renters,” Gacia said. “How do you make the benefits of clean energy technologies affordable and accessible to everyone?”

Risk, as it turns out, is the operative word. Burt Hunter, chief investment officer of the Connecticut Green Bank, told pv magazine USA that organizations like green banks bridge the gap between government opportunities and private investment. If private lenders might balk at the apparent risks of backing clean energy projects, especially for underserved communities, green banks exist to reduce the risk.

“I think what we’ve discovered is that the reason things work so well in Connecticut is we have the right policies to provide the framework that encourages investment in clean energy,” Hunter said. “Investors are pretty straightforward. They just want to know that they’ll be able to get returns, and they also want to know that the rules won’t be changed too much to the detriment of the money that they’ve put out the door. So, it’s not a lot to ask.”

If green banks work to fulfill state policies with regard to clean energy development, might the concept work at the national level? Garcia says the CGC, which he describes as a “chamber of commerce” for state-level green banks, would support a national version of the institution.

The organization says it is seeking a total of $11.9 billion through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund programs to establish a national green bank. The non-profit is currently active in 40 states. With a national reach, the CGC says it could expect to attract $35 billion in cumulative private-public investing in the first year of inception.

The Connecticut Green Bank, a financial institution that is accelerating the green economy in Connecticut and striving to reduce the energy cost burden of commercial and private consumers, has doubled the amount of funds it will allocate toward the growth of commercial solar projects for businesses, towns, schools, nonprofits, and state agencies.

Up from $49.5 million in 2020, the fund now has $110 million to meet the growing number of commercial, municipal and state solar projects geared at reducing energy costs and leveraging Inflation Reduction Act credits. 

In January 2022, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority launched Energy Storage Solutions, a program that incentivizes Eversource and UI customers to install energy storage systems at their homes or businesses. CT Green Bank helped to finance the scheme’s declining-block upfront incentive, which reduces installation costs by a reported $200 per kWh of battery capacity, up to $7,500 for each customer. 

Since its launch, the Energy Storage Solutions program has initiated 21 residential, one commercial and one industrial project. Connecticut Green Bank states that an additional 109 proposed storage installations have applied to the program; 76 are residential and 33 are commercial and industrial. If approved, a total of 172,011 kWh of energy capacity will be added to the state’s renewable energy portfolio. 

CT Green Bank has also helped to finance the state’s Residential Solar Investment Program (RSIP). RSIP provides partial refunds and incentives to reduce homeowners’ rooftop solar costs. Once installed, utilities under Master Purchase Agreements with CT Green Bank buy Solar Home Renewable Energy Credits (REC) per its program’s policy. Green Bank’s REC sales revenue generates green bonds leveraged by individual and institutional buyers. The RECs and green bonds generate financing to support RSIP incentives and cover administrative costs. 

Connecticut’s RSIP has allowed 46,000 households – 50% of which are in vulnerable communities – to install rooftop solar panels. CT Green Bank states the program has generated more than $1.4 billion of public and private investment, including $160 million of ratepayer incentives, averaging at $30 per REC sale. RISP also helped generate more than 16,000 clean energy jobs across the state.  

CT Green Bank states that $50 million of the increased funding will go to solar projects at businesses, towns and schools. Bert Hunter, the executive vice president and chief investment officer at Connecticut Green Bank, says each is looking to reduce energy costs and increase resiliency to grid outages. At 0.28¢ per kWh, Connecticut has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, 46% higher than the national average, according to clean energy solutions platform EnergySage.  

CT Green Bank’s board also approved allocating more funds toward state projects facilitated by CT Green Bank’s Solar Marketplace Assistance Program. The platform helps state properties and municipalities navigate the process of going solar. Up from $20 million, the fund now has $60 million intended to support the development of 26 projects with a combined capacity of 17 MW. 

The green bank states that most of these projects will provide solar for the Department of Corrections, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the CT Technical Education and Career System. The CTECS development will offer students the opportunity to shadow various workers.   

The Connecticut Green Bank leverages a public-private financing model for its investments. The institution pools limited public dollars to create long-term solutions later financed by the private sector, helping scale clean energy projects across the state. CT Green Bank states it has attracted $2.06 billion in private investments using $362.7 million of its money. The institution has added almost $2.5 billion to the state’s green economy, with 40% allocated toward programs supporting moderate and low-income community members.

Electriq Power Holdings, a provider of energy storage and management solutions, has launched a program in the city of Derby, Connecticut to help homeowners access solar-plus-battery solutions regardless of their socioeconomic status.

The program, dubbed PoweredUp Derby, is supported by the city and will contribute to lowering electricity costs and providing back-up power for participants during outages, according to the company. Under the program, homeowners can have a turnkey solar-plus-battery storage system installed in their homes without any upfront costs, income verification, credit score, or property lien requirements. Almost 3,000 homeowners in the city are eligible for the program.

“It gives customers, including those who are low-to-moderate income the ability to access clean, reliable energy whereas traditionally, to install a system like this, you’d have to pay upfront,” CEO Frank Magnotti told pv magazine USA. 

These systems are also compatible with virtual power plant programs and if needed, can be integrated with local programs, he added. 

Electriq Power calls these set-ups ‘Sustainable Community Networks’ (SCNs) and has deployed a number of them in California. This will be its first SCN in the New England region. Both these areas have very high electricity costs – in Connecticut, for example, the retail price of electricity is around 10 cents/kWh higher than the national average, and has risen 17% between 2015 and 2022 – which is one of the reasons the company has targeted them. 

That’s because solar-plus-battery storage systems can help homeowners save money – in part by storing demand when energy is cheap and plentiful, and then discharging it during peak demand periods, when electricity rates are high. Electriq Power estimates that the systems can help save up to 20% in electricity costs annually. 

Electriq Power’s partnership with the city of Derby will help residents lower electricity costs and strengthen their financial position, Roger Salway, the city’s economic director, agreed.

“This is a program that can help residents improve their life, and for us, that’s a win-win,” Salway added. 

Electriq Power is also actively pursuing additional SCN programs throughout New England, and “would welcome the opportunity to work with municipalities and community-based organizations within the area to help them accelerate their sustainability goals, while assisting residents with lowering their electricity bills and being prepared for power outages,” Magnotti said. 

In addition to being a source of back-up power, Electriq Power’s solar-plus-storage systems also have the ability to export power back to the grid. The battery storage component of the system is equipped with operational software that allows owners to participate in virtual power plant programs, Magnotti said, where their stored energy can be exported to the local electrical grid to help alleviate stress when demand is high, helping to prevent a power outage.

In March this year, Electriq Power entered into a multi-year agreement with a U.S.-based clean-energy company for financing estimated to be more than $300 million over 30 months. This funding was reportedly to support the deployment of SCNs in California, which Electriq Power views as a hedge against rising utility rates. 

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.

Form Energy, a manufacturer of a 100-hour iron-air battery, believes that if New England adopts a ‘fossil-free by 2050’ policy, their energy storage system could replace a massive 111.4 GW of solar capacity and circumvent the need for 80.3 GW of less than 10-hour lithium-ion energy storage. The company further contends that its batteries are well-suited to address the decreased productivity of offshore wind during winter lulls, effectively adding 14.4 GW of offshore wind capacity and helping phase out 15.4 GW of fossil fuel dependence.

The product is touted for its cost benefits, delivering capacity at an approximate $20/kWh – a stark contrast to the $176/kWh of a 6-hour lithium-ion solution (one of many storage products the document modeled). This value proposition is detailed in their recent white paper, “Clean, Reliable, Affordable: The Value of Multi-Day Storage in New England.”

According to Form Energy’s modeling, by harnessing solar energy more judiciously, New England could realize savings of around $115 billion. An additional $80 billion in savings is projected on the lithium-ion storage front, totaling an estimated $190 billion.

As New England contemplates a transition to a ‘fossil-free by 2050’ framework, the elimination of fossil fuels would pivot their energy dependence to renewables. Current cost modeling suggests that overbuilding renewables and curtailing as needed is more affordable than installing standard 4 and 6-hour lithium-ion backups when it comes to covering the three day winter time wind power lulls that must be considered.

By design, overbuilding renewables results in significant curtailment. In the heavily oversized model, a mere 79% of New England’s offshore wind and 43% of its solar potential are exploited. With Form Energy’s approach, these figures could catapult to 95% and 84% respectively, slashing curtailment by 83%.

While roughly $190 billion in hardware is saved, the system requires the installation of $92 billion of other equipment – including Form Energy’s own technology. The expansion of offshore wind facilities would require an added $29.1 billion (at $2,021/kW), medium-range storage is estimated at $16.1 billion (at $3,232 per kW), and Form Energy’s 23.4 GW/2.34 TWh setup would cost around $46.8 billion (at $2,150 per kW).

It’s worth noting that although Form Energy’s product does greatly increase system efficiency, its round-trip efficiency is under 50%, in contrast to lithium-ion’s 85%.

Factoring in these expenses, net hardware savings hover around the $100 billion mark. Moreover, the company notes that offsetting 111 GW of solar could conserve nearly 300,000 acres of New England’s land.

On the other hand, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources suggests that the energy produced by those 300,000 acres of solar could be matched in capacity by the deployment of as much as 152 GW of “highly suitable” rooftop solar in Massachusetts alone.

Beyond the $100 billion in projected savings, a crucial takeaway is Form Energy’s adherence to a “No Fossil Fuel” system. Presently, New England is without a unified regional policy, with only some progressive states like Massachusetts targeting a “Net Zero” status by 2050.

A prevailing concern for New England’s wind energy is its unpredictability. Despite offshore wind resources in New England demonstrating an impressive winter capacity factor of 60%, there are stretches with virtually zero production, sometimes lasting several days.

To address this, Form Energy analyzed two decades of offshore wind data from ISO New England, the regional power grid manager. The data suggests that pairing every MW of offshore wind with 0.56 MW and 30-34 MWh of energy storage would capably handle offshore wind interruptions, even those at the 90th to 95th severity percentile.

Numerous energy storage alternatives could fit this bill, but Form Energy’s solution stands out. It’s projected to be nearly 80% more affordable than lithium-ion counterparts, carries a minimal fire risk, and boasts over double the longevity, making it an attractive proposition for the region’s energy future.

The Connecticut Green Bank launched a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process to enlist a qualified vendors, including project development, consultants, technical services and engineers to provide the Green Bank with clean energy, environmental, and financial services.

Upon a successful demonstration with proposals, the Green Bank will designate vendors that have demonstrated capabilities in specific areas. For example, a vendor may be designated as having specialized capabilities for a particular type of service requested if it demonstrates that it possesses exceptionally scarce qualifications or experience, specialized equipment or facilities not readily available from other sources, or proprietary data or methods.

Proposals should identify specialized capabilities, supported by a justification as to why these attributes may be exceptionally scarce, specialized or proprietary. Candidates are permitted to team with partners (subcontractors) that they consider to have complementary expertise in the identified support areas.

The Green Bank is accepting RFQ proposals through June 30, 2023 at 11:59 pm Eastern, for the following service providers:

• Energy generation– Distributed generation resources (DG) such as solar photovoltaics (PV), battery storage and fuel cells
• Utility-scale resources – Solar PV, battery storage, offshore wind and power transmission and distribution.
• Transportation – Alternative fuels, zero emission vehicles and vehicle-to-grid (V2G)
• Environmental Infrastructure – Design and planning services in water solutions, waste and recycling, as well as nature-based solutions to climate resilience, including carbon offsets and ecosystems
• Hydrogen – including generation, end uses and storage
• Novel Solutions – new technology solutions either hardware or software focused
• Climate Change Impact, Resilience & Adaptation Analysis – impacts of climate change in Connecticut and adaptation and resilience strategies, by quantitative or qualitative approach, as well as equity issues.

Other solutions the Green Bank will select include life-cycle assessment for clean technology services, macroeconomic analysis and modeling, energy use forecasting, environmental infrastructure and health impact support.

Proposal format

In addition to the link above, interested candidates can email RRP-Responses@ctgreenbank.com using the subject line: “Proposal for Technical Service Provider” for consideration in the RFQ process through June 30.

Proposals should be limited to 10-pages maximum and include an executive summary, including a general background, business overview, list of three client references, pending judgements or litigation, and relevant project descriptions.

The evaluation process will be judged based on completeness and consistency of the executive summary and documents. The Green Bank will review submissions based on relevant experience and qualifications, diversity of staff, management capability, adjacent state solutions provided, and availability and accessibility of staff assigned.

The Green Bank will issue final decisions on or around July 31, 2023 to successful candidates.

Formed by the Connecticut General Assembly in July 2011, the Connecticut Green Bank is the first U.S. statewide green bank.  The state’s green bank supports Governor Ned Lamont and the state’s legislature’s energy strategy to achieve clean power goals while creating jobs and supporting local economic development.

In 2021, the Green Bank’s model was expanded to include new areas of environmental infrastructure, related to climate adaptation and resiliency, land conservation, parks and recreation, agriculture, water, waste and recycling, and environmental markets, including carbon offsets and ecosystem services.

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.

House votes to resume solar tariffs President Biden’s two-year halt on solar import tariffs is intended to create a bridge of supply as the U.S. ramps its domestic manufacturing capacity.

Multi-family housing developer looks to Mass. and Illinois for growth High Impact Solar is planning applications for more than 65 projects for the low-and-moderate income (LMI) communities adder, even though the developer has yet to see the application.

First Solar Q1 2023 revenue down, with investments in U.S. facilities taking precedent Company expects to recognize about 25% of its full year guidance in the first half of 2023 and 75% in the second half, based on Sec. 45X of the IRA taking effect.

Renogy debuts 220 W monocrystalline panel for RV and boat market The off-grid power specialist launched a bifacial 220 W, 12 V monocrystalline solar panel for marine and recreational vehicle applications.

True Green Capital acquires majority stake in CleanChoice Energy The target company has a solar development portfolio of over 300 MW community solar projects in the Northeast and Midwest.

Renewable energy infrastructure investor True Green Capital Management announced the acquisition of a majority stake in CleanChoice Energy, a retail energy provider and community solar aggregator to residential and commercial accounts. 

The investment from TGC is expected to fuel CleanChoice’s solar business across the value chain, from owning solar generation assets to selling renewable energy. TGC said it will maintain the CleanChoice brand and team, and will invest an additional $100 million in acquiring, owning, and operating solar projects. 

CleanChoice currently has a development portfolio of 300 MW of solar projects in various stages of development. The company said it is actively pursuing acquisition and co-development opportunities across the ISO-New England, NYISO, and PJM markets. 

“We continue to believe that the combination of green customers with solar power development and asset ownership will be paramount in the clean energy transition regime we operate,” said Panos Ninios, managing partner and co-founder of TGC. “In CleanChoice, we have found a best-in-class management team with a unique multi-year track record in combining solar power development with a proprietary customer acquisition and management platform.” 

TGC said CleanChoice’s business model demonstrates the attractiveness of a largely untapped opportunity to pair owned renewable generation with renewable retail supply. The investment is expected to scale its retail business by securing long term access to power, capacity, and renewable energy credits (RECs) and by reducing exposure to wholesale commodity markets.

(Read: “Renewables merger and acquisition strategies are shifting“)

“It was important for us to find a mission-aligned buyer who shares our commitment to empowering customers and building a greener future,” said Tom Matzzie, chief executive officer, CleanChoice. “We have found that in TGC, and we look forward to rapidly expanding our farm-to-table clean energy offerings.”

The transaction is expected to close in 60 to 90 days. CIBC Capital Markets served as financial advisor to TGC and DLA Piper served as counsel to the investor. Guggenheim Securities served as financial advisor and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP served as counsel to CleanChoice.

Founded in 2012, CleanChoice is a certified B-Corporation that describes itself as the first 100% green “gentailer.” The company pairs renewable energy generation with direct-to-consumer retail offerings in deregulated states that allow retail energy.

TGC, based in Westport, Conn., has raised four private equity funds since forming in 2011 with over $1 billion in equity capital. This includes the May 2022 closing of the investor’s fourth fund with over $660 million of capital to be deployed over the next four years.

Community solar developer adds project debt for 24.8 MW newly completed projects  Oya Renewables secured $27.1 million in loan commitments from City National Bank and Greenprint Capital for the recently completed construction of 24.8 MW of community solar projects in western and northern New York state.

Get what you pay for with high-efficiency PV modules  Clean Energy Associates (CEA) has calculated the price premium that solar developers will swallow in return for the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) savings offered by the latest generation of high-efficiency PV modules

Temperature estimates for floating PV modules  Scientists from the United States and Brazil have developed four different ways to estimate the temperature of floating PV modules. They validated the models with temperature measurements from a floating solar plant in Brazil.

Connecticut commercial energy storage demand spurs government action  The State of Connecticut launched a second round of energy storage incentives two years ahead of schedule due to strong commercial demand, after approving 46.4 MW/139.4 MWh of commercial projects in the state in the first round.

Over 500 MWh standalone battery storage facility enters operation in Texas  The battery is the largest merchant energy storage facility in the world. Wärtsilä Energy and Eolian LP partnered for the 200 MW grid-scale battery system.

CleanCapital acquires 26.2 MW, 10-project solar portfolio  The Rhode Island projects range from 250 kW to 5.4 MW and include rehabilitated brownfield sites, landfills, and serve organizations like the YMCA and low-income housing authorities.

North Carolina rulings dent rooftop solar value  Net metering payments were slashed while a new efficiency incentive was also unexpectedly rejected.

Spruce Power acquires residential solar portfolio across 10 states  The acquisition of SS Holdings 2017 brings Spruce’s contract base to over 72,000 systems.

Connecticut has initiated the second tranche of its statewide commercial energy storage program, aimed at incentivizing 100 MW of battery deployments while continuing to support its residential program.

In the first round, 46.4 MW of commercial and industrial energy storage was approved, with a total energy capacity of 139.4 MWh. The projects average 3 hours of capacity per hour of peak power output.

The residential program recently surpassed the 1 MW sign-up milestone and has ample space in its first round, which targets 10 MW of deployed capacity.

The program is managed by Energy Storage Solutions and administered by the Connecticut Green Bank. The state aims to deploy 1 GW of energy storage by 2030, with interim targets of 300 MW awarded by 2024 and 650 MW by 2027.

Residential customers can receive an upfront incentive of approximately $200 per kWh of battery capacity, with the maximum incentive capped at $7,500. Multiple batteries can be combined to achieve up to 37.5 kWh. Several other factors affect the final value, which can be found here.

To qualify, batteries must be accessible by local power companies for use during peak demand periods. Residential battery owners will be compensated based on when and if their systems are used during high-demand periods. The summer season runs from June to September, and the winter season from December to March. The batteries are expected to be used between noon and 9:00 PM.

Batteries from Enphase, Generac, and SunPower have been approved for the residential market. These units can be managed by inverters from Enphase, Sol-Ark, GoodWe and Shenzhen Lux Power.

The legislation also stipulates that low-income, underserved, and “grid edge” located customers qualify for additional incentives. The state has released a detailed map that shows where the edges of the grid are located.

Research by Dr. Christopher T. M. Clack of Vibrant Energy suggests that putting additional solar and storage at the edges of the grid would generate $473 billion in benefits nationally, with $109 billion in California alone.

The first tranche includes 27 projects submitted by six developers, with projects located in 20 towns across the Constitution State.

Of the 1 GW of capacity to be deployed, the law states that at least 580 MW must be located at the point of demand.

The energy storage program is part of Connecticut’s broader goal of achieving 100% clean energy production by 2040. As of 2030, 48% of the electricity sold within the state must come from renewable energy resources.

The commercial portion of the program aims to deploy 100 MW of capacity. Hardware from six manufacturers are approved: Cadenza Innovation, Caterpillar,  Tesla, ELM Fieldsight, Milton CAT and Socomec.

For more on solar policy in Connecticut, read 50 states of solar incentives: Connecticut.

U.S. on track to make it only halfway towards 2030 Paris Agreement targets  The U.S. may only reach 25% to 38% of carbon emissions reductions below 2005 by 2030, falling well short of the 50% to 52% required by the agreement, said the Energy Information Administration.

Minimizing EV impact on the grid  MIT researchers have found that strategic placement of EV charging stations and initiating charging at delayed times can mitigate or eliminate daily EV charging demand and solar over-capacity.

Used and resold solar module pricing aligns with general market EnergyBin released its annual PV Module Price Index, which shows that module prices have come down since they peaked in 2022, but are still more expensive than they were in 2020.

Energy Warehouse component achieves UL Safety certification UL 1973 is an industry standard recognition for stationary energy storage systems, which confirms the module’s quality, resilience and ability to operate safely and effectively in a variety of conditions. The S200 modules power ESS systems the Energy Warehouse and Energy Center product lines.

Entergy Louisiana seeks approval for 3 GW of solar  The request recently filed with the Louisiana Public Service Commission to add an additional 3 GW of solar power to its generation portfolio is on top of the nearly 225 MW requested earlier in the month.

Made-in-the-USA solar panels could cut emissions by 30%, says study Reshoring crystalline silicon PV panel manufacturing to the United States by 2035 could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and energy consumption by 13% from 2020 levels, according to scientists from Cornell University.

Vision Solar preyed on vulnerable and built without licenses, says Connecticut  Less than nine months after Vision Solar received a contractor’s license, complaints to the Connecticut Attorney General’s office were pouring in.

Midsummer develops 24.9% efficient 4T tandem perovskite-CIGS solar cell  Midsummer and researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), say that their new tandem PV cell is suitable for the company’s Duo production equipment, which makes 56 mm x 156 mm CIGS cells on a flexible stainless steel substrate.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has filed a lawsuit against Vision Solar, citing numerous violations committed by the company. Vision Solar, a newcomer to Connecticut, was granted a Home Improvement Contractor license in December 2020, but starting in August 2021, the Attorney General’s office began to receive the first of 14 unique complaints against the company.

The legal complaint can be found here. 

The attorney general’s office states that “Vision Solar preyed on low-income, elderly, and disabled homeowners, pressuring them into unaffordable loans for solar panels that in some cases were never activated”. The company’s in-home sales tactics included overstaying permitted hours, pressuring customers into immediate signatures, falsely claiming that signatures were for “pre-approval” only, and failing to deliver contracts to customers. The attorney general also alleged that Vision Solar made sales pitches to individuals with language or intellectual challenges who were unable to make informed purchasing decisions.

Vision Solar is also accused of misrepresenting the tax benefits of solar panel installation to those with no tax liability. The attorney general further suggested that Vision Solar applied for solar permits without proper licenses and may have used the license of an electrician no longer employed by the company to apply for some of those permits. Vision Solar is also alleged to have installed solar projects without a licensed electrician.

Vision Solar’s online reviews tell a similar story. With 176 reviews, Vision Solar received 1.79 out of 5 stars on SolarReviews.com. They earned an “F” with 1.21 out of 5 stars from the Better Business Bureau, with 203 reviews. On Yelp! the company earned only 1.5 out of 5 stars, and on Angie’s List (now just ‘Angi’) they received the site’s lowest possible score, 1 out of 5.

In 2020, Vision Solar sued Momentum Solar for trade secret violations. Momentum Solar itself was sued for racist and discriminatory actions. Online searches reveal multiple lawsuits against Vision Solar in New Jersey for violation of the Do Not Call list.

Despite the numerous complaints against the company, as of March 20, 2023, Vision Solar’s license is still listed as “active”.

Decarbonization is the move away from fossil fuel resources and toward renewable energy. But with the intermittency of renewables like wind and solar,  energy storage systems are required to ensure reliability. As states increasingly declare decarbonization goals, they will need to create new policies, rules and regulations that will enable the deployment of an unprecedented amount of energy storage, according to the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), which just released its States Energy Storage Policy: Best Practices for Decarbonization report.

CESA published the report jointly with Sandia National Laboratories, and it highlights best practices, identifies barriers, and underscores the urgent need to expand state energy storage policymaking to support decarbonization in the U.S. The report is based on findings in a 2022 survey of the states leading in decarbonization goals and programs, and it looks at key state energy storage policy priorities and a series of case studies show the challenges encountered by some of the leading states.

The state survey distribution resulted in 22 responses from 14 states plus the District of Columbia. The following states were represented in the survey responses:

An industry survey was also completed by representatives of six energy storage development companies, plus one industry consultant who formerly worked for an energy storage development company:  Enel North America, Key Capture Energy, New Leaf Energy (formerly Borrego), Nostromo Energy, Sunrun, and Tesla.

At the time the study was conducted, 22 states (plus the District of Columbia) adopted decarbonization goals, however, not all have set policy for energy storage deployment. California and New York are cited as examples of states with “very advanced and sophisticated policy measures”. Many others are beginning to assess energy storage policy needs.

What motivates a state to develop energy storage policy? The Best Practices report says it varies. Regulated utilities may request regulatory action because they are seeking to recover the costs of their investments in energy storage. Third-party developers may have found gaps in interconnection rules or valuation standards that the regulatory commission needs to address. And also the process of energy planning at the executive or legislative level may require policy decisions in order to meet the state’s clean energy goals.

The report outlines the four steps to policy development from Level 1, which is demonstrated interest in storage up to the fourth “maturity level” of including storage in strategic plans, and ranks the states by level of maturity. California, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey and New York had all achieved Level 4.

Those states that are just beginning the process have cited a few reasons for their delays in developing storage policy and programs. These include lack of clarity as to which cases are best suited for storage, a belief that storage may become more important later in their process, ongoing best practices assessments, and cost.

Another observation of the study shows that even states with advanced decarbonization goals still struggle with whether and how to deploy storage, especially with the challenge of bringing it to scale within the state’s decarbonization timeframe.

The report found commonalities as to what the states will include in their future energy infrastructures:

• A mix of central and local generators, energy storage, and other distributed energy resources
• A significant expansion of batteries and other energy storage technologies to be used for both emergency backup generation and as peak shaving resources, along with an enhancement of the ability to build infrastructure that can accommodate this significant expansion of energy storage resources
• The use of microgrids or other distributed energy resources (DERs) and their associated management systems to integrate and optimize an increasing amount of on-site intermittent renewable generation and energy storage

The authors caution that this report “highlights early stage results in a highly changeable field.” The study found, for example, that different states face different challenges. Some operate in very different energy markets and regulatory environments, for example. The consensus among respondents is that energy storage is key to hitting decarbonization goals. With fewer than half the leading decarbonization states having set an energy storage procurement goal, there is much more work to be done. But as more states develop energy storage programs to support their decarbonization goals, best practices are emerging that other states can emulate.

A March 23 webinar will summarize findings from the survey. Developed on behalf of the Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP), which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity, managed by Sandia National Laboratories, and administered by the Clean Energy States Alliance.

Nextracker announces IPO pricing  Nextracker begins trading today on the Nasdaq Global Select market under the ticker symbol NXT.

Vanadium’s role in a just transition  The deployment of a vanadium flow battery at a fire station run by Native Americans illustrates the role that the energy storage technology can play in ensuring that nobody is disadvantaged by the shift away from fossil fuels.

SnapNrack introduces solar mount that attaches to modulee bfore roof  The TopSpeed solar mount begins installation on the ground, limiting time spent on the roof.

Nevados to supply all-terrain solar trackers to Ampliform pipeline  Tracker company Nevados supply Ampliform’s near-term project pipeline of 700 MW as well as its longer-term pipeline of 2 GW of projects under development.

IRA spurs 101k clean energy jobs in first six months  As of January 31, 2023, there are more than 90 new manufacturing facilities and renewable energy projects developed in rural towns and large cities, representing an aggregate of $89.5 billion of new investments into the clean energy market, according to a Climate Power report.

Watch: West Texas community comes together for solar project  A solar facility is bringing 250 construction jobs and $18 million in property taxes to Concho County, Texas.

Energy efficiency specialist pivots to rooftop solar at Connecticut nursing home  Budderfly, a Connecticut energy-as-a-service company, is reviewing new solar offerings with Ryders Health, Sonic and Subway restaurants.

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 latest analysis from Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Service.

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.

“Despite the global COVID-19 pandemic and associated macroeconomic challenges causing a two-year slowdown in the U.S., the microgrid market is developing at a rapid pace and 2022 is on track to be a record year for installations and scheduled pipelines,” said Elham Akhavan, senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

Akhavan noted that microgrids are installed across various customer segments, with commercial and industrial leading the way. Microgrids are embraced in industries such as department stores and manufacturing, “indicating a rise in demand for an uninterrupted service,” he said, adding that the government sector takes second place, followed closely by residential and education sectors.

Military microgrid installations will likely grow as a result of the U.S. Army’s resiliency goal to install a microgrid on every installation by 2035. These will include renewable generation and large-scale battery storage, with the goal being able to “self-sustain its critical missions” on all Army installations by 2040.

According to Wood Mackenzie data, the U.S. microgrid market saw a 47% increase in solar and storage capacity additions in 2022 compared to 2017 levels. Moreover, the data shows that more than 175 solar projects and solar-plus-storage microgrids have been in active development and were scheduled to come online by the end of 2022.

“There’s been a significant shift in technology type, in particular the rise of solar and storage demand among microgrid customers, largely driven by corporate ESG goals,” Akhavan said. He noted that there’s been an uptake of “multi-distributed energy resource (DER) microgrids,” which may include a fossil fuel generator that acts as a backup power generator in cases where solar and batteries alone cannot mitigate long-duration outages.

Business models

The microgrid-as-a-service (MaaS) business model is projected to experience continued growth across various non-utility customer segments, and according to Wood Mackenzie’s data, the share of MaaS deals grew 25% from 2019 to Q3 2022, while the percentage of microgrids owned by end-users dropped 31% from 2019 to Q3 2022.

“While third-party financing in general is not a new model, MaaS is evolving beyond PPA contracts, which often involves procurement from a single DER to an affordable solution for financing the construction, operation and maintenance of multiple DERs, tailored to the customer’s energy objectives,” Akhavan added.

Wood Mackenzie data shows that there are 28 states with utility microgrids, with approximately 35 MW of projects expected to have come online in 2022. This implies total utility microgrid capacity of over 1.1 GW.

“Although utilities typically look to rate-base microgrids, some are partnering with developers to offer microgrids to their customers under MaaS agreements,” said Akhavan said. “For example, Enchanted Rock announced a utility partnership program in early 2022 that enables utilities to offer comprehensive ‘resilience-as-a-service’ to its customers.” Enchanted Rock deploys commercial-scale microgrids that use natural gas and renewable natural gas (RNG) to reduce carbon emissions and pollutants found in traditional diesel generators.

Akhavan estimates that we will see more than 20% growth in annual capacity installation of microgrids, if the market continues on its current trajectory. The industry has seen growth in the Northeast where a range of competitive grant programs are supporting resilience projects for critical facilities.

“The West Coast, led by California, is growing substantially, with a strong pipeline due to go into operation by 2024. This is followed closely by the Southwest market, which has expanded more than three times since 2019. Texas is the frontrunner, with two of the leading developers in the region, PowerSecure and Enchanted Rock, having installed all capacity so far in 2022,” Akhavan added.

ReneSola, a global solar project developer with an office in Stamford, Connecticut, posted an increased Q3 22 revenue of $28.9 million, an 86% increase from $15.5 million of revenue in Q3 21, despite foreign exchange currency risk creating a stronger dollar and other economic challenges.

The company said economic conditions surrounding revenue from Europe and China could have resulted in an additional $3 million revenue boost without the stronger dollar denomination.

Despite a higher third quarter, the integrated solar company lowered its Q4 22 guidance to $44 million to $49 million, compared to the market consensus of $73 million, reflecting recent acquisitions of European assets taken on its balance sheet.

After installing a 10.2 MW Hungarian project in October, ReneSola decided to withhold 110 MW of Poland and Hungarian solar project sales in Q4 22, which includes notice to proceed stage assets, forgoing $20 million of revenue in Q4 22 based on the company’s European shift to an IPP business model.

The company expects to energize the remainder of the 100 MW European portfolio in Q3 23.

Quarterly Activity:

In September, ReneSola closed the acquisition of a 50 MW UK solar farm portfolio from P&T Global Renewable Energy for $41 million. The acquisition establishes ReneSola as a European independent power producer. In October, ReneSola announced the launch  of a 10.2 MW utility-scale solar project Csomád 1-2 in Hungary. In the same month, the company acquired Emeren, an Italy-based solar and storage developer, for $16 million in an all-cash transaction. The target has a 2.5 GW project development pipeline.

Also in October, ReneSola closed on the sale of a 70 MW portfolio of Pennsylvania solar projects to asset manager AB CarVal Investors.

Full-Year Guidance:

Due to its European IPP shift, ReneSola reduced its full year 2022 revenue range to $85 million to $90 million, from prior quarterly estimates of $100 million to $120 million for full year 2022.

ReneSola’s management highlighted a 4 GW portfolio of deploying mid to late-stage projects in 2023, an increase from its current pipeline of 3 GW, driven by European growth.

The company said it plans to sell the majority of its 165 MW Chinese operating portfolio in 2023.

With a $305.5 million market capitalization, ReneSola shares trade at $4.55 today, down from $6.06 per share a year ago.  Since going public in 2008, ReneSola has shifted from being a local maker of solar wafers to an international solar IPP developer.

Michigan PSC rejects anti-rooftop solar policy The state’s utility regulator was not convinced by DTE Energy’s argument that distributed energy causes a cost shift, and the utility improperly modeled the benefits of distributed generation.

UConn receives $4.4 million solar-plus-batteries predictive resilience grant The University of Connecticut’s Eversource Energy Center will develop technologies to shorten power outages.

Solar-powered Sion EV to feature enhanced driver-assistance systems from Continental Sono’s first Sion models are planned to be priced at $25k, with production slated to begin in the second half of 2023.

Powin, BlackRock start working on world’s largest battery Grid-scale battery specialist Powin and BlackRock have started work on a 909 MW/1,915 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Australia; Construction is set to begin in 2023.

CSI Energy Solutions signs 2.6 GWh battery agreement with UBS in North America Batteries under the agreement utilize CSI Energy’s SolBank utility-scale energy storage systems and will be deployed in 2024-25.

Longi claims world’s highest efficiency for silicon solar cells Longi Green Energy said it achieved a 26.81% efficiency rating for a heterojunction solar cell, as confirmed by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH).

As storms intensify and increase their frequency, the University of Connecticut (UConn) has partnered with investor-owned utility Eversource to develop clean energy solutions to prepare communities for power outages, aiming at shortening restoration times.

The two organizations partnered for Eversource Energy Center, the university’s resiliency center which recently received a $4.4 million grant from the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), which is operated by the Department of Energy (DOE). The resilience funds are provided through SETO’s Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience program. DOE will provide $3 million to the program, while the Eversource Energy Center will bear $1.4 million of the cost.

The Eversource Energy Center will leverage its Outage Prediction Model to forecast the impact of storms, using meteorological data to proactively position power restoration crews in advance of inclement weather.

The funds will also support the development of distributed energy resources and predictive software to achieve the goal of faster response times. Dubbed PROACTIVE (predictive community outage preparedness and active last mile visibility feedback autonomous restoration), the project is aimed at developing and demonstrating a predictive community outage preparedness and restoration solution.

The project will also help ensure rapid power restoration to remote and rural areas that often experience the longest power outage times following extreme weather events.

“Due to the lack of proper outage prediction tools, stakeholders face challenges to forecast infrastructure damages and their severity ahead of time, thus significantly affecting outage preparedness,” said Junbo Zhao, associate director of the Eversource Energy Center. “After extreme events, there is also a lack of robust sensing and communication systems to allow quick estimation of infrastructure damage and availability of assets and energy resources to aid the rapid restoration.”

Zhao said PROACTIVE will leverage grid visibility for a more informed, safe, coordinated, and automated response. It will rely on granular data and sensors to more rapidly identify the localized source of the outage.

It will also depend on cooperation among communities, leaning on affluent communities who have more distributed solar and storage resources to assist those without distributed assets.  For example, an affluent town like West Hartford could provide surplus power to a neighboring municipality such as Hartford, said Zhao.

The PROACTIVE team is currently engaged with community leaders and stakeholders in West Hartford and Hartford to demonstrate the technologies and how they can benefit each city. The project is expected to take three years to develop and implement.

“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges that we face as a society, and the intensity and frequency of storms is only going to increase,” said Pamir Alpay, UConn’s interim Vice President for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. “Working with our partners at Eversource, we are committed to developing technology and advancing research to enhance our ability to mitigate the impact of these storms and keep Connecticut residents safe.”

Energy resilience and affordability is a key focus on Connecticut’s capital city of Hartford. Hartford established a local agency called the Energy Improvement District (EID) to pursue sustainability and energy related goals for the city in the long-term. It released a comprehensive plan in 2019, which shared that the energy burden, or energy bill as percent of income, for households at the 50% poverty level is staggering at 33%. The average home energy affordability gap is $1,922 per household per year. And the state’s Home Energy Assistance Program covers only 33% of this gap. Federal programs like SETO’s RACER program and other provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 are aimed at tackling these kinds of problems.

Altus Power, a commercial and industrial solar development company, increased its sequential portfolio by 100 MW during Q3, while the company recorded revenues of $30.4 million, a 51% increase from the previous year.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based developer grew its portfolio over the recent quarter in part due to a recent acquisition of an 88 MW commercial solar portfolio in Arizona, Nevada, Indiana and Pennsylvania, from D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, and 9 MW of New Jersey assets acquired from a local developer.

Following the transactions, Altus Power operates a project portfolio of approximately 474 MW in 22 states.  Since becoming a public company in December 2021, Altus Power has developed a project pipeline that consists of more than 500 MW of operations acquired by the company and 500 MW of projects under internal development.

While revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $19.4 million were both up year over year, the company wrote a $96.6 million net loss in Q3 22 based on a one-time non-cash loss of $102 million.

The company has developed projects for a number of Fortune 100 and 500 companies such as CBRE and Blackstone Group, both historic investors in the company, as well as Shell and Link Logistics.

Altus shares trade at $7.19 per share today, down 31.4% from $10.48 a year ago, with a $1.1 billion market capitalization.

Green banks may compete for $27 billion from a federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and use the money to provide financial and technical assistance to speed deployment of “low- and zero-emission products, technologies and services.”

The fund reserves $7 billion for low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy or benefit from zero-emission technologies, including rooftop solar. States, municipalities and Tribal governments, as well as green banks, may compete for these funds.

The remaining $20 billion is available to green banks for direct or indirect investments in low- and zero-emission projects. Of that amount, $8 billion is reserved for low-income and disadvantaged communities. Indirect investments would establish new entities, or support existing entities, including community- and low-income-focused lenders and capital providers, that provide financial assistance for projects that reduce or avoid emissions.

Green banks, as defined by the IRA, are funded by public or charitable contributions, rather than deposits, and provide capital, leverage private capital, and provide other forms of financial assistance for “rapid deployment” of projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of air pollution.

The Coalition for Green Capital announced that it plans to compete for funding from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, along with a network of state and local green banks and community development financial institutions. The coalition’s CEO Reed Hundt said that the American Green Bank Consortium, with 23 members in 17 states and the District of Columbia, “has already invested $2.6 billion of their own funds,” along with nearly $9 billion in private sector capital, “in green projects that provide financial returns while maintaining extremely low default rates.” He said the consortium has $20 billion worth of pending projects.

The Connecticut Green Bank, the nation’s first state-level green bank, lauded the passage of the IRA and said that since its founding in 2011 it has mobilized nearly $2.5 billion, “creating thousands of jobs, reducing energy costs for thousands of families, businesses, and communities, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

The Coalition for Green Capital said that national legislation to fund green banks was first introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009.

Under the IRA, funds will be available for disbursement from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to green banks and governments until September 30, 2024.

Solar jobs increased 9% nationwide in 2021  According to the National Solar Jobs Census 2020, employment in the solar industry looked favorable in 2021 compared to fossil fuel industries, but solar employers have some work to do on increasing diversity.

Connecticut to allow distributed resources to compete with distribution grid upgrades  Connecticut would join five other states in enabling distributed storage, solar and other non-wires alternatives to compete with traditional distribution system capacity upgrades, under a program being finalized by Connecticut regulators.

Perovskite solar cell defect characterization during manufacture for improved stability  A novel electrochemical robotic arm is under development at the University of Arizona to identify perovskite defects during manufacturing rather than after to improve durability.

Vehicle-integrated photovoltaics for low-speed electric vehicles  Canadian startup Capsolar claims its flexible solar modules can be adapted to any type of low-speed electric vehicle with no extra modification and custom work. The panels have an efficiency of 21.3% and rely on 24%-efficient solar cells provided by US manufacturer SunPower.

Electriq Power residential batteries beat the heat with backup power, smart time of use  A home battery paired with rooftop solar can provide backup power during rolling blackouts, shift power usage schedules to avoid peak demand charges, among other benefits.

GM and LG receive $2.5 billion DOE loan to build three battery manufacturing plants  Battery manufacturing facilities will be built in Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan to produce EV batteries under the Ultium Cell name.

Connecticut utilities proposing a distribution grid upgrade project that would cost more than $1 million would soon be expected to issue a competitive non-wires alternatives (NWA) solicitation, under a proposed program developed by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). An NWA bid that met the “grid needs” that the grid upgrade project was intended to meet, at lower cost, would win a contract. Some smaller upgrade projects might also trigger a solicitation.

Other states besides Connecticut that already allow distributed resources to compete with planned distribution grid upgrades include California, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York and Rhode Island, said Lauren Shwisberg, a manager at the nonprofit RMI, who co-authored a 2018 report on non-wires solutions.

Under Connecticut’s proposed program, an NWA bidder could propose to meet the grid needs identified by the utility with distributed solar, storage, demand response, or energy efficiency, including aggregated resources.

The Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) and RENEW Northeast said in joint comments that they backed the $1 million presumptive threshold for a solicitation, saying that level is “appropriate to provide enough value to spur market engagement.”

The groups said that for the program to be successful, competition would be key, with distribution utilities “incented to choose the most competitive and reliable solution regardless of who owns the NWA resources.” Transparency is also key, they said, to provide clarity to bidders on the solution being sought, the criteria by which a project will be evaluated, and the deadline for project completion.

NECEC keeps “hammering on the importance of the grid,” the group said on Twitter, because “as we electrify vehicles and heating, we have to build out a grid that can deliver all the power.” The grid consists of long-distance transmission, and local distribution circuits that deliver power to customers.

Distribution grid upgrades

A traditional distribution grid upgrade may involve a substation or a distribution “feeder,” the electric circuit that extends from a distribution substation to deliver electricity to end users. A feeder upgrade may involve new conductors (commonly known as wires) that have higher capacity, transformers, voltage regulators and monitoring equipment, according to a working paper from the Energy Institute at Haas.

California utility PG&E will need to upgrade about half of its distribution circuits by 2030, and about 80% by 2050, as the state pursues electrification of vehicles and heating, the working paper projected, while only a small percentage of substations would need upgrades.

A “roadmap for the lowest cost grid” prepared by Vibrant Clean Energy, and cited in the white paper, projected that greatly expanding local solar and storage nationwide would save $473 billion by 2050.

Many US states offer incentives to promote residential rooftop solar adoption; however, as prices of solar have declined, the incentives have phased down or out. The truth remains, though, that for low- to moderate-income (LMI) households, the relatively high up-front costs of going solar are often a deterrent.

Eric O’Shaughnessy, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, studied the importance of subsidies in driving solar adoption among LMI households. His report, “Rooftop Solar Incentives Remain Effective for Low- and Moderate Income Adoption,” indicates that incentives drove adoption for about 80% of LMI households that otherwise would not have gone solar – implying that ongoing incentive support will be rewarded by strong solar policies.

Definitions vary, though a common definition for low- to moderate-income in the United States is earning less than 80% of the area median income. In California’s San Francisco County, for example, the household would have to make less than around $95,310 to qualify. In Connecticut’s Fairfield County, the cutoffwould be around $78,031.20.

According to another recent LBL report, “Residential Solar-Adopter Income and Demographic Trends: 2022 Update” a large number of solar adopters in 2020 could be considered “middle income” – 32% have household incomes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range. Solar adopter incomes skew high relative to the population at large: Median income of all US households was $63,000 in 2020, compared to $115,000 for 2020 solar adopters.

According to O’Shaughnessy, it was important to study LMI solar incentives to understand whether these incentives are still driving adoption. Broader incentives have phased out because incentives become less influential in adoption decisions as prices decline. It is generally inefficient to continue offering incentives to households who would have adopted otherwise. However, even if incentives no longer drive adoptions among high-income households, incentives could still play a role in supporting LMI solar markets.

Two programs
Many states offer some form of incentives to help LMI households go solar including rebates, production-based (such as a renewable energy certificates), or tax credits. “A real disadvantage for LMI households is that many lack the tax appetite to directly benefit from tax credits,” said O’Shaughnessy. His Berkeley Lab study focuses on the California Single-Family Affordable Solar Homes program and the Connecticut Solar for All program, examining the impacts these programs have had on LMI solar adoption. He chose these programs because they’re relatively large and have many years of data.

California has by far the largest subsidy program, putting aside 10% of its California Solar Initiative funds to support LMI. “The maximum deployment could be 10% of the program’s total, but in reality, it is far less,” O’Shaughnessy said. He explained that to subsidize a typical relatively highincome adopter, “they were motivated by partial subsidies that reflected relatively small portions of the system cost.” But with the LMI programs, which are trying to promote equity, the subsidies are more generous per customer. “When a state has a 10% carve-out for LMI program funding but LMI incentives are higher per customer than other incentives, you’ll have proportionally fewer installations,” said O’Shaughnessy.

The study found that in the cases of California and Connecticut, LMI solar subsidies increased solar adoption. Through econometric analysis, the Berkeley researchers estimate that roughly four of five LMI subsidy recipients in California and Connecticut would not have adopted solar without some kind of subsidy. In addition, the research shows that the programs had sustained impact over several years, showing spikes that occur at the time the subsidies are offered, and then adoption spikes back up.

Eventually you
are giving incentives
to households who
would have adopted
anyway and at that
point the incentives
aren’t effective
anymore. Eric O’Shaughnessy

The reason for the spike could be that the programs continue to reach new people, that installers continue to market in specific LMI areas, and that some wait until others have successfully navigated the process before jumping in themselves. Another effect of LMI incentive  programs is that some LMI households chose to adopt solar even without receiving subsidies, and this is called “spillover.”

Spillover theory
In his report, O’Shaughnessy directly tests the spillover hypothesis by looking at areas where LMI incentives are offered and then exploring changes in adoption patterns among households that did not receive incentives. Previous research shows that when a neighbor sees that a neighbor has installed solar, they become interested and are “primed” for adopting solar themselves. It appears that is still true for LMI households, O’Shaughnessy said. Some of the spillover customers will qualify for incentives, and others may even install it themselves without incentives, according to O’Shaughnessy.

Targeted incentives
While the overall conclusion of the report is that targeted incentives are a key component of nascent LMI rooftop markets, the question remains as to how long these markets will be nascent. O’Shaughnessy said that they still are, but that may be changing. The study found that eight out of 10 recipients would not have installed solar without some form of incentive, but that will decline over time.

O’Shaughnessy explained that, for example, the number of households that would not install solar without the incentive would soon be seven out of 10, then six out of 10, and so forth. “Eventually you are giving incentives to households who would have adopted anyway and at that point the incentives aren’t effective anymore,” said O’Shaughnessy. “It’s not effective because those customers don’t need the incentive, prices have come down and the market has taken over.”

The issue of rooftop solar equity is an emerging trend that has somewhat tarnished the image of solar and undermined public support because people see solar customers as those with high incomes. Utilities and regulators are obligated to deliver energy that is just and reasonable to everyone, regardless of income.

The Rooftop Solar Incentive report notes that fewer than a quarter of PV adopters are LMI households. “If solar were perfectly equitably adopted then 50% of adopters would earn less than the national median, but instead about a quarter earn less than the median – so there is the equity gap,” O’Shaughnessy said. The good news, though, is that it is changing. Just like any technology, O’Shaughnessy said, “it expands and diffuses.” As you get more LMI households adopting solar, the average income of adopters goes downyear over year.

50 states of solar incentives: Connecticut  Connecticut administers strong solar-supportive state policies, a benefit to its residents who pay nearly 50% more than the national average for electricity.

Largest solar project in Wisconsin gets regulatory approval  The project ties another for the largest in capacity in the state and it is set to include a 165MW battery energy storage installation.

6K awarded $1.5 million Massachusetts manufacturing grant to fund battery recycling equipment  6K has also announced a new 33,000-square-foot battery center of excellence pre-production facility in North Andover, which will be one of the largest battery material production facilities in the United States.

Solar anti-circ investigation may not be determined by Commerce until late August, said ROTH  An untenable level of risk onset by the Department of Commerce’s anticircumvention investigation has essentially shut down US procurement of PV modules, and Commerce is expected to take its full allotment of 150 days to make a ruling, said an industry note from Phil Shen, managing director, ROTH Capital Partners.

Aspen Power to acquire 53MW of community solar projects from Trajectory Energy Partners  The community solar portfolio includes a project with an historic church, another project with a non-profit foundation working to preserve a historic site, and an installation on a reclaimed former coal mine in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. 

The Northeastern state of Connecticut has a steadily growing solar industry, backed by intelligent policy across sectors. The state has a particularly strong commercial solar presence, and residential solar can provide significant cost savings to homeowners, who pay nearly 50% more for electricity than the national average, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In addition to the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which is 26% of system costs through 2022, residents of Connecticut have access to several incentives for solar PV. Residential solar increases home value, but it is exempt from property taxes and the state’s 6.35% sales tax.

Connecticut also administers zero emissions renewable energy credits (ZRECs). It is a capped block program and a lottery system that provides credits to systems across sectors. Details can be found here.

Perhaps the most successful program in the state has been the Connecticut Green Bank. The program provided significant upfront incentives, and it exceeded its expanded goal of 382MW deployed ahead of scheduled. Earlier this year, the program surpassed $2 billion in total investment.

New incentives in 2022

The Green Bank program was replaced at the beginning of 2022 by the Residential Renewable Energy Solutions program, which supports projects up to 25kW-AC, and will run for six years. 

The program will be administered by utilities Eversource and United Illuminating (UI). Customers have two options: a buy-all incentive or a netting incentive similar to traditional net metering.

The buy-all program is administered as follows: The utility will purchase power from homeowners at a rate approved by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). Customers will receive compensation as either an on-bill credit to offset monthly bills or a cash payment once per quarter. Customers may specify a percentage of the compensation to be split between the two options. Homeowners will purchase the electricity needed to power their homes directly from Eversource or United Illuminating. Any on-bill credits not used to offset the bill can be cashed out once annually, and any cash payments (quarterly or annually) must go to a third party that is not the account holder.

The rate for the buy-all program locks in for 20 years, and it includes that value of any ZRECs earned. The current buy-all rate for both Eversource and UI customers is $0.2943 per kWh. With the Buy-All Incentive, power generation and consumption are measured using separate meters installed at the home.

Under the netting option, power produced by the system, but not consumed within the month, is “netted” at the same rate paid to Eversource for electricity. Net credits are applied to the bill in dollars and will be used to offset future customer, supply and delivery charges. Any excess credits can be carried over each month and cashed out if electric service is stopped. Once enrolled, the compensation rate (in dollars per kilowatt hour) for net production will fluctuate with the prevailing retail rate over a 20-year term.

Currently, Eversource customers are offered $0.0318/kWh, and this extends for 20 years. UI customers do not receive an additional incentive beyond the benefit of retail priced net metering. Customers will also take in a quarterly ZREC payment.

Both options come with adders, including a $0.025/kWh value adder for low-income customers, and designated “distressed municipalities” will receive an additional $0.0125/kWh.

Connecticut has a multitude of state level incentives in pursuit of climate-related goals. The Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE) outlines them here.

Notable project

In North Stonington, Connecticut, a 6.1MW solar facility is expected to provide $9 million in savings for five Connecticut state colleges and universities in its first 20 years of operation. Developed by Greenskies Clean Focus, the project uses a virtual net metering mechanism to provide colleges with clean energy. The project will serve Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Manchester Community College in Manchester and Tunxis Community College in Farmington.

“In addition to the financial benefits, this project is expected to generate upwards of 8.8 million kWh of clean, renewable energy every year. Over the next 20 years, that’s enough clean, renewable energy to offset 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of taking more than 27,000 cars off the road or preserving over 153,000 acres of U.S. forests,” said Stanley Chin, CEO of Greenskies.

The project is comprised of 14,000 solar modules and occupies 27 acres of land, which was leased from a local meat and dairy farmer.

State statistics

SEIA ranks Connecticut 22nd in deployment nationally, not bad for a state 29th in population. It estimates 1097.4 MW have been installed through Q4 2021, and enough photovoltaic electricity is produced to power the equivalent of 174,333 homes.

In Connecticut, over 2,000 people are employed by the solar industry across 135 companies. The state holds 27 manufacturers and 54 Installers/Developers. SEIA estimates $2.7 billion in economic activity related to solar has occurred in the state.

The first stop of pv magazine’s tour solar state incentives took us to Maine, and next we are headed to New Hampshire.

Borrego Solar has been tapped by FirstLight Power, a clean power company with a portfolio that includes nearly 1,400MW of pumped-hydro storage, battery storage, hydroelectric generation, and solar generation, to build new ground-mounted and floating distributed generation (DG) solar, DG storage, and utility-scale standalone storage at FirstLight’s hydropower facilities in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The Borrego FirstLight relationship contemplates multiple storage project types and configurations across FirstLight’s real estate portfolio. Project types include but are not limited to utility scale standalone storage, DG standalone storage, and PV+ESS.

“I am thrilled to partner with Borrego to accelerate New England’s path to a fully decarbonized electric grid by advancing innovative new solar and energy storage offerings to customers in Massachusetts and Connecticut,” said Alicia Barton, President and CEO of FirstLight.

The installation will be similar to FirstLight’s first solar facility, Northfield Mountain in Massachusetts. This 2MW installation was one of the largest in New England when constructed in 2011, consisting of more than 18,000 solar panels covering approximately 11 acres of land. The solar facility is adjacent to FirstLight’s pumped storage hydro power generation operation on the Connecticut River.

The partnership advances FirstLight’s mission of creating a clean, affordable, reliable and equitable electric grid. The new developments will provide local jobs and increase FirstLight’s economic development impact in the local communities.

“Borrego’s partnership with FirstLight will help create innovative hybrid renewables solutions in New England – combining solar and energy storage resources with existing generation,” said Jared Connell, VP of Project Development in New England, of Borrego.

This announcement with Borrego follows a recent partnership that FirstLight announced in Connecticut to advance new hybrid renewable energy projects across the state and the company’s participation in a successful investment consortium that secured a lease in the recent NY Bight Offshore Wind auction.

The first Borrego/FirstLight installations are expected to be operational in 2025.

What we have here is a failure to communicate solar generation data Washington DC Attorney General Racine has filed a complaint against utility PEPCO for general incompetence in managing the community solar program, with a focus on additional hardware requirements and a failure to properly measure and compensate solar electricity generation.

Anticircumvention investigation: An industry reacts The decision has shaken the clean energy world, and many of the solar energy industry’s thought leaders have chimed in with their perspective on the decision and its ramifications.

World will need 5.2TW of solar this decade to avoid climate breakdown The International Renewable Energy Agency’s latest global outlook has spelled out just how ‘woefully’ far the world is from capping temperature rises at 1.5C, and lamented: ‘The stimulus and recovery efforts associated with the pandemic have also proved a missed opportunity.’

US grid-scale energy storage usage profiles, innovation, and growth outlook The Energy Information Administration profiled grid-scale energy storage, finding that a demand for different grid services creates demand for a variety of storage duration capabilities.

New Orleans launches community solar program The city will construct a series of solar gardens, up to 2MW in capacity, which interested residents can subscribe to, reducing their electric bills and increasing solar’s influence in an area that has historically had little to do with the resource.

Green Mountain Power selects Enphase batteries for pilot lease discount program Participating homeowners will connect their home battery to the grid, sharing energy through Green Mountain Power’s distribution system in exchange for financial incentives.

Connecticut colleges and universities to benefit from solar Through virtual net metering, a 6.1MW solar installation is expected to provide more than $9 million in energy savings for five Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) campuses.

Tesla drops from top three residential solar installer ranking In Wood Mackenzie’s solar installer Leaderboard, Freedom Forever overtakes Tesla in the top three spot for the first time.

A solar farm that was recently installed in North Stonington, Connecticut is expected to provide more than $9 million in energy savings for five Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) campuses.

Greenskies Clean Focus recently completed the second of nine off-site solar systems planned for the CSCU. The 6.1MW ground-mounted solar system is expected to help the CSCU save an estimated $9.4 million in energy savings in the first 20 years.

Using virtual net metering, the solar farm will allocate power to five CSCU campuses across the state, using virtual net metering.  Those campuses include: Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Manchester Community College in Manchester and Tunxis Community College in Farmington.

“In addition to the financial benefits, this project is expected to generate upwards of 8.8 million kWh of clean, renewable energy every year,” said Stanley Chin, president and CEO of Greenskies.

The installation is expected to offset 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next twenty years– the equivalent of taking more than 27,000 cars off the road or preserving over 153,000 acres of US forests.

The solar farm consists of nearly 14,000 solar panels across about 27 acres of land.

The 6.1MW installation moves Connecticut forward in its solar penetration. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, Connecticut is one of the fastest growing of the smaller states in the solar industry, and currently gets 2.63% of its electricity from solar. Its  success is due in part from the state’s Connecticut Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program that offers property assessed clean energy financing and program services to municipalities and commercial property owners throughout Connecticut.

Four Northeast states form consortium to develop regional clean hydrogen hub New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey to join dozens of corporations and universities in demonstrating shared vision for clean energy vision.

Developing better behind-the-meter energy storage NREL researchers work on developing high energy density cells to advance stationary storage.

Solar starts strong, growing 40% year over year in January US solar generation reached new heights despite a year of challenges. Plus, pv magazine discusses “renewable” vs. “sustainable.”

Federal budget includes $500 million for promoting energy storage The funding is is available for energy storage activities authorized under the Better Energy Storage Technology Act and is intended to increase the affordability of energy storage and related technologies.

Discovery of “structural earthquake” in cathode formation may improve sodium-ion batteries 20-40% Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory discovered a degenerative effect in the creation of cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries that may have significant impacts on the performance of sodium-ion batteries.

An initial group of 40 hydrogen ecosystem partners have signed a multi-state agreement to become one of at least four regional clean energy hydrogen hubs designated through the federal Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced that New York is leading the consortium, which includes states along the I-95 corridor, a critical step in implementing the New York governor’s directive in her 2022 State of the State address to make New York State a green hydrogen hub. The announcement also supports New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85% by 2050. Today’s announcement is

“New York is proud to lead the way in forming bold partnerships to combat the existential threat of climate change,” Governor Hochul said. “Expanding the hydrogen market is critical to New York’s aggressive pursuit of clean-energy alternatives that will supercharge our economy and advance our climate goals.”

Consortium partners have committed to collaborate with NYSERDA, NYPA, and ESD on proposal development to advance hydrogen projects. They will also coordinate with their respective state entities to help align the consortium’s efforts with each state’s climate and clean energy goals. These include Connecticut’s Global Warming Solutions Act goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, Massachusetts’ goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 and New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.

The Department of Energy has $8 billion of funding available, expected to launch in May 2022, and the consortium plans to develop a proposal in response.

“With our partners, New York State is positioning the region as a leader in the development of green hydrogen with a vision for how to provide a significant part of the national hydrogen infrastructure network while delivering benefits to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities by displacing local fossil fuel generation and creating clean energy job opportunities,” said NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris.

In addition to the states of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, the partners include:

• Alliance Energy Group LLC
• Alternative Aviation Fuels LLC
• BAE Systems
• Bloom Energy Corporation
• CALSTART
• Climate Jobs NY
• Columbia University
• Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
• Cornell University
• Cummins, Inc.
• Daroga Power
• Doosan Fuel Cell America, Inc.
• Ecolectro, Inc.
• Empire State Development (ESD)
• FuelCell Energy
• Invenergy Hydrogen LLC
• Liberty Utilities (St. Lawrence Gas) Corp.
• Long Island Power Authority (LIPA)
• National Grid
• National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium
• New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST)
• New York Power Authority (NYPA)
• New York University
• Next Hydrogen Corporation
• Nucor Steel Auburn, Inc.
• Ohmium International
• Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.
• Partnership Fund for New York City
• Plug Power Inc.
• Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
• Standard Hydrogen Corporation
• Stony Brook University / Advanced Energy Center (AERTC)
• The City College of New York (CUNY)
• The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
• University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
• Vermont Gas Systems (VGS)
• WATT Fuel Cell Corporation

With the execution of these agreements, the partners will work together to:

• Define the shared vision and plans for the regional hydrogen hub that can advance safe green hydrogen energy innovation and investment to address climate change, while improving the health, resiliency, and economic development of the region’s residents.
• Advance a Hub proposal that makes climate and environmental justice central to its strategy, which will deliver opportunities and improved quality of life to under resourced areas across the region.
• Perform research and analysis necessary to support the hub proposal and align on approach to quantifying greenhouse gas emissions reductions as a result of deploying this technology.
• Develop a framework to ensure the ecosystem for innovation, production, infrastructure, and related workforce development is shared across all partner states.
• Support environmentally responsible opportunities to develop hydrogen, in accordance with participating states’ policies.

One of the business partners is Next Hydrogen Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Next Hydrogen Solutions, an Ontario-based designer and manufacturer of hydrogen electrolyzers.

“We are joining an impressive group of industry leaders to evaluate and develop this hydrogen hub proposal with the shared goal of facilitating the development of resilient clean energy infrastructure in the United States,” said Raveel Afzaal, President and CEO of Next Hydrogen.

The consortium continues to seek additional public and private partners in the region and focus on coordinating the regional fuel cell innovation ecosystem. The coalition will seek to integrate offshore wind and solar PV into hydrogen production and deploy hydrogen for use in transportation, including for medium and heavy- duty vehicles, heavy industry, power generation and maritime applications or other appropriate uses consistent with decarbonization efforts.

Future consortium partners may include utilities, electrolyzer suppliers, fuel cell solution providers, transportation, fueling infrastructure and industrial partners, government agencies, community organizations, institutes of higher education, community colleges, vocational schools and non-profit organizations.

According to the Connecticut Green Bank’s annual report for fiscal year 2021, the bank exceeded $2 billion of cumulative investment in the state’s green economy.  The first in the nation–formed July 2011– the Green Bank has mobilized $288.4 million in public dollars to attract $1.85 billion in private investment, a leverage ratio of $7.40 for every $1.

The Connecticut Green Bank uses public funds to attract private investments to bring renewable energy and energy efficiency to families, businesses, and communities in terms of economic development, environmental protection, equity, and energy (E4 metrics).

In addition to its investments, the Connecticut Green Bank has supported the creation of more than 23,000 green energy jobs in the state, while reducing the energy cost burden on over 55,000 families, businesses, and nonprofits. In 2017, the Connecticut Green Bank received the Innovations in American Government Award from the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center for Democratic Governance and innovation for their “Sparking the Green Bank Movement” entry.

Some highlights of the fiscal year 2021 include:

• The Residential Solar Investment Program (RSIP) surpassed its public policy target of 350 megawatts of solar deployment one year ahead of schedule, with $1.33 billion of investment and more than 43,000 homes adding solar. The program has ensured equitable access for low-to-moderate income families, making Connecticut a “solar with justice” state.
• A second successful issuance of Green Liberty Bonds sold nearly $25 million of bonds to retail and institutional investors in the two-day period, with almost $100 million in demand, in April 2021.
• The Smart-E Loan, which allows homeowners to finance energy upgrades improvements through a network of local community banks and credit unions, surpassed $100 million of investment.
• The State’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program exceeded $200 million of total investment across more than 348 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
• More than $100 million of investment to deploy solar on nearly 200 commercial and industrial buildings, including state and municipal facilities and nonprofit organizations.

In January of this year, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) launched Energy Storage Solutions, a statewide electric storage program, which will be administered by the Connecticut Green Bank, along with Eversource and UI. The nine-year program officially launched on January 1, 2022, and will continue through at least December 31, 2030.

The Connecticut Siting Council approved agricultural and energy co-use at two of Greenskies Clean Energy’s solar facilities, enabling the firm to expand its agrivoltaics reach. Both projects were unanimously approved by the council, and endorsements from the State Department of Agriculture affirmed the projects will not negatively impact the farmland soils beneath.

A 5MW solar farm in East Windsor, CT was approved, and will host sheep to maintain local vegetative growth. And, a 2.9MW Orange, CT solar farm is set to host organic vegetable growth and sustainable farming practices.

The Orange project will occupy about 6-7 acres of land at Treat Farm. The soil is ideal for organic vegetable growth, which will take place in about 34 rows of 14-foot wide aisles between parallel rows of solar modules. Greenskies expects the facility to be built in the fall, and for food production to begin spring 2023.

The array will feed Connecticut state colleges and universities through a virtual net-metering agreement. The virtual net-metering project enables the schools to use the energy generated at a remote site to offset its energy consumption bill at other locations.

Agrivoltaics is a development strategy that is sensitive to land-use concerns and helps support local farming practices. “Agrivoltaics is an opportunity for local farmers to contribute to an emerging field that has so many positive implications for the future of agriculture and renewable energy in an increasingly volatile climate,” said Stanley Chin president and CEO of Greenskies.

(Read: “Could agrivoltaics feed our demand for clean energy?”

Research conducted by the US Department of Energy’s Sandia Labs found that the practice overcomes the separation of food and energy production and can increase land productivity by 35-73%.  “The idea is to create a mutually beneficial environment for agricultural activity and solar energy production,” said Chin.

AgriSolar Clearinghouse

In November, the National Center for Appropriate Technology launched the nation’s first AgriSolar Clearinghouse, a platform to connect farmers, ranchers, land managers, solar developers, and researchers. The clearinghouse features a library of peer-reviewed information, videos, podcasts, news, and a forum for agrivoltaics discussion. More than 30 partners and stakeholders in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, national energy laboratories, the Smithsonian, and leading universities participated in its creation.

Research by Oregon State University found that solar and agricultural co-location could provide 20% of the total electricity generation in the United States. Wide-scale installation of agrivoltaics could lead to an annual reduction of 330,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions while “minimally” impacting crop yield, the researchers said. The paper found that an area about the size of Maryland would be needed if agrivoltaics were to meet 20% of U.S. electricity generation. That’s about 13,000 square miles, or 1% of current US farmland.

Arizona State University also conducted a study and found “probable barriers to wider adoption” that ranged from mechanized farming and harvesting to the additional costs of elevating PV arrays to allow for food production.

The clearinghouse project was funded by a three-year, $2 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office.

New Jersey-headquartered CS Energy announced a growth milestone of 150 MW of solar tracker projects across several projects in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Connecticut. The six most recent projects averaged 25 MW in size.

Roughly 70% of new utility-scale solar projects in the US come with trackers, but large-scale projects with single-axis trackers are relatively less common in the northeastern US. Site complexity and cold weather conditions pose development challenges, said CS Energy.

The company said its in-house engineering and construction teams have expertise in overcoming obstacles like the handling of large snow loads, onsite grading and grounding challenges, and the associated approval processes required for tracker projects in the region. The experience held by the team led to reduced challenges in project tolerances and has streamlined installation times. This helps reduce costs and de-risk projects in the long term, said CS Energy.

Four of the six projects are in New York, a state with goals of 70% renewables by 2030 and 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. One project will be participating in Maryland’s Community Solar Pilot Program, which aims to bring more affordable energy rates to local communities.

CS Energy has designed and installed over 1.5 GW of solar projects across the US, and is owned by American Securities, a private equity firm. The company has a 4 GW pipeline of large-scale solar tracker projects and anticipates further tracker project growth in the Northeast. “We’re looking forward to designing and building additional large-scale tracker projects in the region in the years to come in order to provide maximum environmental benefits and reduced electricity costs for local utilities, municipalities, and the communities they serve,” said Michael Garofalo, vice president of operations at CS Energy.

Last April, the firm partnered with Goldman Sachs and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to deliver eight solar projects totaling 216 MW. All projects had a planned commercial operation date of Q4 2021. Construction generated 500 jobs, and the $160 million in project investment was projected to bring more than $80 million in tax benefits. Contracts for the projects were awarded by NYSERDA as part of its Renewable Energy Standard Request for Proposals in 2017 and 2018.

PosiGen, a provider of solar PV and energy efficiency solutions to low-to-moderate income (LMI) households announced the close of a $100 million preferred equity financing, led by Magnetar Capital’s Energy & Infrastructure group. The Investment group will nominate two directors to join PosiGen’s board. PosiGen’s existing investors Emerson Collective, Irradiant Partners, Activate Capital, The Builders Fund, SJF Ventures, and the Kresge Foundation also participated in the financing.

PosiGen said the financing will aid business growth, and will help close the affordability gap of solar, storage, and energy efficiency upgrades for LMI customers. To date, PosiGen has served over 19,000 customers. About 50% of PosiGen’s customers are in communities of color, the company said.

Tom Neyhart, CEO of PosiGen said, “We believe that serving LMI customers who will benefit the most from our solar plus energy efficiency offerings creates a virtuous cycle of value – making a difference in the lives and communities of the families we serve, while at the same time driving customer engagement and portfolio performance.”

Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati served as legal advisor to PosiGen, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP advised Magnetar. The transaction was facilitated by Marathon Capital. PLEXUS Solutions provided diligence support to Magnetar and is planned to provide ongoing monitoring for PosiGen’s asset financing.

Headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, PosiGen sprung into action when Hurricane Ida ripped through the local community, downing old transmission wires and leaving thousands in the dark. The company deployed 12 solar power stations at disaster supply sites across the affected area.

The self-contained solar power stations included 30 solar panels providing 11,400 W, along with an inverter and battery capable of providing 27,000 watt-hours of electricity.

The company also has a history of working with the Connecticut Green Bank to provide no-upfront-cost solar leases with no credit requirements to LMI customers in the state. A case study on the 2015-established program was run this year, finding an increase in payment delinquencies compared to typical solar leases, but a reasonable return on investment resulted from the program.

GameChange Solar, a provider of racking and trackers for utility-scale and commercial solar projects, announced a $150 million investment from Koch Strategic Platforms (KSP), a subsidiary of Koch Investments Group.

The preferred stock investment, if converted, would represent a minority stake in GameChange. In addition to capital investment, Koch and GameChange are exploring further synergies across Koch Industries, including KBX, a global transportation, logistics, and technology arm, and Koch Engineered Solutions.

GameChange Solar has demonstrated steady growth since founding in 2012 and is currently ranked the third largest solar tracker company in the U.S., and sixth globally in 2020 by Wood Mackenzie.

KSP’s strategy diverged from Koch Industries historic resistance to the proliferation of solar. In 2016, Koch-brothers-backed groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council led state-level policy fights against PV. In Arizona, Nevada, and especially Florida, the group had success in pushing rate hikes and fees for residential solar customers.

Now, KSP said it is focused on energy transformations as one of its core verticals, making investments in in companies met with strong tailwinds that are disrupting the industry. Recently, the investment arm announced investments in the battery value chain, energy storage, and infrastructure.

GameChange and KSP said the investment will fuel further develop margin-enhancing balance of system solutions, including a new 2P tracker technology, a fixed tilt system, and advanced tracker software.

Citi acted as sole placement agent and strategic advisor, and Goodwin Procter served as legal counsel to GameChange. Jones Day acted as legal counsel to Koch.

Analysis from Yale University has found that more than one-third of the state’s electricity could come from solar-covered parking lots.

Adding this potential to Google Project Sunroof rooftop’s solar data increased the availability of solar siting to roughly 85.5% of the state’s electricity provided solely from solar carports and rooftops.

The authors examined only parking lots with at least 100 standard-sized parking spaces, and covering a minimum area of 29,400 square feet. Those criteria cut the number of potential sites to 16,900; later filtering lowered the total still more to 8,416. The authors then spot-checked 100  sites, and designed solar power plants for them. They speculated that, on average, 35% of the chosen sites were good candidates for solar panels.

The authors found that the final 8,416 sites across the state could generate 9,042 GWh of electricity within their first year of operation. The total capacity of these sites was 7,021 MWdc of solar power.

Priced at $3.00 per Watt to install, the solar canopies would generate approximately $21 billion in construction activity.

The report was funded by social justice and clean energy group People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE). In addition to the technical analysis, the report also found that a majority of the parking lots were located in areas that were either low income or non-white.

Building solar power in low-income areas offers multiple benefits beyond simply generating kilowatt hours. One benefit would be increasing job development in areas adjacent to people looking for local employment. A second might be that local generation of clean electricity could potentially allow for shutting down of gas power plants, which tend to be located in low-income and non-white communities.

Earlier analysis showed that solar power could power 100% of the energy and electricity in the United States using a relatively small amount of land. Additionally, research suggesting that getting to 80% of our electricity from wind+solar is relatively straightforward.

The knowledge that we can get 85% of all electricity from solar power on already developed rooftops and carports alone should be a huge positive for the environmental aspects of solar power.

And, just maybe, optimistic solar salespeople should reach out to the Yale authors to ask about their list of 8,416 sites, which are waiting for a cold call and a proposal.

In addition to the 26% federal solar investment tax credit, many states offer incentives for going solar, with a wide variance in structure and rates paid to homeowners attaching solar to their homes.

Here, pv magazine takes a look at the six New England states, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, and the current incentives they offer:

Rhode Island

Net metering: Homeowners’ excess solar generation can be fed back to the grid in exchange for credits on utility bills. Rhode Island’s Renewable Energy Growth plan guarantees enrolled customers will receive $0.2965 per kWh exported for 15 years.

Property tax exemption: Customer-owned solar panels may raise the value of the home, but they do not increase property taxes.

Sales tax exemption: Solar is exempt from Rhode Island’s 7% sales tax rate.

CommerceRI Renewable Energy Fund grant: This is a capacity-based payment of $0.85 per watt, with a maximum of $7,000. Average systems generally pay about $4,000-$5,000.

Massachusetts

Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program: A declining-block incentive program with 3.2 GW cap for total projects receiving incentives. As more projects apply for the incentive, it moves through tiers of declining values. Customers receive significant incentive rate adders for including energy storage or agreeing to participate in peak-demand load shifting programs. Eligible for customers of National Grid, Eversource, and Unitil only.

Residential Energy Credit: A credit worth up to 15% of the solar array, capped at $1,000.

Sales and property tax exemptions: Customers do not pay the Massachusetts 6.25% sales tax, and do not pay property tax for the increase of home value solar creates.

Net metering: customers of National Grid, Eversource, Unitil are eligible for net metering. Customers can use excess generation to offset utility bills, or they can transfer credits to another participating account within the ISO-NE electrical grid.

Connecticut

Residential Solar Investment Rebate Program: Connecticut Green Bank offers $0.463 per watt of solar installed. Homeowners often receive more than $2,000 in savings through this program.

Energy Conservation Loan Program: Low-to-no interest loans can be taken from the Connecticut state government. Rates land between 0-6% for up to $25,000 and 10 years.

Net metering: Customers are eligible to send excess solar generation to the grid for credit on utility bills. All projects under 2 MW can qualify for net metering.

Sales and property tax exemptions: Homeowners avoid the 6.35% sales tax, and do not pay property taxes for solar.

New Hampshire

Net metering: Customers of Eversource, Liberty Utilities, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative and Unitil are eligible to export excess solar generation in exchange for utility bill credits.

Property tax exemption: New Hampshire residents, in select counties, avoid increased property taxes due to solar. NH does not have sales tax.

Renewable Energy Generation Incentive Program: Projects 10 kW or less can receive credit worth either $0.20 per watt, up to $1,000, or half the cost of their residential solar system.

Vermont

Property and sales tax exemptions: Vermont homeowners do not pay sales tax or property tax for solar.

Net metering: Major utility Green Mountain Power offers $0.1484 per kWh for exported solar energy, less than 100% of the retail price of power in their territory. There is an upfront cost of $110 to add a net meter, and all credits must be used within 12 months.

Green Mountain Power Bring Your Own Device: Customers can receive up to $10,500 towards the purchase of a home battery attached to their solar array.

Maine

Net metering: Maine offers a 1-t0-1 for kWh exported for net metering use. At the end of each calendar year, net metering credits are reset.

PACE loan: Property Assessed Clean energy loans allow for no money down, and rather than making monthly loan payments, customers repay with an annual assessment on property taxes. In Maine, customers can receive PACE loans for up to $15,000 for 15 years at a 4.99% interest rate.

All data sourced from energysage.com, solarreviews.com, and dsireusa.org.

Low- and middle-income homeowners (LMI) in Connecticut have had the opportunity since 2015 to sign up for no-upfront-cost solar leases, with no credit requirement.

Now, the Department of Energy’s Berkeley Labs has completed a case study on the program’s effectiveness. It found an increased rate of payment delinquencies, but noted that repayment rates were reasonable, and that the program achieved success in reaching a wider LMI customer base than typical solar lease programs.

The program is backed by Connecticut Green Bank (CBG) and PosiGen, and provides homeowners with a 20-year term with no downpayment, and no price escalator. Single-family homeowners are provided with a first-year savings guarantee, in case the PV system does not deliver the anticipated level of production.

Additionally, home energy efficiency measures were offered at a flat rate of $10 per month, covering upgrades such as insulation, advanced air sealing, and duct sealing. This began as an opt-in service, but now is included in all CBG/PosiGen LMI leases.

Findings

The Berkeley Labs report found that a majority of participants (58%) lived in census tracts having a median income of less than 80% of the area median income. By contrast, around 9% of other conventional CBG lease and loan programs lived in similar census tracts. Furthermore, 56% of CBG/PosiGen customers were reported as having “non-prime” credit scores of less than 670, compared to 2% in other programs.

Overall, the study found that payment delinquency and annualized losses were higher in the PosiGen program than for other CBG programs. It said that credit score, not income, was the prime driver. All told, 2.3% of PosiGen participants were delinquent in payments, vs. 1.4% of conventional CBG lease and loan customers. Annualized losses for PosiGen amounted to 0.9%, vs. 0.1% for other programs.

The study found also that 44% of PosiGen participants would not qualify for standard loan or lease terms, a clear indicator of the program reaching a new pool for solar customers.

The report said that PosiGen’s program performed well when compared to benchmarks of other sub-prime loan providers. For example, the Kroll Auto Loan Index reported that customers with FICO scores below 640 have annualized gross loss rates of over 8%, and 30-day delinquencies of nearly 14%.

Program structure 

PosiGen is a private company that operates and manages solar leases. It serves as the managing member of a holding company (HoldCo) that owns the systems. Tax equity investors also own shares in the HoldCo in order to monetize the tax benefits.

CBG extends below-market-rate debt to PosiGen and pays production-based incentives (PBI) to the HoldCo. PBI is higher for LMI customers; it is paid $0.081 per kWh, according to the Berkeley Labs report.  

Private investors also extend debt to PosiGen and subordination of CBG’s debt attracts these investors.

HoldCo then pays back revenues to PosiGen and tax equity investors from customer lease payments and incentives. PosiGen is the primary risk-bearer in terms of customer non-payment. CBG is not affected unless PosiGen is unable to service the CBG debt.

NextEra will build a solar + storage project with Salt River Project as offtaker. The 260 MW solar, 260 MW storage project near Phoenix, Arizona had a capital investment of roughly $600 million.

Madison Energy commits $50 million for C&I solar in Connecticut. The offering follows a decision by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to establish a new solar energy incentive program.

Summit Ridge Energy to develop 2.7 MW of rooftop solar in Maryland. The projects are the first foray into community solar for property owner BentallGreenOak.

Solar highlights in the Senate’s $3.5 trillion budget proposal. The budget bill aims to fight climate change with investments in clean electricity and home electrification, to be funded by higher taxes on corporations.

Every state has room for solar to grow, researchers say. A map produced by researchers at the University of Albany offers a state-by-state analysis of energy needs and usable land for deployment.

Who is working against distributed solar: State campaigns in the Midwest and West. A new report explores who is behind efforts to curb distributed energy and solar deployment.

Madison Energy Investments, a platform that finances, owns, and operates distributed generation assets, through a joint venture with Clean Future Partners, has committed $50 million to develop solar energy projects for commercial, industrial, and government customers in Connecticut.

The offering follows a decision by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to establish a new solar energy incentive program. Madison Energy Investments has not yet made clear how many projects, or how much capacity could result from its offering.

Of interest will be the inclusion of energy storage. Earlier this summer, the state launched an incentive program for residential and business customers to buy and install energy storage systems as part of an Equitable Modern Grid initiative. The initiative calls on the state to install 1,000 MW of energy storage by the end of 2030, and includes proposed incentives ranging from $225 to $280 per kWh for up to 50 MW of energy storage for commercial and industrial installations through 2024.

Clean Future Partners is a joint venture between eDGe Renewable Partners and Advanced Energy Efficiencies.

Maine has joined the trend of adding state energy storage targets, becoming the ninth state to do so. Signed by Governor Janet Mills, the target sets out a plan for 300 MW capacity by the end of 2025, 400 MW through 2030. After that, the Governor’s Energy Office will reevaluate every two years for new storage goals. 

The state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) also plans to configure new electricity rate designs to encourage energy storage growth by the end of 2022. Such structures will include time-of-use rates and incentives to lower peak demand for power. 

The bill outlines four actions that will be taken to achieve this goal: 

1. The expansion of energy storage pilot projects, implementing cost effective projects as statewide programs.  
2. The creation of bring-your-own-device programs in which customer owned and customer sited storage can be aggregated, and performance incentives are provided for reducing peak loads.  
3. The deployment of rebate or funding programs for energy storage paired with renewable energy for residential, commercial, and industrial electricity customers. 
4. Leading customer education series on demand management and storage, particularly targeting low-income and rural populations in the state. 

The state has begun work towards the achieving the goal, enacting a program that will deploy 15 MW of storage in critical care facilities. 

Energy storage market assessment studies will be conducted by the Energy Office of the governor with a report due March next year. 

The state joins Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Nevada and Oregon in creating energy storage targets as part of their decarbonization plans.

A wide range of strategies have been enacted. Maine’s policy sits between New York, who has legally mandated the deployment of storage, and New Jersey, who’s lofty 2 GW storage target has been viewed as aspirational and unproductive, lacking robust integrated incentives and rate structures.

Here’s a look into the targets set by the other eight states:

Connecticut

Connecticut was the second most recent state to enact an energy storage target, setting its sights on 300MW by year’s end 2024, 1 GW by 2030. The act seeks to provide net positive present value to ratepayers, provide resiliency and demand-response benefits, support the state-based energy storage industry, and maximize value through the participation in capacity markets.

The state will consider both behind-the-meter and front-of-meter applications, and is due to report the status of program developments related to the targets by the end of 2021. It will support programs and rate designs that avoid or defer investment in traditional electric distribution capacity upgrades, placing priority on the use of battery storage. 

Massachusetts

Launched in 2015 by Governor Baker’s administration, the Massachusetts Energy Storage Initiative targets 1,000 MWh of storage capability by 2025. As of February 15, electric distribution companies have reported 179 MWh of storage with an additional 874 MWh in the pipeline. One reason such a large backlog sits in the pipeline is due to transmission cost-sharing issues in the Bay State.

In May, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources held a stakeholder event discussing the potential of including energy storage technologies in the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (APS), and the addition of potential energy storage incentives. The event resulted in the creation of a Clean Peak Energy Standard, but storage was rejected from being included in the APS.

The state also released a study that reviews the cost benefits of storage associated with reduced peak demand, deferred transmission, distribution, and capacity investments, reduced emissions, reduced cost of renewables integration, and increased grid flexibility, reliability and resiliency. The study identified use cases for storage, highlighted barriers to battery adoption, and recommended policies and programs for proper storage valuation. Near and long term workforce benefits to Massachusetts were evaluated as well.

New York

In 2018, Governor Cuomo announced a legal mandate of 1.5 GW by 2025, and 3 GW by 2030.

The target focuses on stimulating third-party investment, uncovering and rewarding locational and time-of-use values, and removing impediments to accessing finance and data that highlight areas of the grid with the greatest need for the benefits of storage.

The act authorized $350 million in bridge incentives, including funding for solar-plus-storage projects within the NY Sun initiative, plus another $53 million to support the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

The state directed New York’s six utilities to hold competitive procurements for a minimum of 350 MW of bulk-sited energy storage. Recommendations to improve wholesale market design and improve distributed energy resources are a key part of New York’s plan, as well.

The evaluation of training needs and training inventory, and investments in workforce development will aid New York’s storage deployment goals.

New Jersey

New Jersey has targeted 2 GW of deployment by 2030, signed into law by Governor Murphy in 2018. It set a goal of 600 MW by 2021, but largely has not seen a lot of progress towards that number.

One hurdle has been a state analysis by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) that found few economic uses for storage in the near term. A report by Rutgers University analyzed the value of storage, but declined to endorse policy intervention, citing the lack of a strong financial case.

The state has release an Energy Master Plan but it only mentioned that the BPU is “preparing to establish a process and mechanisms to achieve the state’s energy storage goals.” Without clear market-based solutions or significant investments, New Jersey will struggle to hit its 2 GW goal.

California

Often a pioneer in alternative energy technologies, California authorized the state’s Public Utility Council (CPUC) to evaluate and determine energy storage targets in 2010. The CPUC issued a decision in 2013 to mandate a procurement target of 1,325 MW by 2020, and set three primary goals: one, grid optimization for peak reduction and reliability support, and the deferral of transmission and distribution upgrade investments; two, the integration of renewable energy: and three, the reduction of greenhouse gas emission.

The California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) commissioned consultancy group Strategen to forecast storage needs. They determined that meeting an interim goal of 60% renewable penetration by 2030 will itself spur a requirement of between 2 GW and 11 GW of long-duration energy storage. If California is to achieve its target of being net-zero with carbon emissions by 2045, the state will need to deploy between 45 GW to 55 GW of long-duration storage.

Virginia

In 2020, Virginia changed state laws to allow renewables to be developed more swiftly through a permit by rule (PBR) program for projects under 150 MW. This year, the PBR was extended to energy storage projects. This is in pursuit of Virginia’s mandate of 3.1 GW of energy storage by 2035.

The Virginia Clean Energy Association (VCEA) set some guidelines for this program. At least ten percent of storage must be behind-the-meter. 35% of storage must be procured from non-utility third parties, and projects must not exceed 500 MW in a single project to count towards the mandate, save one 800 MW pumped hydro project. These restrictions help ensure a dispersed and diverse set of installations to better meet demand-response and transmission-congestion related issues.

The VCEA listed several use cases for storage including commercial customer bill management, co-location with renewables, peaker plant alternatives, microgrids for resiliency, and merchant wholesale services. The state will utilize the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund and the Virginia Talent Accelerator program to provide “deal-closing” funds and occupational training in support of energy storage development.

Nevada

Nevada aims for 1 GW of storage by 2030, as adopted by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Nevada. Described as “goals, not mandates”, the regulations set forth sets targets for utilities with gross annual operating revenues of $250 million or more in the state, and requires energy storage as part of their integrated resource plans.

The PUC was given authority to “waive or defer compliance under certain circumstances” and can also change the targets at will.

The plan sets biennial targets of a compounding 200 MW at each point of review. It calls for setting forth points of interconnection for the implementation of storage systems.

Several facets of this goal were listed in the plan, including the integration of renewable energy, grid reliability improvement, peak demand response, grid investment deferral, the replacement of ancillary services by fossil fuel plants, and the reduction of greenhouse gases. However, the state’s plan lacks program deployment and funding as demonstrated by some of its peers.

Oregon

Oregon was another early adopter of energy storage targets, setting an initial goal of 5 MWh by the end of 2019. It was supported by $2 million individual rebates for consumers of $2,500 for battery deployment, and up to $15,000 for low-income service provider supplying batteries.

The state has a renewables portfolio standard of 50% by 2040, lagging some of the other states mentioned here. A renewal of an energy storage target has not yet been set.

Other states to follow?

In 2018, Arizona proposed a 3 GW by 2050 target, but it was not enacted. The Arizona Corporation Commission has long presided over battles between alternative energy advocates and the grid operators in the state. It is unclear if a new plan will be enacted. However, with a growing set of use cases and data supporting the benefits of storage, it is likely Arizona and other states across the union will take notice of which state plans nurtured growth and resiliency.

Guidance from the Energy Storage Association

The most recent bills, namely from Maine and Connecticut, draw directly from the state-level energy storage target design framework built by the Energy Storage Association (ESA) this year. The framework establishes three major principles:

First, states should use targets to support market growth of storage, informing the size, structure, and timeline of storage events. ESA recommended using short-term “learning by doing” targets to jumpstart investment while longer-term goals are evaluated.

“Rule of thumb” metrics are recommended to establish short-term targets (for example, percent of peak demand or percent of renewables.) Longer-term goals should be tied to the associated benefits, such as resilience, peak demand reduction, renewable portfolio standard support, and decarbonization

Second, ESA said storage target metrics, review, and accountability mechanisms should be set in accordance with a state’s overall policy goals. Review structures should be set up to analyze progress toward the target and should strive to be aligned with existing energy planning and procurement processes. 

Third, the framework said storage targets should aim to deploy a diversity of project sizes, types, and business models.

Greenskies Clean Energy has completed the first of a planned nine  solar projects that the company is developing for Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU).

The initial project includes six solar arrays combined into a 6.1 MW ground-mounted solar system, located in Stonington in far southeastern Connecticut.

The project will provide energy to four CSCU campuses through Connecticut’s virtual net metering (VNM) program: Capital Community College in Hartford, Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, Middlesex Community College in Middletown, and Norwalk Community College in Norwalk. Greenskies also is working with a local beekeeper to establish a 10-hive apiary.

Outside of the completed project, two other projects ready for construction represent $19.5 million in potential savings. The other offer another $35.9 million in savings.

The projects and their associated savings, however, may be in jeopardy, as Connecticut’s current VNM program has reached its capacity cap, and no further projects can be funded and built without increasing the VNM caps. If the cap is raised and the eight remaining projects are built, CSCU is poised to reap $64.3 million in savings. That dollar amount could fall if the cap is not raised by the end of the year.

The 2021 state legislative sessions are underway and multiple solar, renewable energy, and clean energy bills are being considered. pv magazine thinks these 10, organized by state, deserve close attention.

Arizona

HB 2498 would set up a Clean Energy Technology Improvement Grant Program. As written, the bill would offer grants to companies and institutions working to develop new and innovative uses of clean energy technology that also increase electric grid efficiency, system reliability, and resiliency, all while keeping the state’s energy affordable.

The program would draw on $5 million from the state’s general fund in fiscal year 2021-2022. The bill was initially drafted to focus on battery storage technologies, but was expanded to include clean energy as a whole.

California

California has the most proposed clean energy legislation of any state so far in 2021. These two are worth watching.

SB 207 would require the state’s Secretary for Environmental Protection to convene the Photovoltaic Recycling Advisory Group by April 1 next year to review and advise the legislature on policies aimed at recycling PV modules and their components.

By April 1, 2025, the group would have to submit policy recommendations to lawmakers aimed at ensuring that 100% of PV panels in the state, or as close to 100% as possible, are reused or recycled at end of life in a safe and cost-effective manner.

AB 1325 would require the state’s Public Utility Commission to develop and implement a Clean Community Microgrid Incentive Program by 2022. The program would fund community distributed energy resource microgrids in vulnerable communities.

Program budget would be dispersed in phases to local public agencies for community microgrid development. The program would be overseen by a third-party, non-public utility administrator.

Connecticut

The legislature’s Joint Committee on Energy and Technology introduced a bill setting energy storage procurement and deployment mandates.

Specifically, RB 952 would require the state to deploy 300 MW of energy storage by the end of 2024, 650 MW by the end of 2027, and 1 GW by the end of 2030. What the bill does not do is specify how these capacities would be deployed among residential, commercial, and utility-scale storage installations, although there would be specific megawatt blocks for each type.

The bill also calls for research into programs and rate designs to incentivize energy storage deployments that most effectively provide positive net present value to all ratepayers; provide multiple types of benefits to the electric grid (like peak shaving, ancillary services and, demand response); promote a state-based electric energy storage industry; and maximize the value from the participation of energy storage systems in capacity markets.

Financial incentives would be capped at $30 million per year for each of the state’s utilities.

Georgia

Multiple lawmakers introduced a bill that supports establishing a state goal of 100% clean energy by 2050.

Unlike a renewable portfolio standard or specific mandate, this bill is more of a nod to cities, businesses, environmental groups, and other entities in Georgia that have called on the state to make the 100% renewable transition.

The bill also notes that the fact that low-income communities are disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel pollution and pay on average more than 40% of their annual income in home energy costs make the transition all the more important.

Hawaii

Perhaps the boldest legislation under consideration this session comes from Hawaii, where HB 111 looks to eliminate all types of fossil fuels for electricity generation.

The state earlier passed legislation eliminating the use of coal for electricity production. HB 111 goes further, prohibiting all fossil fuels for electricity generation or storage by the end of 2045.

The bill would also prohibit state regulators from approving cost recovery of any application or proposal for generation or storage facilities that use fossil fuels. Only fossil fueled emergency generators would be exempt from HB 111.

Indiana

SB 420 would require all Hoosier State electricity suppliers to offer net metering to all new distributed solar customers, either until the aggregate net metering project capacity equals at least 5% of the supplier’s most recent summer peak load, or July 1, 2027, whichever occurs earlier.

The state’s current net metering mandate has a 1.5% peak load cap, or July 1, 2022.

The bill would require all of the state’s net metering tariffs to be phased out by July 1, 2052, and would raise the maximum net-metered project size from 1 MW to 5 MW.

Kentucky

A bill would ban developing solar on agricultural lands. Also within the text of SB 266 is a ban on solar project development on “watercourses or other bodies of water” within the state.

While efforts to ban the development of solar on farmland are nothing new, this is the first instance known to pv magazine of an attempt to ban floating solar.

The bill justifies the development ban by framing it as an effort to end the loss of natural resources located on and within the state’s farmland and waterways.

Maine

Legislators introduced a bill that would set an energy storage deployment goal. SP 213 would set a goal of 100 MW of energy storage capacity to be installed in the state by the end of 2025.

The bill also recognizes the value in energy storage’s ability to reduce peak electricity demand.

Besides storage, the bill directs state regulators to look at opportunities to modernize transmission and distribution utility rate designs through time-of-use rates; develop and implement a pilot program to test and evaluate those rates; and develop and implement a schedule to regularly review and update rate designs.

Ohio

Similar to a piece of legislation under consideration in Minnesota, Ohio lawmakers are considering HB 20, which would prohibit condominium, homeowners, and neighborhood associations from imposing unreasonable limitations on solar system installations on the roof or exterior walls of dwellings.

The bill defines “unreasonable limitations” as something that significantly increases the cost, or significantly decreases the efficiency of a solar system.

The Connecticut Green Bank announced the first cities in the state to make use of its new Solar Marketplace Assistance Program, or Solar MAP.

Solar MAP is designed to help towns and cities navigate the process of installing solar at their public buildings and achieve energy savings. The Green Bank said the program provides support throughout the development process, from identifying viable sites to soliciting installation services and arranging financing.

The first participating municipalities–Manchester, Mansfield, Portland, and Woodbridge–will install 14 solar systems adding up to 3.2 MW, with $3.6 million in estimated total savings.

Manchester Mayor Jay Moran said it would have been “much more difficult” for the town to go solar without the program.

Project partners

To complete the projects, the Green Bank chose Greenskies Clean Energy, a national solar developer based in North Haven, Connecticut, through a competitive bid process. By aggregating multiple solar PV systems across the four municipalities in its solicitation for solar developers, the Green Bank said it was able to achieve competitive pricing through economies of scale.

To support Solar MAP, the Green Bank also partnered with CSW Energy for technical support to evaluate buildings, such as town halls, emergency services buildings, and schools, for their solar potential.

The Green Bank also arranges for project financing through a power purchase agreement (PPA). Since 2014, the Green Bank Solar PPA has facilitated solar projects at municipal buildings with no upfront installation costs, no new debt to incur, and no operations and maintenance costs. The Green Bank said the PPA allows municipalities to lock in low electricity prices so the project cash flow is positive in year one.