WASHINGTON, D.C. — Earlier this year the U.S. Energy Information Administration issued a proposal to update the Electric Power and Renewable Electricity Surveys, forms used to collect information on utility-scale, distributed solar projects, and utility operations. These forms, including form EIA 861, are a critical part of the solar industry’s data collection efforts, and any changes could impact the industry’s ability to effectively catalogue solar installation data.

The Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) submitted joint comments with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on updates to the form.

Following is a statement from David Gahl, executive director of the Solar and Storage Industries Institute on the updates to the form:

“We commend the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for their efforts to collect better and more relevant information about solar and energy storage assets.

“The proposed changes are appropriate and wouldn’t be a burden to solar companies, but EIA is missing an important opportunity to use data to overcome information asymmetries and speed clean energy adoption. This will ultimately improve transparency, streamline project timelines and make it easier to reach state and federal clean energy goals.

“The Solar and Storage Industries Institute recommends using survey questions that will lead to more publicly available data on interconnection queues and costs, utility outages and grid operations and constraints. Finally, EIA also has the opportunity to get more detailed information on solar and storage manufacturing, including the location of where components and materials are produced for each project.

“We hope the EIA will recognize the opportunity before them and consider changes that would ultimately improve transparency and speed solar adoption. The comment deadline is July 22, 2022 and we encourage industry partners to weigh in during this important process.”