U.S. Solar Installations Soar In Q3; Total Capacity Hits 17.5 GW
This post also appeared on Renewable Energy World. Click here to viewAny way you look at it, the sun continues to shine brightly on America’s solar energy industry.
Solar Market Insight Report 2014 Q3
Seven Common Mistakes That Keep Solar Customers Away
Getting homeowners to go solar is difficult - to say the least. It's expensive and time-consuming, and it's hard to predict who will go solar and why. We've been working on reducing this cost and clearing up the mystery.
Solar Uniquely Positioned To Help States Meet New Regulations
After more than five months of listening to both pros and cons, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally closed the public comment period on its proposed plan to cut carbon emissions from power plants. Now it’s time for the EPA to make a good plan even better.
Bridges to New Solar Business Models: Opportunities to Increase and Capture the Value of Distributed Solar Photovoltaics
In this report, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, investigates opportunities to optimize and demonstrate DPV’s value as it is integrated into the grid to utilities, customers, and solar companies alike.
Financial Impacts of Net-Metered PV on Utilities and Ratepayers: A Scoping Study of Two Prototypical U.S. Utilities
As distributed generation continues its rapid expansion, these new resources will have an increasingly larger role. This analysis focuses on two prototypical investor-owned utilities, one in the southwest and one in the northeast. For each utility, this study models the potential impacts of PV over a 20-year period, estimating changes to utility costs, revenues, average rates, and utility shareholder earnings and return-on-equity (ROE).
Effective Information Channels for Reducing Costs of Environmentally-Friendly Technologies: Evidence from Residential PV Markets
To identify opportunities to decrease costs associated with residential PV adoption, in this letter we use multivariate regression models to analyze a unique, household-level dataset of PV adopters in Texas (USA) to systematically quantify the effect of different information channels on aspiring PV adopters’ decision-making.
Status of Net Metering: Assessing the Potential to Reach Program Caps
Several states are currently addressing the issue of net metering program caps, which limit the total amount of net metered generating capacity that can be installed in a state or utility service territory. This study examines these program caps and forecasts how long NEM would be expected to be available in various states under current policies.
DOE Secretary, Senate Majority Leader Tout Solar's Benefits
LAS VEGAS, NV – Calling solar "critical to the United States" when it comes to meeting its future carbon reduction goals, Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz today delivered the keynote address at Solar Power International (SPI), the largest solar trade show in America, co-sponsored by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). "Cost reduction, as we have seen dramatically in solar energy, is very much a part of shaping our clean energy future," Moniz said. "We've seen costs of modules decline by nearly 80 percent.
Rethinking Standby & Fixed Cost Charges: Regulatory and Rate Design Pathways to Deeper Solar PV Cost Reductions
Utilities have taken on the practice of applying standby and fixed cost charges specific to solar PV for customers choosing to go solar as a means to recover costs resulting from net energy metering (NEM). These charges are not the most efficient or best means for utilities to recover costs and this report finds that an integrated approach that includes the items below will allow for both effective utility cost recovery and minimal impact on the U.S. PV market.