Energy and manufacturing coalition: America can do better with its essential transmission infrastructure
A coalition of groups representing a broad spectrum of U.S. manufacturing, construction, energy and environmental workers, are calling for Congress to include electric transmission provisions in any proposed infrastructure legislation and streamline expansion of U.S. electrical infrastructure.
Softer Solar Landings: Options to Avoid the Investment Tax Credit Cliff
Federal tax policies have been an important driver for solar’s recent remarkable growth, but without action during the 114th Congress, the 30-percent investment tax credit (ITC) for solar and other clean energy technologies will expire at the end of 2016. This policy brief estimates the impacts that current law would have on the solar industry.
Softer Solar Landings: Options to Avoid the Investment Tax Credit Cliff
This policy brief estimates the impacts that current law would have on the solar industry. It also formulates several policy alternatives and estimates their effectiveness at mitigating the negative impacts of the investment tax credit cliff embedded within current law.
The Solar Economy: Widespread Benefits for North Carolina
North Carolina is the South’s leader, and fourth among U.S. states, in using solar power to diversify its portfolio of electric power generation fuels. Three policy issues affect the future of North Carolina’s continued development of large-scale solar, which can be viewed in the attached document.
Environmental and Economic Benefits of Building Solar in California
In this report, the authors examine California's leadership in US expansion of renewable energy electricity generation by discussing first the boom in utility-scale solar farms in California and the subsequent employment effects of having built 4,250 MW of utility-scale solar powered electricity generating facilities in California over the last five years.
How Much Do Local Regulations Matter? Exploring the Impact of Permitting and Local Regulatory Processes on PV Prices in the United States
While PV modules and other hardware costs have dropped significantly over recent years, non-hardware soft costs have also fallen, but not nearly as sharply. This research report, authored by experts from Yale University, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin and the US Department of Energy, focuses on the impacts of city-level permitting and other regulatory processes on residential PV prices in the US. Key Findings:
Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis - v.8.0
Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis has been published since 2008. With their latest edition, Lazard shows that Wind and Solar PV continue to become cost-competitive.
Integrating Solar PV in Utility System Operations
As solar PV continues to expand, utilities are increasingly conducting studies on how best to integrate these resources into the grid. Argonne National Laboratory has released their most recent study on the topic which examines the decisions and processes made in the day-ahead, hour-ahead and real time markets.