Rooftop solar is helping Colorado families, schools and businesses take charge of their power supply and their electricity bills like never before. This private investment in rooftop solar is helping build a cleaner, safer and more resilient energy supply for all Coloradoans. And the state’s largest power provider, Xcel Energy, is apparently not too happy about it.
Vote Solar helped score a victory for solar customers in Arizona. The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), which is the entity that oversees the state’s utilities, recently approved a rate case for the state’s 2nd largest investor owned utility – Tucson Electric Power (TEP).
Good news in the desert Southwest: on Tuesday, Governor Jan Brewer signed two solar-friendly bills supported by Vote Solar and our Arizona partners. HB 2830 removes the 2013 sunset date on school districts’ ability to install solar and other energy-saving measures. SB 1229 clarifies that the sale of Renewable Energy Credits is not taxable – and also
“What was that? Did you see that?” – Overheard in NY and CT
If you are New York or Connecticut resident you would be forgiven for feeling a little left out right now. You see, the solar industry grew at a break neck pace in the United States last year. Its something we all believed, but recently had confirmed by a
What does solar cost? Pricing on utility contracts is often opaque–and there are some good reasons for this (e.g. to promote competition). An exception to this is in Nevada, where there are legal requirements to reveal contracts. Our friends at Evolution Markets recently sent out an email that culled some publicly available data.
There’s solar trouble in Ohio. For the second year of a two-year-old Renewable Portfolio Standard, Ohio utilities are requesting waivers from their solar electricity requirement. First Energy Corp – which is parent company to Toledo Edison, Ohio Edison and Cleveland Electric Illuminating – reports that they were unable to find enough solar renewable energy
Good news from Sacramento on the push to make California’s the strongest renewable goal in the country. The much-anticipated bill to increase our renewable energy requirement (RPS) to 33% has passed the Senate. Now we need the Assembly to do the same.
Because this policy sets the renewable
On a recent Get Some Sun webinar, our own Kelly Foley was joined by Thomas Hoff of Clean Power Research and Dr Richard Perez of SUNY–Albany discussing their cutting-edge research on PV output variability and its impact on the grid. Full video of the presentation is available here.
It’s an issue that’s becoming increasingly
California’s failure to pass 33% RPS legislation is creating real havoc in the renewable market.
A month ago, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to create a new 1,000 MW program for distributed generation renewables (Reverse Auction Mechanism (RAM)). It’s a great program, but earlier this
A look at the arc of solar policy development in Spain can shed some helpful lessons for policymakers. The upshot: if a government is uncomfortable with unlimited cost exposure and sets caps on the amount of development, that decision triggers additional policy considerations. The implications are important for the project development process, as capped programs
Consider that only one-quarter of residential rooftops are suitable for solar PV and that one-third of Americans are renters who are typically unable to install a solar system on their landlord’s roof. That adds up to a whole lotta energy consumers who simply can’t go solar in the usual way.
New community solar models aim to
There are plenty of not-so-sunny renewable policy news headlines these days. Congress failed to pass comprehensive energy legislation this year – and as of yesterday, things don’t even look good for a piecemeal extension of the critical Treasury Grant Program before it expires this month. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Despite gridlock higher up, state
In the case of the federal government overreach on property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing — this overreach — Fannie, Freddie, and the FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) took issue with the fact that the PACE lien on the property is senior to the mortgage. To recap, a senior lien is the thing that really gives PACE its value and is well explained here.