Existing residential solar has significantly contributed to California's decarbonization commitments, but going forward, the state should fulfill its future commitments in a more efficient, least-cost manner, the author writes.
DERMS play a pivotal background role in helping to balance the grid, increasing efficiency and reliability for consumers and utilities while reducing their carbon footprint.
Distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar, battery storage and electric vehicles, are experiencing significant growth in the U.S. as the power sector evolves to a cleaner, less centralized future.
Community solar can make moot the controversies surrounding behind-the-meter solar and enable new approaches that can maximize societal value for all Californians, the authors write.
By Anna Brockway and Duncan Callaway •Feb. 8, 2022
DERs participate in wholesale and retail markets today almost exclusively as emergency capacity. If this trend continues, it will limit the earnings potential of customers and the reliability of the grid, the author writes.
Advanced energy trade groups are encouraged but still see barriers in the grid operator’s proposal for full market participation of aggregated DERs starting in 2026.
California's proposed net metering update greatly exaggerates what rooftop solar owners should pay for use of the grid and ignores the environmental benefits that rooftop solar provides, the author writes.
The new technologies will reverse the supply-demand equation and bring competitive procurement and a transaction platform to merge the bulk power and distribution systems.
Utility Dive examines priorities, expectations and trends for three key subjects — FERC, rate design and renewable energy — along with a broader roundup of some of the U.S. power sector trends to watch in the year ahead.
More precise time-varying rates, technology-neutral rates for distributed energy resources, and new ways to use smart technologies could make for a cleaner, lower cost, more reliable power system, analysts said.
The Biden administration entered 2022 with some key strengths and significant challenges to implementing its clean energy agenda, but states, companies and others are continuing to advance the energy transition.
By Kavya Balaraman, Ethan Howland, Robert Walton and Iulia Gheorghiu •Jan. 18, 2022
Regulators facing new climate and reliability urgencies and nearly 500 grid modernization proposals are more often favoring phased advances toward a smarter system.
The solar industry said the changes proposed by the California Public Utilities Commission — including reducing monthly savings and adding new fees — would put rooftop solar out of reach for millions of the state's residents.
By
Kavya Balaraman
•Dec. 14, 2021
Sean Pavone/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images
New York's REV initiatives have given full value to distributed energy resources, but the utility business model transformation must be finished, regulators and other stakeholders agreed.
DOE loan office head Jigar Shah said he would like the office to issue at least $2 billion in loans for key emerging sectors, such as battery recycling and "green" hydrogen.
Clean energy advocates expect the proposed rates, similar to a Duke plan approved in South Carolina, to expand the distributed solar market for homeowners and businesses.
States continue to act as laboratories of innovation, taking unique policy approaches and testing their own solutions to various clean energy policy issues, the author writes.
Without putting forth the resources and rewarding effective blueprints to pull off a monumental scaling effort of community solar, the DOE's new targets will not be met, the author writes.
The former Green Mountain Power CEO says she's now in a seat "where I can scale solutions to climate change so much faster than even the most progressive, innovative utility in the country."
We can dispense with the utility campaign's "cost shift" myth. It's based on bad math that does not account for the grid-stabilizing investment solar consumers make in their own systems and other factors, the author writes.
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