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.
Deployment of Behind-The-Meter Energy Storage for Demand Charge Reduction
This study investigates how economically motivated customers will use energy storage for demand charge reduction, as well as how this changes in the presence of on-site photovoltaic power generation, to investigate the possible effects of incentivizing increased quantities of behind-the-meter storage.
The Effect of State Policy Suites on the Development of Solar Markets
Analysts at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have used statistical analyses and detailed case studies to better understand why solar market policies in certain states are more successful. Their findings indicate that while no standard formula for solar implementation exists, a combination of foundational policies and localized strategies can increase solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in any state.
National Solar Jobs Census
The Solar Foundation’s National Solar Jobs Census 2014 is the fifth annual update of current employment, trends, and projected growth in the U.S. solar industry.
Solar Energy’s Rapid Growth Highlighted In New Report
People in Washington love to talk about an “all-of-the-above” national energy strategy. But usually that’s “code” or “political speak” for efforts to increase drilling around the United States. To its credit, the American Petroleum Institute (API) released a new, comprehensive report today, which gives us a look into how an “all-of-the-above” approach, including renewables, is working.
Solar Featured in New ‘State of American Energy Report’
WASHINGTON, DC - Signaling the growing importance of solar energy to America’s future, the widely read and cited annual “State of American Energy Report” – released today by the American Petroleum Institute (API) – includes, for the first time ever, a comprehensive section on the rapid growth of the U.S. solar energy industry and its impact on our nation’s economy and environment.
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.
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.