Solar Valuation and the Modern Utility's Expansion into Distributed Generation
Residential solar's diffusion across the U.S. power grid is inspiring concern in the utility industry. Of particular debate have been net energy metering policies (NEM), which engender revenue losses and lead to cross-subsidization of solar customers by non-solar customers. An emerging alternative to NEM is the value of solar tariff (VOST), which is designed to pay residential solar generation based on a more nuanced benefit-cost analysis to determine the actual value of residential solar to utility operations.
Determinants of Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Energy Technology Adoption: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach
Abstract:
U.S. Residential Photovoltaic System Prices, Q4 2013 Benchmarks: Cash Purchase, Fair Market Value, and Prepaid Lease Transaction Prices
The Executive Summary from the report:
Photovoltaic System Pricing Trends
With significant variance in estimates of cost and price within the solar market, DOE's Sunshot Initiative with scientists from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkley National Labs, have released their report that seeks to address these differences.
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:
Tracking the Sun VII
Lawrence Berkley National Lab's "Tracking the Sun" is an annual report that tracks and analyzes installed prices of solar PV. The report analyzes more than 300,000 individual residential, commercial and utility scale PV systems in 33 states. Key findings include:
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.
Green Multifamily and Single Family Homes: Growth in a Recovering Market
Smart Market Report - Green Multifamily and Single Family Homes.pdfMcGraw Hill Construction builds on their previous study with this new report which finds that green building is taking an ever increasing share of construction within the new construction of single and multi-family homes as well as remodeling projects. Here are some key takeaways:
Strategies for Mitigating the Reduction in Economic Value of Variable Generation with Increasing Penetration Levels
Looking at 4 variable generation technologies (wind, single-axis tracking PV, CSP with no storage, & CSP with thermal energy storage), the authors look at the benefits of mitigation measures. In particular, the authors are looking at specific mitigation measures to first find those measures that provide an increase to the value of variable generation technologies and then seeks to determine whether such mitigation measures are themselves economically attractive. Some of the conclusions the authors come to:
Comparing Photovoltaic (PV) Costs and Deployment Drivers in the Japanese and U.S. Residential and Commercial Markets
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory releases their new report "Comparing Photovoltaic (PV) Costs and Deployment Drivers in the Japanese and U.S. Residential and Commercial Markets". Key findings from the report found that system prices as well as soft costs were cheaper in Japan. In particular, customer acquisition and system design were both found to be significantly lower in Japan than the US.