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Monday, Jan 12, 2015

Selling Into the Sun: Price Premium Analysis of a Multi-State Dataset of Solar Homes

Capturing the value that solar photovoltaic (PV) systems may add to home sales transactions is increasingly important. This study enhances the PV-home-valuation literature by more than doubling the number of PV home sales analyzed (22,822 homes in total, 3,951 of which are PV) and examining transactions in eight states that span the years 2002–2013.

Monday, Dec 22, 2014

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.

Tuesday, Dec 02, 2014

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.

Tuesday, Dec 02, 2014

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).

Wednesday, Nov 12, 2014

Agent-Based Modeling of Energy Technology Adoption: Empirical Integration of Social, Behavioral, Economic, and Environmental Factors

In this paper we present the architecture of a theoretically-based and empirically-driven agent-based model fot technology adaptation, with an application to residential solar photovoltaics (PV).

Wednesday, Nov 12, 2014

Solar Industry Applauds New U.S.-China GHG Agreement

WASHINGTON, DC - Calling it an “historic, breakthrough agreement,” the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) today hailed a major new effort by China and the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as part of efforts to fight damaging climate change.  The bilateral agreement sends a clear signal to private investors and political leaders here at home and around the world that solving climate change is a top priority on both sides of

Monday, Nov 03, 2014

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.

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