Solar Market Insight 2015 Q4
U.S. Solar Market Insight™ is a collaboration between the Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®) and GTM Research that brings high-quality, solar-specific analysis and forecasts to industry professionals in the form of quarterly and annual reports. Released March 9, 2016.
Shared Solar: Current Landscape, Market Potential, and the Impact of Federal Securities Regulation
Analysis from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) finds that by making shared solar programs available to households and businesses that currently cannot host on-site photovoltaic (PV) systems shared solar could represent 32 to 49 percent of the distributed photovoltaic market in 2020.
Softer Solar Landings: Options to Avoid the Investment Tax Credit Cliff
This policy brief estimates the impacts that current law would have on the solar industry. It also formulates several policy alternatives and estimates their effectiveness at mitigating the negative impacts of the investment tax credit cliff embedded within current law.
Incentive Pass-through for residential Solar Systems in California
Abstract:
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:
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:
LBNL Analyzes Project Finance Impacts Under Reduced ITC Scenario
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) recently released a report detailing possible impacts on solar project financing in light of possible reductions to the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The report finds that a reduction in the ITC will lead to increased use of debt instruments and decreased use of tax equity.
Solar Tax Manual
SEIA members enjoy exclusive access to the SEIA Guide to Federal Tax Incentives for Solar Energy, a regularly updated resource to guide you and your customers through the federal tax benefits for solar.