It started with off-grid locations, places where electricity was either carried in or generated on-site. Then it beat expensive diesel generators. In 2010, unsubsidized solar electricity could best on-grid retail electricity prices of major utilities in Hawaii. In the next decade, residents in metropolitan areas representing 100 million people … [continued]
A new study for the California Public Utilities Commission explores the “Technical Potential for Local Distributed Photovoltaics in California.” Basically, it’s one of the more in-depth analyses of local solar power in the country, suggesting that California has the capacity to add 15 gigawatts (GW) of local solar (20 megawatts and smaller) to its grid by 2020. The study pushes the boundaries of distributed generation by assuming that local solar can be installed sufficient to meet 100% of local demand, far beyond the conservative “15% rule” that utilities typically apply […]
A new report ranks states on net metering and interconnection policies designed to boost small-scale renewables. […]
If you haven’t heard yet, there’s a “rule” that precludes distributed renewable energy projects from supplying more than 15% of the power to most “distribution circuits” (part of the low-voltage electric grid that brings power into homes and businesses). With the rapidly falling cost of solar power, many places … [continued]
Net metering and grid interconnection may not be as sexy as solar panel breakthroughs and consumer products, but I think they are at least as important. And I think the renewable energy advocates and experts who create the annual Freeing the Grid report agree with me.
Freeing the Grid is a policy guide that grades all 50 states on two key programs: net metering and interconnection procedures. The 2011 Edition of Freeing the Grid was released this week.
A serialized version of ILSR‘s new report, Democratizing the Electricity System, Part 4 of 5. Click for Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4.
A serialized version of ILSR‘s new report, Democratizing the Electricity System, Part 4 of 5.
A new report by Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC) — Freeing the Grid — shows which states make it easy for people to sell electricity to the grid and which make it difficult. In addition, the report compares the current situation with the situation in 2007. Overall, there has … [continued]
