Dominion, the Virginia-based energy conglomerate with a broad portfolio of energy interests including solar, will develop a 60-MW solar farm in North Carolina — its 10th outside of its home state.
The plant, located near Moycock, N.C., will be operational by December and already has 25-year power-purchase agreements (PPAs) with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston Medical Center and Post Office Square Redevelopment Corp.
CustomerFirst Renewables, a Gaithersburg, Md., advisory services firm, negotiated the PPAs with Massachusetts organizations.
Its other solar plants are in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina and Tennessee totalling 547 MW.
In the past, Dominion has lobbied state lawmakers to defeat net-metering laws in Virginia, has undervalued its payments to solar customers and has argued in favor of extra demand fees to solar users.
Gabe Elser, founder of the Energy and Policy Institute, a self-described watchdog organization that defends renewable energy from utility attacks, wrote that Dominion successful scuttled a 2014 net-metering bill because “Dominion Virginia Power has an interest in maintaining it’s dominance of the Virginia electricity market and stopping growth of emerging clean energy industries, especially distributed clean energy because of the threat it poses to Dominion’s profits.”
But in 2015, Dominion committed to adding 400 MW of solar to its portfolio by 2020. The first of those plants is expected to come online in December in partnership with Amazon. It pledged to use Virginia-based companies in the construction of these plants, which will generate enough electricity at peak capacity to power 100,000 homes.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Real lack of analysis here, in my opinion.
Where is the mention that net metering rules, while being great for consumers, are terrible for power distributors? I’m a net metering customer with a Virginia co-op (not Dominion), and I’ve heard first hand how it’s a money-loser from their perspective.
Where is the acknowledgement of a differentiation between residential and industrial policy decisions? Surely residential net metering rules don’t have much to do with commercial sales of PPA’s. Or do they? Explain, please.
I’m dependent on net metering, and I’m also a huge proponent of solar PV more generally, but please, let’s get a little more substance here than just another demonization of Dominion.
Hello Gene. Thanks for your comment.
I’m not sure what you mean by “terrible for power distributors”. If you are referring to the oft-repeated allegation by utilities that net metering causes a “cost-shift” to non-solar customers, we’ve documented a wealth of independent studies which show that this is essentially a myth.
Since we are a solar industry publication and writing from the perspective of the solar industry, we do think it is notable when a utility which is attempting to eliminate the policies that enable rooftop solar in its service area is actively building utility-scale solar in other jurisdictions. It’s not terribly surprising and has become quite frequent, but we still find the contrast notable, particularly as utilities tend to use the building of large projects by unregulated subsidiaries as evidence that they support solar.
Interesting. I trusted the “cost-shift” allegation since it came from my not-for-profit electricity cooperative, and from the top executive, in direct response to my personal questioning. Can you provide me a jumping off point to explore these independent studies? If it’s truly a myth, I would like to share this information with my cooperative. Thanks.
My apologies for the delay in getting back to you – it has been rather busy here. The first study that I would point you to is Brookings Institution’s meta-analysis, which we covered in May: https://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/brookings-finds-net-metered-solar-to-be-a-net-benefit-to-utility-customers_100024733/#axzz4OfCkMfxo
The actual report can be found here: https://www.brookings.edu/research/rooftop-solar-net-metering-is-a-net-benefit/
Of course, what Brookings did is a meta-analysis of many individual reports, but what we’ve found is that when regulators, non-profits and legislators pay for studies, in almost all cases the reports find a net benefit to other rooftop solar customers. When utilities commission studies, they find a cost shift.
I think the biggest difference is that many utility studies are looking only at unique costs and not unique benefits of distributed generation – and if they do, utilities tend to under-count these benefits. Among the unique benefits of DG solar are fewer line losses (electricity is used where it is generated), peak demand reduction (in many but not all places solar output coincides with peak demand) and that it can help utilities avoid spending on T&D upgrades.
Let me know if you would like links to state-specific reports. The matter of whether or not solar is a net cost or a net benefit depends on regionally specific matters, including the penetration of solar on the grid (the more solar, the less benefit). But so far almost all of the studies not procured by utilities found a net benefit at this time.
– C