John Fitzgerald Weaver
Solar jobs contract for the second year in a row
The United States lost approximately 8,000 jobs across the 50 states, with California alone losing more than 9,000 jobs and cancelling out growth in 29 states. Puerto Rico and solar + storage joined the party, but not the job count yet, by contributing 5,900 jobs.
pvmb 2/8/19: Aurora gets $20 million, U.S. lithium-ion factory planned, California makes interconnection easier, and more!
In today’s pv magazine USA morning brief we also see Hawaii regulators propose performance based incentives for utility HECO, hundreds of laws changed in 2018 regarding the grid, concerns aired before Congress about supply chains for lithium-ion batteries, and more!
Distributed residential solar+storage takes a seat at the adult table
Sunrun won a bid to provide 20MW from the company’s residential solar+storage systems to the New England grid operator’s capacity market beginning in 2022.
Too SMART for its own good
At Solar Power Northeast, the DOER of Massachusetts noted that with the mandated 400 MW of qualified projects program review upcoming, and heavy volume deployed in National Grid territory, there is strong consideration to expand and evolve the SMART program.
Tesla’s solar lease contract headed to Florida
The Florida Public Service Commission has recommended an approval for the residential solar lease contract submitted by Tesla, noting that it doesn’t make them an electricity utility.
On the floor in picture form at Solar Power Northeast
While the Super Bowl victory parade rolled by, solar energy professionals shook hands, shared stories, made deals and visited more than 80 industry exhibitions on the floor in Boston, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts to pay energy storage its fair share
Massachusetts lawmakers have approved energy storage as a part of solar+storage net metering programs, and have also approved privately-owned energy storage installations to receive payments from the forward capacity markets.
Modeling the renewable energy modelers
NREL has begun an effort to improve its ability to model deployments of variable renewable energy sources across the U.S. power grid. This effort has begot two papers as of yet – one a broad analysis of how four specific models work and how to improve them, and the second a comparison of the varying outcomes of models under normalized conditions.
Nine laws that helped Nevada solar applications grow 450%
NV Energy’s recently released Renewable Generations report showed that solar power interconnection applications increased by 450% in 2018 versus 2017, with half of the systems applied for installed as well.
Behind the meter is where the power is, but barriers exist
CALSSA has released a whitepaper to guide policy makers in refining legislation to maximize the value of customer-sited solar plus storage.
