Residential PV

The firm expects 158 GW of new PV to be installed worldwide in 2021, a jump over 2020, and the U.S. and China will still dominate.

The proposed fees could end up costing the solar average homeowner more than $700 annually. Critics call the fees an attempt to take away consumer control over their power bills.

With enough property owners signing on to the program, developers should be able to install PV panels at group prices. At least some of the solar-equipped housing units must be rented to low-income people.

Here’s a list of solar firms that VCs funded during this pandemic year.

Aggregating DERs via virtual power plants has customers, utilities and financiers all ready to buy in. With FERC Order 2222, the question for two California aggregators is whether their models will play in less DER-friendly markets.

U.S. solar companies installed 3.8 GW of new solar PV capacity in Q3 as the industry worked to recover from some of the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hawaii’s continued move to online permitting reduces red tape — and has the potential to grow Hawaiian solar when the state needs the revenue. The broader industry is aiming for a “fundamental reshaping of solar permitting at the federal, state, and local levels.”

CAISO’s new CEO says that rolling blackouts last August were a pivotal moment for the state. For 2021, he is focused on ensuring the grid has ample resources — including DERs — and well-functioning markets.

We cover residential resilience, tariff trouble, big Texas solar, storage everywhere, IPOs, interconnection queues and more in a review of this difficult, ridiculous, successful year. Next year will be better.

With solar energy more accessible than ever before, the industry has a responsibility towards new customers to steward them to the solution that delivers the best value and reliability.