Concord NH decides on maximum size of solar arrays, Titan Advanced Energy raises $10M: pvMB 10/8/19
Hello and welcome to the Tuesday pvMB, where we’re bringing you SEPA’s 2019 Utility Demand Response Market Snapshot, solar applications surging in New York and more!
South Carolina city kills residential solar because math is hard
The city of Georgetown has instituted a $50 monthly “accounting charge” on all residential solar customers because the city’s accounting software can’t comprehend the concept of energy being sent to the grid.
Montgomery County’s rooftop solar mandate, changes at Green Mountain Power: pvMB 10/1/19
Hello all you beautiful people, we’re back from SPI and back with the pvMB. In this first MB of October, we’ll be checking out POWERHOME Solar expanding and hiring in Illinois, BPA entering Western EIM, California reaching a million solar roofs and more!
Small solar is getting bigger, cheaper and more efficient
LBNL’s annual Tracking the Sun report, comparing 2017 to 2018, saw module efficiency rise almost 10%, system prices decrease 5-7%, median system size increases, and significant variability in all of those data points across the 1.6 million systems surveyed.
Solar power installation techniques – don’t do this! (w/pictures)
Solar installation inspection results of 100 sites in Rhode Island found 50% of large-scale projects had issues, while 83% of small projects had them – with 30% and 26% of those systems having “critical” issues, respectively.
Residential solar is getting cheaper – except for third-party
EnergySage has found that the average price for PV systems quoted through its site has fallen under $3 per watt, echoing findings by Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. However, prices are increasing for the big third-party solar companies.
Electrification is an all-around winner
In this op-ed for pv magazine, John Sarter of Clean Coalition argues for a move from gas to electric services in residential buildings not only as a means to reduce emissions, but also to build resilience.
California’s new, $100 million, low-income solar program
DAC-SASH has been approved, and now GRID Alternatives will have $120 million to work with over the next decade to bring solar power and job training to disadvantaged communities across the state.
The solar wave rises
Wood Mackenzie and SEIA report that a record 37.9 GWdc of utility-scale solar was under contract at the end of Q2 – the largest volume ever recorded – with 8.7 GWdc of that under construction. However, installation levels were down slightly year-over-year.
Louisiana guts net metering
Regulators in Louisiana have replaced net metering with compensation at avoided cost for all power exported to the grid on an instantaneous basis, effective January 1, 2020. As a result of this, the state’s small solar industry is expected to lose jobs.
