Consumer Protection

Welcome, welcome to this Thursday’s pvMB. Today we’ll be checking out Suntuity’s free solar giveaway, Brooklyn Solar Canopies going south, sPower and Cypress Creek alleging project blocking by Consumers, the launch of the Atlas platform and all the rest of today’s ultra-important solar news.

Actually, contrary to the title of this article, there is no MB today, nothing happened. Carry on with your day.

April Fools! I know, that was horrible, but it’d be even more horrible to not attempt a stupid joke today. As for today’s pvMB, we’ll be looking at a 6.9 MW project proposed in Orchard Park, New York, Clearway’s plan to construct 185 MW in Oahu, Quickmount PV expanding to the East Coast and everything else to get your Monday started.

The strangely-titled bill has been filed in Illinois, with an aim to transition and repurpose coal plants currently at risk of closure to solar+storage facilities. Vistra Energy, which owns both coal plants in this list and solar+storage facilities elsewhere, is pushing the legislation.

An analysis by Energy Innovation shows that 74% of US coal could be replaced by wind and solar power located within 35 miles of the plant, while also saving consumers money. The analysis shows that this increased to greater than 86% by 2025.

An analysis by Michigan Technological University shows how Michigan utilities use political influence to push back against distributed solar generation, leading to some of the nation’s highest electricity rates in the Upper Peninsula.

The utility keeps trying to kill distributed solar, one way or another, and regulators just keep rebuffing them.

Large scale solar power development is under attack by fossil fuel interests, with the Spotsylvania, Virginia project by sPower being focused on by right wing news websites and “think tanks”.

The Low Income Energy Issues Forum has released a new report focused on improving the availability and benefits of community solar for financially-limited customers. The working group identified five different models that can be used to join different ways to best open community solar to customers of all incomes.

Their petition calls on elected officials to transition the state to 100% renewables; end Duke Energy’s monopoly on generation; refuse to accept campaign contributions from the utility; and appoint citizen-oriented utility commissioners.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is moving to the next stage of its 2019 Integrated Resource Plan, and concurrently announced the cancellation of the Green Power Providers program as of January 1, 2020.