Policy

Can the solar industry’s biggest conference make the transition from mulitday marathon to six weeks of virtual “microconferences”? Opening sessions started strong, pragmatic and urgent — with a focus on collaboration and the opportunities ahead.

This is a highly anticipated, high-stakes proceeding that will effectively modify the rules for the NEM tariff in California, arguably the single most important policy mechanism for customer-sited solar over the last decade.

Also in the brief: Solar in schools

Surprising enthusiasm for exploring carbon pricing, energy storage and hybrid generation resources and transmission.

Also in the brief: Jacked-up vendor curves, and Major League Soccer goes solar.

“Putting a price on GHG emissions creates an economic incentive to allocate capital toward the development of new lower-emitting technologies,” claims a report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Texas and California lead the green grid trend, with PJM not far behind. ERCOT has 75 GW of solar in its interconnection queue — but how fast clean energy can displace natural gas and coal remains a key issue. 

Also in the brief: Puerto Rico chooses solar over gas in grid redesign, U.S. clean power giants to join forces to build lobbying muscle.

Also in the brief: Community solar proposal getting bipartisan support in Pennsylvania legislature, 12 MW of solar power in Virginia’s historic coalfield region, and the DOE supports nuclear fusion technology with $29 million in funding.

A high level of distributed solar in Indiana would reduce utility costs by up to $540 million per year, a national lab has found. Fair compensation for rooftop solar power in southern Indiana would be 13¢/kWh, an expert calculated—not the 3¢/kWh proposed by a utility.