Solar ownership still tilts towards high income, but evolving
An analysis of more than 800,000 solar installations has found that the median income of pv adopters is $32,000 per year higher than the median of all households, but the median income of buyers is on a downward trend.
New Jersey passes wide-ranging energy legislation on solar, batteries and nuclear power
The two bills will increase the state’s RPS to 50% by 2030, require 5% of electricity to come from behind-the-meter solar by 2021, set a 2 GW energy storage goal and bail out nuclear plants.
Maryland report shows distributed solar’s real power is people
An analysis submitted to Maryland regulators found that distributed solar’s economic benefits – mostly labor associated revenue – was worth six times the value of the electricity to the grid.
Illinois smart inverter rebates to benefit solar deployment
The availability of smart inverter rebates for Illinois medium and large nonresidential PV systems in Illinois can go beyond being able to work better in a grid to impacting net metering, energy storage and other policy issues.
Utilities win in South Carolina solar vote
A bill to lift net metering caps in South Carolina fails, after a technicality was used to force the bill to secure a 2/3 majority.
Attempt to reverse LePage solar policy veto fails (again) in Maine
The second attempt to overturn the idiosyncratic governor’s veto of a solar policy fix has again failed by two votes.
When the global Energy Transition gets local
In this op-ed for pv magazine, Dr. Wes Herche of Arizona State University brings insights from a recent conference on the Energy Transition in Arizona.
Residential PACE program expanded California residential solar market 12%
The R-PACE program, between 2010-2015, added 1.1 W of solar power per capita overall to larger cities in the Californian market. The Berkeley analysis suggests many of the projects wouldn’t have been built otherwise.
Korea, Japan to retaliate over U.S. solar tariffs
Korea is making good on an earlier promise, and now Japan has joined in. Both nations demand that the Trump Administration reverse the tariffs, or suffer an equivalent volume of retaliatory tariffs.
Bill to lift South Carolina net metering cap approved in House
The bill will also require expedited interconnection by utilities, and must pass a third reading before it goes to the state’s senate.
