Policy

The national solar association is setting up a committee to focus on solar expansion in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin in a move designed to refocus the association on state-level policy battles, which are where most observers believe the future of solar will now be decided.

Down three commissioners thanks to untimely resignations, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can’t field a quorum, leaving them only the option of delegating many of their duties to commission staffers.

The Palmetto Conservative Solar Coalition, headed by a former congressman, cheered the National Solar Job Census’ finding that South Carolina had added 1,000 jobs last year and called for the legislature to support the solar industry with free-market approaches.

Tucson Electric Power is the first Arizona utility to finalize a rate plan since the Arizona Corporation Commission all but ended net-metering in the state for new customers – and they are taking advantage of it.

Storage provider Ice Energy has signed a contract with the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) to provide its innovative Ice Bear 20 ice battery system for use in up to 100 residential locations.

H.R. 861, introduced last week by freshman Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), has one simple objective stated right in its title: to terminate the Environmental Protection Agency.

Interview: In December Energy Democracy, a book telling the story of Germany’s Energiewende from the perspective of citizen ownership of renewable energy, hit the shelves. The book is the latest collaboration of Political Scientist Arne Jungjohann and renewable energy writer Craig Morris, currently a senior fellow at the IASS in Potsdam, who worked together on the German Energy Transition website (energytransition.de). pv magazine caught up with Jungjohann to talk about the book, and why citizen involvement in energy is important.

Under the guise of creating “consumer protections” from unscrupulous installers, two companion bills in the state place such onerous requirements on solar companies that it could significantly slow down the industry’s progress in the state. Other legislation moving through New Mexico’s legislature would boost solar. Will the real New Mexico solar policy please stand up?

Can solar be moved from a must-take contract to a dispatchable resource – and provide grid services as well? Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) has a look at how this could work.

With lawmakers claiming the solar income-tax credit was costing the state $60 million per year, the solar industry agreed to a phase out of the credits by 2021 in lieu of severe caps that would have limited the number of Utahns able to take advantage of it.