Idaho

In the wake of regulator’s rejection of Idaho Power’s proposal to decrease the net metering rate, customers looking to install PV in the near future are in limbo, with no indication of a new compensation rate in sight.

State regulators have overwhelmingly ruled to deny Idaho Power’s proposal to decrease the net metering rate for residential solar owners by 50%.

The utility has proposed to state regulators a measure to decrease the rate that solar owners receive for their excess solar generation by 50% under the argument that net metering has failed to properly recover the costs incurred to serve customers with on-site generation.

In developing its resource plan, NorthWestern Energy apparently used modeling assumptions that favor gas-fired generation, says the Sierra Club. The group has filed a legal motion requesting access to the modeling inputs, and to the model itself.

In this op-ed for pv magazine, Sara Bergan and Thomas Braun, attorneys at Stoel Rives LLP discuss the difficult balancing act of solar and agriculture in the emerging Midwestern market.

Put your car on cruise and lay back ’cause this is summertime, but Idaho Power is attacking net metering, while Fellowship Energy is winning a prize, Gillibrand is backing a carbon plan, and more!

Yesterday Washington became the fourth state to mandate 100% carbon-free electricity, with promises to meet mandates early by Avista and PNM in New Mexico.

The utility is dredging up the trope of the cost shift as it plans for 100% “clean” electricity – on its terms.

Happy Thursday and welcome to the pvMB. Today we’ll be looking at SMUD joining the EIM (those words may mean nothing to you now but will soon), a new New Jersey brownfield project (not a Futurama joke), a new solar powered anti-theft backpack (with a built-in boombox model) and everything else you need to tackle the solar industry today.

Idaho Power has agreed to pay $21.75/MWh for 120 MWac of solar power in a 20-year power purchase agreement with Jackpot Holdings. The solar facility will offset a soon-to-close coal plant in Nevada starting in 2022.