Solar Policy

POLICY UPDATE

The state of the “Windy City” has an abundance of natural, renewable energy resources at its disposal. Chicago’s strong gales might have given the city its famous nickname, but the infrastructure for wind energy can be difficult to integrate in developed areas. However, Illinois has no shortage of sunshine, and solar systems can be more easily incorporated into existing structures: rooftop solar, carport solar and ground-mount solar. Now, more than ever, Illinois is embracing solar power and developing incentives to support the transition to renewable energy in the state.

In 2014, the Mexican government initiated an ambitious “National Energy Market Reform.” One of the main objectives was to further develop the country’s solar industry. Four years later, and after much deliberation, the Department of Energy published the “Programa de Desarollo del Sistema Electrico Nacional” (PRODESEN), a policy document outlining the next 15 years of development in the country’s energy outlook. Mexico is developing a plan for a bright energy future, and to keep a finger on the pulse of the emerging solar market, an EnterSolar team traveled to Mexico City to attend Greentech Media’s (GTM) recent Mexico Solar Summit.

As policymakers across the U.S. continue to refine their methods of valuing solar energy development, several strategies have bubbled to the top.  Some policies emphasize a market approach that, in theory, benefits both utilities and solar system owners (e.g. New York’s Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) Tariff).  While a market approach is advantageous because it incentivizes solar development based on the benefits that solar systems bring to a specific area of the electrical grid, this strategy may result in less predictable project economics. Other policies, such as Feed-In Tariffs, incentivize solar development by making project returns as predictable as possible, but conversely may over-incentivize solar development in less valuable areas of the electrical grid.

EnterSolar’s Technical Director, Edgar Lim, went to Washington D.C. for the Northeastern States Federal Lobby Day that took place on September 28, 2017. With his expertise in solar project development and equipment procurement, he joined the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in educating U.S. Senators and Representatives about the impact of the solar industry on energy, jobs, trade issues, taxes and the economy.

Solar panels generate electricity when the sun is shining, but electricity demand during “peak hours” can sometimes occur between the hours of 6 pm and 9 pm.  This means that electricity consumers may require a higher load at a time of the day when solar panels are producing less energy.

A long time ago… 1978 to be exact, the United States was in energy peril.  Under the OPEC embargo, oil prices were at an all-time high and continued to increase with no end in sight.  In order to spur an increase in domestic energy supply, President Jimmy Carter signed the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which required electric utilities to purchase additional energy from independent power producers.  Various methods of purchasing this energy emerged, but one method was particularly innovative.  The State of California offered independent energy producers, largely wind farms, contracts to sell the utilities energy at a fixed per-kWh price over a long-term contract period.

What is a Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC)?