By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Once the money is gone, it really is gone. That's the news out of Washington state care of the Tri-City Herald, where an article warns potential solar consumers that they must get their applications in now if they want the full solar incentives available to them. As the article notes:

Some home or business owners in Richland planning to install solar panels likely are facing a drop in rates in the city program that buys electricity from small solar systems. And now a state tax incentive program is expected to run out of money soon, likely shutting many homeowners and businesses that plan to install solar out of getting the benefit.

The problem here is apparently twofold. First, the compensation structure is set to drop significantly at the end of the year. Secondly, the pool of state money set aside to encourage solar installations - originally set by the legislature at $110 million - is a hard cap, meaning there is no more money available to potential solar consumers once the money runs out. Time is running short for potential solar consumers to apply for all of the incentives available to them. They must get their application into Washington state before February 14, 2019, but the catch is that the system must be up and running two weeks before that to qualify for full net metering and whatever money is left in the state coffers to subsidize the installation. After that, installations will be put on a wait list to see if there is any money left over in the state fund. If not, then those solar consumers will find themselves out of luck. The article also notes that there's an outside chance the Washington legislature could add more money into the fund, but one advocate warns that it took four years for the original bill to pass in 2017, so solar consumers shouldn't count on the legislature being any more timely this time around

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

And the Lord said let there be solar, and it was good. OK, that's not really how the quotation from the book of Genesis goes, but under an agreement between the Archdiocese of New York and Con Edison Solutions, five parishes in the sprawling Catholic diocese will soon be running (at least partially) off energy they harvest from the sun. The Energy Department of the Archdiocese of New York along with five parishes joined Con Edison Solutions, one of America's leading energy services companies, and students from Blessed Sacrament School to launch a renewable energy pilot program. As part of the initiative, five parishes, including Blessed Sacrament, St. Clare, and St. Patrick on Staten Island and St. Ann and St. Anthony in Yonkers have installed rooftop solar arrays which will collectively generate approximately 700,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity through 1,717 solar panels. “Preventing further environmental degradation has become a top priority for the Catholic Church under Pope Francis. As such, the Archdiocese of New York is very pleased to partner with Con Edison Solutions to launch a solar pilot program that will allow five of our parishes to benefit from clean energy,” said Bishop John O’Hara, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York. “This initiative epitomizes the Pontiff’s call for sustainable development and thus serves as a great model for our parishioners and our students.” The Archdiocese’s initiative is in accordance with the appeals made by Pope Francis in 2015 in his second encyclical, On Care for Our Common Home (Laudato Si'). In the encyclical, the pontiff called upon people all over the world to take unified action to fight global warming, practice responsible development, and protect the planet. Through these five solar projects, the Archdiocese of New York is doing its part to adopt environmentally-friendly programs while meeting its obligation to help its parishes run as economically as possible by significantly lowering energy costs. On average, each solar project will provide approximately 50 percent of a parish's annual energy needs. Each parish has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Con Edison Solutions. Under the agreement, Con Edison Solutions will install, own, operate, and maintain the solar projects allowing the parishes to reduce energy costs by approximately 25 percent on average over the next two decades. “Blessed Sacrament is thrilled to become a host for clean, renewable energy by taking part in the Archdiocese’s solar program,” said Monsignor Peter Finn, Pastor of Blessed Sacrament. “In addition to supporting sustainable energy while cutting energy costs and creating a physical demonstration of our commitment to preserving the environment for future generations, we will leverage the program as an educational aid by teaching our students about the latest clean energy technologies.” “Con Edison Solutions is proud to partner with the Archdiocese of New York on this groundbreaking solar pilot program,” said Mark Noyes, President and CEO of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses which includes Con Edison Solutions. “We applaud the Archdiocese and its participating parishes for championing solar power and its resulting environmental and cost-saving benefits. Working together with the Archdiocese and the schools, we have successfully installed five rooftop solar arrays that help bring us closer to a clean energy future.” All five solar arrays are behind-the-meter, installed to serve the electrical needs at the customer’s building. The amount of electricity to be generated at each site will vary according to the system size. System capacity is detailed below: Blessed Sacrament Parish – 153kW-DC with 472 PV modules St. Ann’s Parish – 56 kW-DC with 173 PV modules St. Anthony’s Parish – 78kW-DC with 240 PV modules St. Clare’s Parish – 134kW-DC with 412PV modules St. Patrick’s Parish – 136 kW-DC with 420 PV modules The Archdiocese of New York is also working with Con Edison Solutions on potential community solar projects at other parishes, schools, and other institutions in the archdiocese. The Archdiocese of New York selected Con Edison Solutions through a competitive procurement process that included more than 10 solar developers. The two organizations have been working collaboratively since January 2017 to finalize the elements of the pilot program. This solar energy initiative is part of a much larger energy program being led by the Energy Department of the Archdiocese of New York which includes several energy conservation efforts like energy audits, LED lighting upgrades, upgrades to higher efficiency heating and cooling options, tightening the building envelope and more efficient energy procurement.

Presented by Pfister Energy. Changing the way energy is generated and delivered. Pfister Energy is a leading turnkey design-build renewable energy solutions company. Servicing C&I, community and utility sectors for solar, storage and O&M. Visit pfisterenergy.com for more information.
Storage Study. Just a few days before our keynote interview with the NJ BPU President at SolarWakeup Live! the BPU has awarded Rutgers the grant to study energy storage and how it should be implemented. The $300k grant will allow the BPU to implement the clean energy rules around energy storage. The BPU has also released information about SRECs for projects before the new plan is put in place. 
Storage Implementation. Just north of NJ and PJM, ISO-NE is working on its own implementation of energy storage. In addition to the ISO-NE, storage will be prevalent in the market within MA through SMART. All this to say that the storage integration future is well underway. Count 2020/2021 as the key breakout years while the markets work through development and capital education in the next year. 
Retail Energy Storage. An interesting twist to buying clean energy through retail choice programs. CleanChoice, the clean energy retail energy provider, is working with homeowners to have them add energy storage in the home for backup purposes. The interesting marketing angle is that this could lengthen the relationship between the homeowner and the retail company, creating a stickiness in the home between the two similar to cable or alarm providers.

Have a great day!

News

 

Have a great day!
Yann

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

With just six days left until SolarWakeup Live! New Jersey, the topics are set - but attendees might be forgiven if they have a few off-topic questions that they might decide need to be addressed. Take, for example, the announcement by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities that Rutgers University will be studying the state's energy-storage needs as the regulatory board prepares to shepherd through Governor Phil Murphy's aggressive plans to have 2 GW of energy storage by 2030. The contract with Rutgers, announced yesterday and covered by the Press of Atlantic City, will last six months and cost $300,000. “The ability to store energy is critical for our future,” NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso told The Press. “Energy storage systems will provide emergency back-up power for essential services, offsetting peak loads, and stabilizing the electric distribution system, which ultimately will benefit the ratepayer.” Under the contract, Rutgers will study whether renewable energy storage will promote EV use in the state and what effect it will have on renewable energy production in the state, as well as doing a full cost/benefit analysis of the expansion of storage options. Governor Murphy made expanding renewable energy in the state - and solar in particular - a centerpiece of his campaign. Earlier this year, he signed two bills into law that, combined, established the state's community solar program (later bolstered with provisions to encourage the development of community solar in low-income neighborhoods), reformed the state's important (but flawed) solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program and established a new renewable portfolio standard of 50% by 2030. Murphy succeeded former Governor Chris Christie, who had vetoed the RPS expansion on his way out the door and had created a difficult market for the solar industry under his leadership. During his tenure, the state dropped from being the No. 2 solar state in the country to much lower in the Top 10. Murphy hopes to return New Jersey to its place of prominence within the solar community. While New Jersey has fallen, other New England states like New York and Massachusetts have grabbed the majority of the headlines - but with its strong renewable energy and storage provisions, New Jersey More: N.J. regulator contracts with Rutgers for energy storage analysis