By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a sweeping electricity bill yesterday that had been championed by the state’s largest utility, Dominion Energy.
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a sweeping electricity bill yesterday that had been championed by the state’s largest utility, Dominion Energy.
- The bill declares 5 GW of solar and wind development as being in the public interest.
- It also discusses how adding renewable resources will also modernize the grid.
it will require more rooftop solar and fewer utility-scale projects. Otherwise, you’re still just adhering to an outdated, centralized production model that somewhat undermines solar’s distributed-generation advantages.
Don’t get me wrong: Any bill that promotes solar in any form is good for the industry, especially in uncertain times. And Dominion Energy has shown itself to be one of the more solar-progressive utilities in the country. But what role rooftop solar plays into these ambitious plans is something that needs to be watched closely.
MDV-SEIA's Executive Director, David Murray, gave this comment to SolarWakeup today,"Virginia has long lagged behind its neighbors in solar deployment, and no doubt this is an exciting step forward. MDV-SEIA is proud to have been a part of the "Rubin Group," a consensus building process among energy stakeholders that led to legislation declaring over 5 GW of renewable power in the public interest of Virginians.
The Commonwealth will now be able to take greater advantage of the cost savings, fuel diversification, and economic development benefits that accompany solar power."
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Governor signs sweeping utility overhaul affecting 3 million Virginia ratepayers
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The Minnesota-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, who employs one of the best DG analysts in the industry in John Farrell, have released a study that
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The Minnesota-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, who employs one of the best DG analysts in the industry in John Farrell, have released a study that
- Proves that distributed generation is now cost competitive with utility-scale solar.
- The sweet-spot for project size is between 10 MW and 20 MW.
As I wrote about yesterday, the weakest link in the current transmission-and-distribution system on which the U.S. electrical grid is based is t
he wires. Not only are they prone to breakdowns, they leave the grid vulnerable to attacks by groups that want to disrupt life in the country.
Think about the chaos that would ensue if the electrical grid in this country went down for any length of time. And it’s those unsightly wires that could provide the inflexion point for an attack (I recounted my own experience with such a grid-level problem yesterday).
On the other hand, while distributed generation isn’t foolproof, it is much harder to damage or hack a system that is not the result of a centralized grid system. The more electricity is distributed in single-home or community-level distribution, the more secure our electrical system will be.
That’s why this report is great news for the solar industry - it undermines the typical utility argument about big being better. It’s something all solar advocates should internalize when that argument inevitably comes up again.
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Solar Surprise - Small-Scale Solar a Better Deal than Big
Old Grid, New Energy. Some of today’s best stories are on Twitter when an expert gives his take in the snippet format. Sometimes that information gets covered by our Frank Andorka (reminder: you can send anonymous tips from solarwakeup.com or email him or myself). In this case, he covered the responses by the various ISOs to FERC’s request for information about resiliency. This is part of the NOPR process we saw a few months ago. The takeaway, our grid isn’t made for new energy generation and wires are the weakest link. His story here.
Big Time Virginia Legislation. A big utility bill that passed the Virginia legislature and has now been signed by Governor Northam. Amongst the many issues this bill tackles, it declares 5GW of solar and wind development in the public interest. Bills like this take years to accomplish and solar’s role was in the weeds for much of that time. One of the people that I know was deeply involved in this is Scott Thomasson of Vote Solar. If you plan on doing business in Virginia, come say thank you in person at Equinox 2018. More coverage on this coming shortly, check solarwakeup.com in a few hours.
Overhyping Bad News. Yesterday there was an article about solar taking a break in California. It was the top story you clicked on and therefore we covered it. First, top gravitating to the bad headlines. Second, most of these articles are clickbait based on misread data. So we set the record straight in our afternoon story so that you get the complete picture.
RPS Ballot Initiatives. 2018 is going to be a big year for ballot initiatives. Amongst the many issues across the Country are three RPS questions being posed in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan. I’m optimistic that these questions will do well at the polls not only because of a wave but because people like the idea of more clean energy in the wake of closing power plants.
See You There? I am waiting for two confirmations of great interviews to join two already great solar leaders, Bernadette Del Chiaro and Danny Kennedy. The venue selection is going on now so if you expect to attend, get your tickets now. Event is on April 10th.
Have a great day!
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Have a great day!
Yann
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Quartz Media’s Michael Coren read a Greentech Media report and pronounced that solar in California is overbuilt.
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Quartz Media’s Michael Coren read a Greentech Media report and pronounced that solar in California is overbuilt.
- At the same time, Coren contends there is plenty of solar in the pipeline.
- And the residential and commercial markets are still moving ahead.
Coren seems oblivious to the fact that this utility slowdown has been expected in light of the Section 201 tariffs President Trump imposed in January. It’s long been assumed the utility-scale market would be hit most severely because of the number of modules they buy for the larger projects. The dip by California utilities may be entirely the result of that horrible federal policy change.
But no matter: Coren ploughs ahead and draws the conclusion that California has too much solar and is taking a break from growing its solar industry.
Except that in the piece itself, Coren undoes his argument when talking about two of the fastest-growing segments of the industry: residential and commercial. Those, he says, are still growing in California. He also adds that there is plenty of utility-scale s
olar in the construction queue.
So...let’s see if I have this straight
- Californians have built too much solar and are taking a break from new generation.
- Except for the projects utilities have already planned, which are plentiful.
- And except for the residential and commercial markets, where people are putting distributed-generation solar arrays on their roofs almost as fast as they can be permitted.