By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

The utilities showed their muscle again in South Carolina, “persuading” legislators to remove two pro-solar provisions from the state’s budget bill and scuttling the chances of fomenting solar growth during this legislative session.

Removing the state’st net metering caps and encouraging more purchases of solar electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) had been in the bill until the last moment, when they were removed because they allegedly didn’t meet the standards for being part of the budget process.

The move was reminiscent of a similar maneuver earlier this year when the net-metering provision was taken out of another bill after intense utility lobbying turned some typically pro-solar legislators against it. Once gain, the South Carolina legislature has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when it comes to creating sane solar policy in the Palmetto State. Predictably, the national solar industry reacted angrily to the news.

“Today, lawmakers caved to utility interests instead of looking out for all South Carolina solar workers, households, and businesses,” said Tyson Grinstead, Southeast director of public policy for residential installer Sunrun. “When Duke reaches its limit on solar energy over the next few weeks hundreds of industry workers will be forced to leave the upstate.

“Households will no longer have the freedom to choose solar energy as an alternative to paying the highest energy bills in the country,” Grinstead continued. “This recent primary election proved that opposing energy choices such as solar is politically toxic. We look forward to working with the lawmakers who are searching for a permanent solution that encourages more homegrown energy choices, jobs, and economic prosperity for the state.”

Thad Culley, regional director for Vote Solar, was no less upset but did single out the bipartisan group of legislators who led the fight to eliminate the net metering cap for praise.

“It is deeply disappointing that clean energy progress in South Carolina will be delayed another year, putting at risk 3,000 local jobs in the state’s once-thriving solar industry and limiting South Carolinians only true alternatives to monopoly utilities,” Culley said. “We thank Representatives Nathan Ballentine, Peter McCoy and James Smith for their strong bipartisan leadership and for championing the energy freedom, lower utility bills, and solar workforce that solar brings to South Carolina.

“We look forward to removing arbitrary limits on solar’s potential in next year’s session and reminding all lawmakers that this is an issue that has overwhelming support from voters across the political spectrum,” Culley said.

For Culley’s dream to be realized, however, the power of the utilities (if you’ll pardon the pun) will have to be curbed within the statehouse because even when victories have been secured, the lobbyists are able to get to members of the legislature to undo them, sometimes as soon as the next day. For South Carolina’s solar policy to have any chance of changing for the better, that’s the monopoly that will have to be broken.

“The Legislature missed an opportunity to help consumers save money, generate more low-cost renewable energy, and give the economy more solar jobs,” said Sean Gallagher, vice president of state affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “This is a deeply disappointing outcome for the people of South Carolina, who now will be paying unnecessarily high electric bills to the monopoly utilities. Without a permanent solution that enables solar businesses to compete and provides fair rates for consumers, the state will have a hard time growing solar and maintaining the thousands of solar jobs that came with the passage of 2014’s Act 236.”

And so the battle for hearts and minds in South Carolina will have to continue for another year – and in the meantime, jobs will be lost.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Energy storage is the next front in the solar revolution, and states across the country are starting to grapple with how to incorporate it into the future of their electricity-generation plans.

California, Arizona and New Mexico have already mandated that their utilities incorporate storage into their long-term planning. And now New York has announced its plans to incorporate 1,500 MW of energy storage into it electricity generation by 2025.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the aggressive plans last week, touting that it would create $2 billion in consumer benefits and 30,000 jobs. He also directed the NY Green Bank to commit $200 million to fund energy storage plans. It’s a tight turnaround that he’s asking for – six years isn’t much time at all – but Cuomo is convinced his state can do it. He said:

Clean energy is the future of our planet, and New York will continue to lead the nation in this technology to fight climate change and conserve resources for generations to come. This Roadmap is the next step to not only grow our clean energy economy and create jobs, but to improve the resiliency of the grid to keep our power running in the face of extreme weather and other emergency situations.

New York State currently has approximately 60-megawatts of advanced energy storage capacity deployed with another 500-megawatts in the pipeline, in addition to 1,400-megawatts of traditional pumped hydro storage.

In order to advance energy storage development in ways that are viable, replicable, and scalable, the Roadmap recommends:

Providing $350 million in statewide market acceleration incentives to fast-track the adoption of advanced storage systems to be located at customer sites or on the distribution or bulk electric systems;

Adding incentives for energy storage to NYSERDA’s successful NY-Sun initiative to accelerate the development of solar plus storage projects and allow those projects to access federal tax credits before they expire;

Regulatory changes to utility rates, utility solicitations and carbon values to reflect the system benefits and values of storage projects;

Continuing to address project permitting and siting challenges and reduce system indirect expenses and soft costs; and,

Recommending modifications to wholesale market rules to better enable storage participation, including allowing storage to meet both electric distribution system and wholesale system needs to provide greater value for ratepayers.

If you want to see what the future of energy storage is going to look like, watch those five states. Their plans will define how energy storage spreads across the rest of the country.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondentthey

The news today about the fight over saving failing coal and nuclear plants is that Energy Secretary Rick Perry won’t take into account the importance of low electricity prices in favor of creating mythical “energy security” based on the outdated concept of baseload power. It’s a frivolous, short-sighted idea, fueled by coal barons and fossil-fuel interests.

And yet, in a state as far removed from Washington as one can imagine, officials are preparing to build the state’s largest utility-scale solar plant in a tacit admission that the future of coal is dim.

Wyoming is currently the country’s largest coal-producing state. It accounts for 41% of the country’s coal production and mines more coal than the next seven coal states combined (remember that next time the national media imply the country’s only coal miners work in West Virginia).

And yet even in this deeply coal-steeped state, solar is about to bloom.

As the Associated Press reports:

The first major solar energy plant in the nation’s top coal-mining state cleared a significant regulatory hurdle Tuesday when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management determined it will cause no environmental harm.

The 80 MW Sweetwater Solar plant, which could power approximately 17,000 homes, could begin production as soon as the end of this year. Rocky Mountain Power will purchase the electricity from the plant.

To say this development in Wyoming is startling is an understatement. After all, this is the state whose legislature in January 2017 passed a “reverse RES (Renewable Energy Standard)” and decided to penalize utilities who sold electricity generated from solar in a misguided and failed attempt to protect the coal-produced electricity in the state. And Rocky Mountain Power was begging the state’s regulators to slash reimbursement rates under PURPA, the federal law designed to encourage renewable energy development.

So the decision to build the Sweetwater plant – and for RMP to be purchasing the electricity – is a clear sign that even in coal country, solar is quickly becoming king. Now if only the policymakers in Washington were listening.