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Net Metering and Time-Variant Rates Drive Solar Power and Energy Storage Growth [PODCAST]

April 29, 2018

Nevada law has included net metering provisions for more than 20 years. Net metering is an arrangement that allows energy generated by a customer’s leased or purchased solar system to offset monthly power bills. It also permits excess energy supplied to the grid to earn credits, which are then automatically applied to future billing periods in which more energy is consumed than produced.

Historically, net metering was a one-for-one transaction in Nevada. For every kWh supplied to the grid, a credit was given to the customer for one kWh in the future. The scheme changed in 2015 when the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) created a laddered approach that ratcheted down the value of customer-generated energy over a period of years to about 2¢/kWh, which was much less than the retail rate of about 11¢/kWh. The change effectively stopped all construction on new residential rooftop solar systems.

Through Assembly Bill 405 (AB 405), the Nevada Legislature modified the net metering rate structure effective June 15, 2017.…

U.S Solar Installations Dip Amid Uncertainty

March 16, 2018

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Burdened by a trade case, unpredictable policy-making, interconnection delays, and other market factors, the U.S. installed 30% less solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2017 compared to a record-breaking 2016.

However, the 10.6 GW of new PV capacity added last year represents 30% of all new generating capacity added to the U.S. grid, more than any other power source but natural gas, and according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), it is characteristic of solar PV’s booming growth. Last year’s capacity addition still represents 40% growth over 2015’s installation total, the trade group noted as it released its U.S. Solar Market Insight Report 2017 Year-in-Review, which it prepared with GTM Research, on March 15.

“The solar industry delivered impressively last year despite a trade case and market adjustments,” said SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Especially encouraging is the increasing geographic diversity in states deploying solar, from the Southeast to the Midwest, that led to a double-digit increase in total capacity.”…

FPL Will Build New Gas Plant, Adds More Solar

March 5, 2018

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Florida regulators on March 1 approved Florida Power & Light’s (FPL’s) plan to build a new $ 888 million natural gas-fired power plant, replacing an existing gas- and oil-fueled plant on the same site in Dania Beach that is being retired this year. The utility on Thursday also announced the opening of four new solar power plants in Florida, joining four others that FPL opened in January of this year.

The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) supported FPL’s plan for the new 1,163-MW Dania Beach Clean Energy Center. The PSC said reusing infrastructure from the existing Lauderdale plant at the site was the most cost-effective way to lower emissions and meet rising demand for electricity in the region. The new facility will use the same gas infrastructure, substation, and transmission lines as the existing plant, and emissions will be 95% lower for nitrogen oxide and 22% lower for carbon dioxide, according to the PSC. Water used by the plant will drop by more than 1 million gallons a day, the PSC said.…

South Korea Will Fight Solar Tariffs; Others Will Wait

January 24, 2018

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The global solar industry on January 23 reacted to President Trump’s announcement on Monday that the U.S. will enact a 30% tariff this year on imports of solar cells and modules, a levy that could begin as soon as next month. Some groups said they will take a “wait and see” approach to the charge, while others—including South Korea—promised swift action against the assessment.

Trump on January 22 said imported photovoltaic (PV) products would be subject to a 30% tariff in 2018, with the levy falling by 5% each year, to 15% by 2022. The decision came after the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2017 said imports of PV products are causing “serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic [solar] industry.” The ITC acted after Suniva, a bankrupt solar panel manufacturer with a Chinese majority owner, and SolarWorld Americas, the U.S. arm of a German solar company, asked for tariffs and a floor price to be imposed on imported solar cells and panels.…

FPL Closes Coal Plant, Brings More Solar Online

January 10, 2018

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Florida Power & Light (FPL) began the new year by opening four new solar power plants, along with officially retiring one of its two remaining coal-fired plants in the state.

The utility on January 8 said the four solar plants began operating on January 1, 2018. They are the Horizon Solar Energy Center, in Alachua and Putnam counties; the Coral Farms Solar Energy Center in Putnam County; the Indian River Solar Energy Center in Indian River County; and the Wildflower Solar Energy Center in DeSoto County. Each has a generation capacity of 74.5 MW.

The utility plans to add four more 74.5-MW solar plants to its generation fleet by March 1, 2018, sited in Brevard, Indian River, Hendry, and St. Lucie counties. FPL has installed more than 3.5 million new solar panels in the state over the past two years. It expects to have more than 10 million solar panels in service by 2023.

“The truth is progress like this doesn’t happen by accident,” Eric Silagy, FPL’s president and CEO, said in a statement.…

FPL Halfway Through 600-MW Solar Power Expansion

October 23, 2017

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Florida Power & Light (FPL), which recently sustained a blow to its nuclear expansion plans, on October 19 said it’s about halfway through an ambitious plan to add eight new solar plants in the state by early 2018, as it continues to increase its photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity as part of a larger strategy to install more than 10 million solar panels in its service territory by 2023.

FPL already has installed about 1.25 million solar panels at the eight new plants, with another 1.25 million to go. It’s the utility’s largest one-year solar expansion, surpassing the company’s installation of 1 million panels at three solar plants in 2016. FPL said construction at the sites at its peak employed more than 1,000 workers.

FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy on October 19 said the company is “investing nearly $ 1 billion to grow solar in Florida this year alone.” Silagy, visiting the Barefoot Bay Solar Energy Center in Brevard County on Thursday as part of a tour with local officials, said: “Together, these eight new plants are projected to generate an estimated net lifetime savings of more than $ 100 million for our customers, over and above the cost of construction.”…