Comments on: Community solar policy gets green light in many states 2022 Trends in Solar https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/01/community-solar-policy-green-light-many-states/ Covering the world of solar power technology, development and installation. Wed, 05 Jan 2022 21:30:01 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 By: James Palmer https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/01/community-solar-policy-green-light-many-states/#comment-123444 Wed, 05 Jan 2022 21:30:01 +0000 https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/?p=97030#comment-123444 Thank you Kelsey for another good article. For states such as Florida that do not permit community solar, do you see any path to forcing a change to allow community solar? These are usually states in which the legislature is unlikely to support the change. Do you see any path through the courts to force the change? Anything your organization can do in this regard would be appreciated.

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By: Solarman https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/01/community-solar-policy-green-light-many-states/#comment-123400 Tue, 04 Jan 2022 00:35:52 +0000 https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/?p=97030#comment-123400 “Community solar developers typically set up agreements with utilities, governed by state policy, that allow subscribers to receive monthly utility bill credits for electricity generated by their share of the solar project.”

Yes, this policy is spreading and yet there is another wave coming from California in the application of NEM 3.0. The three major IOU electric utilities in California have their own agenda, lobbyists and interested Legislators who are coming up for reelection and need PAC monies in their political war chests. Forcing the distributed generation and sometimes ESS resource to sell overgeneration credits at wholesale energy rates to the utility while ignoring the avoided costs of a distributed generation resource is in and of itself criminal. As solar PV and wind farms at the community use sector, it will become more prominent that electric utilities will have problems with revenues as more local and even residential solar PV is installed. Many of these utilities are IOU “regulated monopoly” entities and as such are assured a “return on investment”, I have seen numbers of 8% to 12% assured. As more communities install their own solar PV farms and perhaps micro-grids for resiliency, the electric utility will file a rate case for “lost revenues”, retail electricity rates will go up. As these community energy systems go online, the electric utility will find their fueled generation assets are not cost effective to keep online anymore. There will be decommissioning of these plants, finishing coal fired plants off, then going after natural gas fired plants next. This will create “stranded assets” in which the electric utility will file a rate case to increase retail electricity rates to pay off these uneconomic assets.

Those folks bragging today about their $0.09/kWh electric rates will have their quiet calm interrupted by several electricity rate cases over several years that will double, then triple residential electricity rates.

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By: mar kelly https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/01/community-solar-policy-green-light-many-states/#comment-123398 Mon, 03 Jan 2022 23:25:29 +0000 https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/?p=97030#comment-123398 Great article, I especially enjoyed being reminded that NJ will open in Feb 2022 – in 4 weeks.
I would like to add that in NY – the PSC white paper was released on Dec 19, 2022 and they extended their block program and community solar adder for LMI of .10 a kwh in some areas of New York.
Thanks again!!

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