Monthly Archives: March 2015

Solar + Storage
 Will Soon Be
 The Best Option

In a little-noticed report last month, Deutsche Bank’s markets research team walked through recent developments in the solar and storage industries and offered several bold predictions with enormous ramifications for the U.S. utility industry.

For starters, the company projected that by the end of 2016 total installed solar PV capacity could hit 47,000 megawatts (dc), with more than half of that being built in the next two years. Specifically, Deutsche Bank (DB) forecasts annual installations this year will total 12,000 MW and then jump to 16,000 MW in 2016. By comparison, just 10 years ago there was essentially no installed PV capacity in the U.S. The DB report, Crossing the Chasm, can be found here.

Out of this total, DB estimates that at least 20,000 MW, and perhaps as much as 30,000 MW, will be distributed generation. The push toward rooftop solar, whether on commercial or residential facilities, is expected to be so strong, DB added, that it will largely cushion the blow from the scheduled 2017 step-down of the investment tax credit (ITC). That year, the company said, new PV installations should still top 11,000 MW—easily topping any previous 12 months save the projected 2015-2016 boom years.

DBSolarForecast

And these aren’t just forecasts. San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Company announced this week that it now has 150,000 solar-using customers spread across its California service territory—with 45,000 of those being added in 2014 alone. On average, the company said, it is now connecting about 4,000 new solar customers every month.

The rationale for the solar surge is easy to understand, DB continued—it all comes down to economics.

Continue reading Solar + Storage
 Will Soon Be
 The Best Option

‘Trust Us,’ Utilities Argue:
 PV Cost Shifting Is Bad,
 EV Cost Shifts Are Good

The utility industry is open about its opposition to residential PV solar—preaching endlessly that homeowners with PV panels enjoy what amounts to a free ride due to state net metering rules that require utilities to buy the electricity from these distributed resources without being able to charge those customers for their continued use of other grid services.

At the Edison Electric Institute’s annual Wall Street presentation in February, for example, David Owens, the association’s executive vice president, told the analysts that it is “critical and fair that all electricity cus­tomers who use the electric power grid continue to share equitably in the costs of maintaining it and keeping it operating reliably at all times. Rooftop solar customers still rely on the grid and its services around the clock. Even at peak output, rooftop solar systems need the support of the grid to start large motors like air condi­tioners and refrigerators. And, net metering as a policy does not even exist without a grid con­nection. So, at the end of the day, as long as we are connected to the grid, we still use it and we all should continue to pay for it.”

Similarly, San Francisco-based PG&E, which touts itself as having the most residential PV customers of any U.S. utility—with some 100,000 customers having some amount of solar installed—is also quick to criticize the existing California net metering program, saying it has shifted costs unfairly from solar customers to other ratepayers not using PV or another distributed generation resource.

The extent of this cost shifting is much in debate, with utilities on one side and solar industry officials on the other. But the reality is, the debate has nothing to do with cost shifting—it is market share that is the real concern.

Continue reading ‘Trust Us,’ Utilities Argue:
 PV Cost Shifting Is Bad,
 EV Cost Shifts Are Good