From pv magazine Global

A group of scientists from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) demonstrated that conjugated polymers, which are a class of electronically conductive plastic materials, can be used as an intrinsically conductive adhesive (ICA) to shingled solar cells together.

“This is a new application for a unique class of plastic materials that we are very excited about,” the research’s corresponding author, Alexander Chen,  told pv magazine. “While this research is still in its infancy, one exciting aspect about this work is the deep literature and diverse chemistry that can be integrated into conjugated polymers for the purpose of making new types of conductive interconnects and adhesives.”

Shingled solar panels feature a busbar-free structure in which only a small proportion of cells are not exposed to sunlight. The cells are bonded with electrically conductive adhesive to form a shingled high-density string and the resulting strips are connected. The reduced number of busbars reduces shadowing losses.

The shingled cells used in the experiment were built with cell technology supplied by California-based startup Sunpreme and intrinsically conductive adhesives (ICAs) based on the PEDOT:PSS polymer. The performance of solar cells constructed with ICAs was compared to that of counterparts based in silver-based electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) and the scientists found the former showed “comparable” electrical properties.

“While today’s dominant busbar-based modules require around 15.8 mg/W silver, we calculate that shingling modules with ICAs can reduce silver consumption to approximately 6.3 mg/W, accelerating our position on the silver learning curve by approximately two decades. These findings suggest that the design of pi-conjugated materials for ICAs could offer a realistic strategy for sustainable deployment of lower-cost, high-power solar modules,” the paper said.

Even with the removal of silver filler, the researchers achieved similar fill factors (FFs) and overall power conversion efficiency with shingled interconnects. “Employing a conducting polymer as the ICA additionally opens a myriad of opportunities for tuning the electronic, mechanical, and adhesive properties for designing next-generation electronic interconnects,” they added.

There are improvements to be made for the research to be applied further, as the researchers acknowledged in a statement to pv magazine. However, they are optimistic these can be made.

“While we found that the adhesion needs to be improved to reach that of commercial products, we are optimistic that designing better conjugated polymers for applications as intrinsically conductive adhesives can be achieved relatively quickly,” Chen stressed. “This area of research builds upon the incredible wealth of knowledge that already exists on tailoring the electrical properties of conducting polymers and the adhesive properties of traditional polymers. There is a large synthetic space that can be quickly explored here.”

The researchers said they collaborated with a PV engineering services company – D2Solar, Inc. – to integrate the proof-of-concept shingles. “We look forward to working with PV manufacturers to test the concept at larger scales and in relevant outdoor environments,” they added.

The ICAs were presented in the paper “Silver-free intrinsically conductive adhesives for shingled solar cells,” published in Cell Reports Physical Science.

From pv magazine Global

Scientists from Rice University in Houston, Texas, have improved the stability of pervoskite solar cells by distributing 2D perovskites.

The scientists synthesized formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) into ultrastable, high-quality photovoltaic films for high-efficiency perovskite solar cells. They hypothesized that using more stable 2D perovskites as a template could impart their stability to FAPbI3 during growth.

They fabricated four types of 2D perovskites to test the idea, two closely matching FAPbI3’s surface structure and two less well-matched, and used them to make different FAPbI3 film formulations. They found that the 2D crystal template improved both the efficiency and durability of FAPbI3 solar cells. Solar cells with 2D templates didn’t degrade after 20 days of generating electricity in air, while those without 2D crystals degraded significantly after two days.

“The addition of well-matched 2D crystals made it easier for FAPbI3 crystals to form, while poorly matched 2D crystals actually made it harder to form, validating our hypothesis,” said Isaac Metcalf, the lead author of the study. “FAPbI3 films templated with 2D crystals were higher quality, showing less internal disorder and exhibiting a stronger response to illumination, which translated as higher efficiency.”

The research team then found that by adding an encapsulation layer to the 2D-templated solar cells, stability was further improved to timescales approaching commercial relevance. According to their research paper – “Two-dimensional perovskite templates for durable, efficient formamidinium perovskite solar cells,” recently published in Science – the fabricated cell had a power conversion efficiency of 24.1% for a 0.5-square-centimeter active area and maintained 97% of their efficiency for 1,000 hours at 85 C under maximum power point tracking.

“Right now, we think that this is state of the art in terms of stability,” said Rice University engineer Aditya Mohite, “Perovskite solar cells have the potential to revolutionize energy production, but achieving long-duration stability has been a significant challenge.”

The team said that the findings could have an impact on light-harvesting, reduce manufacturing costs, and enable development of solar panels with that are lighter and more flexible than silicon solar panels.

“Perovskites are soluble in solution, so you can take an ink of a perovskite precursor and spread it across a piece of glass, then heat it up and you have the absorber layer for a solar cell,” Metcalf said. “Since you don’t need very high temperatures – perovskite films can be processed at temperatures below 150 C – in theory, that also means perovskite solar panels can be made on plastic or even flexible substrates, which could further reduce costs.”

California has made numerous cuts to solar incentives and programs in its state, including reductions in the valuation and crediting of exported solar generation, cuts to its emerging community solar program, and imposing a monthly fixed charge that erodes the potential savings brought on by rooftop solar.

However, the California legislature has recently moved forward a bill that would undo a decision that would negatively affect the value of rooftop solar for renters in multifamily housing, and for farms, and schools.

The decision sets hard limits on how much electricity produced by rooftop solar can be self-consumed by multi-meter properties. The policy effectively forces customers to first sell their solar production to the utility, and then buy it back at higher rates.

“It would force customers in multi-meter properties—such as renters, small farmers, schools, and colleges—to sell all of their generation to the utility at low rates and buy it back at full retail rates,” said the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA).

California’s Virtual Net Metering and Net Energy Metering Aggregation programs allow properties with multiple meters to install a single solar array for the entire property, sharing one system’s electricity and associated net metering credits with all customers and meters on the property. 

The decision would require multi-meter properties to sell solar to the grid at a low “avoided cost” rate and then purchased back at a full retail rate. This would be required even if the electricity generated on the school’s roof was used directly by the school.

A new bill, Senate Bill 1374, sponsored by Senator Josh Becker, would reverse the decision. The bill passed the Senate 28-7 and now awaits approval from the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee.

“SB 1374 removes a burdensome barrier and restores the ability for customers to self-consume the energy they produce on their property,” Becker said in a statement. “This bill is simply a matter of fairness. Multiple-metered customers should get the same treatment as everyone else — not have to sell their power to the utility at low prices and immediately buy it back at much higher retail prices.”

The state’s three investor-owned utilities PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E oppose the decision. In a joint statement the three said Becker’s bill “subsidizes solar for all non-residential customers, not just schools.” However, public schools would essentially be performing energy arbitrage for the utility companies under their vision.

Utilities have justified cuts to rooftop solar programs based on an argument that non-solar customers subsidize those with solar. The utilities alleged the bill “is likely to trigger grid upgrades, which results in high cost for all, but for the benefit of only a few customers.” However. analysis from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has determined that non-residential solar programs have not caused a cost shift.

Supporters of Senate Bill 1374 say it would help schools with the electricity affordability crisis. Oakland Public Schools have seen their utility bill increase $1.5 million over the last year alone.

“Public schools have one general fund that everything comes out of: teachers’ salaries, textbooks, mental health counselors, utility bills-–it all comes out of the same bucket,” said Sam Davis, Oakland Unified School District board president. In previous years, we used solar energy to offset these rising costs and invest the savings in programs that improve educational equity. Restoring and protecting these incentives is critical to ensuring all students receive the education they need to thrive.”

Nearly 2,500 schools have installed solar in California according to Generation 180. Read about rooftop solar success stories for schools in the U.S. here.

The  U.S. Solar Market Insight Q2 2024 report says 11 GW of new solar module manufacturing capacity came online in the United States during Q1 2024, the largest quarter of solar manufacturing growth in American history.

The report, released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, estimates that total U.S. solar module manufacturing capacity now exceeds 26 GW annually.

In addition to solar manufacturing, the U.S. is also quickly ramping up solar installations. With 11.8 GW of new solar capacity installed thus far in 2024, total capacity now stands at 200 GW in the United States. The utility-scale segment alone accounts for nearly 10 GW of the new capacity added.

The report shows that the U.S. added over 40 GW of new solar capacity last year, and Wood Mackenzie now projects that the U.S. is on target to achieve the same goal in 2024.

“This quarter proves that new federal investments in clean energy are revitalizing American manufacturing and strengthening our nation’s energy economy,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Whether it’s a billion-dollar investment in a nearby solar project or a new manufacturing plant employing hundreds of local workers, the solar and storage industry is uplifting communities in every state across this country.”

The report points to Florida and Texas as leaders in new solar capacity in Q1. Florida installed 2.7 GW in Q1 and Texas 2.6 GW. California, historically a solar leader, falls into third place with 1.4 GW of new installs; however, it is notable that in 2023, Texas installed nearly 12 GW, while California was about 6.4 GW. New Mexico is another leading market with 686 MW installed in Q1, with Ohio following close behind at 546 MW. Bringing up the bottom is North Dakota, Alabama and Alaska.

“The U.S. solar industry continues to show strength in terms of deployments,” said Michelle Davis, head of global solar at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report. “At the same time, the solar industry faces a number of challenges to its continued growth including availability of labor, high voltage equipment constraints, and continued trade policy uncertainty.”

The residential solar segment has been hard hit by high interest rates and unsupportive state policies. California, where the highly controversial NEM 3.0 went into effect, experienced its worst quarter in two years. Overall the residential sector installed 1.3 GWdc in Q1, reflecting a 25% decline year-over-year and 18% quarter-over-quarter but going forward residential solar is expected to be steady.

Commercial solar showed 23% growth in 2023 and expected to grow by another 14% in 2024. This sector is somewhat buoyed by California projects that were submitted under NEM 2.0 still being in the interconnection queue.

Looking at community solar, installations resulted in 279 MWdc of new capacity in Q1, with New York topping the charts at 17% year-over-year in Q1 2024, making up 46% of national installed capacity.

Again, state policy changes in California are punching holes in a previously growing market. As a result of the CPUC’s vote on AB 2316, the report authors revised their five-year outlook for California and now expects just 200 MW rather than the 1.5 GW—an 87% decline. Overall the community solar market is expected to grow 4% in 2024, exceeding 1.3 GWdc of annual capacity.

Questions and challenges

With many unanswered questions about tariffs on imported solar modules and other components, the report contends that a tariff increase will not have a significant direct impact on the U.S. solar industry, given that the U.S. is importing less than 0.1% from China at the present time.

Moving forward, the report’s five-year outlooks expects the U.S. industry to install around 40 GWdc a year for the next five years. Trade policy uncertainty coupled with shortages in workers as well as high-voltage equipment, will keep overall growth in the single digits through 2029. The five year projection, however, is for U.S. solar capacity to grow to 438 GW by 2029.

Recom Technologies, a European PV module manufacturer, has partnered with Solar Optimum to supply solar panels for a solar carport project at the Six Flags amusement park in California.

The 12.37 MW solar carport system will be constructed over the main guest and employee parking lots. It is expected to offset 100% of the park’s electricity usage.

The project is the largest solar carport in California, and the “largest single-interconnection commercial and industrial development in the world,” said Ara Krikorian, executive vice president of commercial development, Solar Optimum.

Once operational, the project is expected to produce 20.8 million kWh annually, equivalent to the power demand of nearly 3,000 homes. It is expected to offset the carbon emissions equivalent to taking over 3,100 cars off the road each year.

The park will purchase electricity produced by the system over a 25-year period, leading to an estimated 517 million kWh produced over the period.

The project includes a 1.96 MW / 7.89 MWh battery energy storage system.

The carport will make use of Recom Panther bifacial half-cut solar panels. The bifacial panels produce electricity from sunlight above as well as reflected up from the ground to the backside of the panel.

Recom’s Panther series of solar modules is offered in various formats including G1: 158.75mm; M6: 166mm; M10: 182mm; G12: 210mm. Wattage ratings range from 360 W to 665 W, and the company offers both monofacial and bifacial panels with varied frame and backsheet options.

Recom offers a 25-year product warranty for its panels. The panels offer a first year output of 98% of initial rating, less than 0.54 % annual degradation, and a 25-year output of over 85%.

Six Flags’ latest project adds to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Northern California and Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, which have also developed on-site solar facilities with over 30 MW of operational solar capacity.

Once the Los Angeles carport is complete, Six Flags will have a combined total of 42.37 MW of solar assets, ranking it among the largest investors of on-site commercial solar.

“Here in California, innovation and climate action go hand-in-hand – our success as America’s economic powerhouse and the world’s fourth largest economy is built on our ambitious transition to a cleaner, greener future. Six Flags’ commitment to clean energy is the type of work that will power our future and ensure our kids have a healthy planet to call home,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom

The Turlock Irrigation District (TID) seeks to procure new or existing clean energy projects delivering either directly into California ISO (CAISO) or TID regions, via the Ascend Analytics Energy Exchange (AEX). TID is a publicly owned company that owns and operates an integrated and diverse electric generation, transmission and distribution system that provides power to a population of 240,000 in California.

The AEX is a marketplace that facilitates renewable energy transactions between buyers and sellers. Ascend AEX has facilitated the procurement of millions of megawatt-hours per year of renewable energy and battery storage capacity.

Offers may be structured as all-in power purchase agreements (PPAs), bundled renewable energy credits (RECs) or ownership offers.

All offers must have a minimum nameplate capacity of 50 MW or annual renewable generation of at least 150,000 MWh. Acceptable commercial operation dates are no later than December 31, 2030.

TID seeks proposals for Portfolio Content Category 1 (PCC) eligible renewable generation (including solar photovoltaic, wind, biomass, biofuel, small hydroelectric generation, and geothermal) or PCC1 renewable generation plus storage (hybrid). Storage discharge duration must be at least 4 hours.

Offers are grouped in two categories:

Group A: Proposals for direct delivery to TID’s balancing authority (BA) system Power Purchase Agreements (All-in): All-in PPAs must have a term length between 10 and 30 years. Ownership Options: EPC contracts for turnkey projects with the option of offering a long-term service agreement (LTSA).

Group B: Proposals for CAISO connected resources: PPAs (All-in, Energy + RECs, Index+): All-in PPAs must have a term length between 10 and 30 years and bundled RECs (fixed price or Index+) must be between 10 and 20 years. Ownership offers will not be considered for Group B projects.

Build option proposals can take the following forms:

1. Build a power generation facility, retain 100% ownership of the facility, operate the same facility, and sell the
facility’s output to TID (respondent submits a PPA offer).
2. Build a power generation facility, TID owns 100% of the facility, TID operates the same facility, and TID takes the
facility’s output (respondent submits an ownership offer).

Regardless of the form of the build option, Respondents submitting proposals that include a build option must provide,
after being shortlisted, a legal analysis of how their proposal will comply with California procurement laws. Proposed build
options that do not comply with the procurement laws of California will not be considered.

Note that standalone storage and RA-only offers will not be considered as part of this RFP.

The RFP team will host an informational webinar for interested bidders on June 19th at 11 a.m.PT. Submissions are due July 2, 2024, at 5 p.m. PT. To participate, ask questions, and receive RFP updates and materials, prospects must register on the TID RFP website.

A solar project that was unanimously approved by the Kern County, California Board of Supervisors in 2021 is coming under fire by some who oppose the cutting of western Joshua trees to make way for the Aratina solar project. An environmental review process is conducted prior to approval and before construction begins on any large-scale solar plant, including Aratina.

Aratina is a solar-plus-storage project with an intended generation capacity of up to 530 MW and 600 MW battery energy storage system. Once fully operational, it is expected to produce enough clean electricity to power 180,000 homes. The electricity generated by the Aratina Solar Center will be transmitted to utilities and community energy providers throughout California.

In addition to reducing 860,000 metric tons of carbon emissions every year, which is the annual equivalent to planting 14 million trees or removing 180,000 cars from the road, the project is expected to benefit the local community. Avantus has allocated over $135,000 toward programs and services in Boron and Desert Lake. It is also is expected to generate over $30 million in local tax revenue over the solar center’s lifetime that can go toward local services like schools, public safety, and street services. During construction, Aratina is expected to create approximately 570 construction jobs paying between $31 and $75 an hour.

To receive approval to develop the project located in the Boron and Desert Lake area of eastern Kern County, California, Avantus, the developer produced an Environmental Impact Report, as required prior to beginning construction. The company held public forums as part of the County review, during which some local residents raised concerns about visibility of the plant, and the developer altered its plans, stating that it “listened to the concerns and have incorporated them into a revised design that increases project setbacks from residential areas by up to a half-mile (almost nine football fields)”.

The revised site design, referred to as Aratina 2.0 by Kern County, increases project setbacks from Boron and Desert Lake’s residential areas. The company said the raised bed railroad that runs by the location and vegetation alongside the road will also reduce visibility of the project.

Because the site of the Aratina plant is home to western Joshua trees, the developer has to comply with the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act (WJTCA), a California Law that was enacted in July 2023. Incidental Take Permits of the WJTCA authorize renewable energy developers to take western Joshua trees with an option to pay a standard mitigation fee rather than complete mitigation actions. Under the act, the fees collected are deposited into the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Fund for the purposes of acquiring, conserving and managing western Joshua tree conservation lands and completing other activities to conserve the tree.

To meet these requirements, Avantus hired qualified biologists, approved by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW), to a complete count of all western Joshua trees within the site and they will provide the CDFW with a complete Tree Census report. As part of the mitigation requirement in the WJTCA, Avantus must pay a mitigation fee of $10,521.95 per acre to be mitigated to the Western Joshua Tree Mitigation Fund. In addition, prior to removing any western Joshua tree or engaging in groundbreaking activities, the developer was required to contribute $10,000 to cover the account fees and the cost of retaining a land acquisition specialist to assist the department in locating, acquiring and conserving the mitigation lands.

According to Avantus, the process of selective clearing of vegetation, including Joshua Trees and large natural obstacles, will soon begin. The removal has been approved by Kern County and the CDFW, with all impacts such as noise and traffic minimized throughout.

Going beyond the requests of local residents and requirements of the WJTJCA, Avantus purchased the grazing rights on 215,000 acres of federal land in Kern County and created the Onyx Conservation Project. The contiguous land area is seven times larger than the city of San Francisco and considered among the largest mitigation projects in the nation.

The habitat is home to 20 sensitive wildlife species including the California condor, Mojave Desert tortoise, American badger, Mohave ground squirrel and golden eagles. It is also estimated to include more than 80,000 acres of western Joshua tree habitat, including 3,000 acres of dense woodland. This conservation effort will help sustain the health and diversity of the desert ecosystem, which is underlaid by designated Wilderness Areas, Desert National Conservation Lands, and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. All 215,000 acres will also be open for public recreational use, including hiking and camping.

Avantus will also invest millions of additional dollars for habitat enhancements across Onyx to jumpstart restoration for desert plants and wildlife species.

The CDFW is cognizant of how renewable energy development is necessary in the effort to combat climate change, and endorses such protective measures.

“Our Department is committed to the conservation, protection and restoration of the Golden State’s habitat, and this groundbreaking state and federal public-private partnership provides a roadmap for how renewable energy can continue to combat climate change while also providing landscape-level ecosystem benefits to native plants and wildlife,” said CDFW regional manager, Julie Vance. “By purchasing and permanently retiring the grazing rights, Avantus is assuring this rich, vibrant land is preserved and its inhabitants can flourish.”

Avantus, formerly 8Minute Energy, is a leading solar and energy storage provider and is on track to provide more than half of California’s utility-scale solar and storage demand over the next decade. Aware of the impact that solar projects can have on land, Avantus works closely with wildlife agencies and environmental organizations safeguard species throughout all stages of a project’s life. Avantus reports that its past projects have received support from groups including the Sierra Club, Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Why large-scale solar?

Climate change threatens our nation and planet, as evidenced by the increasing number of extreme weather events. The U.S. has a net-zero by 2050 goal, which means moving away from fossil fuel generated energy as fast as possible as much as 40% of all carbon dioxide pollution comes from fossil fuel power plants, according to the Department of Energy.

The good news is that for the first time, solar accounted for over half of new electricity generation capacity added 2023 and, by 2050, solar is expected to be the largest source of generating capacity on the U.S. grid.

According to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, the U.S. has officially exceeded five million solar installations, marking a milestone that comes just eight years after the U.S. reached one million installations in 2016.SEIA forecasts that solar installations in the U.S. will double to 10 million by 2030 and triple to 15 million by 2034.

While the number of installations in itself is impressive, cumulatively they are making a serious cut to carbon emissions. SEIA estimates that the installations displace 198 million metric tons of CO2 every year. This reduction is the equivalent to 22 billion gallons of gas, or enough gas to travel to the sun and back nearly 3,000 times in a traditional ICE vehicle. Overall, SEIA calculates that the current solar capacity in the U.S. offsets the emissions of 12 million Americans, which is greater than the population of New York City and Los Angeles combined.

With PV expected to triple in the United States by 2028, to reach an estimated 380 GW of solar capacity, according to the SEIA and analysts at Wood Mackenzie, sharing facts early on is important. Not only is it important to seek input from area residents—modifying plans when necessary—but going above and beyond permitting requirements to mitigate potential environmental damage is becoming more common among large-scale developers in the U.S.

Tandem PV, a perovskite solar panel developer, announced it has secured a $4.7 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office to advance commercialization of its thin-film solar technology.

The award is part of a larger $71 million investment by DOE in projects that support bolstering the U.S. solar supply chain.

The company develops solar panels that pair conventional silicon cells with perovskite materials for panels, giving them the potential to produce up to 40% more power than traditional solar modules used today, said Tandem PV.

Tandem PV’s design stacks a thin-film perovskite layer on top of the crystalline PV layer, with the two materials absorbing different wavelengths of sunlight. The company is currently producing tandem perovskite panels with about 26% efficiency, which is roughly 25% more powerful than a conventional silicon solar panel today.

Solar panel efficiency is an important metric for solar facility developers. More power at a similar price per watt leads to lower labor costs for installation, lower land-acquisition costs, and a lower total cost of ownership for customers, said the company.

“This is Tandem PV’s 10th award from the Department of Energy and we are grateful for its consistent, long-term investment and validation,” said Tandem PV co-founder and chief technology officer Colin Bailie.

The company said its has demonstrated “the equivalent of decades of projected durability” in the lab. Durability has been a key issue to solve for perovskites, which show high efficiencies, but degrade rapidly in the field.

Tandem PV said it plans to obtain independent industry-standard validations of the durability and efficiency of its perovskites during 2024. The company said plans are underway for a first manufacturing facility as research and development efforts advance.

“Thanks to historic funding and actions from the president’s clean energy agenda, we’re able to deploy more solar power – the cheapest form of energy – to millions more Americans with panels stamped ‘made in the U.S.A.’,” said Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy.

Tandem PV, founded in 2016 in Silicon Valley, has raised a total of $33 million in venture capital and government funds including from the DOE, the National Science Foundation and the California Energy Commission.

Tandem PV was selected for the $4.7 million award as part of SETO’s Advancing U.S. Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics Funding Program.

Cowboy Solar, largest solar project in Wyoming moves forward The $1.2 billion project will be built by Enbridge, with 771 MW expected to be fully operational by 2027.

Battery energy storage tariffs tripled; domestic content rules updated Breaking down U.S. market impacts on energy storage from recent policy changes with insights from Clean Energy Associates.

As expected, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted on changes to its utility-backed community solar program despite strong opposition from industry groups, community solar developers and even Assemblymember Chris Ward who introduced the original version of the bill (AB 2316).

Community solar enables small businesses and residents who are renters or who otherwise cannot put solar on their roof to subscribe to a portion of an off-site solar facility, receiving a utility bill credit for the power it generates. In California, approximately 45% of California households are renters who don’t own their roofs and, therefore, can’t install a solar system.

The Community Renewable Energy Act (AB 2316) put forth by Assemblymember Ward was sponsored by the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), and supported by the Solar Industries Energy Association, GRID Alternatives, Vote Solar, the Sierra Club, and more. Notably, investor-owned utilities, which serve over 75% of the electricity usage in the state, opposed the bill.

Riding on the tail of the CPUC’s net metering change, which dealt a serious blow to the residential solar industry, developers and other industry experts expect this new legislation will stall the buildout of community solar in California.

California was previously the leading state in solar energy; however, the tide is turning. Aaron Halimi, founder and president of Renewable Properties, a community solar developer, said that this recent decision by the CPUC will prevent California from being a leader in community solar. An increasing number of states are implementing pro-active community solar policies just as the market is starting take off.

Calling the new rules a “misguided decision”, Halimi said it’s unlikely the industry will invest in building community solar and energy storage projects in California.

“The CPUC’s decision primarily benefits the financial interests of utilities and does not support the State’s climate goals or the aim of reducing electric bills for low-income Californians, which was the purpose of AB 2316,” said Halimi.

Derek Chernow, Western regional director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) released a statement saying that the ruling “ignored the will of the California Legislature and the broad coalition of ratepayer, equity, environmental, labor, agricultural, and business groups who have demanded a functional community solar program for more than a decade”.

The legislation passed with a 3-1 vote, and CCSA thanked the lone dissenter, Commissioner Darcie Houck, for her vote and remarks for how this Decision will fail to reach community solar’s full potential.

The CCSA characterized the CPUC’s choice to accept the utilities’ proposal as doubling down on failed programs that “have not — and will not — establish a viable community solar market that would provide affordable energy to Californians that need relief the most”.

“It’s also further evidence that California’s utilities are doing everything they can to stifle distributed energy generation in order to tighten their grip on the state’s electricity grid. The vote solidifies California’s place near the bottom of community solar markets nationwide, ceding leadership to other states to truly democratize solar energy and fulfill national energy equity goals,” said CCSA.

The Community Renewable Energy Act (AB 2316) was sponsored by the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), and supported by the Solar Industries Energy Association, GRID Alternatives, Vote Solar, the Sierra Club, and more. However, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) opposed the bill.

The CPUC asserted in its proposed decision that the Net Value Billing Tariff (NVBT) outlined in the Community Renewable Energy Act “conflicts with federal law and does not meet the requirements” of the bill, which CCSA has noted is erroneous.

In comments filed in March by CCSA, it characterized the original proposed decision as misguided and misinformed, and determined it will not result in the development of community solar projects as envisioned by the legislature with the enactment of AB 2316.

Now the CPUC has revised its proposed decision and in it concedes that it needs guidance as to what a successful community solar program looks like:

…the record of this proceeding contains no details on what would be considered a successful community renewable energy program. Accordingly, the workshop with parties to discuss the objectives, methodology, and metrics for the evaluations of the community renewable energy program will include a discussion of what a successful community renewable energy program would look like, including metrics for success and a megawatt baseline expectation for the community renewable energy program.

This revised proposed decision says it’s beneficial to ratepayers to layer a customer subscription model and a non-ratepayer-funded adder on standard supply-side tariffs. This “revised” proposed decision still intends to rely on one-time funds from the EPA’s Solar for All program as a subsidy. The CCSA warns against subsidizing “an unworkable program” instead leveraging private capital “to serve hundreds of thousands of income-qualified customers and small businesses”.

Furthermore, the revised proposed decision gives no details such as a method for dispersing external funding to the projects and participating customers, reporting requirements, the process for participating, eligible tariffs, cost recovery mechanisms, and more.

According to the CCSA, CPUC is moving nothing forward and instead, “doubles down on supporting the broken proposal from the state’s utilities and would make California’s community solar program dead on arrival. It will not result in the development of new projects as envisioned by AB 2316 and will continue to leave California with no functional community solar program.”

The CCSA emphasizes the value that community solar can bring to California’s grid and help the state achieve both clean energy and equity objectives. Moving forward with the revised proposed decision, CCSA contends, would mean ignoring the many groups from the legislature to a broad coalition of ratepayers and other groups who seek a functional community solar program.

An increasing number of states are implementing pro-active community solar policies just as the market is starting take off. While installations of community solar contracted in 2022, Wood Mackenzie forecasts the U.S. community solar market to grow 118% over the next five years, with at least 6 GW expected to come online in existing markets between 2023 to 2027.

“California should be seizing this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a vibrant market. We urge the CPUC to slow down and take the additional time necessary to get this important decision right,” said Derek Chernow, Western regional director for the CCSA.

Texas has a unique electric grid. Its grid operation organization, ERCOT, is independent of other states and deregulated, making the state open for business for a market-based approach toward energy generation and transmission. 

Texas has been a favorite among utility-scale solar PV developers for a long time, thanks to its business-friendly environment and its lack of substantial local permitting regimes. The state is also operating as a proving ground for the buildout of a more nascent industry: virtual power plants (VPP). 

VPPs are defined by their distributed and connected nature. Rather than transmitting power over long distances from a centralized power plant, VPPs use smart software to control a variety of connected energy assets like rooftop residential solar, battery energy storage, smart heating and cooling, and appliances. Homeowners with eligible VPP assets are compensated for exporting power or reducing use at electricity demand events throughout the year. 

A panel of experts at the RE+ Texas conference in Houston, spoke on VPP progress in the state. The discussion opened with Stuart Page, senior consultant, Department of Energy (DOE) Loans Program Office asking the audience whether they were currently enrolled in a VPP program. Only two people in a room of hundreds raised their hands. Page then asked how many in the audience had heard of VPP, and most conference attendees raised their hands. 

“I bet every single one of you has an energy resource or utilization than can be controlled by an app,” said Page. “Yet none of you are enrolled, despite the fact that there are discounts with your electric bill associated with it.”

Page said that part of the issue with VPP participation is the complexity of programs. Often, they require an opt-in, where the customer must choose to join the VPP program. Page said that VPP providers should instead choose an opt-out model, where customers are automatically enrolled in the program when they buy a smart device like a thermostat or a home battery. He cited a DOE experiment where an automatic enrollment model with an opt-out option increased participation by 400%. 

So why are virtual power plants important? VPPs enable intelligent, local distribution of power, sending what is needed when it is needed. VPPs typically support reducing electricity use during times of peak demand, providing a critical service that may be one of the most important low-hanging fruits to pick in the nation’s progress towards decarbonizing energy and lowering energy costs. 

VPP technology has shown immediate promise in replacing natural gas “peaker plants” on grids, replacing or preventing the buildout of new resources that are among the dirtiest, most expensive, and least efficient on the grid today. 

The virtual power plant commercial liftoff report released by the Department of Energy said that between 2023 and 2030, coincident peak demand on the grid will rise by about 60 GW, from roughly 740 GW to 800 GW of demand. 

“At the same time, fossil assets are retiring,” said the report. “Roughly 200 GW of peak-coincident demand must be served with new resources coming online by 2030. Tripling the current scale of VPPs could address 10-20% of this peak demand. This could avoid about $10 billion in annual grid costs, and much of the money that is spent on VPPs would flow back to participating consumers.” 

Texas proving ground 

Even in a room full of energy industry members and experts, almost nobody attending the RE+ Texas panel session admitted to being enrolled in a VPP. The biggest barrier to adoption has been the creation and implementation of a standardized VPP program, which many states lack. 

To automatically enroll customers at the point of purchase as Page suggested, a program needs to be in place to enable it. Sterling Clifford, director of government affairs, Sunnova Energy, a VPP provider shared that many state utility regulators have said VPP technology is a “long way off.” 

“But it doesn’t have to be,” said Clifford. “The beginning of the process to the launch of the product was 12 months (in Texas).” 

Texas already has 16 MW of energy resources and 7 MW of non-spin flexible demand enrolled in VPP programs. 

Part of what enabled such a quick launch of the program was necessity. Ryan King, manager, market design, for the ERCOT said the catastrophic Winter Storm Uri in early 2021 forced the grid operator to look for new sources of reliable, dispatchable supply at the distribution level, while reducing transmission and distribution costs and increasing grid resiliency. ERCOT landed on VPPs as a solution. 

Another aspect of Texas’ readiness to adopt VPP programs are its electricity-savvy customers. Texas homeowners and renters are already used to making energy decisions at home, as frequently have to shop for new electricity contracts via a Retail Electricity Provider (REP). Contracts typically last a year or two, similar to how a VPP program enables short-term enrollment. 

Texas was also already uniquely well-suited to integrate a VPP program, said King, as ERCOT is already able to value an avoided kWh of electricity, or a dispatched one. This type of valuation is enabled by Texas’ deregulated market, which allow various resources to participate in the market more freely than utilities in other major markets. 

Texas has only just begun its VPP enrollment and already has a combined 23 MW of flexible capacity online. King said that VPP compensation for homeowners is “the closest thing to a free lunch,” and that once further program requirements are ironed out, growth will be “exponential.” 

As for other states, it may prove more difficult to roll out VPPs. While ERCOT has a transparent market where avoided costs of demand reduction and the value of distributed electricity can be directly understood, other states, like California, have a highly vertical electricity market, where cost allocation reporting is murky. 

“A vertically integrated utility – we should just call it a monopoly because that is what they are – don’t always tell the truth about what the exact costs are,” said Clifford. 

For Texas, a highly competitive free market have opened the door for adoption of new technologies like VPP. In vertical markets like California, “perverse incentives” may close that door. 

DOE’s Stuart Page explained how VPPs lower costs both for grid operators and for ratepayers, but that investor-owned utilities have a disincentive to properly manage their spending habits. 

“We have a rate-based system, which means, instead of shaving the peak of my load, we can just build out new stuff,” said Page. “If I can spend $10 billion on that, I get a rate-based profit margin on it. So, I want to spend tons of money. If I use a VPP approach or any other ‘smart’ approach, I don’t get an increase in my profits. So, there’s a perverse incentive for utilities to participate, and we have to change that.”

What tax credit transfer buyers need to know about IRA compliance The key to ensuring expected financial returns from the IRA comes down to a single word: compliance, and tax credit compliance is fraught with risk and complex to manage.

Solar peaks at 123% of grid, supplies 31% of California’s April electricity The Golden State set multiple clean energy records in April, with solar power increasingly dominating the grid, supported by robust energy storage solutions.

Perovskites move into production Perovskites remain a great hope for the future of the solar industry, once the possibilities of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) and heterojunction PV have been exhausted. A look at the latest perovskite research shows that industry optimism is built on a strong foundation.

Solar industry panel cautions about 2025 Texas Legislature According to BloombergNEF’s just released 1H 2024 US Clean Energy Market Outlook, Texas promises to top the charts in terms of solar, wind and battery storage deployments in the period from 2024 to 2035. But it’s position as the number one U.S. state for renewable energy is not a given, as panelists made clear at last week’s RE+ Texas conference in Houston, Texas.

The Hydrogen Stream: Nikola to sell 100 fuel-cell hydrogen trucks to Port of LA In a hydrogen news roundup: Nikola plans to sell 100 hydrogen fuel-cell trucks for logistic operations in California, Volvo has started developing hydrogen combustion trucks, and Airbus has announced plans to launch a study into hydrogen projects in the US state of Georgia.

Energy security in renewables-based systems A new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) examines the global energy system’s transformation and its implications for energy security. It tells policymakers that energy security in renewables-based systems will require multi-dimensional thinking.

When is the next Aurora due and what’s the impact on solar generation? In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, explains that the solar cycle does tend to increase the earth’s average annual extra-terrestrial irradiance, but only by a very small amount. It also explains that, while the annual cycle of extra-terrestrial irradiance causes a steady, predictable and significant 3.5% change through the seasonal cycle, the peak of the 11-year cycle of solar activity causes a smaller, more sporadic and unpredictable set of fluctuations.

“Green zealots” scare Florida administration from 100% renewable goal In a significant policy reversal, Florida has scrapped its renewable energy targets for 2050, imposed a complete ban on offshore wind projects, and eased regulations for gas pipeline expansions.

California’s recent strides in emission-free electricity and energy storage have garnered global attention, from top-tier publications to outlets on the other side of the globe.

According to data from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and record keeping by Stanford Professor Marc Jacobson, “for 45 days straight and 69 of 75, California #WindWaterSolar (electricity) supply has exceeded demand part of each day. On May 20, (supply exceeded demand for) 7.58 h, peaking at 135.4% of demand. On average over 75 days, WWS>demand for 5.3 h/day.”

This performance is bolstered by the extensive use of batteries during the evening electricity peak demand period. As seen in the chart above, the batteries (seen in dark blue) play a crucial role during these ramping periods.

Essentially, the engineers managing California’s power grid have adapted to harness inherently unpredictable power sources.

When it comes to solar, these impressive figures still underestimate the impact of sunlight. This is because they only account for utility-scale generation, with rooftop and behind-the-meter projects contributing an additional 15 GW of capacity worth of electricity – almost equal to utility scale capacity.

For utility-scale supplied solar power, April in CAISO showcased an impressive performance. Generally, April is the third-highest month for solar as a percentage of all electricity, per data from pv magazine USA’s 50 States of Solar report.

However, this past April, the instantaneous “All-Time Max Demand” record was broken four times, rising from an 80.4% record set in April of 2022, to a new record of 97.5% on April 20th this year.

This raises an interesting question: why did ‘All Time Max Demand Served’ jump so significantly this year, especially after it had remained mostly static throughout 2023? It all boils down to increased battery capacity, which has allowed solar to expand its influence more effectively. Notably, we recently saw utility-scale battery capacity surpass 8 GW, which has now began to offset the evening peak demand periods.

Since the electricity for these batteries primarily comes from solar power, perhaps we should also consider that solar is meeting the evening peak demand?

pv magazine USA conducted an analysis of CAISO generation data and discovered that on April 21, solar electricity actually peaked at more than 123% of total electricity generation.

Solar can supply more than 100% of demand due to the net effect of batteries charging. On this date, solar also accounted for almost 38% of all electricity generated within the CAISO region, marking the peak value for the month. Additionally, the following day, CAISO recorded a new high for peak solar output at 18,374 MW.

The chart also highlights the April 8th eclipse – noted with a large dip in generation in light blue around 11 a.m. PST.

According to gridstatus.io, April 21st also marked a new record for battery output at 10:10 p.m., reaching 6,458 MW. This record has since been surpassed multiple times, with the current peak now at 7,528 MW. This record is expected to continue to grow as more utility-scale energy storage is deployed this year.

Over the entire month of April, solar was the largest source of electricity by far, contributing just over 31%. In total, solar combined with hydro, wind, nuclear, and geothermal provided almost 70% of the electricity, with methane generating 19%. Given that imports historically are historically 50% emission-free, this would put the total emission-free electricity used in California in April at approximately 75%.

PERC solar products hard to sell due to falling TOPCon module prices Prices for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar panels continue to fall. pvXchange.com founder Martin Schachinger explains how this will affect the sale of PV modules based on passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) cells.

Colorado modernizes community solar program Governor Polis signed into law bipartisan legislation that launches a new dispatchable distributed generation program and leverages Solar for All funding to upgrade its grid, lower energy bills for all and promote energy equity.

SunPower now offers Tesla Powerwall 3 to residential solar customers SunPower Financial reported it has expanded its suite of solar financing options to include loan and lease financing through Mosaic for Tesla battery installations.

California is now a batteries-included rooftop solar market About 60% of customers have included battery energy storage with their rooftop solar installation, up from roughly 10% prior. However, a “sustained downturn” is expected for the market.

Bladeless wind energy innovation aims to compete with rooftop solar A compact, “motionless” wind turbine with a magnetic generator designed for large commercial rooftops provides 5 kW of capacity per unit. Aeromine Technologies secured Series A funding for scaling its innovative design.

Quantifying losses from harmonics in solar facilities Gamesa Electric has released a white paper on losses due to harmonics in PV plants, including an independent study that compares the performance of ultra-low total harmonic distortion inverters.

Research shows repaired PV modules can perform with acceptable losses A research group has demonstrated the technical feasibility of using repaired solar modules with satisfying results. It also warned, however, that there is an urgent need to define a protocol for evaluating the features of a “viable” repaired panel.

California transitioned its rooftop solar policy on April 15, 2023, eliminated net energy metering (NEM) and moving toward a net billing tariff (NBT) structure. The change essentially cut the rate paid to customers for exporting their excess solar production to the grid by about 80%. On year later, Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has released a report evaluating changes in the state’s rooftop solar market.

LNBL found that rooftop solar installations in California were roughly equal in 2023 to 2022. However, 80% of the systems installed were NEM 2.0 installations rushing into interconnection queues before the April 15, 2023 deadline to secure the more lucrative rate structure. To date, about 50,000 systems have been interconnected under the new NBT structure, in addition to 200,000 NEM systems interconnected over the same period.

Data from EnergySage, operator of the largest residential solar quote site in the U.S., are “suggestive of a more sustained downturn,” said the report.

Quote requests spiked during the December 2022-April 2023 window between announcement and implementation of NBT. Since then, monthly quote requests have averaged roughly 60% of historical (2019-2021) levels.

A 40% drop in historical quote requests is a “leading indicator” for market activity and “is perhaps the clearest signal yet of a substantial and sustained market contraction,” said LBNL.

A significant contraction of the rooftop solar market is not an ideal outcome for California, a state with ambitious clean energy goals and an electricity affordability crisis. Trade association leaders have warned that California is unlikely to reach its clean energy targets without robust contributions from the rooftop solar industry.

(Read the opinion piece: “We must push back on net billing“)

However, the transition to NBT has created some outcomes in California that may be desirable. The profile of an installed system has changed considerably. Pre-NBT, customers attached battery energy storage with their rooftop array in roughly 10% of installations. Now, post-NBT installations include batteries 60% of the time.

This is important for California’s grid operators, that seek to smooth out the mismatch between solar generated electricity supply and demands on the grid. This mismatch, often represented by the “duck curve,” has been deepening in California, causing pricing and grid maintenance issues, and creating a need for inefficient natural gas “peaker” plants to serve times of high demand and low generation.

The high battery attachment rate offers customers some benefits, too. While the overall sticker price goes up with a battery-attached system, the return on investment has improved relative to a solar-only installation.

Installers report a median payback period of eight years for solar systems with a battery, while standalone solar systems have a longer median payback period of about 10 years. Battery storage enables customers to store their solar production and use it when grid prices are at their highest, rather than selling it to the grid at pennies on the dollar on sunny afternoons. Solar-battery owners also have the option to be compensated for exporting power during peak demand events or emergencies, potentially creating a new stream of revenue.

Customers with batteries also benefit from having backup power during grid outages, which remains the number one reason for including batteries nationwide, according to an installer survey by SolarReviews.

“Since November 2023, residential storage installs have averaged roughly 5,000 systems per month, more than double the monthly pace over the preceding three years,” said the report from LBNL.

The Berkeley Labs report noted a change in financing options for residential solar customers. Over the final 12-months of NEM, third party ownership rates, including leased and power purchase agreement systems, averaged 26% for stand-alone solar and 11% for solar and storage systems. This jumped up to 39% for standalone solar and 52% for solar plus storage under the NBT system. Some of this change may be attributed to increased interest rates creating loan terms for customers that are more difficult to digest.

Finally, the Berkeley Labs report noted an increase in consolidation in the California rooftop solar market. The market share of the top five installers in the state rose from 40% during the last year of NEM to 51% during the first year of NBT.

One year in, it is clear that the change to NBT has drastically altered the California rooftop solar industry. However, the backlog of NEM orders being served in 2023 has made it unclear what the total effect of this policy change will bring. This sets the stage for 2024 being a critical proving ground for the health of this industry.

“These trends, and others, will no doubt come into sharper focus over the next year or so, once the NEM backlog is fully cleared and a ‘new normal’ under NBT sets in,” concluded Galen Barbose, staff scientist, LBNL.

The U.S. recently exceeded five million solar installations, with the residential sector accounting for 97% of all solar installations in the U.S., according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.

A recent report, The state(s) of distributed solar—2023 update from the Institute of Local Self Reliance (ILSR), estimates that 29 GW of solar capacity was installed in 2023; 31% of which is distributed solar. Distributed solar is solar that is owned by individuals, small businesses and public entities—and is generated at or very near the site where it is used.

The map below shows how much distributed solar was installed in each state through 2023, relative to population.

For the purposes of the map, community solar in Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon is included as distributed solar.

To arrive at these figures, ILSR added its own figures on state community solar capacity to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) figures on small-scale photovoltaic capacity by state. This sum was divided by state population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, resulting in a figure of watts per person. The U.S. EIA did not collect data from Alabama or North Dakota.

A key finding is that 21 states and the District of Columbia have a distributed solar saturation of more than 100 watts per capita.

California, Arizona, Nevada, and Massachusetts all land in the top ten for both distributed solar saturation and total solar generation capacity.

California, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina have the largest overall capacity whereas Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and California have the greatest distributed solar saturation, as measured in installed distributed solar capacity per capita.

Several state solar markets have made significant changes since ISLR’s 2022 update. Installed distributed capacity grew by more than 1 GW in Texas (6 GW), California (4.7 GW), Florida (2.5 GW), Ohio (1.8 GW), Virginia (1.2 GW), and Colorado (1.1 GW).

Five states doubled or more than doubled installed capacity in 2023, including South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Arkansas. While doubling capacity is good news, it still may not amount to much as both South Dakota and West Virginia are considered “solar laggards” according to PV Intel’s analysis, based on EIA data.

Other states that saw strong growth include Wisconsin, Indiana, Montana, Louisiana, Maine, and Michigan.

Community solar

Community solar provides a way for people to benefit from solar energy who may be unable to install solar either due to financial restrictions or because they do not have a suitable rooftop for solar.

ILSR’s 2024 Community Power Scorecard states that “a model community solar policy has no cap, has a fair compensation rate, simplifies the billing process for subscribers, meaningfully accounts for the challenge of reaching low- and moderate-income (LMI) subscribers, and rewards other beneficial development or small subscriber-friendly practices”.

ILSR reports that state policies like community solar, net metering, simplified interconnection rules and a renewable portfolio standard carve-out for distributed energy are crucial in promoting the adoption of distributed solar.

The distributed solar report notes that 19 states and the District of  Columbia currently have community solar policies and highlights nine states that ILSR calls “solar-enabling” for their strong community solar policies and installed capacity.

Total installed community solar capacity at the end of 2023:

1. New York 1.72 GW
2. Minnesota 904 MW
3. Massachusetts 852 MW
4. Illinois 251 MW
5. Maryland 149 MW
6. Colorado 147 MW
7. New Jersey 137 MW
8. Oregon 29 MW
9. Hawaii 4 MW

ILSR tracks these policies and others in its Community Power Map. According to the ILSR’s Community Power Scorecard, 26 received failing grades in 2024, suggesting that many states have much room for improvement.

ILSR’s State(s) of Distributed Solar analysis is updated annually. For a historical snapshot, explore archived analyses of distributed solar by state in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

Plug Power’s $1.6 billion loan guarantee for clean hydrogen facilities The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office announced a conditional commitment for loan guarantee to help finance construction of up to six facilities across several U.S. states to produce clean hydrogen using Plug Power’s own electrolyzer technology.

U.S. solar exceeds five million installations Over half of all U.S. solar installations have come online since the start of 2020 and over 25% have come online since the Inflation Reduction Act became law.

No ceiling on U.S. glass opportunity With PV module capacity ramping up, glass suppliers have been investing in new solar glass production capacity. As in India and China, new facilities are popping up in North America, with unique twists to ensure competitiveness, such as using recycled material.

‘We must push back on net billing’ With California’s NEM 3.0 legislation having gutted panel sales and Arizona heading a bevy of other US states preparing to reduce solar-export payments, it’s time the United States solar industry stepped up, for ourselves as well as our customers.

Faulty installations often to blame for battery fires The Electric Power Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and German battery analysis specialist Twaice have jointly evaluated 26 battery fires between 2018 and 2023. They say that the diversity of components plays a critical role in igniting fires.

U.S. solar industry week in review pv magazine USA spotlights news stories of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.

The U.S. multi-pronged approach to onshoring solar manufacturing The U.S. aims for a domestic solar supply chain, but the industry’s capacity to serve the early stages in solar manufacturing are minimal. Will its recent industrial policy efforts make a difference?

]]> https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/05/17/u-s-solar-industry-week-in-review-10/feed/ 0 104344 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/05/17/researchers-demonstrate-25-efficient-perovskite-cadmium-tandem-solar-cell/ https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/05/17/researchers-demonstrate-25-efficient-perovskite-cadmium-tandem-solar-cell/#respond Fri, 17 May 2024 15:21:59 +0000 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/?p=104356 University of Toledo researchers say the cell has a top perovskite cell with a transparent back contact made of indium zinc oxide and a commercially established cadmium telluride bottom device. They claim the champion tandem cell has the potential to reach a 30% efficiency.

From pv magazine Global

A research group at the University of Toledo in the United States has designed a four-terminal (4T) tandem solar cell with a top device relying on a perovskite absorber with a tunable wide-bandgap and a bottom cell using a commercially established narrow-bandgap absorber technology made of cadmium telluride (CdTe).

“While a lot of work has been done on perovskite-silicon, perovskite-CIGS, and perovskite-perovskite tandem cells, perovskite-cadmium telluride tandem solar cells are relatively unexplored,” the scientists said. “Although the efficiency potential of CdTe-based tandems is likely lower than CIGS-based tandems due to the higher bandgap of the CdTe bottom cell, the broader commercial success of CdTe solar cells makes them a point of interest in investigating thin-film tandem applications.”

The academics said a key element of the solar cell is the transparent back contact (TBC) technology used for the top tunable wide-bandgap perovskite cell. For the construction of these contacts, they used indium zinc oxide (IZO) as an alternative to well-established indium tin oxide (ITO).

They prepared the IZO films through the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique, which is an approach involving alternating the electrical potential of the current in a vacuum environment at RFs.

They also explained that their efforts were aimed at identifying the ideal IZO thickness, as this plays a crucial role in improving the performance and optical transmittance of the semitransparent perovskite top cell by increasing the perovskite bandgap allowing more long-wavelength photons to transmit and enter the CdSeTe bottom cell. In turn, this compensates for a typical optical loss factor in a 4T tandem configuration.

The top cell was constructed with a substrate made of glass and indium tin oxide (ITO), a hole transport layer (HTL) made of nickel(II) oxide (NiOx), a layer made of a phosphonic acid called methyl-substituted carbazole (Me-4PACz), the perovskite absorber, an electron transport layer (ETL) relying on buckminsterfullerene (C60), a tin oxide (SnOx) buffer layer, and the IZO back contact.

The bottom cell was designed to have a substrate made of glass and ITO, an ETL made of tin oxide (SnO2), a cadmium telluride (CdTe) absorber, a cadmium selenium telluride (CdSeTe) layer, a copper thiocyanate (CuSCN) HTL, and a gold metal contact.

Both cells were covered with an anti-reflecting coating.

The best tandem cell configuration was achieved when the absorber of the top cell was tuned to have an energy bandgap of 1.76 eV. With this value, the device reached an overall power conversion efficiency of 25.1%.

The top cell was found to achieve an efficiency of 17.93%, an open-circuit voltage of 1.315 V, a short-circuit current of density of 17.11 mA cm², and a fill factor of 79.7%. The bottom cell showed an efficiency of 7.13%, an open-circuit voltage of 0.842 V, a short-circuit current of density of 11.15 mA cm², and a fill factor of 76.0%.

“The result proves the concept that 4T perovskite–CdSeTe tandem configuration can be used to improve the efficiency of commercial CdSeTe thin-film solar cells,” the researchers stated, adding they are currently outlining a roadmap to increase the device’s efficiency to 30%. “Our analysis reveals that high-efficiency 4T perovskite–CdSeTe tandem solar cells are feasible with the future advance of both PV cells.”

The details of the new cell design can be found in the study “Four-Terminal Perovskite–CdSeTe Tandem Solar Cells: From 25% toward 30% Power Conversion Efficiency and Beyond,” which was recently published in RRL Solar.

The University of Toledo developed several types of CdTe solar cells over the past years. The devices include, among others, a 20%-efficient cell based on a commercial tin(IV) oxide (SnO₂) buffer layer, a 17.4%-efficient device using a layer of copper-aluminum oxide to the rear side of the CdTe thin film, and a solar cell based on an indium gallium oxide (IGO) emitter layer and a cadmium stannate (CTO) transparent conductor as the front electrode.

If you flipped through the December 2023 issue of Time magazine, you might have seen an article focused on fraud in the solar industry and the bad actors perpetuating it.

In the 20 years since founding installer Independent Solar, I’ve seen these bad actors and their shady business practices firsthand. While I’m saddened to say that these companies have eroded some of the public’s trust in our industry, they aren’t the only ones to blame. Thanks to changing regulations, customers don’t always see their promised savings and if customers feel like solar power is just a bait-and-switch followed by an endless maze of shifting regulation, it’s no wonder fewer and fewer households are willing to sign solar contracts.

I’ve already seen that shift beginning. Regulatory winds are blowing and solar customers have been thrown into what can only be called a sea of confusion. This has been evident since it washed over California in April 2023 in the form of new net energy metering tariff NEM 3.0.

NEM 3.0

If you aren’t familiar with the situation, NEM 3.0 drastically reduced the amount of compensation solar homeowners receive for unused electricity which is sold back into the grid.

Before NEM 3.0, California did what most states do — it used one-to-one net metering, so customers were credited the same amount for exported solar power as they’d pay to use that amount of electricity from the grid. That meant that their electricity often paid for itself.

NEM 3.0 moved from net metering to net billing. It’s a small change in terminology but a big change in practice. With net billing, the reimbursement rate is calculated based on the day, time, and even month the customer uses the electricity. It’s a deliberately complicated system and the bottom line is that customers are being reimbursed about 75% less than they were before.

Industry suffering

As a result, some solar customers are, understandably, starting to panic. They aren’t alone. Research firm Wood Mackenzie has predicted that, in 2024, solar installation rates in California will decrease by 38%. Investment bank Roth Capital Partners expects something even more dire — a 50% contraction in the solar market in 2024.

Unfortunately, customers who purchased solar power systems for the savings are seeing those returns evaporate before their eyes. Under the new regulations, customers can still save almost as much as before by installing a battery but that is pretty costly so it’s not an option for everyone.

If you live in another US state, you might be relieved that you aren’t dealing with NEM 3.0 but the truth is that many other states are following suit. In fact, Arizona actually beat California to the punch when it came to lowering overall customer energy savings. It drastically reduced customer savings in 2016, far ahead of California.

Further hit

The Arizona legislature is now considering whether it should lower compensation rates even further. Sadly, I think it’s likely that Arizona will lower those compensation rates.

I believe this was always the legislative plan: incentivize homeowners to install solar panels with artificially low rates and then placate utility companies by reducing reimbursement levels. This is hardly a regional issue. Several other states – including Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, and North Carolina – have recently made similar changes to slash savings.

As a result, it’s an uncertain time for customers. Unless something changes, solar companies nationwide will see a continued reduction in solar power installations and this is especially true for states with turbulent legislation like Arizona, where panels are installed with the promise of significant savings, they are then reduced, and the legislature is already considering reducing them again.

I think the executive director of the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association, Autumn T. Johnson, was spot-on when she said, “It’s hard to argue that you should invest $30,000 or $40,000 or $50,000 into a solar system on your home when you have absolutely no idea how the [public utilities] commission is going to treat that from a regulatory perspective tomorrow or next year because they cannot be counted on to maintain the decisions they’ve previously instituted.”

Incentive

Solar is a major upfront investment that is meant to reduce long-term costs but it only works in customers’ favor if they save enough on utility bills to make the solar panels pay for themselves. The less consumers save on energy, the longer that takes.

From a customer vantage point, if they’re still paying almost as much for utilities as they did before, why bother with the cost of solar power?

As an industry, we are responsible for showing our customers that solar is still good for their wallets. It’s still good for the environment, after all.

We also have a responsibility to advocate against billing adjustments that decimate consumer savings. NEM 3.0 might make solar power seem like a bait-and-switch, and without adjustment on our part, it will be. However, with trust, open communication, and intelligent advocacy, we can help customers move toward the new frontier of truly on-site solar power.

Randy French, owner and founder of Phoenix-based Independent Solar, began the company in 2003. 

According to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, the U.S. has officially exceeded five million solar installations, marking a milestone that comes just eight years after the U.S. reached one million installations in 2016.

To put the rapid growth of the U.S. solar industry in perspective, the first solar installation was connected to the grid in 1973, and in just 41 years there are now more than five million grid-connected installs.

The rise in U.S. solar has not always been as meteoric as it is today, as over half of all U.S. solar installations have come online in just the past four years and over 25% have come online since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in 2022.

“Solar is scaling by the millions because it consistently delivers on its promise to lower electricity costs, boost community resilience, and create economic opportunities,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Today 7% of homes in America have solar, and this number will grow to over 15% of U.S. homes by 2030. Solar is quickly becoming the dominant source of electricity on the grid, allowing communities to breathe cleaner air and lead healthier lives.”

SEIA forecasts that solar installations in the U.S. will double to 10 million by 2030 and triple to 15 million by 2034.

The residential sector accounts for 97% of all solar installations in the U.S., with a total of 36 GW installed by the end of 2023. While just 7% of homes in the U.S. currently have solar, that number is expected to grow to more than double to over 15% by 2030.

State policy making a difference

California leads the nation with 2 million solar installations, but the state’s residential market was harmed when  the California Public Utilities Commission’  NEM 3.0 policy change cut payments for exported solar energy by about 75%.

Several other states are seeing rapid growth. Illinois was an emerging market with only 2,500 solar installations in 2017, and today it is a shining example of where solar policy promotes clean energy growth. Illinois is home to more than 87,000 solar installations or about 27 GW and 65 GW more is expected to come online in the next five years according to the SEIA.

Strong policies, such as the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), are behind the growth in Illinois. Its RPS requires 25% of energy comes from renewable sources by 2025. The state also has the Illinois Shines program with incentives that makes solar more affordable for all. And Illinois has targets to have 40% of its energy come from renewable sources by 2030 and is aiming for 100% by 2050.

Florida is another market experiencing substantial growth, increasing from 22,000 installations in 2017 to 235,000 installations today. In a surprising move that buoyed rooftop solar in the state, the governor vetoed a bill that would have dropped net metering credits to near zero. The bill was founded on the same cost shift rhetoric used in California’s move to NEM 3.0, which has not fared well for rooftop solar.

“Florida is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the country with new businesses popping up all across the state,” said Hopper. This veto signals that Florida’s energy economy is open for business, and that the rights of state residents should be placed ahead of monopoly utility interests.”

While the number of installations throughout the U.S. is impressive, the difference solar is making in the nation’s capacity is testament to the fact that solar is making a difference. For the first time, solar accounted for over half of new electricity generation capacity added 2023 and, by 2050, solar is expected to be the largest source of generating capacity on the U.S. grid.

The 5 million solar installations are making a serious cut to carbon emissions. SEIA estimates that the installations displace 198 million metric tons of CO2 every year. This reduction is the equivalent to 22 billion gallons of gas, or enough gas to travel to the sun and back nearly 3,000 times in a traditional ICE vehicle.  Overall, SEIA calculates that the current solar capacity in the U.S. offsets the emissions of 12 million Americans, which is greater than the population of New York City and Los Angeles combined.

FERC transmission rule to shore up the nation’s power grid The ruling, which is being praised by industry groups, is the first time in more than a decade that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has addressed regional transmission policy as well as the need for long-term transmission planning.

Solar powered electric truck stop opens in California WattEV’s 5.7 MW solar-powered truck stop, with demand charge management driven by solar-;plus-storage, has begun operations in Bakersfield, California.

Powering drones with ultra-thin, flexible perovskite PV cells An Austrian research team has demonstrated that lightweight, flexible and ultra-thin perovskite solar technology can power palm-sized autonomous drones.

Trina Solar records 65.21 GW of solar module shipments for 2023 Trina Solar says its solar panel shipments reached 65.21 GW in 2023. The Chinese module maker achieved a turnover of $15.75 billion and a net profit of $768.2 million in fiscal 2023, with an annual module production capacity of 95 GW by the end of December.

Two approaches to save net metering in Puerto Rico A solar trade group wants the White House to appoint new pro-solar members to the federal oversight board that has challenged Puerto Rico’s net metering law, while the former president of the Puerto Rico Senate advises considering amending the law.

WattEV has officially opened the world’s largest solar-powered truck charging station in Bakersfield, California. The facility is equipped with a 5.7 MW solar array, featuring a pre-wired racking system from Australian solar manufacturer 5B, designed for rapid deployment and minimal installation costs. Additionally, a 2.7 MWh energy storage system is integrated into the plant to mitigate peak demand charges from the numerous truck chargers.

The depot boasts extensive technical capabilities, including:

• 5.7 MW solar array
  
• 2.7 MWh of battery storage
• 16 dual-cord 360 kW grid-connected chargers
• 15 single-cord 240 kW CCS chargers
• 3 MCS 1,200 kW rapid chargers

To better understand how the solar-plus-storage systems are integrated into the facility, pv magazine USA consulted Umar Javed, the president of WattEV. Umar detailed the specific power management across the chargers:

The 15 CCS chargers of 240 kW are powered by solar and battery storage only.  Each group of 5 of these chargers is powered by a 1.2 MW power cabinet. That same power cabinet is connected to a 1.2 MW MCS charger. The power cabinet contains internal DC power allocation. All the power can go to one MCS or to 5 CCS and other power sharing profiles in between. This design allows for transition from the current CCS standard to MCS.

WattEV’s press release detailed how the integration of the 240 kW CCS and 1,200 kW MCS chargers with the onsite solar facility is managed by software designed to optimize solar generation with scheduled truck charging needs, specifically to minimize demand charges. This system ensures operational continuity even during grid outages.

The solar power portion of the facility is currently 5.7 MW, with plans for future expansion to 25 MW alongside increased charging capabilities.

WattEV opted for 5B’s Maverick solar deployment system, which consists of 90 modules per package, with four packages fitting into a shipping container. According to the company’s website, each module within the packages uses solar panels rated between 550 and 580 watts. Each package of 90 modules totals about 50 kW of solar. The company states that a crew of three to four can install a megawatt of modules in a week.

The project was awarded a $5 million grant from the State of California in 2021.

Strategically located on State Highway 99, a key freight corridor, the Bakersfield site is ideally situated to serve major agricultural and industrial regions in California. This location leverages high traffic volumes and serves as an essential node in WattEV’s broader network plans.

WattEV intends to replicate this model at other key freight corridors, planning to augment both solar capacity and charger availability. This expansion, integral to their broader Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) strategy, aims to enhance long-haul electric trucking across California.

California approves uncapped fixed charges on electricity bills The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to approve a controversial electricity rate rule called the Income-Graduated Fixed Charge, enabling utilities to assess an average $24 monthly fixed charge on residential bills.–roughly double the national average in the United States. It applies to all customers, regardless of how much electricity they consume. 

Cypress Creek Renewables constructs 208 MW / 80 MWh solar-plus-storage facility in Texas The site reached commercial operation on May 2, adding enough capacity to the grid to serve the equivalent of 41,600 homes in the Brackettville, Texas area. Over $11.5 million in tax revenues are expected to be generated for the county by the project, along with $11.7 million earmarked for the Bracket Independent School District.

Heliene inks supply agreement with UGE for U.S.-made solar modules With the Heliene supply agreement in place, UGE is projected to begin qualifying for the domestic content adder on projects that start construction as early as this summer.

Energy transition needs batteries… and more batteries A recent IEA report says China holds all the cards in chemistry and production.

Sunrun to aid California in its electricity imbalance with home solar and battery VPP Over 16,000 Sunrun customers will supply the grid during peak electricity demand events.

$20 Million federal initiative targets low-emission silicon and thin film research The Solar Energy Technologies Office has launched a dual initiative to propel upstream advancements in a collection of solar cell types, and to reduce the emissions of solar-grade polysilicon under 1 kg CO2 per kg.

Longi announces 27.30% efficiency for heterojunction back contact solar cell The Chinese module manufacturer said the new efficiency record was confirmed by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH).

Enteligent taking pre-orders for DC-to-DC solar-powered EV charger The company reports that the hybrid bi-directional EV charger can supply 12.5 kW of fast DC charging, charging two times faster than AC Level 2 EV chargers.

California approves uncapped fixed charges on electricity bills An uncapped average monthly charge of $24 will be added regardless of the amount of electricity used at home, sparking the ire of consumer advocates and energy conservationists.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has voted to approve a controversial electricity rate rule called the Income-Graduated Fixed Charge, enabling utilities to assess an average $24 monthly fixed charge on residential bills.

The fixed charge is roughly double the national average in the United States. It applies to all customers, regardless of how much electricity they consume. Opponents of the rate case argue that it will discourage energy conservation and efficiency at home. Grid expert and economist Ahmad Faruqui said the charge will disproportionately harm customers with low electric bills.

A major concern about the fixed charge, first introduced in California AB 205, is that it places no limit on how much the state’s largest investor-owned utilities can increase the fixed charge. Consumer and environmental advocates attempted to place a cap on the fixed charge at $10 per month, and despite the bill’s popularity, it was blocked from advancing to the committee for a vote.

“What is $24 today will turn into $80 tomorrow,” warned the Coalition for Environmental Equity and Economics.

Earlier proposals from California utilities proposed a fixed charge as high as $128 per month, and the door is now open for utilities to pursue these high charges. Upon the vote, CPUC said there needs to be “scrutiny” on future utility requests for increases to fixed charges, but language in the proposed decision creates no legal mandate for limiting fixed rate hikes.

Opponents of the rule also argue that the economics of rooftop solar are harmed by the proposal. Even if a customer’s rooftop solar array provides 100% of their electricity usage year-round, the fixed charge would apply, offsetting potential bill savings. California has made a series of regulatory and ratemaking changes that have challenged rooftop solar, causing industry leaders to flag concern that California may be off track in meeting its clean energy goals as a result.

California is currently suffering an electricity affordability crisis. Utility filings show that over 20% of customers of the three large utilities are over a month late on their bills, and that number rises to 33% in low-income brackets. Low-income customers are offered a discount in the monthly discount, so long as they self-attest to their income level in state programs like CARE.

CPUC said the fixed charge will help decouple energy generation charges from transmission, distribution, and grid maintenance charges. Along with the fixed charge, electricity rates for generation, called volumetric rates, will be reduced by about 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour.

While the volumetric rates have been lowered in this proposal by five to seven cents, this discount is essentially washed out by recent rate increases. PG&E approved a 13% rate hike, in 2024, while the proposed decision is expected to reduce rates by roughly 19%.

(Read: “California electricity pricing exploded in the last three years, far outpacing inflation”)

Peak demand electricity rates in PG&E currently exceed $0.62 per kWh. A solar and storage industry contact shared that these rates are expected to continue to skyrocket.

“We have been told every utility has a target to be over $1.00 in the near future for peak, summer rates,” the contact told pv magazine USA.

The fixed rate will appear on customer bills in late 2025 for SCE and SDG&E customers and early 2026 for PG&E customers.

Residential solar and energy storage provider Sunrun announced it has connected more than 16,200 California homes in a virtual power plant (VPP) to supply electricity during high-demand events in the summer.

A VPP is a virtual aggregation of small-scale, distributed energy resources (DERs) including PV, energy storage, electric vehicle chargers, and demand-responsive devices such as water heaters, thermostats, and appliances. VPP technology has shown immediate promise in replacing natural gas “peaker plants” on grids, offering additional capacity during times of peak electricity demand.

The VPP program is expected to reduce strain on the grid and provide power to local California communities to help prevent power emergencies. Customers in the program agree to enroll their battery-stored electricity in an energy dispatch schedule and are compensated for participation.

Last year, Sunrun’s VPP program, called Peak Power Rewards, supplied utility Pacific Gas & Electric up to 32 MW of power during evening peak demand hours from over 8,500 customer batteries. This summer, Sunrun is expected to roughly double enrollment and the capacity serving the grid.

This year’s VPP, called CalReady, will be run via the state’s Demand Side Grid Support program, administered by the California Energy Commission. The program comes as part of California’s Strategic Reliability Reserve, which aims to boost energy supply during heat waves, wildfires, and other extreme events.

(Read: “VPP preventing blackouts in Puerto Rico“)

“By sharing their clean solar power, they are making California’s grid more resilient for everyone. Sunrun’s CalReady is far and away the largest virtual power plant in the country and serves as a model for what the electric grid of the future should look like,” said Sunrun chief executive officer Mary Powell.

During the five months of this year’s CalReady program, Sunrun customers agree to enroll their battery to be tapped for energy dispatch up to 35 times over the summer.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) shared that as solar adoption grows in California, a grid imbalance described as the “duck curve” is deepening. The midday dip in net load is getting lower, making it more difficult for the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to balance the grid.

The swing in demand for electricity from conventional power plants from midday to late evenings, when energy demand is still high but solar generation has dropped off, means that conventional power plants like natural gas-fired peaker plants must rapidly ramp up electricity production to meet demand. Coordinated VPP programs like Sunrun’s CalReady can help serve this demand, lessening the need for inefficient natural gas peaker plants.

“The benefit of Sunrun’s fleet of many thousand batteries is that they can be orchestrated in unison. It’s the scale, speed and capacity that makes Sunrun’s virtual power plants so valuable,” said Chris Rauscher, head of grid services, Sunrun.

Raucher said that the VPP behaves like a centralized power plant in that it is controlled and dispatched by a single entity. He said a VPP has the advantage of being a distributed resource spread across houses statewide, making it more flexible, resilient, and adaptable when compared to a single-location centralized power plant.

Over the last decade, the U.S. has spent more than $120 billion on 100 GW of new generation capacity, mainly for resource adequacy. A study by Boston-based consultancy Brattle Group estimates utilities could save $35 billion by 2033 by focusing on VPPs for peak demand capacity.

“By deploying grid assets more efficiently, an aggregation of distributed resources lowers the cost of power for everybody, especially VPP participants,” said Jigar Shah, the director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loans Programs Office.

Sinovoltaics releases inverter manufacturer financial stability ranking  Sinovoltaics analyzed publicly traded inverter producers using a balance sheet-based model and publicly available financial information to track financial strength over the past three years. The top-five in the latest ranking are Hoymiles Power Electronics, Enphase, Kstar, Eaton, and Goodwe.

Swiss company Staubli expands U.S. manufacturing of solar components Staubli plans to increase manufacturing of American-made connectors and wire harnesses in its California and North Carolina facilities.

Solar microinverter and energy storage provider Enphase Energy has announced Mary Erginsoy as vice president and chief accounting officer. Erginsoy, who has around 20 years of experience in the solar industry’s financial sphere, is set to take over the role later this month. She is recognized for her expertise in operational accounting, financial reporting, and her time with SunPower Corporation and Ernst & Young.

EV battery grade lithium materials provider Stardust Power announced it named Randal Harris as director of construction. The company said the appointment marks a milestone in its mission to bridge the gap in the U.S. domestic supply of battery-grade lithium products.

Robroy Industries Enclosures Division announced the appointment of Alex Erwin as its central region development manager. Through its two brands, Stahlin and AttaBox, Robroy Enclosures offers a selection of non-metallic enclosures available for meeting the needs of diverse industries, interior and exterior applications, and physical property performance standards including NEMA 4X and NEMA 6P integrity.

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U.S. solar manufacturing and the SEMA Coalition expansion Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition has a goal of rebuilding the solar supply chain in the U.S.

Solar mounting system update K2 releases a new product, and Martin Roofing & Solar’s hidden-fastening solar mount achieves UL 2703 certification.

California batteries dominate evening grid with 10 GW/40 GWh of capacity  The state is once again setting springtime output records from solar, while energy storage takes over the peak electricity demand period becoming the maximum output source.

IEC develops standards for vehicle-integrated photovoltaics In its first monthly column for pv magazine, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) explains how a team of its experts is currently working on the definition of new standards for VIPV systems.

CATL presents EV battery with 1,000 km range Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) has shown its latest lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery at an auto show in Beijing. The Chinese company says it has an energy density of 205 Wh per kg, almost 8% higher than the current state of the art for such batteries.

Birch Creek to procure 547 MW of U.S.-made First Solar modules Birch Creek, which has a portfolio of over 14.2 GW of utility-scale solar and storage projects in various stages of development, says it plans to deploy the First Solar modules in projects across its development pipeline in the United States.

California announced that they’ve crossed the line of having 10 GW of energy storage installed on its power grid. As of the announcement, the state had noted that exactly 10.379 gigawatts of output was connected, which was an increase from 770 megawatts that was connected in 2019.

The state projects that it’ll need 52 GW of batteries connected to its grid by 2045. Along with an additional 57.5 GW of solar, state models suggest an additional 15.7 GW of four hour lithium ion batteries, and 19.5 GW of eight hour lithium ion batteries. Additional pumped hydro and long duration energy storage are also considered, however, in the models the volumes projected for now are low.

While the press release, and generally available public data, does not release data on the amount of hours that these systems would output, one can roughly estimate the hours based upon state standards, and general industry hardware standards.

The state has installed 154,155 total energy storage systems as of April 15th. Of those, just over 98% are residential systems totaling 1.076 GW of output capacity. Of the remaining, 2,777 are commercial systems, while 175 are directly grid connected utility scale facilities.

For the residential and commercial systems, totaling 1.647 GW, the general industry standard is to install from two to four hours of storage capacity behind the output capacity. If we estimate an average of three hours per output megawatt, then 4.951 GWh of storage may be available behind these units.

In California, because of policy, most utility scale batteries are four hours – suggesting the state’s 8.736 GW of out capacity has 34.944 GWh of storage behind them.

In total, 39,895 GWh of energy storage was connected to the grid as of a couple of weeks ago.

More significant than the capacity value though, is what the batteries are doing.

In 2019, California knew it had a challenge: fossils were retiring & evening peak periods were power failure prone. The state saw a need for <4.7 GW of power to handle these periods by 2022, and so implemented plans to deploy energy storage plus additional solar to fill up these batteries.

This spring, we’ve seen batteries do exactly what they were design to do – take over the evening peak periods.

For instance, on April 27th at 8.40 PM PST, utility scale batteries were outputting over 6.5 GW of power – the largest source of electricity by far. There were multiple hours when the batteries were the largest source as well.

An additional 8 GW of energy storage is expected to be deployed in the next year.

Central Coast Community Energy (3CE), a community choice aggregator (CCA) in the CAISO region, is seeking projects to meet its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and reliability goals.

3CE was established in 2017 and now serves over 436,000 customers in the Central Coast region of California, including in Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties.

3CE aims to procure power purchase agreements (PPAs) using the Ascend Analytics Energy Exchange (AEX), a marketplace for renewable and storage projects that helps pair energy consumers with asset owners. Ascend Analytics reports it has helped procure over 10 million MWh per year of renewable energy and 12,000 MWh of battery storage capacity for its customers. It has been working with 3CE since April 2022 supporting 3CE in RFP valuation, portfolio risk management and resource planning. For this 3CE RFP, Ascend will also support in evaluating all conforming bids using its Energy Analytics Platform, PowerSIMM.

The community choice aggregator is seeking new or existing clean energy and storage projects with commercial operation dates no later than December 31, 2032, with PPA term lengths of 10 to 20 years.

3CE seeks proposals from qualified parties in three categories, each requiring an offered capacity of at least 20 MW:

1. Renewable generation only contracts: Zero emissions generation capacity or capacity that is eligible under the requirements of California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program and has an expected annual capacity factor of at least 80%. No storage projects shall qualify under this product category. RPS-eligible generation includes solar, wind and geothermal.
2. Renewable generation plus storage contracts: RPS-eligible generation paired with storage projects. The storage discharge duration must be at least 4 hours and the capacity cannot exceed 100% of the generation nameplate capacity.
3. Standalone storage: Contracts with a discharge duration of at least 4 hours.

3CE reports that it currently has seven projects online with 409 MW of renewable generation and 110 MW of battery storage. It also has nine projects currently in development for a total of 632 MW of renewable generation and 480 MW of battery storage.

Last year, for example, 3CE executed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Hydrostor, valued at nearly $1 billion, for 200 MW/1600 MWh energy storage from a planned 500 MW compressed air energy storage system. Its share of the project will help the agency meet its goal of providing 100% clean and renewable electricity by 2030 to its 447,000 customers between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara counties, according to the aggregator.

The RFP team will host an informational webinar for this latest RFP interested bidders on May 2, 2024, at 11 a.m. PT. Submissions are due May 22, 2024, 5 p.m. PT. To participate, ask questions, and receive RFP updates and materials, prospects must register on the 3CE RFP website.

Julia Hamm joins Ad Hoc Group as partner. Julia brings decades of experience as the former CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), founder of RE+ (now the largest energy trade show in North America), and much more.

The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) announced that Jeremy Horan has joined the organization as its new vice president of Government Affairs. Horan joins ACORE following nearly 20 years of service in the U.S. Congress and executive branch, where he worked extensively to advance and defend clean energy policies. He most recently served as director of Congressional and Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

NeoVolta Inc., a San-Diego based specialist in smart energy storage solutions, appointed Ardes Johnson as its new chief executive officer. Mr. Johnson will officially assume his new role on April 29, 2024, bringing with him a wealth of experience and a proven track record of transformative leadership in the energy sector. His predecessor, Brent Willson, Founder and CEO of NeoVolta, will continue his role as chairman of the board and now serve as CTO.

Palmetto, a technology company accelerating residential clean energy adoption across the United States, announced the appointment of notable economist Lawrence H. Summers to its Advisory Board. Summers brings deep expertise to Palmetto, having served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama. His extensive understanding of economic policy and commitment to sustainable development align firmly with Palmetto’s work to democratize access to renewable energy sources.

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High interest rates are challenging the global transition to renewable energy  A report from Wood Mackenzie examines how the global shift to heightened interest rates to combat inflation is squeezing the energy transition.

Soltec launches dual-row, single-axis tracker  The SFOneX dual-row, single-axis tracker has a tracking range of up to 60 degrees, offering compatibility with 60-cell, 72-cell and 78-cell modules.

Solar module prices hovering at all-time lows  As solar module prices continue to fall, pvXchange.com founder Martin Schachinger explains how price pressure could increase in the weeks and months to come.

The role of energy storage systems in the electrification movement This Earth Month is the ideal time to highlight the trend toward electrification and offer businesses and homeowners a viable path to get there.

DOE aims for national collaboration to deploy advanced grid technologies  Advanced conductors and energy storage are among the technologies that have substantial potential to increase transmission capacity, says a Department of Energy “liftoff” report.

Earth Day celebrated with $7 billion solar funding announcement The Solar for All funding will bring clean solar energy to low-income and disadvantaged communities in every U.S. state and territory.

Solar market update: Southeast U.S. State-by-state insights shared at the RE+ Southeast conference held in Atlanta this month.

The Fallon Two Rock Road Solar Farm is now operational, according to partners MCE and Renewable America.

MCE is a not-for-profit electricity provider for more than 585,000 customer accounts and 1.5 million California residents and businesses. The company reports that 60% to 100% of the electricity it sells comes from renewable power, and that it is currently delivering 14 GW. The Fallon installation is MCE’s sixteenth feed-in tariff project to come online in the Bay Area.

Renewable America is a renewable energy developer that specializes in small utility-scale solar storage and community microgrid projects in California. The company reports that it currently has over 320 MW of solar and 680 MWh of energy storage projects under development throughout California.

Fallon is a 1 MW agrivoltaics installation that is expected to produce an estimated 2.3 GW/h annually. Renewable America told pv magazine USA that the project uses 2,240 650W Astronergy bifacial solar modules on 25-degree, fixed tilt OMCO Solar Choice trackers, with 10 Chint Power 100 kW inverters (each power derated to 96kW). The site is expected to power 300 homes and save about 19,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions throughout its 35-year lifetime.

“Renewable America’s motto ‘Think Local. Act Local’, drives us to prioritize local projects like Fallon Two Rock that positively impact local communities. This is our first project with MCE, supporting local clean energy generation and committing to fast-tracking progress toward a clean energy future in California,” said Ardeshir Arian, president & CEO of Renewable America.

Renewable America designed the project to occupy only 3.5% of a 4.5-acre parcel, with the rest remaining in a natural state. The fixed tilt trackers follow the natural slope of the land, so no grading was needed, according to the developer. The project also accommodates sheep grazing between the rows, for natural vegetation management.

Fallon Two Rock was built with nearly 4,000 hours of prevailing wage labor, according to the developer. Prevailing wage is a requirement of the Inflation Reduction Act that developers must meet in order to qualify for a tax credit adder. In essence, the prevailing wage requirements states that the taxpayer (developer) must pay any laborer, mechanic, contractor or subcontractor at the prevailing rates for the location in which the construction takes place, as determined by the Secretary of Labor.

RNA Services LLC, a subsidiary of Renewable America, served as the EPC partner during construction and is continuing its role in operations and maintenance. RNA has also committed $20,000 to MCE for local workforce development.

“Clean energy is just one part of the transition to a sustainable future,” said Katie Rice, MCE board director and County of Marin supervisor. “The additional funding RNA committed will help MCE grow the clean energy economy, providing training opportunities for local residents to enter the green workforce.”

BoxPower announced it was awarded close to $3 million in grant funds from the California Energy Commission (CEC) through the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program’s Realizing Accelerated Manufacturing and Production for Clean Energy Technologies (RAMP).

The company said it plans to use the grant funding to ramp up production of the SolarContainer, BoxPower’s turnkey microgrid product.

Selected from a competitive field of 50 proposals, the CEC selected BoxPower’s project for its potential to help advance California’s clean energy goals.

BoxPower said it plans to use the funds to advance its SolarContainer to the low-rate initial production stage, bringing the clean energy solution closer to widespread implementation. The company reports that the project aims to reduce production time, standardize modular subsystems, and increase manufacturing capacity.

“Increasing wildfires, increasing energy costs, and increasing energy needs demand we act quickly to reimagine the future of the California grid,” said Anderson Barkow, co-founder and chief financial officer of BoxPower. “With the CEC’s support, we are ready to scale our operations and deliver this essential technology to more communities, helping ratepayers and utilities alike meet their resiliency and sustainability goals without driving energy prices up.”

SolarContainer is a fully integrated, rapidly deployable microgrid that combines solar energy production with battery storage, along with advanced control systems. This container solution addresses three critical challenges that California faces right now: reducing wildfire risk, enhancing electric reliability, and expanding the capacity for electric vehicle charging in rural areas.

The SolarContainer is designed for use by utilities during wildfires. For example, Pacific Gas and Electric commissioned its first SolarContainer and uses it as a remote grid that replaces overhead distribution powerlines that once served customers in a high fire-threat district area in Briceburg, located in the Sierra Nevada foothills outside Yosemite National Park.

The Briceburg SolarContainer system provides a total PV capacity of 36.5 kW, as well as a 27.2kW/ 68.4/kWh lithium ferro phosphate storage system. Almost 90% of the energy produced will be generated by renewable sources, with the remainder from two integrated propane generators. A fire suppression system will protect the hardware and facility. It is being used as a permanent energy supply that replaces poles and wires.

The NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) released its Q1 2024 edition of its 50 States of Solar report, which looks at changes in policies on net metering, distributed solar valuation, community solar, residential fixed charges and more.

NCCETC is a public service center administered by the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, with a mission to advance a sustainable energy economy by educating, demonstrating and providing support for clean energy technologies, practices, and policies. The Center is known for its DSIRE database that tracks incentives in all 50 states for renewable energy and energy efficiencies.

The Q1 2024 report finds that 43 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico took a total of 163 actions related to distributed solar policy and rate design. The map above summarizes state actions related to compensation for distributed generation (DG), rate design, and solar ownership. Of the 163 actions cataloged, the report authors note that the most common were related to DG compensation rules (56), followed by residential fixed charge and minimum bill increases (42), and community solar (37).

Trends spotted in the report include legislation to enable community solar, net metering reform considered by new states and states clarifying time of use rates for net metering customers.

Community solar is a way for homeowners, businesses and other organizations to invest in the benefits of clean energy when they have unsuitable conditions for rooftop or on-site ground-mounted installations. While installations of community solar contracted in 2022, Wood Mackenzie forecasts the U.S. community solar market to grow 118% over the next five years, with at least 6 GW expected to come online in existing markets between 2023 to 2027.

The NCCETC report finds that an increasing number of states are considering community solar legislation. For example, Pennsylvania recently passed a bill that would establish a community solar program, and similar bills are pending in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Legislators in Missouri are taking a slightly different approach with bills introduced that direct electric suppliers to create three-year community solar pilot programs, and similarly, West Virginia lawmakers intend to create a pilot program. Alaska, Georgia and Iowa also have community solar bills pending.

It comes as no surprise that more states are considering changes to their net metering rules, following in the footsteps of California’s NEM 3.0, which has become the solar policy story of the year. In Delaware, for example, lawmakers  approved legislation to conduct a net metering cost-benefit study, and regulators in Wisconsin are also conducting a value of solar study. In Kentucky, Duke Energy wants to implement a net metering successor tariff that would involve real-time netting and reduced compensation for exported energy for new customer-generators. A Washington utility is preemptively amending net metering tariff language to close the tariff upon reaching an aggregate cap.

States and utilities are increasingly moving to time-of-use rates because they vary the cost of electricity according to when it’s used. For example, a solar-powered home generates electricity during the day, when rates are cheaper, but the household may use the most electricity in the evening, when it is more expensive. Examples of states taking steps to clarify how net metering is conducted on a time-of-use rate basis include Kansas, Maryland and North Carolina.

Maryland’s Public Service Commission recently directed its rate design working group to examine utility tariffs and propose any needed charges for net-metered customers under time-of-use rates. In South Carolina pending legislation would increase the state’s net metering system size limit, but only for customer-generators on time-of-use rates.

The Q1 report noted top solar policy developments, which are both good and bad for electric customers generating their own solar electricity. In Massachusetts, which has especially solar-friendly policies, regulators voted to allow electric customers to transfer credits across utilities. Plus some systems are exempt from the state’s net metering caps.

Virginia, historically a coal state, voted in 2020 to close all the state’s coal power plants by 2024. This is part of the forward-looking Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires the state’s utilities to switch to 100% clean energy by 2050, while also adding 16 GW of solar and onshore wind, 3 GW of energy storage. Now legislators have gone a few steps further by passing bills that increase the capacity of Dominion Energy’s community solar program and direct regulators to set up a community solar program for Appalachian Power customers. Other bills under consideration in Virginia would expand solar leasing and power purchase agreements.

West Virginia, another former coal state, adopted net metering reforms that sets export credit rates at 8.91 to 9.343 cents per kWh in Monongahela Power & Potomac Edison’s rate case.

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) approved a request from major utility Arizona Public Service to raise electricity rates for all customers, assess fixed charges, and to single out those who have invested in rooftop solar with the largest of such charges. The approved charge equals $0.242 per kW of on-site generation for customers on standard time-of-use rates and $0.215 per kW for customers on the time-of-use rate including a demand charge. The report notes that several participants have filed petitions for rehearing to overturn the grid access charge.

To produce the quarterly 50 states report, NCCETC reports that it looks at important proposed and adopted policy changes affecting solar customer-generators of investor-owned utilities and large publicly owned or nonprofit utilities serving at least 100,000 customers.

A solar and energy storage microgrid project has begun construction in Corning, California, where the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians held a groundbreaking event for the project.

A microgrid can operate separately from the larger utility grid, making it resilient to adverse extreme weather events, rolling blackouts, and other grid conditions. Once complete, the microgrid will add 5 MW of solar capacity along with 15 MWh of long duration energy storage with an 18-hour duration.

“We are grateful to partner with the CEC and host this grant for this renewable energy project,” said Paskenta Tribal Chairman Andrew “Dru” Alejandre. “Our people have always cared for the land as it has cared for us. We continue to understand our responsibilities as people and will continue to adapt to modern ways for many generations. We are responsible for preserving our environment for future generations. This project will allow us to provide sustainable energy and most importantly increasing energy sovereignty.”

The project was funded in part by a $32 million grant from the California Energy Commission. Funds came from the Governor Newsom administration supported Long-Duration Energy Storage Program, which invests up to $330 million into non-lithium long duration energy storage technologies to be deployed across the state.

“California is showing the world how to fight the climate crisis while creating good jobs and more resilient communities,” said Governor Newsom. “We’re building more projects like these to secure a clean and reliable energy future that benefits all our communities.”

California has aggressively pursued adding energy storage to the grid as more intermittent renewable energy generation sources like solar and wind come online. The state’s deployed storage capacity has increased 757% in four years, storing enough electricity to power 6.6 million homes for up to four hours.

The state has made considerable progress towards its clean energy goals. Nearly 60% of its electricity comes from emissions-free sources, making progress towards the goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. California has built over 35 GW of clean energy capacity statewide.

Read more pv magazine USA coverage of microgrids.

California Supreme Court takes a look at NEM 3.0  The controversial rooftop solar rulemaking decision has risen to the Supreme Court of California, with the state’s highest court granting review for a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Eyes were on the sky for the 2024 solar eclipse  With an estimated 6.5 GW of solar in the path of the eclipse, load balancing, battery storage and the significance of solar energy in the U.S. was brought front and center.

Texas, now the number one state for solar, is seeing a drop in use of natural gas  The Lone Star State is seeing tangible changes to its daily electricity supply, lowering the need for natural gas peaker plants, said the Energy Information Administration.

Despite opposition, 4.95 MW agrivoltaic community solar project in Illinois moves ahead Lightstar Renewables’ Nesler Road project will grow hay along with enough solar energy to power 1,100 Illinois homes.

Renewables and storage interconnection backlog grew about 30% last year  With grid interconnection reform yet to take place, solar and energy storage wait in line for studies to be completed. The growing backlog of projects awaiting grid interconnection studies called a major bottleneck for project development, according to a recent study by Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.

Renewables and storage interconnection backlog grew about 30% last year  The wait for transmission interconnection studies constitutes a “major bottleneck” for solar, storage and wind projects, which accounted for over 95% of all active capacity awaiting studies at the end of 2023, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has reported.

S-5! unveils new mounting systems for rooftop solar  S-5!, a supplier of mounting systems, plans to release two new mounting components for rooftop PV systems, including a new mount that allows for module-level power electronics to be attached directly to solar panel frames.

A guide to help homeowners understand how to go solar Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory published an open access guide to rooftop solar and battery energy storage that covers costs, incentives, policies and more.

New quantum solar cell material promises external quantum efficiency of 190% The new material consists of an heterostructure combining germanium, selenium, and tin sulfide, which also integrates atoms of zerovalent copper. It features an average photovoltaic absorption over 80% and could help photovoltaic cells break the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, according to its creators.

California’s electricity multi-crisis can be aided by virtual power plants By operating distributed resources like solar, batteries and demand response devices in concert, California ratepayers could be paid $500 to $1,000 per year while improving resource adequacy.

California Supreme Court to review rooftop solar net metering The state’s highest court granted review to a lawsuit challenging a “regressive” rooftop solar policy called NEM 3.0.

A controversial rooftop solar rulemaking decision has risen to the Supreme Court of California, with the state’s highest court granting review for a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The case involves NEM 3.0, a rate structure that went into effect in April 2023. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a request by the state’s largest investor-owned utilities to cut compensation to customers that export excess solar generation to the grid, a process called net energy metering.

Net metering rates were rapidly cut by 80% under NEM 3.0. This change, combined with a high interest rate environment, has pushed the state’s robust rooftop solar industry off a cliff, damaging the return on investment for homeowners, and leading to more than 17,000 solar jobs lost, demand falling 80% post-implementation, and numerous companies filing for bankruptcy.

“The commission’s new rooftop solar policy enables the utilities’ self-interested attack on rooftop solar,” said Bill Powers, an energy expert with The Protect Our Communities Foundation. “The real problem is heedless pursuit of maximum profit by the utilities at the expense of reasonable rates and commonsense climate action.”

The petition under review raises the question: “By ignoring the acknowledged societal and other benefits of customer-sited renewable generation and assigning value solely to limited economic benefits, did the Commission fail to proceed in the manner required by section 2827.1(b)(3), which mandates that a net energy metering tariff must be ‘based on the costs and benefits of the renewable electrical generation facility?’”

Rooftop solar offers “myriad benefits for the environment and consumers,” said a report from Environment America. This includes reducing the need for dirty power plants and expensive transmission lines, providing lower costs, and increasing the grid’s resilience to extreme weather and other shocks.

“The Supreme Court’s decision is a ray of hope for rooftop solar at a time when plummeting installations and massive layoffs are wrecking this vital industry and jeopardizing California’s climate goals,” said Roger Lin, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Analysis from the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) shows that the state is unlikely to meet its clean energy targets without a robust rooftop solar market. The California Energy Commission (CEC) projects that the state will need to build 6 GW of solar-plus-storage every year for the next 26 years straight to meet the 2045 target. Over the past five years, California has only averaged about half of the 6 GW deployment figure.

“We started to get on pace in the past two years, but it is driven at least 50% by the distributed [rooftop solar] market,” said CALSSA executive director Bernadette del Chiaro.

CPUC moved forward with NEM 3.0 despite filed requests for delays to run a complete cost-benefit analysis of the rate structure that considers non-energy benefits of distributed rooftop solar. Critics of the regulatory proceeding allege that the decision was made on internal data and analysis from the state’s largest investor-owned utilities.

A report from the Center for Biological Diversity explains why utilities are motivated to gut rooftop solar and maintain their traditional profit model.

Read more on California’s electricity multi-crisis and the potential role for distributed technologies like rooftop solar and battery energy storage virtual power plants to help alleviate the state’s problems.

California has multiple crises in its electricity sector. Electric utilities are under legal obligation to deliver on four key aspects: to render adequate, impartial and reasonably efficient service at reasonable rates to all ratepayers. Yet, the state’s investor-owned utilities are dealing with mounting struggles on each of these obligations.

First, on adequacy, the state has challenges with mounting demand due to the electric vehicle boom and home electrification. Pacific Research Institute warns that the state may fall 20% short of its electric resource adequacy needs by 2045 as EV charging adds an unprecedented load on the grid.

Second, on impartiality, the state’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved utility requests to assess a monthly fixed charge on its customers, regardless of how much electricity they use, and it is double the national average and is graduated based on income levels. While the Income Graduated Fixed Charge (IGFC) was pitched as an equity-focused change, analysis has shown that it may disproportionately harm Californians with low electricity bills.

The third feature requires the system to be reasonably efficient. However, California’s investor-owned utilities as structured have a disincentive to spend efficiently or create an energy-efficient system. The more capital utilities spend on infrastructure, the more they can get rate increases approved.

And the fourth legal requirement, providing reasonable rates to all ratepayers, has been a failure in recent years. The state’s electricity rates have exploded in the last three years, far outpacing inflation. PG&E was approved for a 13% rate increase this year, and along with the IGFC, which will average about $24 for most customers in California, affordability has been challenged. What’s more, the IGFC approval was not capped, meaning utilities have open season to continue tacking on higher fixed charges.

Utility filings show that over 20% of customers of the three large utilities are over a month late on their bills, and that number rises to 33% in low-income brackets. Meanwhile, PG&E posted record profits in 2023, growing 25% year-over-year to $2.2 billion.

Virtual power plants

There is no silver bullet for meeting the challenges of modernizing the grid, moving on from fossil fuels, and ensuring California’s utilities meeting their legal obligations to serve adequate, impartial, reasonably efficient and reasonably priced electricity. But there are some improvements to be made, and according to a report from the Brattle Group, virtual power plants (VPP) can be an impactful improvement.

VPPS can help California save $750 million per year on electricity while advancing clean energy adoption, increasing electric reliability and efficiency, said the report.

A VPP is a virtual aggregation of small-scale, distributed energy resources (DERs) including rooftop solar, energy storage, electric vehicle chargers, and demand-responsive devices such as water heaters, thermostats, and appliances. In a VPP, customers typically enter an agreement to reduce electricity consumption or dispatch stored electricity from solar-plus-batteries during peak demand events.

Over the last decade, the U.S. has spent more than $120 billion on 100 GW of new generation capacity, mainly for resource adequacy. Brattle Group estimates nationwide utilities could save $35 billion by 2033 by focusing on VPPs for serving peak demand on the grid.

For California, serving peak demand has become a critical issue. Currently, in the evening when solar production goes down and residents are returning home from work and using more power, demand spikes.

The mismatch of supply and demand is represented by the “duck curve” which has been deepening in California through recent years, causing cost and adequacy issues. Brattle Group reports that the cost of resource adequacy has doubled in California since 2017.

Peak demand is often served by reserves of natural gas generators in small power plants called “peaker” plants. Peaker plants are among the least efficient and most polluting resources serving the grid today.

Brattle Group’s said VPPs can immediately go to work as an alternative to dirty peaker plants. By 2035, California’s VPP potential would exceed 15% of peak demand, said the report. This would represent the deployment of more than 7.5 GW of flexible VPP capacity, or about five times the current VPP capacity across the state.

This level of deployment would help save $750 million per year, according to Brattle Group’s analysis. This would break down to annual savings of $37 million in distribution, $107 million in energy costs, $194 million in transmission, and over $417 million in avoided costs from building new inefficient generation capacity.

Most of these savings could be passed on to customers, said Brattle Group. Of the $750 million in savings, just under $200 million would be needed for implementation of distributed energy resource management systems to operate the VPP, as well as marketing and administrative costs to launch the program and reach customers.

The remaining roughly $550 million in savings would be passed on to customers. Participants in VPP programs would agree to dispatch power from their solar and batteries, their electric vehicle battery, or reduce electricity consumption during peak hours. In turn, these program participants would be paid about $500 to $1000 per year for pitching in to help smooth out demand in their local grid. A further $52 million per year could be paid to program non-participants, said Brattle Group.

“California already has a 7,000 MW load shifting goal, as well as load management standards that could facilitate VPP uptake. New draft legislation effectively could establish the equivalent of a renewable portfolio standard for VPPs across the state,” said Brattle Group.

Water canals in California, Utah, and Oregon are soon to be outfit with solar panels, as three projects received federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). IRA set aside $25 million for the design, study, and implementation of photovoltaics co-located with water reclamation facilities.

The three projects will receive a combined $19.5 million to support the projects, which are administered by the Bureau of Reclamation, an agency tackling the challenges of water and power management in the U.S. West.

This IRA carve-out was created with input from California Representative Jared Huffman. The program directed to study the water efficiency gains from covering canals with solar panels.

Solar on canals is a use-case for photovoltaics that is expected to come with significant co-benefits for each technology. The panels provide shade for the water resources, reducing losses from evaporation. In turn, the water cools the solar panels, reducing operating temperature, which improves the efficiency of the panels and slows degradation of the equipment.

“Deploying solar panels on our canal systems is a smart solution to our growing water and energy dilemmas – it harnesses clean energy technology to increase efficiency while reducing our carbon footprint and water loss from canal evaporation,” said Representative Huffman.

The largest of the three projects, located in California, received $15 million through the fund. The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority will deploy floating solar arrays on the Delta-Mendota Canal. The University of California-Merced will study the project through a public-private partnership.

Researchers will deploy up to three varying floating solar technologies to assess the viability, costs, and benefits of floating solar over canals. The program will validate designs for PV on moving water and explore design and operational challenges associated with the emerging use-case.

A 2021 study conducted at the University of California, Merced and University, Santa Cruz, showed that covering the approximately 4,000 miles of public water delivery system infrastructure in California with solar panels can generate 13 GW of energy annually, equal to about one sixth of the state’s installed capacity and about half the projected new capacity needed to meet the state’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030.

The study modeled that 63 billion gallons of water could be saved annually by covering canals, which is enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the water needs of more than 2 million residents.

The two other pilot projects are in Oregon and Utah. A $2.55 million-funded project in Oregon will float solar panels on the main canal of the Deschutes Project near Bend, Oregon.

In Utah, $1.5 million in funds are diverted to a project on the Layton Canal near West Haven, Utah. The five-year demonstration project will collect data on technical capabilities and economic feasibility for deploying solar canals at large scale.

In addition to improving PV performance and reducing evaporation, solar on canals is expected to minimize canal maintenance by reducing aquatic plant growth, create land use savings and preserve agricultural lands, and reduce the energy and carbon footprint of water reclamation facilities.

Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Bureau of Reclamation is also investing $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including rural water, water storage, conservation and conveyance, nature-based solutions, dam safety, water purification and reuse, and desalination.

California officials call for repeal of $24 fixed rate fee Although it’s better than the proposed $128 fee, a coalition objects to the $24 fixed monthly charge that the California Public Utilities Commission approved to be levied on customers, regardless of how much electricity is used at home.

California solar distributor goes out of business AEE Solar, a California-based solar distributor owned by Sunrun, announced it is going out of business in early May and placing its remaining inventory on clearance sale before closing operations. Such closures could be the result of weakened demand for distributed solar, particularly in California, since NEM 3.0 went into effect.

The U.S.  may soon face another ongoing tariff enforcement saga Another round of antidumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) tariffs may be on the way, accord to a note from Roth Capital Partners. Not good news for the solar industry as it experienced project delays and cancellations when AD/CVD tariff enforcement threatened supply in the past.

PPAs are all the rage. Power purchase agreements (PPAs) have emerged as the go-to financing tool for commercial and industrial (C&I) solar adopters looking to avoid upfront costs and realize immediate energy savings. Read about Microsoft recently entering into two power purchase agreements for a total of 400 MW of solar energy from Texas solar plants.

U.S. DOE invests $4 million in thermal energy storage  Thermal energy storage offers a low-cost alternative to existing energy storage technologies, and DOE is providing funding for a pilot demonstration program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on a multi-day energy storage system using heated sand.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released a proposed decision that would apply an average charge of about $24 a month, adding a fixed monthly fee that is more than double the national average. The charge is adjusted based on household income levels and applies to every ratepayer, regardless of how much electricity they use.

Over 100 California elected officials at every level of state government signed a letter in opposition to the charge, which is being labeled as “utility tax.”

“We object to the un-democratic and opaque way in which the Utility Tax was enacted, passed in three days without any public hearings or discussion,” said the letter. “The people of California deserve a voice in any major policy change with such wide-ranging consequences.”

The coalition of elected officials called for an immediate repeal of Public Utilities Code Section 739.9, which calls for the CPUC to add a fixed charge based on income level.

“The utilities and other organizations have proposed the highest fixed charges in the country: between $30 to $70 per month for any customer not already on CARE or FERA,” said the letter. “That would be three to seven times the national average for such a fixed charge.”

The elected officials allege that the fixed charge would increase bills for renters and those with historically lower electricity use and would discourage energy conservation. Furthermore, the officials said the “utility tax” would not incentivize electrification, and in most cases, it would be more economical for customers to continue to use natural gas at home.

Perhaps the most important feature of the approved fixed charge is that it opens the door for fixed charges with no cap. Utilities will be free to charge as much as they please, and some utilities have already proposed unprecedented fixed charges as high as $128 per month.

Proponents of the bill have justified it in part by lowering electricity rates by about 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour. While the volumetric rates have been lowered in this proposal by five to seven cents, this discount is essentially washed out by recent rate increases. PG&E approved a 13% rate hike this year, and the proposed decision does not enshrine caps or freezes on rate increases.

California’s electricity rates have exploded in recent years, far outpacing inflation. From 2014 through 2023, retail electricity bills from California’s three major utilities rose by at least 47%, with San Diego Gas & Electric spiking 104%. In contrast, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 28% over the same period.

California has an electricity affordability crisis on its hands. Utility filings show that over 20% of customers of the three large utilities are over a month late on their bills, and that number rises to 33% in low-income brackets.

“The Utility Tax entrenches the problem of high electricity rates, rather than solving it,” concluded the letter.

California State University – Dominguez Hills has new off-grid solar powered benches on its campus, provided by Bluebolt Outdoor LLC.

The bench provides off-grid wireless charging for student devices like phones and tablets and contains a Wi-Fi access point. It has integrated LED lighting, USB charging ports, and a double-sided poster display space. The bench also contains environmental sensors for monitoring air quality and flood and fire detection.

Bluebolt said it manages advertising sales for the poster locations within customer-approved categories. The benches have been deployed in Katy, Texas, Victorville, California, and by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Solar generation in the off-grid unit is stored in a lithium-ion battery. The bench has a monocrystalline solar panel with 135 W of power and 21.6% efficiency, making it considerably less powerful than the 400 W+ panels installed on residential rooftops today.

The onboard battery is rated at 12.8 V and 55 Ah. Full specifications sheet can be found here.

Bluebolt said it will continue a rollout of its product at locations in Arkansas, California, Illinois, and Texas this summer.

The company also provides solar-integrated newspaper kiosks that also contain Wi-Fi hotspots and wired and wireless charging ports.

Wholesale solar equipment distributor AEE Solar issued a statement that it plans to permanently close its business on May 3, 2024. The company said it is placing its remaining inventory on clearance sale before closing operations.

“Our Customer Support Team and Territory Sales Managers are available to address any questions or concerns you may have during this time,” said AEE in a letter to customers. “We are committed to transparency and will keep you informed throughout the process, including confirmation of the final closing date, well in advance.”

The company noted SnapNrack solar racking customers can reach out to their AEE territory sales manager to explore purchasing options direct from SnapNrack going forward.

AEE Solar was founded in 1979, launched by David Katz from his home. The company expanded to specializing in off-grid equipment sales in 2002, reaching $8 million in sales that year. In 2005, Mainstream Energy invested in the company, and in 2012 the company opened an 80,000 square foot distribution center in Sacramento California. It was acquired by Sunrun, among the largest U.S. residential solar installers, in 2014.

“We want to express our sincere gratitude for your ongoing support. It has been a privilege serving you, and we wish you continued success. We look forward to serving you during this wind-down period,” said the company in its notification to customers.

Weakened distributed solar demand, particularly in California, has been posing a challenge for equipment providers for several months. A glut of unsold inventory has also been a mounting problem in much of western Europe.

California pivots to propose $24 average fixed fee to electric bills  The Public Utilities Commission said the new billing structure will include a reduction of electricity rates by 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour.

Clean Energy Connector pilot launches in Illinois, New Mexico and Washington D.C. The software tool is designed to connect eligible households to community solar projects through the Department of Health and Human Services’ HHS’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Environmental lifecycle assessment of PERC solar modules  IEA PVPS Task 12 analyzes the environmental impact of passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) technology in PV installations in comparison to the monocrystalline silicon technology (AI-BSF) and the trend towards installing horizontal single-axis tracker systems as opposed to fixed tilt systems.

Solar module prices remain steady amid unchanged market fundamentals In a new weekly update for <b>pv magazine</b>, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

The great untapped potential in non-residential rooftop solar for LMI residents The team used satellite imagery and AI to track unused rooftops with good solar potential, and found that it would bring reduced energy costs to residents.

U.S. solar industry week in review pv magazine USA spotlights news stories of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.

CPUC lowers proposed fixed rate charge from $128 to $24.15

After initially saying that Californians could be assessed up to $128 on their electric bills, the commission now proposes a rate of $24.15. regardless of any energy conservation efforts or solar production at home. Along with the fixed charge, electricity rates for generation will be reduced by about 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour. CPUC said the move was motivated in part to decouple energy use and grid maintenance costs.

IRS releases updated guidance on energy communities

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury Department announced additional guidance for determining what a qualified energy community is. Projects in energy communities can qualify for the production and investment tax credit bonuses available within the Inflation Reduction Act, and those bonuses are offered for projects within brownfield, coal and other communities that will face challenges in the transition away from fossil fuels.

The five states with the least amount of solar installed  

PV Intel identifies the solar laggards–North Dakota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alaska, and South Dakota–and examines that factors to led to the low rate of solar adoption including policies, electric rates and availability of alternative emission-free electricity from wind, hydro, and nuclear.

Solar and storage to replace coal in New England

In a big win for Sierra Club, The Conservation Law Foundation, and the Environmental Protection Agency, the last two remaining coal-fired plants will be shut down. Both plants are in New Hampshire, and owner Granite Shore Power has committed to using the properties for solar and battery storage.

Hurry up and wait– staggering amount of solar projects queued up for interconnection

By year-end 2023, 1086 GW of solar projects awaited transmission interconnection, along with 503 GW of standalone storage, according to preliminary data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The amount of storage in hybrid projects, such as solar-plus-storage projects, awaiting interconnection at year-end was estimated at 525 GW.