Solar Progress Partnership – An important alliance between Solar Developers and Utilities
First Solar – Strong Buy after recent Q1'16 Results
May 3, 2016Will India increase Solar Power capacity by 10000 MW in the next one year – Fact or Fiction?
May 5, 2016Solar Progress Partnership
Major solar companies like SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR), SolarCity, SunEdison together with six New York utilities (Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., Con Ed, National Grid, Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc., New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG), and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E)), filed a joint proposal for a transition from the current compensation model for solar net metering. These nine players formed the Solar Progress Partnership last month.
Also read 4 Reasons why Residential Rooftop Solar Installation is still not popular in India.
This partnership is formed to support solar development in New York, and the new proposed model will ensure that there are sufficient funds to maintain
a reliable and resilient grid, while addressing customer’s cost-sharing issues too. This is an important step towards alliance between the utilities and solar developers, for the growth of solar and betterment of the customers. Utilities have started to realize that and many large utility firms like Duke Energy (DUK), NextEra Energy (NEE), and Southern Company (SO) are investing in renewable energy sector.
According to the new proposal, the customers who do not have adequate rooftop size can choose community solar programs, for which the solar developers will pay to the utilities. The customers will not interact with the utilities, instead the solar companies will take care of that.
Earlier in 2015, regulators in Nevada punished the customers who owned solar panels, by increasing their charges by ~40% and reducing the tariffs paid under net metering. But California, Colorado, and Iowa upheld net metering without any major change. As cost of PV installation goes down by each passing day and distributed generation gains a lot of popularity over time, this alliance should come as a win-win for both customers and the environment.
New York State Public Service Commission chair Audrey Zibelman said, “That this is a crawl, walk run approach and it is not going to occur overnight.”
Source: Yahoo Finance