375 research outputs found
Supporting Solar Power in Renewables Portfolio Standards: Experience from the United States
Among the available options for encouraging the increased deployment of renewable electricity, renewables portfolio standards (RPS) have become increasingly popular. The RPS is a relatively new policy mechanism, however, and experience with its use is only beginning to emerge. One key concern that has been voiced is whether RPS policies will offer adequate support to a wide range of renewable energy technologies and applications or whether, alternatively, RPS programs will favor a small number of the currently least-cost forms of renewable energy. This report documents the design of and early experience with state-level RPS programs in the United States that have been specifically tailored to encourage a wider diversity of renewable energy technologies, and solar energy in particular. As shown here, state-level RPS programs specifically designed to support solar have already proven to be an important, albeit somewhat modest, driver for solar energy deployment, and those impacts are projected to continue to build in the coming years. State experience in supporting solar energy with RPS programs is mixed, however, and full compliance with existing requirements has not been achieved. The comparative experiences described herein highlight the opportunities and challenges of applying an RPS to specifically support solar energy, as well as the importance of policy design details to ensuring that program goals are achieved
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Income Trends among U.S. Residential Rooftop Solar Adopters
Berkeley Lab tracks and analyzes solar-adopter demographic characteristics. A central element of this work is an annual report describing income trends of residential solar adopters over time and across geographies. The report is based on household-level income estimates for single-family residential solar adopters across the United States, and is intended to serve as a foundational reference document for policy-makers, industry stakeholders, and other researchers interested in demographic trends among residential solar adopters. The report is published with an accompanying interactive data visualization tool that allows users to further explore the underlying data.
In addition to the annual report, Berkeley Lab also conducts targeted topical analyses on issues related to solar-adopter demographics and provides direct analytical support to organizations working to expand access to solar energy among low-to-moderate income households. Requests for analytical support may be submitted through this form: "https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOauinm2NRF-9J39aDh3447F9FDTOsP3tpMHJLzH_orKoTpw/viewform" target="_blank">online form. 
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Designing PV Incentive Programs to Promote Performance: A Reviewof Current Practice in the U.S.
In the U.S., the increasing financial support for customer-sited photovoltaic (PV) systems provided through publicly-funded incentive programs has heightened concerns about the long-term performance of these systems. Given the barriers that customers face to ensuring that their PV systems perform well, and the responsibility that PV incentive programs bear to ensure that public funds are prudently spent, these programs should, and often do, play a critical role in addressing PV system performance. To provide a point of reference for assessing the current state of the art, and to inform program design efforts going forward, we examine the approaches to encouraging PV system performance used by 32 prominent PV incentive programs in the U.S. We identify eight general strategies or groups of related strategies that these programs have used to address factors that affect performance, and describe key implementation details. Based on this review, we then offer recommendations for how PV incentive programs can be effectively designed to mitigate potential performance issues
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Shaking Up the Residential PV Market: Implications of Recent Changes to the ITC
On August 8, 2005, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) increased the Section 48 investment tax credit (ITC) for commercial photovoltaic (PV) systems from 10% to 30% of the project's 'tax credit basis' (i.e., the dollar amount to which the ITC applies), and also created in Section 25D of the Internal Revenue Code a new 30% ITC (capped at 2,000 cap on the residential credit, as well as the fact that most PV systems in the U.S. also receive cash incentives from state-, local-, or utility-administered PV programs, and that these cash incentives may reduce the value of federal tax credits in certain situations. That case study was subsequently revised in February 2007 to reflect new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance. The findings of that case study, which are briefly recapped in the next section, remained relevant up until October 2008, when the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 extended both solar credits for an unprecedented eight years, removed the 2,000 cap on the residential ITC will have significant implications for PV program administrators, PV system owners, and the PV industry that go beyond the obvious market growth potential created by these more-lucrative federal incentives. These four areas include: (1) The financial implications of whether or not residential cash rebates are considered to be taxable income; (2) The role of low-interest loan programs and other forms of 'subsidized energy financing' under an uncapped ITC; (3) The degree to which taxable and nontaxable rebate levels might be reduced in response to the extra value provided by an uncapped ITC; and (4) The impact of an uncapped ITC on third-party financing and ownership models that are just beginning to emerge in the residential sector. The document concludes by highlighting a common thread that runs throughout: the need for PV program managers to understand whether or not their rebates are considered to be taxable income before they can react in an appropriate manner to the recent changes in federal solar policy and, if financing programs are offered, the need to understand whether the IRS considers these programs to be 'subsidized'. Finally, we note that this paper is based on current law; future legislative changes to the ITC could, of course, alter the conclusions reached here
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Tracking the Sun: The Installed Cost of Photovoltaics in the U.S. from 1998-2007
As installations of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have grown, so too has the desire to track the installed cost of these systems over time, by system characteristics, by system location, and by component. This report helps to fill this need by summarizing trends in the installed cost of grid-connected PV systems in the United States from 1998 through 2007. The report is based on an analysis of installed cost data from nearly 37,000 residential and non-residential PV systems, totaling 363 MW of capacity, and representing 76percent of all grid-connected PV capacity installed in the U.S. through 2007
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New Berkeley Lab Report Tracks a Decade of PV Installed Cost Trends
Installations of PV systems have been expanding at a rapid pace in recent years. In the United States, the market for PV is driven by national, state, and local government incentives, including upfront cash rebates, production-based incentives, requirements that electricity suppliers purchase a certain amount of solar energy, and Federal and state tax benefits. These programs are, in part, motivated by the popular appeal of solar energy and by the positive attributes of PV - e.g., modest environmental impacts, avoidance of fuel price risks, coincidence with peak electrical demand, and the location of PV at the point of use. Given the relatively high cost of PV, however, a key goal of these policies is to encourage cost reductions over time. Therefore, as policy incentives have become more significant and as PV deployment has accelerated, so too has the desire to track the installed cost of PV systems over time, by system characteristics, by system location, and by component. A new Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report, 'Tracking the Sun: The Installed Cost of Photovoltaics in the U.S. from 1998-2007', helps to fill this need by summarizing trends in the installed cost (i.e., the cost paid by the system owner) of grid-connected PV systems in the U.S. The report is based on an analysis of project-level cost data from nearly 37,000 residential and non-residential PV systems completed from 1998-2007 and installed on the utility-customer-side of the meter. These systems total 363 MW, equal to 76% of all grid-connected PV capacity installed in the U.S. through 2007, representing the most comprehensive data source available on the installed cost of PV in the United States. The data were obtained from administrators of PV incentive programs around the country, who typically collect installed cost data for systems receiving incentives. A total of 16 programs, spanning 12 states, ultimately provided data for the study. Reflecting the broader geographical trends in the U.S. PV market, the vast majority of the systems in the data sample are located in California (83%, by capacity) and New Jersey (12%), The remaining systems are located in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The PV systems in the dataset range in size from 100 W to 1.3 MW, almost 90% of which are smaller than 10 kW. This article briefly summarizes some of the key findings from the Berkeley Lab study (the full report can be downloaded at http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/re-pubs.html). The article begins by summarizing trends related to the installed cost of PV systems prior to receipt of any financial incentives, and then discusses how changes in incentive levels over time and variation across states have impacted the net installed cost of PV to the customer, after receipt of incentives. Note that all cost and incentive data are presented in real 2007 dollars (2007/W) data are presented in terms of rated module power output under Standard Test Conditions (DC-STC)
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Considerations for Emerging Markets for Energy Savings Certificates
Early experiences with energy savings certificates (ESCs) have revealed both their merit and the challenges associated with them. In the United States, there has been little activity to date, so any lessons must be drawn from experiences in Italy, the United Kingdom (UK), France, and elsewhere. The staying power of European examples, particularly in Italy, demonstrates that ESCs can help initiate more efficiency projects. Although a robust market for renewable energy certificates (RECs) has emerged in both the voluntary and policy compliance contexts in the United States, ESCs have yet to gain significant traction. This report looks at the opportunity presented by ESCs, the unique challenges they bring, a comparison with RECs that can inform expectations about ESC market development, and the solutions and best practices early ESC market experience have demonstrated. It also examines whether there are real market barriers that have kept ESCs from being adopted and what structural features are necessary to develop effective trading programs
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Reading the Tea Leaves: How Utilities in the West Are Managing Carbon Regulatory Risk in their Resource Plans
The long economic lifetime and development lead-time of many electric infrastructure investments requires that utility resource planning consider potential costs and risks over a lengthy time horizon. One long-term -- and potentially far-reaching -- risk currently facing the electricity industry is the uncertain cost of future carbon dioxide (CO2) regulations. Recognizing the importance of this issue, many utilities (sometimes spurred by state regulatory requirements) are beginning to actively assess carbon regulatory risk within their resource planning processes, and to evaluate options for mitigating that risk. However, given the relatively recent emergence of this issue and the rapidly changing political landscape, methods and assumptions used to analyze carbon regulatory risk, and the impact of this analysis on the selection of a preferred resource portfolio, vary considerably across utilities. In this study, we examine the treatment of carbon regulatory risk in utility resource planning, through a comparison of the most-recent resource plans filed by fifteen investor-owned and publicly-owned utilities in the Western U.S. Together, these utilities account for approximately 60percent of retail electricity sales in the West, and cover nine of eleven Western states. This report has two related elements. First, we compare and assess utilities' approaches to addressing key analytical issues that arise when considering the risk of future carbon regulations. Second, we summarize the composition and carbon intensity of the preferred resource portfolios selected by these fifteen utilities and compare them to potential CO2 emission benchmark levels
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Tariffs Can Be Structured to Encourage Photovoltaic Energy
The solar power market is growing at a quickening pace, fueled by an array of national and local initiatives and policies aimed at improving the value proposition of customer-sited photovoltaic (PV) systems. Though these policies take many forms, they commonly include up-front capital cost rebates or ongoing production incentives, supplemented by net metering requirements to ensure that customer-sited PV systems offset the full retail rate of the customer-hosts. Somewhat less recognized is the role of retail rate design, beyond net metering, on the customer-economics of grid-connected PV. Over the life of a PV system, utility bill savings represent a substantial portion of the overall economic value received by the customer. At the same time, the design of retail electricity rates, particularly for commercial and industrial customers, can vary quite substantially. Understanding how specific differences in rate design affect the value of customer-sited PV is therefore essential to supporting the continued growth of this market
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Managing Carbon Regulatory Risk in Utility Resource Planning:Current Practices in the Western United States
Concerns about global climate change have substantially increased the likelihood that future policy will seek to minimize carbon dioxide emissions. Assuch, even today, electric utilities are making resource planning and investment decisions that consider the possible implications of these future carbon regulations. In this article, we examine the manner in which utilities assess the financial risks associated with future carbon regulations within their long-term resource plans. We base our analysis on a review of the most recent resource plans filed by fifteen electric utilities in the Western United States. Virtually all of these utilities made some effort to quantitatively evaluate the potential cost of future carbon regulations when analyzing alternate supply- and demand-side resource options for meeting customer load. Even without Federal climate regulation in the U.S., the prospect of that regulation is already having an impact on utility decision-making and resource choices. That said, the methods and assumptions used by utilities to analyze carbon regulatory risk, and the impact of that analysis on their choice of a particular resource strategy, vary considerably, revealing a number of opportunities for analytic improvement. Though our review focuses on a subset of U.S. electric utilities, this work holds implications for all electric utilities and energy policymakers who are seeking to minimize the compliance costs associated with future carbon regulation
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