September 2010 Connecting to the Grid Newsletter
WHAT’S NEW AS OF SEPTEMBER 2010? Note from the Editor The ABCs of PV Incentives Diversity is the key to life and apparently, the key to a robust PV market. Over the past few months I have been lucky enough to work with Kevin Fox, attorney for Keyes and Fox Distributed Generation Law, on a…
WHAT’S NEW AS OF SEPTEMBER 2010?
Note from the Editor
The ABCs of PV Incentives
Diversity is the key to life and apparently, the key to a robust PV market. Over the past few months I have been lucky enough to work with Kevin Fox, attorney for Keyes and Fox Distributed Generation Law, on a report that examines both wholesale and retail photovoltaic (PV) policy options titled Sustainable, Multi-segment Market Design for Distributed Solar PV. I wanted to provide a quick sneak peak of the issues we examine in this paper, which will soon be published by the Solar America Board for Codes and Standards (Solar ABCs).
Electric customers have a variety of needs and objectives when it comes to considering solar investments. Moreover, the solar market can be a confounding and complex place, difficult to navigate among the available policy incentive routes. This report speaks to the advantages and disadvantages of each policy type and promotes a diverse and straightforward offering of policies to support the entire market. [Continued in Newsletter]
State News in Detail
Northeast States
New York increases size limit for farm-based systems
Massachusetts removes geographic limitation
Mid-Atlantic States
Maryland groups divided over Net Metering proposals
New Jersey incentivized off-shore wind; announces stakeholder meeting for community pilot programs
Southern States
TVA considers 50 MW of distributed generation proposals
Midwestern States
Michigan muni adopts net metering for wind and solar
Minnesota PUC resolves PPA REC ownership dispute
North Dakota PUC adopts REC sales plan from Xcel Energy
Western States
Arizona ACC working on Feed-in Tariff plan
California CPUC issues FIT proposal
New Mexico scales back utility solar plan
Other States
Homer, Alaska co-op adopts state net metering rules
Hawaii contends with accelerated grid-tied renewables integration
IREC News
IREC to hold Community Renewables Webinar in September
Miscellaneous News
AWEA reports small wind is on the rise
EIA to expand smart grid, net metering tracking
Upcoming Events
Download the full newsletter as a PDF: September 2010 Connecting to the Grid Newsletter
FORMAT
While customer-sited net metering and interconnection policies are primarily addressed at the state level, they are also becoming important on a regional basis. This newsletter has been designed to provide state-level policy updates and capture emerging regional trends. Connecting to the Grid is a free, electronic newsletter published each month by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC) and the North Carolina Solar Center at North Carolina State University. Click here to subscribe.
Editor: Laurel Varnado
NC Solar Center, NC State University