By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Two separate pieces today by Bloomberg New Energy Finance illustrate the ever-increasing gap between how utilities in Europe and the United States view distributed generation. In Europe, research suggests that utilities have come to the realization that distributed generation like solar and wind are becoming what electricity consumers want and, if they expect to thrive into the future, are what utilities will have to provide. In the United States, on the other hand, utilities continue to invest in centralized distribution and can’t figure out why those investments aren’t allowing them to make the money they … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Community solar is a hot topic right now in the industry. It’s potential to expand solar’s reach to non-traditional solar customers – renters and people whose homes are not suited to individual solar arrays – is enormous, and as more states become solar friendly, community solar is one of the most frequent focuses of policymakers as they try to navigate a new solar world (see Illinois, for example). And according to a new report from Ellen Emma Foehringer Merchant of Greentech Media, the way of doing business for community solar providers is finally changing to … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent The law of unintended consequences keeps traipsing through the solar industry. As broader tariffs begin to kick in on products ranging from solar modules to electronics equipment, the real-world consequences are beginning to interfere with product launches like Huawei’s launch of a low-cost residential solar inverter. Huawei had been predicting its inverter would knock $100 to $200 off the typical price of a residential inverter, allowing it to compete with more well-known inverter companies. Instead, a 25% tariff on Chinese electronic equipment is going to completely wipe out that advantage and is already interfering in … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Recently, President Donald J. Trump yet again riffed on how much wind power kills birds and opined that if the wind doesn’t blow (for wind power) or the sun doesn’t shine (for solar power), “we have a problem.” Well, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, EVs could be the way to solve renewable energy’s intermittency problems at a fraction of the cost of what widespread stationary battery use would cost. That’s what a report by two writers at the National Resources Defense Council discuss in a fascinating article at the Microgrid Knowledge website. As … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent An ongoing controversy in New Mexico over stand-by fees on solar customers may finally becoming to an end, according to an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican. A hearing officer recently recommended that regulators make Southwestern Public Service Co. stop collecting a “standby fee” from customers with solar systems, saying a study the utility used to justify the fees is “riddled with errors and unreliable.” Color me shocked (not shocked): A utility is using flawed materials to justify treating solar customers like separate-class citizens. Sounds an awful lot like the “cost shift zombie myth” … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Last week, more than 200 solar + storage advocated descended on Sacramento to push for passage of of a significant energy storage bill. Their efforts seem to have had the desired effect, as SB 700 – an energy storage bill that fell completely off the legislative radar last year – is now front and center as it moved out of the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee and on to the full assembly floor. The bill would extend the incentives for the popular Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). Between it and SB 100, which would move California to a … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent From an outsider’s perspective, it sure looks like Gov. Paul LePage of Maine is winning his longstanding war on solar. Armed with zombie lies about cost shifts and allowing utilities to run amok with special burdens on solar users, LePage has fought for at least three years to strangle the solar industry in his state, vetoing three different pieces of legislation that would have helped set the Maine solar industry on more solid footing. Now the Supreme Court has gotten into the act, saying solar advocates’ attempts to challenge current net metering policy to the … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent In the birthplace of American independence, the solar industry will celebrate later this morning as the mayor, council and solar advocates gather for Solar Day in a ceremony designed to recognize the number of solar jobs in the Greater Philadelphia area and to unveil the latest class of young high school students that went through a vocational solar training. We talked with Laura Rigell, solar manager for the Philadelphia Energy Authority, to find out more. Frank Andorka (FA): Why does Philadelphia celebrate Solar Day? Laura Rigell (LR): The Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA) has been working … Read More →

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon The electric utility industry is undergoing rapid change. There used to be two types of utilities: investor owned utilities (IOUs, such as Pacific Gas and Electric and ConEd) and municipally owned utilities (MOUs, such as LADWP and Silicon Valley Power). Now there is a third hybrid type, called a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) utility. IOUs work for their stockholders — striving to maximize their profits by charging the most they can for electricity, maximizing their net assets and minimizing their expenses (often maintenance). MOUs work for their local cities — and try to provide … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent You had to know Suniva would come to this, right? Nothing – and I mean nothing – has come easy with this company. First, it filed a trade complaint, only to get bigfooted to almost an afterthought on its own complaint by its “co-petitioner” SolarWorld. Then it won the case, which led to SolarWorld being purchased by competitor SunPower and Suniva to be…sold for parts. But now that we had finally moved on to the selling off of assets, even THAT can’t go smoothly for the poor bankrupt module manufacturer. Now two of its creditors … Read More →