SB700 Signed By Governor Brown, Extends SGIP 5 Years

By Yann Brandt, Managing Editor

Governor Jerry Brown has signed SB700, the bill also known as the ‘Sun Shines at Night’. The bill, which had passed the legislature in early September, will extend and fund the popular energy storage incentive called SGIP.

“If we are going to get to 100% clean energy, we need to be using solar power every hour of the day, not just when the sun is shining,” said Senator Scott Wiener, author of SB 700. “This bill will protect clean energy jobs while also protecting consumers from ever rising energy bills.”

The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) backed SB700 as the signature legislation for 2018 and with over 200 solar professionals pushed for its passing at the annual lobby day. Yesterday, CALSSA called for emergency outreach to the Governor’s office to ask for the bill to be signed.

[wds id=”3″]

“By signing this bill, the governor is making the sun shine at night!” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, the 500-member clean energy business group that championed SB 700 for the past two years. ”Energy storage is critical to achieving our ambitious climate change goals by allowing massive deployment of solar energy and giving everyday consumers another reason to be green.”

SB 700 re-authorizes the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) for five years, extending rebates for consumers through 2025. It would add up to $800 million for storage and other emerging clean energy technologies, resulting in a total investment of $1.2 billion for customer sited energy storage. Boosting energy storage will help California achieve its goal of generating 100% of its electricity from renewable resources, as called for in SB 100 (de Leon), which was signed into law on September 10th. A summary of SB 700 with more details about the SGIP program can be found here.

SB 700 won broad, bipartisan support in the California legislature in August with a 25-12 vote in the Senate and a 57-18 vote in the Assembly. It was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on September 27, 2018. The new law will take effect January 1, 2019.

New York’s Joins The Energy Storage Race With Its Biggest Lithium Ion Battery Project

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

New York has found itself behind its fellow Northeastern states when it comes to joining the solar revolution. New Jersey took the early lead, but now Vermont and Massachusetts are coming on strong, and the Empire State has found itself struggling to make news on its own.

Well, at least outside of its … exuberant governor who is always talking a good game but has little to show for it to date. That may, however, be changing, as Key Capture Energy and NEC Energy Solutions announced they are teaming up on a 20 MW battery storage project in Saratoga County.

The project, called KCE NY 1 is a key part of the next generation of the state’s electric grid and will enhance the power grid’s performance and reliability with reduced carbon emissions, while promoting economic and job growth in upstate New York.

[wds id=”3″]

KCE’s NY 1 project is the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in New York State and supports Governor Cuomo’s commitment for New York State to reach 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025. In Governor Cuomo’s 2018 State of State Address, it was recognized that in addition to providing roughly $2 billion in gross benefits and avoiding more than one million metric tons of CO2 emissions, by 2030 New York’s energy storage industry could employ approximately 30,000.

It also supports New York State’s Energy Storage Roadmap, which was released in June and developed by the Department of Public Service (DPS) and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) with input from numerous stakeholders such as Key Capture Energy. The Roadmap identifies near-term recommendations for how energy storage can deliver value to New York electricity consumers and cost-effectively address the needs and demands of the grid.

Additionally, energy storage can help achieve the aggressive Clean Energy Standard goal of getting 50% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030, while at the same time ensuring that carbon is reduced by 40% compared to 1990 levels. This announcement marks an important example of the ever evolving energy landscape in New York State.

SEIA Broadens Its Reach By Making It Easier For Rank-And-File Installers To Join

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

In the past, some installers have grumbled that the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is in thrall to installers and manufacturers who have big money to spend and that it didn’t care about the little guy. They would then point to the dues structure and suggest one of the reasons they refused to join was the expense was beyond what their bottom lines could handle.

Well, I’m here to say that SEIA must have heard the criticism, and it’s making changes to accommodate more of the rank-and-file installers that said they couldn’t join before.

SEIA announced the roll out of an updated membership structure, that introduces a Basic level membership for just $750 per year, and a new Premium level of membership – Watt membership – for $4,500 per year. These changes lower the barriers to join SEIA for smaller companies and for those just entering the industry, aiding SEIA’s advocacy efforts as the voice of the entire U.S. solar industry.

[wds id=”3″]

“By expanding our offerings, we can bring more solar companies into the SEIA fold, ultimately strengthening our voice in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals across the country,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “This is a significant shift in strategy for SEIA that will not only help us boost our influence, but also make us work more democratically, creating opportunity for companies of all kinds to engage in their own advocacy.”

The new structure provides Basic level members with access to valuable tools and materials, including SEIA’s Federal Tax Manual, webinars, the SEIA Sphere, and Division calls and meetings.

Additionally, SEIA is introducing a new online form on its website to make it quicker and easier to join the association. The “Join SEIA” landing page has also been updated with key information to make it more streamlined and easier to access.

These updates are effective immediately for new members. For current members, the new membership structure will take effect upon their 2019 renewal date.

This change also includes new Membership Referral and Ambassador Programs, which allow SEIA members to earn discounts on their dues, event tickets, sponsorship opportunities and more, by recruiting new companies to join SEIA.

Nevada PUC Sets Grid Guidelines To Encourage Distributed Energy Additions In Future

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

For all of Nevada’s struggles with solar energy – the inexplicable, precipitous shutdown of net metering that destroyed the rooftop industry for almost two years comes to mind – they are trying hard right now to bring about its renaissance.

First, they reinstated net metering. Now they’re on the verge of increasing the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) through a well-funded, seemingly popular ballot initiative. And today, the Public Utilities Commission (NPUC) adopted a framework that will require investor-owned utilities (IOUs)to create Distribution Resource Plans (DRP), which will determine what resources and grid upgrades the utilities will need to make to meet consumer demand for electricity.

Essentially, the PUC is requiring IOUs to be thinking about how to integrate more distributed resources on to the grid in ways that they haven’t before – which means more clean energy adoption in the future because the grid will be ready for it.

[wds id=”3″]

Starting in 2019, NV Energy (NVE) will be required to file these 3-year distribution plans as part of their triennial integrated resource plans, which will allow periodic opportunities for stakeholders to review, refine and determine the grid needs.

Over the past year, IREC, Vote Solar, and Western Resource Advocates participated alongside NVE, the Bureau of Consumer Protection and commission staff as part of the rulemaking to implement Senate Bill 146 – a bill that aimed to evaluate locational costs and benefits of distributed resources by adding the new DRP requirement for utilities.

The results from the collaborative effort established these principal components of the Nevada DRP process:

load and distributed energy resource (DER) forecasting;
locational net benefit analysis (LNBA) to identify high- and low-value grid locations for DER solutions;
grid needs assessment (GNA) to prioritize and screen projects that will address identified grid needs; and
hosting capacity analysis (HCA) to identify the available capacity for DER at particular points on the distribution network.

“IREC appreciates the commission’s forward-thinking approach to this process and setting forth a strong framework for Nevada’s distribution resource planning,” said IREC Regulatory Director Sara Baldwin Auck. “Nevada’s work will ensure consumer-driven clean energy resources are integrated and optimized on the grid for years to come.”

These four components will operate in tandem with the DRP. Each must function on its own as well as in conjunction with each other to ensure the DRP properly addresses identified grid needs with distributed energy resources and traditional resource solutions.

“A well-executed Distribution Resource Plan has the potential to create substantial benefits for families and businesses by leveraging solar, storage and demand response technologies in locations that will make the electric grid run more affordably and reliably,” said Ed Smeloff, director of grid integration at Vote Solar. “With the new regulations, Nevada is putting itself on the leading edge in Distribution Resource Planning.”