\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nAn independent study published by a nationally known energy\r\nconsultant asserts that adding 500 megawatts of solar generation in\r\nNorth Carolina would save utility ratepayers about $26 million\r\nannually.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nIt notes the gains from solar projects — such as lower\r\ntransmission and distribution costs, avoided emissions, lower losses\r\nof electricity in transmission.\r\n\r\nThe study calculates that such benefits<\/a>\r\noutweigh the costs by 30 percent to 40 percent.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nUpdate 2017-04-25:<\/strong>\r\nEnergy NC seems to have removed or moved its copy of that report<\/a>,\r\nbut fortunately SEIA lists it<\/a>\r\non\r\na backup website<\/a>, and I’ve linked it into the quotation above, plus a copy on the LAKE website<\/a>.\r\nSEIA also lists many other studies for other states, such as\r\none for Virginia<\/a> which is on the\r\nMDV-SEIA website<\/a>, and now also has\r\na copy on the LAKE website<\/a>.\r\nFor Georgia SEIA lists the testimony of GSEIA before the Georgia Public Service Commission in 2013<\/a>.\r\nFor Florida SEIA lists only a very old (2003) study with a broken link,\r\nwhich can be found as a google book<\/a>, but now would mostly be worthwhile as a museum piece.\r\nDuke’s own actions in Florida in 2016 and 2017<\/a> indicate\r\nDuke Energy knows the sun is rising even on the Sunshine State.\r\n
\r\nThe study considered two intertwined solar methods:\r\n
\r\n\r\nWholesale solar involves power sold to utilities through\r\npower-purchase agreements with solar developers such as Strata Solar\r\nof Chapel Hill and SunEnergy1 of Huntersville. Distributed\r\ngeneration solar is solar “behind the meter,” which\r\nmeans solar projects in which the owner uses the power to offset\r\nsome of its own demand for electricity and sells excess power to the\r\nutility through net metering.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nOr\r\n\r\nO2 Energies’ Sandy Hill Solar<\/a>\r\nor\r\n\r\nCastalia Solar’s 13 acre solar farm<\/a>,\r\nboth in Nash County, NC.\r\n
\r\n\r\n“This study confirms what we are experiencing every day as\r\nmore and more solar projects are being developed in North Carolina\r\nwith benefits flowing to local communities,” said Ralph\r\nThompson, chairman of the North Carolina Clean Energy Business\r\nAlliance.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe findings could get a real-world test before long. Developers are\r\nexpected to build 370 megawatts of new solar capacity in the state\r\nnext year — close to the 400 megawatt wholesale figure —\r\naccording to projections by industry tracker NPD Solarbuzz.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe progress of distributed generation projects are a little harder\r\nto track, although anecdotally solar construction companies see net\r\nmetering projects on the rise in the state.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nThis was all using the utility “avoided cost” canard:\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe study calculates that the utilities’ current avoided-cost rates\r\n— subject to commission approval — will be 4.5 to 5\r\ncents per kilowatt-hour for current projects over that 15-year\r\nwindow. The avoided costs represent the minimum price utilities must\r\npay independent solar developers for the power they produce from any\r\nproject rated at 5 megawatts or less. Prices for power from larger\r\nprojects are negotiated, but the avoided costs remain an important\r\nfactor in the calculations. Only a handful of projects in the state\r\nare larger than 5 megawatts, although several more are slated for\r\nconstruction next year.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nAustinEnergy’s\r\n\r\nValue of Solar tariff<\/a>\r\nfigures in the true value of solar power to a utility,\r\nincluding not just the avoided generation cost,\r\nbut also lower line costs due to distributed generation,\r\nand lower financing costs\r\nthrough pushing back building other types of generation.\r\nAustin Energy pays three cents per kiloWatt-hour more<\/em>\r\nthan retail for customer-generated solar power.\r\n
\r\nAustinEnergy is owned by the City of Austin.\r\nFor-profit utilities\r\n\r\ndon’t look forward so kindly to losing their profits<\/a>.\r\nYet they can only put off switching to solar for a brief time,\r\nuntil they go the way of\r\n\r\nAustinEnergy in 2003<\/a>\r\nor\r\n\r\nCobb EMC in 2012<\/a> and switch to solar for new power generation.\r\n
\r\nEven\r\n\r\nSouthern Company CEO Tom Fanning<\/a>\r\nbrought up using rooftops as generation sites back May 2013 at the\r\nSO stockholder meeting.\r\nEven the Georgia PSC and legislature will get tired of\r\n\r\nSO’s Plant Vogtle nuclear boondoggle<\/a>\r\nand will\r\n\r\ncap cost overruns<\/a>.\r\nThen Vogtle 3 and 4 will go the way of\r\n\r\nCalvert Cliffs 3, South Texas Nuclear Project 3 and 4, Bellefonte, and Levy County<\/a>,\r\nand will be cancelled.\r\nFinally we will be able to get on with real speed of solar deployment in Georgia.\r\n
\r\nThe study also considered California and Arizona,\r\nbut didn’t bother with\r\n\r\nF-grade Georgia<\/a>.\r\n
\r\n
<\/a>\r\nAlthough even in Georgia, even formerly all-mighty Georgia Power\r\n\r\nhad to agree in July to double the amount of solar power it will buy<\/a>\r\n\r\nand\r\nin December\r\n\r\nfailed to get<\/a> ALEC’s\r\n\r\nALEC’s solar tax<\/a>,\r\nboth at the Georgia PSC.\r\nThe sun is rising, even on Georgia.\r\n
\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And the same is true in Georgia, despite Georgia Power and Southern Company. John Downey wrote for Charlotte Business Journal 23 October 2013, Study: Solar benefits outweigh costs in NC An independent study published by a nationally known energy consultant asserts that adding 500 megawatts of solar generation in North Carolina would save utility ratepayers […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[140,216,14,8,18,104,23,24],"tags":[8744,6614,8753,1037,8704,8701,8708,7367,171,8702,12,7,158,8737,107,8713,637,8714,108,2609,319,6],"class_list":["post-7327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alec","category-coal","category-economy","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-alec","tag-avoided-cost","tag-coal","tag-distributed","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-georgia-psc","tag-kemper-coal","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-north-carolina","tag-nuclear","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rooftop","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-taxpayers","tag-utility","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Ub","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18372,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions\/18372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}