GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANT COMPLIANCE AND OPERATIONAL SAFETY

Cities can lead in the clean energy transition, boost the local solar market and save on electricity bills by powering their own operations with solar energy. Installing solar arrays on municipal roofs is the most visible way to set an example, but where on-site solar is not feasible, cities can still use off-site solar power to accomplish their goals. This webinar, the third in Environment America's Mayors for Solar Energy webinar series, will feature renewable energy experts and communities that have succeeded in powering a significant share of their operations with solar energy. Topics will include the benefits of solar for cities, processes for going solar, and tips and resources.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) produced a report on net energy metering (NEM) in response to a request from Congress. To gather information for the report, DOE conducted a Request for Information (RFI) and tasked ICF, Inc. to review 15 recent cost-benefit studies related to NEM. DOE’s report is a 10-page letter that summarizes the conclusions it drew from the responses to the RFI and from ICF’s report. ICF’s analysis for DOE, Review of Recent Cost-Benefit Studies Related to Net Metering and Distributed Solar, highlights the different value categories, approaches, and assumptions used in NEM cost-benefit analysis, value of solar studies, and broader DER valuation frameworks, emphasizing commonalities and differences between them, and how they are evolving over time. A short summary is available on ICF’s blog. The National Regulatory Research Institute released a Review of State Net Energy Metering and Successor Rate Designs, which summarizes state public utility commissions’ actions to find alternatives to the more commonly used net metering rate design. These alternative proposals include compensating for energy delivered to the grid at a price other than the retail service rate; increasing fixed charges and sometimes also minimum bills; time-varying rates; and adding demand-charges to bills for customers who did not have them previously.

With the investment tax credit step down beginning in 2020, utility-scale solar developers in the U.S. have begun to solidify their strategy on how to take advantage of the maximum amount of the ITC possible. Colin Smith, senior analyst for U.S. solar at WoodMackenzie Power & Renewables will share their forecast for the U.S. utility solar market, how much developers expect to qualify for commence construction, and how ITC safe harbor strategy will affect both supply and demand.

This is an updated version of the first ASES webinar, Selling Commercial Solar, featuring a revised live Q&A with Stanley Fishbein after the introduction and presentation. The webinar will be hosted by Stanley Fishbein of CleanView Capital, LLC. In this one-hour session, Mr. Fishbein will cover basic selling principles that apply to all product sales, discuss how to beat the competition and increase your solar sales, and how C&I customers obtain more value from solar when using a “traditional” operating lease versus a power purchase agreement or loan.