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In a recent news post from news.stanford.edu, Stanford University has announced plans to go 100 percent solar by 2021.

The university signed a contract with Recurrent Energy for an 88 megawatt solar pv plant to be completed and delivering electricity by 2021. This 88 MW will be on top of an already 72 MW of solar already being utilitized by Stanford. This date set puts the university well ahead of California’s state wide goal of being fully renewable energy powered by 2045.

Two major solar installations and 5 MW of on-campus rooftop comprise Stanford’s 100 percent solar presence. Stanford Solar Generating Station #1 and the one to be completed by 2021, the Stanford Solar Generating Station #2, are located nearby in Rosamond and Lemoore, respectively.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Stanford’s president, stated – “As a university, we are pursuing an ambitious plan to further reduce our carbon footprint, and our second solar plant is a critical new component of that plan.” Mr. Tessier-Lavigne also stated that sustainability has been an ongoing goal for the university. The institution is not only doing its part to meet the state’s overall goal, but also sustainability practices have been incorporated into the university’s programs for student to learn from.

Major steps for university to become more sustainable began in 2008. New buildings had to meet new high-efficiency standards and new thermal management systems were incorporated. The first major solar pv plant was completed and online by 2016. This plant, along with efficiency improvements, enabled Stanford to bring their total greenhouse gas emissions from a peak of 240,000 metric tons per year to less than 100,000 metric tons per year. Of course, in three short years that number will drop to zero.

While the campus is not directly connected to their large solar pv installations, the university’s carbon footprint will be offset because the amount of electricity generated by the plants will be the same as what it draws from the grid.

Quite a few colleges and universities are pursuing their own solar projects to be community sustainability leaders as well. Those that haven’t yet will soon surely follow the lead set by Stanford and other universities.

The state of Connecticut is about to reach a significant solar milestone. The state will soon have at least 500 megawatts of installed solar capacity. It’s enough electrical capacity for 70,000 homes. This will also bring the state into the top 20 solar states nationwide.

In a recent article from ctpost.com, newly arriving Governor Ned Lamont is proposing considerable renewable energy legislation. He wants the state to drop current emissions by a third within twelve years and go carbon neutral in three decades time.

Lamont is also encouraging businesses and homeowners to go solar now to take advantage of the federal tax credit that is set to expire in 2021. He said he would also make sure that the Connecticut Green Bank is funded to further ensure that monies are available in the future.

For example, PACE (property assessed clean energy), is a popular way to finance renewable energy projects in quite a few states across the country. Through this program, business owners and homeowners can gain access to solar financing and pay the money back over time through higher property taxes.

Connecticut’s aggressive solar outlook is certainly impressive considering the relative size of the state. Of course, many states in the north east are more densely populated than some parts of the country. Also, the north east is progressive, for the most part, when it comes to promoting renewable energy.

It’s great to see more solar growth in this and other New England states. This should just be the beginning for solar expansion here and in other parts of the country. Word has yet to really spread about the truly affordable nature of solar power.

Much has been written on Solar Power Now about the promise of affordable solar plus storage solutions at the residential level. This is NOT one of those posts.

This one, on the other hand, is about how cost effective, battery-backed up solar is already becoming a reality at the utility scale.

While fracking has made natural gas super abundant, and the eventual cost leader in recent years, this is beginning to change. These two energy sources are on opposite cost trajectories; natural gas is eventually going up, while solar plus energy storage is falling in price.

2018 has seen a few projects being green-lit. The following are just a few examples:

• FPL, a subsidiary of NextEra, is already selling electricity from their 74.5 megawatt Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center in Florida. The system is backed up with 10 megawatts of battery storage.
• First Solar will build a 65 megawatt solar power plant that will be backed-up by a 50 megawatt energy storage system in Arizona.
• AES Distributed Energy will construct a 28 megawatt solar farm with a 20 megawatt battery system on Kauai, Hawaii. This system will produce electricity that only costs $0.11 per kilowatt-hour.
• EnSync Energy Systems is building a 750 kilowatt system with 500 kilowatts of energy storage in Oahu, Hawaii.
• Cypress Creek Renewables plans to construct 12 separate solar plus storage projects that will have a combined 12 megawatt-hour capacity in North Carolina.

These are only a few of the solar projects that are currently planned or finished that have energy storage systems.

The rationale is simple, there are quite a few locations in the United States where solar plus storage proposals are coming in at lower costs compared to natural gas or any other energy source and ultimately proving to be the winning bid.

One of the determining factors in favor of solar power systems coupled with energy storage is that it is easier for utilities to know exactly what their costs are going to be. This is not the case with natural gas. Prices may be cheap now, but they fluctuate. This volatility makes it an unwise investment over the long term. The sun, on the other hand, rises everyday like clockwork.

It will not be long before utilities across the country begin to invest heavily in major solar plus storage projects.

It is a commonly known fact by those in the renewable energy industry that the cost of solar has decreased dramatically over the years. In fact, its price reduced about 99 percent over the past 40 years.

However, the reasons for this decline are just now being revealed. In a recent article from MIT News, the exact reasons for this precipitous pricing drop are explained.

It turns out that government policy and investments helped spur the industry along at just about every stage. The article discussed two major categories concerning the the development of this industry; “low-level” factors and “high-level” factors.

Low level factors include everything to do with the beginning stages of making a solar cell, manufacturing processes, and the size of solar factories. For example, solar cell efficiency levels have increased quite a bit since the early years of cell production. High level factors are research and development, “learning-by-doing”, and economies of scale. Limiting defective cell production and gaining price advantages from larger factories (economies of scale) are two examples of high level factors.

Early on in the industry, cost savings were found in research and development and a declining cost of silicon and non-silicon materials. In 2001-2012, economies of scale became the main cost influencer. For the years that this study considered, 1980-2012, private R&D, learning-by-doing, and economies of scale combined accounted for about 60 percent of the total cost reduction. Research and development funded by the governments of nations around the world account for the other 40 percent.

The MIT study also mentions that solar photovoltaic research is ongoing and that further cost reductions are possible. Materials other than silicon are being studied as a possibly cheaper alternative. It should be noted that pricing indicators for utility scale solar and residential solar are often different.

Let’s now discuss the obvious “elephant in the room.” The idea that there are quite a few people who are against the use of renewable forms of energy like wind and solar power because they are subsidized by the government. They believe that these energy sources will fail without these subsidies. What they don’t realize or won’t admit, is the fact that the fossil fuel industries were subsidized in the same ways, in fact even more so.

There must be quite a few examples of consumer technology that gets used everyday that would not exist in the marketplace without early assistance from the government. Considering the fact that solar power is now not only an economic boon, but something that can have a major impact on improving our environment, its only detractors must simply be those that are currently employed by the fossil fuel industry.

The really good news is that solar power is now such a cheap form of energy. Therefore, fortunately, it does not have to be as reliant on potential future governmental assistance such as the highly discussed carbon tax. We can expect to see continued massive solar power implementation due to current price comparisons with alternatives alone.

To find out what the current cost of solar is at the residential scale, go to the cost of solar page.

Two of Arizona’s largest electric utilities, Arizona Public Service (APS) and Salt River Project (SRP), are continuing to make considerable investments in their total solar capacity.

This news comes by way of azcentral.com. Multiple recent articles from this news site have detailed what these two utilities have on their solar horizons.

APS currently has the most installed solar capacity in Arizona at about 1.4 gigawatts. The most notable installations include; The Solana Generating Station, the Red Rock Solar Plant, and 9 AZ Sun large-scale solar plants. In addition to increased solar expansion, APS is planning on incorporating a great deal of energy storage as well. In fact, one of their battery projects may just be the largest in the country. APS also claims that 50 percent of the electricity that they provide to their customers comes from renewable sources.

The utility that is making great strides to catch up to APS is Salt River Project. Like APS, the SRP serves approximately 1 million people. SRP currently only has about 200 megawatts of solar power capacity. However, the utility is planning on adding 1,000 megawatts by 2025. This is enough power for about 250,000 homes.

The efforts by these two utilities and the others in Arizona definitely help explain how the state has the third most installed solar capacity in the country.

Although the main emphasis of this article is about utility-scale solar, it would not be right to leave out what has been happening with the state’s residential solar market. While more solar at any scale is, in general a good thing, Arizona’s story so far has not been too consumer friendly. Arizona is one of the only states to offer net metering and then essentially take it away. Homeowners are currently not fairly compensated for their excess electricity. The good news is that this is a temporary setback. The economics of solar plus storage is looking more and more attractive.

It’s simple. Residential solar represents a real threat to their business model. This strategy will be short lived as more homeowners not only go solar, but begin to purchase energy storage systems as well. At that point, solar consumers will no longer be at the whim of any utility’s net metering rules.

We absolutely need to install as much solar as we can, as soon as possible. This includes all scales – utility, commercial, and residential. So it’s great to see that Arizona is one of the states that is leading the way. It would just be a shame if more homeowners continue to miss out on one of, if not the greatest economic opportunity to arise in a very long time.

In a new report from GreenTechMedia.com, solar loans are now the leading source of funding in the residential solar market.

For the first half of 2018, loans amounted to 42 percent of the total share of how home solar panel systems are financed. Third party ownership (leases and PPAs), fell to 34 percent. Cash sales have risen recently to make up the rest of residential market.

The report mentions that the financing company, Mosaic, is the leading provider of solar lending with a market share of 29 percent. While Mosaic is a market leader, they have taken on slightly less business this year to restructure their lending terms.

Much like it is for Mosaic, the solar industry represents a period of flux for some of the major players. For example, Vivint Solar has seen sales decline last year, yet it has recommitted to offering third party ownership. Tesla Energy (formerly Solar City) has pulled back from its residential sales this year by ending its door-to-door sales program and pulling out of Home Depot stores.

The one company that seems to be plowing forward at full speed ahead is SunRun. They are the new largest solar installer in the U.S. The company is not shying away from offering leases either.

Future forecasting by the report predicts that loans will continue to maintain its lead over third party ownership, although these leases and PPAs can still benefit from a 10 percent credit after the Federal Investment Tax Credit ends in 2022.

This report did not come as a surprise in the least. In fact, it’s rather unfortunate that loans did not become the primary way homeowners finance their solar installations sooner.

There’s really three reasons why this is the case. First of all, a decade ago all of the large solar installers were heavily pushing solar leases. Second, solar lending was in its infancy and not widely available. Third, homeowners were simply not aware of their options (see reason one).

Solar Power Now has always been a proponent of solar lending, or paying cash when possible. Leasing has never been in the best interest of homeowners. The fact that it still remains a significant percentage of how solar is financed is quite unfortunate.

Homeowners are finally realizing that owning their panels offers many more benefits than leasing. Two of the primary ones are that they end up paying much less over time and they will not have problems selling their home in the future either. Maybe they have also made the connection between home ownership and power ownership. Some have definitely realized that they no longer need to be renters of the electricity that they need.

Hopefully solar lending really does remain the leader well into the future!