Green Energy News From Around The World
This week in solar saw utilities continue the fight against net metering despite California being the world’s leading energy market. What does Net Metering 2.0 have in store for us?
Here are our top green energy stories of the week:
Despite California becoming the world’s number 1 renewable energy market, the Golden State has become witness to the latest battle between power companies and rooftop solar firms.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Monday started hearings that could result in changes to the way things work, and already the agricultural community has filed a letter in support of continued “net metering“.
The CPUC is set to tackle the debate with a new distributed generation tariff,
The current rules surrounding the net metering policy was set 5 years ago and set to expire once solar penetration reached 5% at any of three investor-owned utilities, which includes Edison International’s SoCalEd, PG&E Corp., and Sempra Energy.
These are all now nearing the 5% threshold now, and Californians are not very optimistic and have started signing petitions about the big changes they are facing with Net Metering 2.0.
The S.B 350, a new bill recently passed, forces utilities to acquire half of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
This legislation means utilities only have 15 years left to generate around 4,600 GW, and will soon pay premium prices for renewable electricity supply.
It seems that the HOA is becoming quite a challenge for the residential solar sector.
San Jose resident Ilam Mougy was approved by PG&E as well as the city council to install solar panels on his roof.
After he went ahead and installed the panels, the homeowners association claimed ownership of the roof and ordered all the panels be removed.
To make things worse, he was also slapped $300 fine and the cost of fixing the roof tiles.
Even though California state laws limit the control, these homeowners associations have over solar installs, they have become a tough challenge for expanding residential solar.
Get more on what’s at stake for the residential solar market here.
New York is fast becoming a solar manufacturing hot spot!
1366 Technologies is a new startup company, which along with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced on Wednesday that a factory will be built in Genesee County in upstate New York.
The new 100,000 square foot mega factory may provide up to 1,000 jobs when it’s completed in 2017.
The new factory will reportedly cost $700 million, but will boast many impressive innovations. Their manufacturing process only uses a third of the power traditionally needed and the process costs less than half.
It seems Elon Musks SolarCity, who also has a factory under construction in the area, will soon have serious competition.
The Indian state of Punjab has set a goal of being completely sustainable by producing all their own energy from solar.
Industries and farms are increasingly turning towards solar energy for their power.
Punjab’s New and Renewable Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said “We are committed to developing Punjab as a fully sustainable state. Ensuring the state’s upward development trend is important and therefore energy security is critical,” at the inauguration of the state’s largest solar plant.
The 32 MW solar project, in the district of Bathinda, was commissioned by the Indian solar and wind power group Welspun Renewables as part of the state’s aggressive renewable energy development plan.
Welspun is aiming to install 11 GW of renewables across India over the coming years and has raised $617 million to fund renewable energy projects in the area.
The latest figures prove solar installation costs have dropped in the first half of 2015.
EnergySage’s newest marketplace report shows us residential and small-scale commercial solar is only getting cheaper.
Now, the average cost of a solar installation in the U.S. is $3.79 per watt.
EnergySage has collected this info and bills it as “so exclusive that leading research and academic institutions such as National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Solar Electric Power Association, and the University of Texas have all leveraged EnergySage data for their own research and analysis.”
EnergySage CEO Vikram Aggarwal said “The residential solar market is a vibrant $7 billion industry, and on track to generate more revenue by year-end 2016 than Major League Baseball.”
You can download a copy of the EnergySage Solar Marketplace Intel Report here.
Johnny K 
