The solar capacity of communities in the United States more than doubled between 2016 and 2017,from 347 megawatts at the end of 2016 to 734 megawatts at the end of 2017.Currently,228 utility companies in 36 states in the United States are actively carrying out community solar energy programs. These numbers are part of a new report by the Smart Power Alliance(SEPA)titled"Community Solar Program Design Model".This report is one of two reports released by SEPA,focusing on the growth and increasing maturity of community solar programs in the United States.The second report,"The Value Stacking in Cathedrals,"is a case study by SEPA that focuses on how a small town responds to the demand for green energy from key industrial customers by shelving community solar projects,but still exploring opportunities for shared solar projects. In addition to providing data on community solar expansion,the'Design Model'report also covers lessons learned from existing projects,as well as basic'Decision Tree'tools aimed at helping utilities and other developers raise the right questions for successful projects.This report includes research results developed in collaboration with the Community Solar Access Alliance(CCSA). Key points include: In 2015,the public sector managed 60%of all community solar energy plans,while third-party organizations managed 40%.Since then,this disagreement has begun.Currently,third parties account for 67%of community solar plans,while utilities account for approximately 33%. The average subscription rate for community solar projects is 83%;The subscription rate of community solar energy owned by third parties exceeds 90%.The success of a subscription depends on a series of programming elements,but the financial value proposition of the project remains the main driving force. Public utility companies are exploring the use of community scale distributed solar energy as grid assets to improve reliability and grid support services.In Minster,a community project that combines solar energy and energy storage has generated four independent value streams from a single project in the town. Many community solar projects in the service are aimed at low-income customers,tenants,and residential customers residing in multi family homes.In the past,these customers were unable to benefit from solar energy because they did not have a roof,or if they had a roof,they could not support solar energy. Despite the rapid growth of community solar energy,these shared projects only account for over 1%of the total solar market in the United States,"said Dan Chwashyk,project manager of the SEPA Community Solar Program However,due to the flexible business model of community solar,we have seen sustained growth,allowing utilities and third-party developers to customize products based on local markets and customer interests.Our research and case studies indicate that the more adjustments made to customer utilities,the more innovative and successful their plans become Jeff Cramer,Executive Director of CCSA,said,"Community solar energy is growing exponentially.As this report indicates,the vast majority of community solar projects are either sold out or sold out.We are pleased to see the industry meet and exceed its growth expectations,and to see new community solar plans launched across the country,but today only a small percentage of American customers can choose solar.We hope that this situation will change and community solar will play a leading role in scale
2023-05-05 14:02:02The state-owned news agency IRNA stated that Iran is planning to build a 1.5GW solar energy project along the Tehran Qom highway that runs through the central part of the country. The executive director of Mehdi Ahanin Panjeh,a utility company in Qom Province,stated that the factory will help strengthen the power grid.He also pointed out that the utility company is willing to sign a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement(PPA)with residents who install rooftop solar energy. The large solar energy industry in the country is progressing and has completed its fifth 7MW project in Hamidan Province.The British company Quercus also plans to reach an agreement with the Iranian Ministry of Energy to build a 600MW solar power plant in Iran. Dr.Seyed Mohammad Sadeghzadeh,Deputy Minister of Energy and Head of the Iran Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization(SATBA),also stated that solar energy will become a leader in future energy and emphasized that prices below 3 cents per kilowatt hour are used for solar energy seen in other parts of the world. He said that in order to reduce Iran's own solar energy prices to below 3 cents and successfully achieve energy transformation,it is necessary to increase its installed capacity to over 1GW per year,but this faces challenges in licensing and grid connection forms.
2023-05-05 14:02:01SEIA's"2017 Solar Market Insight Report"reviewed and found that the quantity of solar energy in residential and utility scale has decreased,while a segmented market has grown:non residential solar energy,including C&I and community scale solar projects. The scale of community scale solar projects is between residential projects and utility scale projects.These multifunctional projects can be owned by different stakeholders such as communities,universities,municipal utilities,rural power cooperatives,or companies.Community solar energy is a type of community scale solar energy project,but not all community scale solar energy projects are considered"community solar energy". Thomas Koch Blank,the head of Rocky Mountain College,said,"We don't care about ownership structure,it's only about the scale of the system,it's close to the load and distributed in the distribution network The advantage of a system of this size is that it can be placed close to the distribution network,thus being close to the load.On the contrary,utility scale solar energy must be located close to the transmission network,while Blank stated that space is limited. Blanc said,'We no longer have large flat areas of cheap land close to the transmission network.'Therefore,for utility scale projects,this means an increase in land or transmission costs,which actually becomes a disadvantage of scale. Community scale projects avoid these high transmission costs as they can be directly connected to the distribution network. RMI believes that the community scale market will have potential of 20 to 30 GW in the coming years,but assistance is needed in this area to fully realize its potential.Some obstacles to development are costs,awareness,and ways for buyers to understand how to purchase and finance these systems. We understand that cost is not actually a barrier because these systems are cost-effective.It's just that people are unaware of this,"Blank said. RMI has created the Shine Program to help educate stakeholders and overcome these perceived obstacles.In this plan,RMI serves as the buyer's representative for organizations using community scale solar energy,municipal utilities,and rural power cooperatives. We are trying to stay at the forefront of the market that is about to take off and promote their self-development,"Blake said So far,RMI has released an RFP for 15 MW community scale solar energy in New Mexico through Shine and received a price similar to the cost of utility scale solar energy.RMI has also conducted an RFP with ROCSPOT to plant community scale solar energy in Rochester
2023-05-05 14:01:15According to data just released by BNEF,the total global investment in clean energy in 2017 was$333.5 billion,an increase of 3%compared to 2016,but still 7%lower than the record level in 2015.In 2018,it was$330 billion,which is basically the same as in 2017.It is worth noting that due to the decrease in the cost of renewable energy(photovoltaic,wind energy),the total investment in clean energy no longer significantly increases.Therefore,even if the total investment remains stable,this is still a great achievement.
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