Over 125,000 customers participate in innovative renewable energy program In 2000, Pacific Power, a regulated utility serving customers across a six state region, launched its Blue SkySM renewable energy program. The program was well-received and steadily gained customers in its early years. By 2004, Pacific Power was offering three different products within the program and […]
As more states develop policy mechanisms for developer-led community solar, projects are proliferating. While some are highly successful, others struggle to sell out their capacity. To help build this market, we conducted research to determine what consumers want in a community solar product. The research was designed to answer the question: We used a conjoint […]
Let’s be honest, designing a community solar product that resonates with customers, utilities, and regulators can be challenging. Many of the products we see in the market overlook customer needs and include unattractive requirements, such as upfront costs and rigid contracts. Designed to mitigate utility risk, these elements actually increase risk by hindering marketing and […]
An integrated market would drop the cost of wind and solar integration, and make buying wholesale renewables a lot easier What would an expansion of the California wholesale market to a broader Western regional market mean for businesses looking to buy renewable energy? We recently tried to answer that question at a seminar. After a […]
Last year, we published a three-part series about community solar as offered by regulated utilities. These articles focused on key program design decisions; many of those discussions are just as relevant now as they were last year. But today I’d like to take the conversation up a level and talk about all the different varieties […]
Adam Capage looks at the negative REC prices in Colorado’s community solar program, explains how we got here, and suggests a fix. Last fall, it was disclosed that renewable energy certificate (REC) prices in the Colorado Solar Gardens program have turned negative — that is, developers have submitted bids that require them to pay the […]
As more customers become interested in having solar, utilities are looking to meet that demand through new community solar offerings. The content of this white paper is focused on assisting utilities that voluntarily choose to implement community solar programs. Launching a new utility offering is similar to launching a new product. As utilities develop these […]
Adam Capage of 3Degrees explores the complex topic of pricing power from community solar programs in an equitable manner. When a utility offers a community solar (or shared renewable) option to its customers, there are a range of program design questions to address. In previous articles, we’ve talked about project ownership and siting considerations and […]
In the second of three articles, Adam Capage of 3Degrees looks at how utilities can address the larger risks of a community solar program. With interest in community solar continuing to grow, more utilities are grappling with how to design a successful program that meets their organizational goals. In part one of this series on […]
The first community solar programs were started nearly a decade ago, and, as the name suggests, the early efforts were led by communities — neighbors, small towns, places of worship — in each case, a group of people dedicated to building solar systems and sharing the benefits of the electrical output. From these humble beginnings, […]
