The Big Question: What Is the Future of Net-Metering?
Distributed solar continues to sweep across the globe as home and businesses owners install solar panels and generate their own electricity.
Read MoreThe Big Question: What Is the Future of Net-Metering?
Distributed solar continues to sweep across the globe as home and businesses owners install solar panels and generate their own electricity.
Read MoreAs Solar Pushes for U.S. Tax Break, One CEO Says Don’t Bother
Congress is debating whether to renew an investment tax credit that for nine years has helped put solar panels on rooftops across the country.
Read MoreAs Power Generation Week Starts in Las Vegas, City Commits to 100 Percent Renewable Energy
Las Vegas – Dec. 7 marks the opening of Power Generation Week in the city of Las Vegas. Power Generation Week is a series of energy conferences anchored by the behemoth Power Gen International (PGI) – the largest conference and expo for the traditional power generation industry.
Read MoreWind, Solar Projects Find New Buyers, Uncertain Prices
Prices to buy U.S. renewable energy projects are going down as yieldcos, battered by the market, acquire fewer wind and solar farms.
Read MoreWind, Solar Projects Find New Buyers, Uncertain Prices
Prices to buy U.S. renewable energy projects are going down as yieldcos, battered by the market, acquire fewer wind and solar farms.
Read MoreThe Hidden Cost of Solar + Energy Storage
Tom McCalmont, President McCalmont Engineering has been working on large solar projects for more than 15 years. The former CEO of Regrid Power, which in 2008 was purchased by Real Good Solar, his six-year old company McCalmont Engineering is fully dedicated to large solar and energy storage projects in California. “We do medium voltage interconnections, we do energy storage, we do NGOM meters, reverse-power relays, SCADA systems — so all of the things that people have problems with, we have expertise in,” he explained.
This expertise means that McCalmont understands what goes into interconnection and utility requirements for permitting and a little-known utility requirement called the NGOM, or “net-generation output meter” is making him very worried about the future of solar + energy storage projects, particularly in California.
What’s the Problem?
“The issue that utilities are absolutely paranoid about is that people will use energy storage to somehow arbitrage energy rates,” explained McCalmont.
Because solar is net-metered and the owner is being paid at retail for exporting power to the grid, utilities are worried that if you add storage, you are going to sell all of your power at retail rates when they are high and buy it back when it is cheap, he explained. In other words, utilities are worried that system owners will sell more energy to the utility than their solar is actually producing because they could, in theory, draw down their energy storage system and put it on the grid.
Read MoreThe Hidden Cost of Solar + Energy Storage
Tom McCalmont, President McCalmont Engineering has been working on large solar projects for more than 15 years. The former CEO of Regrid Power, which in 2008 was purchased by Real Good Solar, his six-year old company McCalmont Engineering is fully dedicated to large solar and energy storage projects in California. “We do medium voltage interconnections, we do energy storage, we do NGOM meters, reverse-power relays, SCADA systems — so all of the things that people have problems with, we have expertise in,” he explained.
This expertise means that McCalmont understands what goes into interconnection and utility requirements for permitting and a little-known utility requirement called the NGOM, or “net-generation output meter” is making him very worried about the future of solar + energy storage projects, particularly in California.
What’s the Problem?
“The issue that utilities are absolutely paranoid about is that people will use energy storage to somehow arbitrage energy rates,” explained McCalmont.
Because solar is net-metered and the owner is being paid at retail for exporting power to the grid, utilities are worried that if you add storage, you are going to sell all of your power at retail rates when they are high and buy it back when it is cheap, he explained. In other words, utilities are worried that system owners will sell more energy to the utility than their solar is actually producing because they could, in theory, draw down their energy storage system and put it on the grid.
Read MoreGreen Energy Must Be Cheaper Than Fossil Energy
There is a general consensus that CO2 emissions place a strain on our climate, yet our inability to set a proper price on these emissions means that it is still far too cheap to pollute.
Read MoreExpanded EIA Data on Small-Scale Solar ‘Important Step Forward,’ SEIA Says
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s recent decision to provide monthly estimates of small-scale distributed solar PV electricity generation and capacity by state and sector is an important step for the solar industry, Justin Baca, senior direc…
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