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Think the US Solar Industry Doesn’t Need the Solar ITC? Think Again.

“What I’m worried about is the end of the ITC,” said Tony Clifford, CEO of Standard Solar a solar developer based in Maryland during an interview at Intersolar North America. In preparation for a presentation that he was giving at the show, Clifford sought out studies other than those conducted by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) about what will happen to solar in the U.S. should the ITC go away. He wanted to look beyond SEIA, the lobbying arm of the industry, because Clifford said he would expect SEIA to say the end of the ITC will be catastrophic for the solar industry, it is a lobbying organization after all. While he does believe the industry will be harmed he wanted to see what other independent studies were showing. 

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UK Government Proposes Solar and Biomass Subsidy Cuts

The U.K. proposed to reduce support for the solar and biomass-power industries to help consumers who fund the subsidies through their energy bills.

Ministers plan to end a government aid program for small solar projects a year early and will no longer allow small-scale renewables developers to lock in guaranteed power prices under the feed-in tariff program, according to documents on the Department of Energy and Climate Change website.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s administration is scaling back renewables assistance as part of its drive to keep a lid on public spending and reduce the costs to consumers of government policy. Today’s revisions follow cuts to onshore wind subsidies last month and to larger solar projects in April. The new measures are projected to save at least 600 million pounds ($940 million) a year by 2021.

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How Solar Will Survive Tax Rate Hikes and the Credit Drop

With the Fed set to raise interest rates soon and the looming expiration of the current solar investment tax credit (ITC), many are questioning what will happen next in solar, but these seemingly negative changes to the industry could actually unlock a new solar investment boom in America.

The cost of capital has long been the bellwether of solar investment. Where the numbers add up — and the cost of capital falls within acceptable risk tolerances for the deal to deliver required returns — projects have gone ahead. This has traditionally been very straightforward for large-scale projects driven by utility companies and Fortune 500 businesses — and also for residential homeowners. Their financing was possible because the transaction structures for both these segments have reliable and readily accessible public debt ratings that satisfy Wall Street’s risk mitigation and evaluation criteria.

With so may changes happening with the economy and the upcoming ITC cut it is easy to think that solar may be on the downward spiral, but on closer inspection this is not the case.

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How Solar Energy Zones and Easy Permitting Helped Create 3-cent Solar

Warren Buffet’s utility NV Energy has signed the lowest price contract for solar ever, at just US $0.0384 for First Solar’s 100-MW Playa Solar project, beating even its own record low price of $0.046 cents for SunPower’s 100-MW project in Boulder City, Nevada.

Both solar projects benefit from new streamlined permitting set up through the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Western Solar Plan, which designated 19 Solar Energy Zones (SEZ). This auction covered six parcels across 3,083 acres in Nevada. The previous case-by-case way to permit solar on BLM land was taking at least two years; and even longer if anything to tripped up the process. 

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LG Electronics’ NeON 2 Solar Panel Available in the United States

LG Electronics announced that the LG NeON 2, will be available in the United States in August. The LG NeON 2 is equipped with newly developed LG “Cello” technology, which consists of 12 thin wires instead of three busbars. The company said that technology offers significantly improved performance and reliability even over the original NeON high-performance solar panel. For its “groundbreaking idea and technological innovation,” the LG NeON 2 was recognized last month with the Intersolar Europe Photovoltaics Award.

LG Solar is also bringing the “Mono X NeON 72,” to the U.S this fall, an all-new series of 72-cell solar modules, suited for commercial installations.

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California Approves Distributed Energy Resource Providers To Aggregate Renewable Energy Generation

If you live in California, there’s a chance that a neighbor with rooftop solar panels will help keep your lights on soon.

In a first, the state’s grid operator has approved rules allowing companies to buy electricity from numerous homes and commercial power systems, and then bundle it up to meet a threshold needed to sell energy on the wholesale market.

Companies including utilities will be able to consolidate the output of rooftop solar systems, batteries and even plug-in electric vehicles, the California Independent System Operator Corp. said Thursday in a statement. The shift demonstrates that small-scale power sources are becoming a more critical part of the state’s energy mix.

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California Approves Distributed Energy Resource Providers To Aggregate Renewable Energy Generation

If you live in California, there’s a chance that a neighbor with rooftop solar panels will help keep your lights on soon.

In a first, the state’s grid operator has approved rules allowing companies to buy electricity from numerous homes and commercial power systems, and then bundle it up to meet a threshold needed to sell energy on the wholesale market.

Companies including utilities will be able to consolidate the output of rooftop solar systems, batteries and even plug-in electric vehicles, the California Independent System Operator Corp. said Thursday in a statement. The shift demonstrates that small-scale power sources are becoming a more critical part of the state’s energy mix.

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