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Community solar can bridge California’s energy affordability gap | Utility Dive https://share.google/bdm3LQOUCbGSSwtBz

Regulatory complexities are thwarting innovation and keeping electricity bills for the majority of Californians far too high, writes Ardi Arian, CEO of Renewable America.

In one of the wealthiest states in the country, it is unacceptable that millions are struggling with their utility bills. The average overdue utility balance in California is $1,120. The good news? Policymakers have a solution sitting on their desks. 

Community solar plus storage gives the majority of Californians who rent or lack suitable roof space the ability to subscribe to small-scale solar projects. To date, Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, has been one of the only options for these Golden State residents to access clean energy.

With CCAs, a locality buys power from greener electricity sources for its residents. Low-income residents get a 20% discount on their electricity bills, everyone else pays the same rate, and more clean energy gets developed. The greatest long-term growth opportunity for clean power resources in California is these CCA programs.

Today, 25 CCAs serve over a third of the state’s electricity consumers, including the majority of communities closer to the coast. But it is egregious that nearly two out of three Californians lack access to a CCA. Regulatory complexities are thwarting innovation and keeping electricity bills for the majority of Californians far too high. California desperately needs more functional, affordable energy policies.

New community solar and storage legislation, AB 1813, would go a long way toward bridging California’s energy affordability gap, opening community-scale clean energy access to all Californians.

With a workable community solar policy in place, Californians in every part of the state could choose to subscribe to a local solar project and receive a credit on their utility bill. On average, community solar subscribers save $200 a year on their utility bills, with higher savings for low-income households. No roof or equipment is required, and no commitment or long-term contract is needed. And over half of new solar projects developed at the community level would be required to serve low-income customers.

A statewide community solar and storage program is good for our aging grid, too. Instead of connecting to giant transmission lines that require costly upgrades on lengthy timelines, these projects plug into the local energy infrastructure near homes and businesses — the distribution grid.

The distribution grid is significantly underutilized, and many distribution circuits already offer immediate hosting capacity. A recent study found that adding community solar and storage projects to California’s distribution grid would obviate the need for a staggering $2 billion in transmission and distribution upgrades. With a sizable community solar and storage program, Californians would save $6.5 billion on energy costs.

AB 1813 is designed to save all ratepayers money, even if they don’t subscribe to a community solar project. It includes smart guardrails with individual project deployment caps, as well as an overall deployment cap. A recent poll found that 80% of Californians support community solar, alongside a broad coalition of stakeholders — from the homebuilders’ association, to environmental justice groups, to ratepayer advocates, to developers like me.

Community solar and storage legislation is broadly supported because it’s common sense and serves all Californians. AB 1813 passed the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee on June 16. The full Senate should pass this bill on its next floor vote, and Gov. Gavin Newsom should sign it, to give Californians access to clean energy that we deserve.

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Home batteries have overtaken capacity of grid-scale batteries after rebate bonanza, and reshaped the market https://share.google/IQ7Vrn74vonOWQXq4

The power capacity of Australia’s home batteries on the countries main grid has reached an extraordinary new milestone – overtaking the capacity of the grid scale batteries, at least in power if not in storage.

According to market analysts Modo Energy, the surge in home battery installations as a result of the federal government’s enormously popular Cheaper Home Batteries program has jumped from an estimated 1.4 gigawatts (GW) to 7.8 GW as at the end of June.

That, Modo Energy says, now exceeds the 7.7 GW of grid scale capacity. And, as made clear by numerous reports from the grid operator and regulators, that is having a major impact on the shape of the grid, and in reducing wholesale electricity prices.

“As more home batteries charge through the solar peak and discharge into the evening, they are reshaping operational demand,” Modo Energy writes. “This makes them an increasingly important contributor to tightening price spreads, alongside utility-scale batteries.”

Modo Energy says that although installation rates appear to have slowed since the change in the design of the rebate that came into force in May, it is still running a four times the rate before the rebate came into force.

It predicts that home battery capacity will double again by the end of the decade, to a total of 15.8 GW and 32.9 gigawatt hours, and it says that will have an interesting impact on the operations of grid scale batteries, and the price spread on the main grid.

As the Australian Energy Market Operator noted in its Quarterly Energy Dynamics report, the price curve in both the National Electricity Market (the main grid), and W.A.s Wholesale Electricity Market have been flattened by the additional of both home and grid scale batteries in the last year.

Home batteries reshape residential demand profiles rather than bidding into the market,” the Modo Energy analysts write. “This is still enough to contribute to spread compression, alongside the cannibalisation from grid-scale battery deployment and other demand shifting.”

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Iran says hurry that sh*t up, you goofy MFS you. Your tic is tok'ing. Your legacy oil/gas/auto industry is hogging all the limelight from your oil/gas/RE industry 😅 They say at this point, your ego will be empty by winter festivities. They add, "Seasons greetings" 😅 and "Many happy returns".

They say the days of your lives, quote:

"They shock and amaze" 😈🤐

🎶🎵🗣️🧑🏾‍🎤...Arabian nights

Like Arabian days

More often than not

Are hotter than hot

In a lot of good ways

Pack your shield, pack your sword

You won't ever get bored

Though get beaten or gored you might

Come on down, stop on by

Hop a carpet and fly

To another Arabian night

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Next level metals and minerals and molecules refinement 😈‼️ New base ingredients for human civilization. New tools for our toolbox. Better magic potions 🪄

Digital and physical Optimus are both VERY important for space. The new astronauts are AI, in bits and bolts. Imo. Humans will require time and the automated construction, testing, and validation of space stuff, by AI stuff, before humans can be sustainably risked for non-short periods of time. Imho. Innovation, safety, up ⤴️☝🏾

Orbital construction and ISAM: Think satellites, space robots, swarms of functional technologies... All sorts and shapes and positionings of deep space and earth focused satellites. An intelligent bubble of humanity and human civilization, constantly, and to greater and greater orders of Intelligences peering into eternity. For innovations, safety, discovery, and beyond. Swarms of humanity 🫲🏾 always watchful against comets, asteroids, the unexplained, as much as humanly possible.