Can rooftop solar drive up the cost of distribution systems?

The Future of Solar study did a lot of modeling and simulation and showed that, if you’re not careful, rooftop solar can drive up the cost of distribution systems. There’s also some evidence from other types of what we call distributed energy resources.

Is rooftop solar worth it?

Remember that rooftop solar is maybe three to four times as expensive as utility-scale solar and the same trends tend to hold for storage and other resources like that. Then in other locations, we’re actually undervaluing the potential value of distributed energy resources.

What are the benchmarks for PV & energy storage systems?

The benchmarks are bottom-up cost estimates of all major inputs to typical PV and energy storage system configurations and installation practices. Bottom-up costs are based on national averages and do not necessarily represent typical costs in all local markets.

How does rooftop solar affect income?

We saw for the bottom 20% of incomes as high as 80% increases in their annual expenditures on electricity as rooftop solar got some pretty substantial penetrations. These are some of the effects that people are really concerned about and some of the problems associated with these rates.

What is New York doing about rooftop solar?

New York has a really concerted effort right now, their Reforming the Energy Vision regulatory proceeding. They’re trying to move from a world where they’re paying rooftop solar adopters based on simply the average cost of the system to a system where they’re actually paying rooftop solar systems for the value that they create.

Do economic incentives for rooftop solar work against low-income customers?

It saves money and reduces emissions. However, we’re learning that the story surrounding rooftop solar may not be so straightforward. Scott, your research and research that you point to shows that economic incentives for rooftop solar can actually work against low-income customers. What’s the story there?