Local clean energy generation or remote — who wins the battle

Описание: For decades, the electric power industry has touted a massive expansion of high-voltage transmission as essential to achieving ambitious clean energy targets. This approach — which involves moving remotely generated utility-scale solar and wind energy over great distances to population centers — is consistent with the traditional investor-owned utility (IOU) business model, which guarantees exorbitant profits from building transmission infrastructure.

But in the last decade, local distributed solar and battery storage have expanded significantly in California and other parts of the country. Currently, California has about 14,100 megawatts (MW) of utility-scale solar and 10,300 MW of distributed solar.

One reason for this expansion has been the steady decline in the cost of commercial and residential solar. In almost all cases, distributed solar is owned by the customer or a developer, not the utility. Customer-sited solar reduces utility volumetric energy sales, and thereby undercuts the traditional IOU business model. Without reform to this model, customer-sited solar poses a financial and existential threat to the IOUs’ revenue growth and long-term survival.

Around the country, high-stakes battles are being waged over the future of clean energy. These battles will determine whether the expensive transmission-dependent model favored by the IOUs will prevail — or whether the value proposition of customer-sited solar is too compelling to be derailed.

This webinar will cover:

-The transmission expansion model versus customer-sited solar: financial winners and losers.
-The cost of transmission expansion associated with California RPS development and the cost of delivered renewable power: Tehachapi ---Renewable Transmission Project, Sunrise Powerlink, El Dorado-Ivanpah Transmission Project.
-Midwest case study: Benefits of high-penetration distributed solar relative to Xcel Energy transmission expansion.
-Innovative initiatives, such as New York Reforming the Energy Vision (NY REV), to adapt the utility business model to accommodate and incentivize customer-sited resources.