Thousands of solar customers in Nevada are about to receive a major lift, as the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) unanimously voted to ratify an agreement that will grandfather 32,000 residents under older and more favourable solar rates.
Despite US solar rapidly transitioning from an alternative energy source into a leading energy solution in recent years, barriers in regulation, communication and technology still prevent the industry from taking off into the mainstream arena, according to a panel of experts at Solar Power International (SPI) 2016.
On Monday, a ruling by Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) chairman and presiding officer Paul A Thomsen barred SolarCity from intervening in upcoming proceedings concerning the grandfathering of more than 20,000 rooftop solar customers.
Rooftop solar customers cost non-solar ratepayers in Nevada US$36 million a year, according to the results of a cost-benefit study on solar by Energy + Environmental Economics (E3).
NV Energy has requested regulators for permission to retire a utility-owned coal plant 10 months early, as well as for approval of a new 100MW solar plant.
Yesterday, the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a popular rooftop solar referendum for the upcoming 8 November ballot that could have restored net metering rates to their former, more favourable state by amending the Commission’s legislative authority.
In this week's Movers & Shakers, PV Tech reports some recent industry mergers and acquisitions, dramatic UK solar job losses and an equally dramatic opportunity for job growth in the US with Tesla's new Gigafactory in Nevada.
Nevada’s largest utility, NV Energy, made a filing yesterday with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to return existing rooftop solar consumers to the previous, more favourable rates for the next 20 years.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has dismissed Fitch warnings that proposed net metering could damage the creditworthiness of utilities as “old news and bad analysis”.
The net benefits of rooftop solar PV and distributed energy resources (DER) have been tallied by US residential installer and utility and grid service operator newcomer SolarCity and the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) in a new report that claims such resources produce US$7-14 million in benefits annually for Nevadans.
