Tag Archives: Mountain States

Energy

Negative Impacts of Rooftop solar will Fall on Investors

Originally Published in Clean Technica 

By Roy L Hales

Screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-3.43.47-PM1PV solar has been increasing at a rate of 50% a year for the past decade. This has led many utilities to question the impact that continued expansion will have on their investors and ratepayers. Andrew Satchwell et al studied the effects of PV solar penetration on two hypothetical utilities. In Financial Impacts of Net-Metered PV on Utilities and Ratepayers: A Scoping Study of Two Prototypical U.S. Utilities, they concluded the negative impacts of Net-Metered PV will fall on investors; Ratepayers may only feel modest losses.

Continue reading Negative Impacts of Rooftop solar will Fall on Investors →

Energy

Coloradans Can Choose Where They Obtain Their Electricity

1 Comment

By Roy L Hales

Screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-3.43.47-PM1

As Boulder prepares to set up its own power distribution system, local Coloradans and The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) are making sure that other municipalities are aware they can choose to break free of Xcel energy’s monopoly. Coloradans can choose where they obtain their electricity.

Continue reading Coloradans Can Choose Where They Obtain Their Electricity →
Energy

Boulder and the Spread of Community Choice Utilities

By Roy L Hales

Screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-3.43.47-PM1

Boulder Colorado’s election results are being heralded as yet another “solar victory,” in a string that stretches back to the Louisiana and Idaho Public Utilities Commissions decisions earlier this year. The relevant questions on the ballot, however, pertain to Boulder’s attempt to join more than 1,300 American communities that have formed their own utility.

Question 310 would have required voter approval before the city issued bonds to pay for Xcel’s equipment and run its own utility, was defeated by a 2:1 margin (21,100 to 9,543).

Continue reading Boulder and the Spread of Community Choice Utilities →
Energy

America’s Net Metering War

By Roy L Hales

Screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-3.43.47-PM1

There is an undeclared energy battle being waged in America. As installation costs drop, rooftop solar is spreading throughout the US and, while reducing the nation’s carbon footprint, it also cuts into corporate profits. Despite three resounding setbacks, utility companies are fighting to hold on to their monopolies. They are doing this by trying to limit net metering, the cornerstone policy that gives solar customers credit for the excess energy they put back on the grid.  The Alliance of Solar Choice (TASC) says two of the hottest battles are currently being fought in Arizona and Colorado.  This was America’s Net Metering War.

The tide of rooftop victories started on June 26 of this year, when the Louisiana Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 to maintain the payments utilities must make to solar owners.

Continue reading America’s Net Metering War →