7 Things Worth Reading This Week (8/26/22)

EIA is projecting that renewables will reach 22% of all energy generation in 2022, which reached 20% in both 2020 and 2021. They’re also anticipating that renewables will account for 24% of all generation in 2023. A Princeton University REPEAT study projects that, due to the passage of IRA, solar may accelerate from 2020 rates of 10 GW of capacity added per year to nearly five times as much by 2024 and may reach over 100 GW per year by 2030.

NREL has completed the second phase of their extensive study of agrivoltaics. The first phase looked to quantify the benefits of the model and note early best practices. This second phase had them partnering with dozens of organizations to examine what makes an agrivoltaic project – like solar grazing with sheep – successful so businesses can scale up.

SolarEdge has unleashed its new home energy management solution in North America. Called SolarEdge Home, the offering is the “brain” of a solar install,” bringing together solar, batteries, EV chargers and other components to deliver homeowner control over solar usage, energy savings and carbon emission outputs.

Utility Dive examines the vexing and perennial transmission backlog in the U.S, currently at about 700 GW of solar, 400 GW of energy storage, and 200+ GW of wind energy languishing on the interconnection vine. They examine the history and causes of the problem and do a detailed dive into the viability of the various emerging solutions.

In this conversation, Kerim Baran of SolarAcademy and Adam Gerza of Energy Toolbase dig into the impact of the historic passage of The Inflation Reduction Act on the residential and commercial solar and energy storage markets. They also discuss its impact on NEM policies in California and beyond and discuss the main trends in NEM right now. Brian Hayden of HeatSpring contributes a summary of the conversation at the end.

Kerim and Adam discuss the following: What were the gridlock issues prior to this Act passing and what changed? What are the implications of this for Solar + Storage markets? Which segments will be affected the most and how: utility, commercial, resi? What does this mean for the rest of 2022 and beyond? What are the major issues with NEM policies? CA NEM 3.0 status, key issues, resolution timelines? NEM 3.0 implications for the rest of the US and the world? What is next: status of NEM policies. Below is the video.

This episode of Solar Builder’s The Pitch focuses on a new Generac offering that brings an ac coupling firmware upgrade to their recently debuted dc generator to charge the battery in their dc-coupled PWRcell solar +storage system. The video walks through the ac coupling upgrade and includes info about ac vs dc coupled solar systems and a dc generator vs. an ac generator, and sizing for an ac-coupled battery for an existing solar system. The video is below.