Community-Scale Solar the Fastest Growing Solar Segment as Barriers Are Addressed, New Rocky Mountain Institute Report Says
A growing number of electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are capturing the economic, grid, and environmental benefits from community-scale solar (CSS) installations as institutional barriers to development are addressed for this emerging technology solution, according to a new report by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).
NASHVILLE, TENN: And while recent CSS market growth has exceeded that of both so-called “behind-the-meter” solar like rooftop photovoltaic systems and that of utility-scale solar between 2015 and 2017, those barriers—encompassing cost, access, and demand—continue to drag on the CSS sector’s overall growth. The Progress and Potential for Community-Scale Solar report offers new approaches to help drive additional development and buyer adoption of this clean, reliable, locally sourced resource.
The report relays data and insights from RMI’s work supporting co-op solar procurement in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, and focuses particularly on the CSS opportunity for rural electric cooperatives. It follows RMI’s research highlighting levers to reduce CSS costs by 40% and enable a 30-gigawatt community scale-solar market—the equivalent of about 50 average-sized coal plants—by 2020.
RMI believes the CSS segment sits in an economic sweet spot in the market and represents an economic opportunity of as much as $30 billion. Community-scale systems are large enough to access low costs through economies of scale and small enough to efficiently interconnect into distribution systems. Via these solar arrays—between 0.5 megawatt (MW) and 5 MW per installation, interconnected to distribution networks and sited directly within the neighborhoods they serve—cooperatives can leverage local connections to facilitate the development process, further reducing costs.
“In demonstrating the ability to already today deliver clean energy at or below 5 cents per kilowatt-hour on the distribution grid, CSS can be the ‘killer app’ for cooperatives, supplying a cost-competitive, locally sourced, clean energy resource that also provides resilience benefits to their members,” Thomas Koch Blank, a principal at RMI, said. “Seizing on the additional cost-reduction pathways we identify will help ensure buyers access to the best CSS offerings and their range of benefits.”
RMI in December announced the start of construction on a new 3 MW solar project in New Mexico that will sell its output below 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, a price RMI believes is the lowest reported contract for distributed photovoltaic solar energy in the U.S. RMI provided project analysis and supported the competitive procurement process for Otero County Electric Cooperative, Inc.
RMI is working with communities, utilities, and solar developers to build a more transparent, standardized approach to help expand market access for community-scale solar installations. The organization also is continually expanding its network to both raise awareness of the benefits of this technology, and simplify the process to help stakeholders determine how CSS can help lower electricity costs and bring more clean energy onto the grid.
Progress and Potential for Community-Scale Solar was released at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s TechAdvantage Conference and Expo today. To access a copy of the Progress and Potential for Community-Scale Solar report, see http://www.rmi.org/insights/reports/progress-potential-community-scale-solar/
Notes to Editors
About Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)—an independent nonprofit founded in 1982—transforms global energy use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future. It engages businesses, communities, institutions, and entrepreneurs to accelerate the adoption of market-based solutions that cost-effectively shift from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables. RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Beijing.
