ORIGINAL REPORTING: The Triumph Of Solar After Net Metering

The day after: How solar can thrive in the post-net metering era; With storage, TOU rates and control tech, solar can boom in the absence of net metering and benefit utilities as well

Herman K. Trabish, November 3, 2015 (Utility Dive)

Across the nation, regulators, utilities and solar advocates are tangling over net metering. Utility executives and solar leaders are warning lawmakers and regulators their decisions will determine the fates of their solar industries. But there is no need for all this, according to a Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) paper. If solar customers take advantage of smart, affordable technologies now available in the marketplace, all electricity users could be moved toward an integrated grid on which benefits shared solar owners, non-solar owners, and utilities.

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With demand flexibility, solar owners in Hawaii can use 90% of their on-site solar generation and save 33% on their electricity bill, which is nearly 80% of the savings offered by retail rate NEM. Demand flexibility, a term coined by RMI, is the use of communication and control technology, often paired with energy storage, to shift electricity use across the hours of the day. Smart technology can now be programmed to move things like air conditioning, water heating, and electric vehicle charging to times when load is lower and electricity is cheaper… click here for more

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