Rooftop Tsunami

Deck: 

Utilities sound the alarm as PV nears grid parity.

Fortnightly Magazine - July 2012
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In this month’s Vendor Neutral column (and shown to the right here on Fortnightly.com), you’ll find two aerial photos of solar projects—a 1.65-MW installation on the roof of a convention center, and a 12.5-MW array covering 100 acres. These two projects are similar in that they both were developed and are owned by non-utility generators, in states with strong incentives for solar energy. But despite the fact that the ground-based array has almost 10 times the capacity of the solar roof, the rooftop project represents something more important for the industry.

From the utility’s point of view, a growing wave of rooftop PV projects is starting to look ominous. And now, some utilities are taking action to shore up their defenses—advocating legislative and regulatory changes that pull back net metering policies and other solar incentives.

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