Leia Guccione, P.E.

Rising retail prices for grid electricity and declining costs for solar PV and batteries mean that grid-connected solar-plus-battery systems will be economic within the next 10–15 years for many customers in many parts of the country. Utilities could see significant decline in energy sales that would support needed grid investment. Thus it's critical that utilities, regulators, and other electricity system stakeholders urgently pursue reform on three fronts—rate structures, utility business… Show more

Rising retail prices for grid electricity and declining costs for solar PV and batteries mean that grid-connected solar-plus-battery systems will be economic within the next 10–15 years for many customers in many parts of the country. Utilities could see significant decline in energy sales that would support needed grid investment. Thus it's critical that utilities, regulators, and other electricity system stakeholders urgently pursue reform on three fronts—rate structures, utility business models, and regulatory frameworks—to embrace solar, batteries, and other DERs as an integral, optimized part of the future grid, rather than as a threat to that grid. Show less

As retail electricity rates increase, distributed generation and storage applications will reach economic parity with retail electricity for a growing number of electricity consumers. This combination of forces means that consumers (sooner rather than later) will be able to provide 100% of their electricity needs at economic parity with retail electricity using a combination of distributed generation and storage. This report will details several possible scenarios in various U.S. regions… Show more

As retail electricity rates increase, distributed generation and storage applications will reach economic parity with retail electricity for a growing number of electricity consumers. This combination of forces means that consumers (sooner rather than later) will be able to provide 100% of their electricity needs at economic parity with retail electricity using a combination of distributed generation and storage. This report will details several possible scenarios in various U.S. regions illustrating when hybrid combinations of solar PV with batteries will reach grid parity, both economically and with regards to technical performance. Further, the techno-economic viability of hybrid systems in the medium to long term (2014-2044) means that utilities must fundamentally reconsider the 30-year rate basing system by which they plan capital investments. Show less

Distributed solar energy is a key enabler of the affordable,
resilient, secure, and low-carbon electricity future Rocky
Mountain Institute (RMI) advocates in Reinventing Fire.1 However,
in order for distributed solar to play its role, a number of changes
must transpire. The most pressing of these changes is for solar
costs to come down to U.S. Department of Energy SunShot levels
that enable deployment of cost-effective solar systems across
the U.S. Between 2008 and 2012… Show more

Distributed solar energy is a key enabler of the affordable,
resilient, secure, and low-carbon electricity future Rocky
Mountain Institute (RMI) advocates in Reinventing Fire.1 However,
in order for distributed solar to play its role, a number of changes
must transpire. The most pressing of these changes is for solar
costs to come down to U.S. Department of Energy SunShot levels
that enable deployment of cost-effective solar systems across
the U.S. Between 2008 and 2012, the price of sub-10-kilowatt
rooftop systems decreased 37%. However, over 80% of the cost
decline is attributable to decreasing solar PV module costs.2 Of
the average $4.93/W3 cost of a residential rooftop solar system,
over 60% of the total is now attributable to “soft costs,” including
those associated with installation labor; permitting, inspection,
and interconnection (PII); customer acquisition; financing costs;
and installer / integrator margin.4 With module and inverter costs
predicted to stabilize at relatively low levels between now and
2020, these soft costs must come down in order for solar energy
to be cost competitive across the U.S. Show less

Why Universities And Colleges Are Big Believers In Campus Microgrids
We tend to think of colleges, and especially their students, as our future. We’re not only talking about the students themselves, who will become the next generation of leaders, but the actual campuses, and what we can learn from them about our electricity future. While the majority of the U.S. still relies on large-scale centralized electrical generation and long-distance transmission, university campuses are one U.S… Show more

Why Universities And Colleges Are Big Believers In Campus Microgrids
We tend to think of colleges, and especially their students, as our future. We’re not only talking about the students themselves, who will become the next generation of leaders, but the actual campuses, and what we can learn from them about our electricity future. While the majority of the U.S. still relies on large-scale centralized electrical generation and long-distance transmission, university campuses are one U.S. sector that has embraced microgrid technology. Show less

Investing in microgrids—smaller subsets of the grid that can operate either as part of the macro-grid or autonomously as “islands”—that integrate distributed, renewable resources can provide us an energy infrastructure that is both more reliable and more sustainable all at once.

The electricity industry’s been abuzz recently about the need for a more resilient grid. As a result, microgrids are quickly becoming the industry’s topic du jour—in fact, they’re the theme of the current July/August issue of IEEE’s Power & Energy magazine. However, nobody is talking about what is likely the most compelling reason to invest in microgrids: to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

Germany is often cited as the king in solar, but its reign may soon be over. Driven by public and government support in the form of healthy feed-in tariffs, Germany is the proud owner of nearly one out of every three installed solar panels in the world. Germany has sustained this leadership for over a decade, and does it with balance of system costs a whopping 75 percent lower than for equivalent systems in the U.S. Now, however, German leadership in the solar industry is being challenged on… Show more

Germany is often cited as the king in solar, but its reign may soon be over. Driven by public and government support in the form of healthy feed-in tariffs, Germany is the proud owner of nearly one out of every three installed solar panels in the world. Germany has sustained this leadership for over a decade, and does it with balance of system costs a whopping 75 percent lower than for equivalent systems in the U.S. Now, however, German leadership in the solar industry is being challenged on multiple fronts. Show less

With the evolution of vehicle automation, connectedness, and autonomy, do we know where we’re going with no one behind the wheel?

While utilities may fear that their customers will find intentional islands a paradise from which they never return, the reality is that most homeowners and businesses don’t want an intentional island, but rather a harbor where they can receive power from their utility when it is available and affordable, and the flexibility to temporarily leave the grid and generate power of their own when practical. With more hybrid systems installed in homes, businesses, neighborhoods, and campuses… Show more

While utilities may fear that their customers will find intentional islands a paradise from which they never return, the reality is that most homeowners and businesses don’t want an intentional island, but rather a harbor where they can receive power from their utility when it is available and affordable, and the flexibility to temporarily leave the grid and generate power of their own when practical. With more hybrid systems installed in homes, businesses, neighborhoods, and campuses, microgrids can become our safe harbor for the next storm. Show less