Thursday May 12, 2016
The Boston Area Solar Energy Association is proud to welcome Karl Rábago, known as the foremost national authority on Value of Solar calculation methodology. Our Net Metering Solar Task Force's first recommendation called for a Value of Solar study to inform fair compensation for solar energy production by tying it to the real "value and impact of solar in Massachusetts". This is where solar policy is going, graduating from arbitrary one-for-one kilowatt-hour compensation - as if a clean energy kilowatt-hour has no more value than one generated burning polluting fossil fuels.
A weak solar bill just passed (April 11th), granting an anemic raise in net metering caps, which unfortunately lasted only 2 weeks and 3 days until the cap was hit once again (April 28th), while also slashing compensation for low income and community shared solar projects. Next, the legislature plans to craft an "omnibus energy bill", figuring it had got solar out of the way. Can we move to inject the sanity of Value of Solar (Distributed Generation) into this omnibus bill?
Karl Rábago has a knack for cutting through complexity to clearly and concisely present the broad view of how distributed energy resources are integrated from an economic and ratepaying perspective, honed through deep career experience in utility systems and policy work. (View Mr. Rábago's recent address to the Rhode Island state legislature for a primer, link below. Proper valuation of distributed energy resources is essential to the health of the new energy economy, as we transition from fossil fuel based centralized generation to add more and more local, clean energy.