With the year nearly half done, here’s the solar scoreboard–updates from things we’ve been working on, and a selection of other notable solar victories. » Read the rest of this entry «

We have some exciting news to share.

GroupEnergy, an organization that facilitates group solar purchases, is joining us as a non-profit project of Vote Solar.

We believe this will advance Vote Solar’s mission of bringing solar energy into the mainstream in a couple important ways. It gives us a new way to tackle the challenge of solar soft costs head on, effectively lowering customer acquisition costs and reducing complexity. It will also strengthen our grassroots advocacy on other key policy issues by making engaged solar supporters out of non-traditional constituencies. » Read the rest of this entry «

Every year, at our Equinox celebration, we give out awards to honor exceptional solar leadership.  This year, our utility award went to the Hawaiian Electric Company for their proactive engagement dealing with the state’s explosion of distributed generation.

The 2013 individual Solar Champion award goes to …. Tom Steyer. » Read the rest of this entry «

It used to be — way back in history, like 2008 — that the biggest barrier to growing solar markets was the cost of the modules.  Since then, module costs have come down around 80% — to the point that hardware costs are no longer the largest part of the overall cost of a solar system.

This is great news, because many of the remaining ‘soft costs’ can be improved via the efforts of local policymakers.  That means we don’t need technology breakthroughs to lower the cost of solar.  We just need leadership.
» Read the rest of this entry «

With the election over, America can get back to work – and there is a lot of work to be done. But first, let’s take a moment to reflect on lessons learned from a grueling campaign.

Here are some of our key take-aways for solar:

1. Attacking American renewable energy is not a winning strategy:
Long supported by policymakers across the political spectrum, solar and renewables became a partisan punching bag for the first time this election season. Opponents attacked a homegrown industry they stood behind just a few years ago – simply to sell more tickets to a political circus. Well it didn’t work.

The good news is Americans know what they want: a cleaner, safer, more secure energy landscape. All those attacks – and tens of millions in ads spending by fossil fuel interests – amounted to very little for the anti-renewable canditates. » Read the rest of this entry «

xoxox,

the Vote Solar team

Financing issues remain a problem in solar market growth.  While third-party PPAs have become widely accessible and transformed residential and larger commercial sectors, funding still remains a real bottleneck for the small commercial market niche.  To explore solutions, Vote Solar commissioned a report looking at the problem in more depth, and exploring a potential solution: a PPA/PACE hybrid.

» Read the rest of this entry «

With the shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and Once-Through-Cooling plants, Southern California Edison has serious local capacity constraints.  So much so that that SCE is warning their customers that blackouts will result if they don’t conserve energy.  The question is: what’s the long term solution?  Will it be increased renewable distributed generation and energy efficiency, or will it be new natural gas turbines on old OTC sites?  It’s a decision with serious consequences.
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Today we launched a snazzy new interactive web version of Freeing the Grid, our policy guide that grades all 50 states on two key programs: net metering and interconnection procedures. Together these policies empower American energy consumers to use rooftop solar and other small-scale renewables to meet their own electricity needs.

Now in its sixth year of production, Freeing the Grid is intended to help state policymakers, regulators, advocates and industry stakeholders improve net metering and interconnection rules. The new web version is designed to make it easier to access, understand and share best practices and state progress on these foundational renewable energy policies. » Read the rest of this entry «

Every year we celebrate and encourage exceptional solar and renewable leadership by giving Solar Champion Awards.  Our 2012 winners are…drumroll, please…:

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