Here are some documents — some produced by Vote Solar, some by other organizations — that we’ve found helpful to the cause.
Solar Policies: Best and Current Practices
Developing State Solar Photovoltaic Markets (pdf): Prepared by Vote Solar and Center for American Progress, this report provides an overview of state solar policy options and opportunities.
Freeing the Grid 2012: Best and Worst Practices in Net Metering and Interconnection Standards: We work with IREC and NNEC to produce this annual report card on each state’s net metering and interconnection practices. See if your state makes the grade.
Solar Trends: Price & Growth
U.S. Solar Energy Trade Assessment 2011 (pdf): SEIA and GTM Research showed that the U.S. is a significant net exporter of solar energy products with total net exports of $1.9 billion in 2010.
Tracking the Sun IV: The Installed Costs of PV in the U.S. from 1998 to 2011: Berkeley National Lab research shows that the cost of going solar is coming down, thanks in part to smart solar policies.
Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (pdf): Lazard compares the costs of various energy generation resources including solar, wind, natural gas, nuclear and coal. No surprise to us, renewables can compete with traditional polluting sources.
The Sun Rises on Nevada: Economic and Environmental Impacts of Developing Large-Scale Solar Power Plants (pdf): Vote Solar prepared this in-depth analysis of job, wage, tax and greenhouse gas benefits for large-scale solar development in Nevada. It’s a big one. For those with short attention spans, we’ve prepared an Executive Summary.
Solar Cost and Benefits
A Generalized Approach to Assessing the Rate Impacts of Net Energy Metering (IREC – Jan 2012): Recently we are hearing a lot of talk from utilities about the costs of offering net metering. This report walks you through whether those claims are based on fact or fiction.
Survey of Solar Energy Workforce Development (pdf): With all the talk around solar job creation, we conducted this survey to bring some clarity to what is really underway to train our new green collar workforce. We found that more than 5,400 individuals are participating in solar job training programs this year in California.
Job Creation Studies in California (pdf): UC Berkeley graduate students conducted this analysis of job creation in the solar industry. While specific to the California Solar Initiative, it can be used to extrapolate figures for other programs.