BUILDING ENERGY - Fall 2016 - 52


The Coalition is seeking additional support from
the SunShot Initiative in the form of technical
assistance to create a side-by-side comparison
of interconnection policies and processes, and
to identify gaps and opportunities for increasing
process coherence.
PERMITTING: The American PV industry has had
a hard time driving down the soft cost of permitting
solar. Solar installers favor a quick and simple
process for permitting basic "cookie-cutter" solar
systems, typically up to 15kW in size.
Local building officials, sometimes referred to
as "authorities having jurisdiction," often push
back with stringent requirements and procedures
reflecting low levels of familiarity with solar
products and installation methods. This slows the
process and increases costs of solar deployment.
SEIA ranks Massachusetts, New Jersey, New
York and Vermont in or near the top 10 U.S. states in
terms of solar jobs and installed solar capacity (2015).
California, home to America's most comprehensive,
streamlined permit law, leads the way on solar capacity
per capita, which is the key indicator in this discussion;
no state in the Northeast measures up. New Jersey
comes closest with just over half as much capacity per
capita as California. Vermont's solar capacity per capita
is just under half that in California. The Coalition's goal
is to address solar permitting in order to enable the

HOW TO FIND
MORE INFORMATION
Value seems to be the significant solar
market policy issue for NESEMC states,
where net metering caps are common. For
this reason, Coalition staff have prepared and
shared a series of documents specifically for
Coalition members' use in helping to educate
decision makers in their states on the VOS
issue. The pieces, available at the NESEMC
website, nesemc.com, include:
* Achieving very high PV penetration: The need
for an effective electricity remuneration
framework and a central role for
grid operators
* How to Assess the True Value of Solar
* Value of Solar Study Design Elements
* Value of Solar Tariff Pilot Design Elements
* Presentation - Understanding the Value of
Renewable Energy

Northeast solar market to develop from its relatively
low level of development into a high-penetration
market much more efficiently and rapidly.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BUILDING ENERGY - Fall 2016
