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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Philadelphians are increasingly buying electric vehicles, but many apartment dwellers and street parkers find it hard to install home charging and use limited chargers in the city. (Billy Penn)
SOLAR: Eversource says 11,600 of its Connecticut customers, most of them residential, installed solar panels in 2023 — up 60% from 2022’s total installations. (Hartford Courant)
CLIMATE:
CLEAN ENERGY: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announces Maine will get $4.3 million from the Rural Energy for America Program to help farmers install clean energy and make efficient building improvements. (News Center Maine)
CARBON CAPTURE: Gas industry groups celebrate a new Pennsylvania law paving the way for a carbon capture and storage industry, though some environmental groups say it will prolong the gas industry’s life, and that carbon capture wells can be dangerous. (StateImpact)
BUILDINGS:
OIL & GAS:Pennsylvania advocates celebrate a court’s ruling earlier this month that will let them challenge permits issued for a gas pipeline expansion slated to cross Monroe and Luzerne counties. (Lehigh Valley News)
GRID: A Maryland transmission project meant to shore up power reliability in the face of growing power demand becomes a point of contention in the state’s U.S. Senate race. (Baltimore Banner, WBAL)
STORAGE:
NUCLEAR: Women in the nuclear power industry gather at a Pittsburgh conference. (WTAE)
COMMENTARY: Two New York state lawmakers call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to employ the state’s public power authority to build out 15 GW of new clean energy projects by 2030. (City & State)
Research underway at a Madison County solar farm promises to shed light on how well multi-use farming can work at a large scale. The answers will help shape best practices for future projects, while addressing some concerns raised in ongoing debates over siting large solar projects in rural farm areas.
Spread across more than 1,900 acres, the 180 MW Madison Fields project will be one of North America’s largest test grounds for research into agrivoltaics — essentially farming between the rows on photovoltaic solar projects.
As farmers seek to lease land for solar arrays to diversify their incomes, the practice could help them maximize their income and fend off opposition from critics concerned that solar development will take prime farmland out of production.
Some farmers have also said the revenue from clean energy can help keep their farms operating amid pressure from housing developers. A recent report from the American Farmland Trust says Ohio could lose more than 518,000 acres of farmland to urban sprawl by 2040.
That number dwarfs the roughly 95,000 acres for certified and other projects noted on the Ohio Power Siting Board’s most recent solar case status map.
Yet solar projects generally deal with big chunks of land at once, while urban sprawl happens bit by bit over time, said Dale Arnold, director of energy policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau. Helping people understand and appreciate that is “absolutely huge,” he said.
Savion, a Shell subsidiary, developed the Madison County project, and it began commercial operation on July 11 with Amazon as the long-term buyer for its energy. Yet work began much earlier this year to set up the site for research by Ohio State University scientists, Savion’s Between the Rows subsidiary, and others.
“People have a lot of questions with regard to energy development going forward in this state,” particularly when it comes to taking land out of use for agricultural production, Arnold said.
Yet today’s industry continues to shift away from coal to a diversified portfolio of natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, wind energy, solar energy and other types of generation. Forecasts also show there will be growing demand for electricity by mid-century, he said.
“Finding a balance where you can do a number of things on the same ground — in this case energy production as well as agricultural production — is obviously huge,” Arnold said. If agrivoltaics is to become more than a buzzword, though, both farmers and solar project developers need to work out best practices.
One big issue is what crops can work well for large-scale utility projects. Compared to most solar farms projects in Eastern and Piedmont states, utility-scale solar projects in Ohio and other Midwestern states can spread across 1,000 acres or more, Arnold said.
“You hear a lot about produce and specialty crops,” for example, said Sarah Moser, Savion’s director of farm operations and agrivoltaics. But raising them is “hard to do on 1,000 acres.”
Moser and Ohio State University researchers think forage crops like alfalfa and hay hold promise. Operations can be scaled up for large areas, said Eric Romich, an Ohio State University Extension field specialist for energy development. And the crops wouldn’t grow too tall amid the panels.
“We also wanted something that we felt had the potential to be economical,” Romich said.
Two 2023 reports by Ohio State University Extension researchers found raising hay and alfalfa between rows of solar panels was feasible and that the harvest’s nutritive value was good. But that small-scale work at the Pigtail Farms site in Van Wert County used data from only a few test plots and controls, which is an important limitation, Romich said.
Work at Madison Fields will now test whether similar results can be achieved at large scale. Part of a $1.6 million grant from the Department of Energy will help pay for that work over the course of four years.
Other research will test how well plants do in sun versus shade, Romich said. That matters because some portion of the land among solar panels will always be shaded.
Researchers planted the crops on test fields and control areas this spring, with an eye toward starting to collect data next year. “Forages are quite temperamental in terms of trying to get them established,” said Braden Campbell, an animal scientist at Ohio State University who is also working on the project. The team has found compacted soil around the solar panels, “but we are relieved to see that the seeds that we put into the ground are growing,” he said.
Moser plans to work with other crops, too. Soybeans are one example. They were already used as a cover crop before alfalfa and hay were planted. Soybeans can also work into a crop rotation when forage crops need to be replanted every few years.
“The market is there for it, and it does well” as a hardy crop which can also loosen soil and restore nutrients to it, Moser said, adding that local communities have expressed interest in the crop as well.
Other work at Madison Fields will explore complementary grazing. The goal is to harvest the forage crops as efficiently as possible. But there will still be a need for vegetation control under and around panels and other infrastructure, said Campbell. So, after harvesting, sheep will go to work.
“To me, that’s three commodities that we can get off one unit of land,” Campbell said: Solar panels will produce electricity. Hay and alfalfa growing will provide a crop. And the land will help support sheep, which in turn can produce meat, milk and fiber.
Other solar farms already use or plan to use sheep for vegetation control. But “there is a big difference” between using sheep to keep plants under control and relying on that for their nutrition, Campbell said.
Studies will need to test the health of sheep that do complementary grazing, compared to other sheep. Other questions include finding optimal grazing rates of sheep per acre, as well as other logistics. But first, the forage needs to establish good roots so it can withstand the pressure of grazing.
A third bucket of research questions under the Department of Energy grant will focus on farm equipment. Tractors and other farm vehicles need to fit between the rows with their attachments. There’s been a trend in the agricultural sector toward wider equipment, which can cover more ground quickly but may not fit between rows of solar panels, Moser said.
“But a lot of farmers still have smaller equipment,” Moser continued, because some parcels aren’t appropriate for wider machinery. Maneuvering 15-foot-wide equipment works fairly well, and 17-foot and even 20-foot widths can still work.
“I could get my 20-foot drill in there,” Moser said. “I just have to be careful.”
Arnold speculated that some companies may develop special equipment whose attachments can fit under solar panel rows more easily. Other possibilities could include raising panels or even feathering them when agricultural equipment is in use, he suggested.
Farm equipment doesn’t just need to go down an alley between two rows of solar panels. It will also have to turn around at the end to go down another one, Arnold said. So, there needs to be an adequate turning radius, without cables blocking farm vehicles’ paths. Poles, stands, and other equipment also can’t block the path of the farm equipment, he said.
The research can help guide the design of future solar projects to be “hay-ready” sites, Romich suggested. At the same time, agricultural operations shouldn’t jeopardize the safe and efficient operation of a solar facility. “It’s an operating power plant,” Romich said.
Arnold has additional questions about infrastructure needs: What facilities will be necessary to dry, bale and store forage? What facilities will other crops need? And how will they be trucked out to markets?
Likewise, what equipment and facilities will be needed for any sheep kept on site? That includes paddock fencing, water, and so forth. And where will their caretaker live?
“You’re going to have to have people there full-time,” Arnold said.
The Ohio State researchers, Moser, and others also wonder how well precision agriculture can work with solar farms. The term refers to methods that rely on technology and data to guide farmers’ work. The range of technologies includes remote sensing of field conditions with drones, in-ground sensors, automated weeders and more.
The big question is which precision agriculture technologies can work well for crops planted between rows of solar panels as they generate electricity.
It’s unclear what any of the studies will show until data has been collected and analyzed, Romich said. By the end, he feels the work will provide a better understanding of what will or won’t work.
Economics questions about business models, contractual arrangements and more also must eventually be worked out, Arnold said. At the end of the day, farmers will need to make a profit if agriculture is to successfully blend with solar projects.
“The possibilities are limitless, really,” when it comes to business arrangements, Moser said. “My motto is always, ‘farmers figure it out.’ And if we work with them, we’ll figure…out how to do this with best practices.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Researchers argue that the recyclability of electric vehicle battery minerals give them an environmental advantage over fossil fuels, despite the massive impact of mining for lithium and other components. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
POLITICS:
PERMITTING:
SOLAR: The Biden administration advances the proposed 5,350 MW Esmeralda 7 solar-plus-storage complex near Tonopah, Nevada, which would be one of the world’s largest such facilities. (news release; E&E News, subscription)
OIL & GAS: Georgia regulators consider Georgia Power’s request to build three new gas-powered “peaker” units totaling 1,300 MW, even as the utility keeps the cost that will be passed onto ratepayers under wraps as a “trade secret.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
WIND: A federal safety agency says it intends to complete a “comprehensive and independent investigation” into the blade that snapped off a Vineyard Wind turbine and into the ocean last week. (State House News Service)
COAL: Michigan’s two largest utilities operated coal plants at a $20 million loss between 2021 and 2023 when lower cost gas and renewables could have been deployed, according to a recent Natural Resources Defense Council report. (Michigan Public)
EMISSIONS:
SOLAR: The Biden administration advances the proposed 5,350 MW Esmeralda 7 solar-plus-storage complex near Tonopah, Nevada, which would be one of the world’s largest such facilities. (news release; E&E News, subscription)
ALSO:
UTILITIES: An analysis finds Nevada’s largest utility isn’t taking full advantage of virtual power plants to reduce the need for natural gas generation. (RTO Insider, subscription)
TRANSITION: Arizona utilities award economic development grants to four communities affected by coal mining and power production. (news release)
TRANSPORTATION: A western Colorado county considers reducing its airport’s carbon footprint by constructing a sustainable aviation fuels production facility. (Aspen Times)
BIOFUELS: Advocates push back on proposals to manufacture wood pellets in the Northwest and export them for power generation, saying they don’t substantially reduce carbon emissions. (Volts)
HYDROGEN: Oregon researchers say they have developed a material that can efficiently split water into hydrogen fuel. (news release)
COAL: Arch Resources continues to shrink its operational footprint in the Powder River Basin with the ultimate goal of closing all of its coal mines in the region. (Cowboy State Daily)
NUCLEAR: California lawmakers call on the federal government to remove spent reactor fuel from the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant near San Diego, saying it is unsafe to keep it onsite. (KPBS)
MINING:
OIL & GAS:
Environmental justice advocates are pushing back on proposals to include trash incinerators and wood biomass plants as carbon-free energy sources under a new state law that aims to make Minnesota power 100% carbon-free by 2040.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), a governor-appointed board that regulates utility providers, is collecting input on what should count as carbon-free energy and has received comments from utility companies, the forestry industry and state agencies suggesting that greenhouse gas emitting sources like waste-to-energy incinerators and wood biomass burning plants should be included.
For several environmental groups and lawmakers, those suggestions are alarming and go against the intent of the law. The law defines carbon-free sources as those that generate electricity “without emitting carbon dioxide,” which would include sources like wind, solar, hydroelectric and nuclear power.
“This should be a very easy question to answer,” said Andrea Lovoll of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table.
Some state agencies and utility companies disagree.
Two top Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) officials submitted a letter arguing that the PUC should allow waste-to-energy trash incinerators and wood biomass to count as carbon-free because they produce energy with waste that could create more greenhouse gas in the form of methane, a potent pollutant, if sent to a landfill.
Assistant commissioners Frank Kohlasch and Kirk Koudelka said the PUC should take a big-picture view of overall emissions, rather than just looking at the “point of generation” to determine if an energy source is carbon-free.
And they said the agency has flexibility within the law to determine “partial compliance with the standard for such fuels.”
That is not what DFL lawmakers had in mind when they passed the bill, a group of legislators and environmentalists said Wednesday.
“Carbon-free means carbon-free,” said Representative Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis.
Lawmakers expect the state government to implement laws, Hornstein said, not muddy the waters. The 100% carbon-free energy bill is a good goal, he said, but there are no guarantees the 2040 deadline will be met. He pointed out that the Legislature approved a 2014 mandate that metro counties recycle 75% of their waste by 2030, but recycling rates have stagnated and the goal looks out of reach.
“I see a parallel,” he said.
Cecilia Calvo, director of advocacy and inclusion at Minnesota Environmental Partnership, said she is disappointed that polluting sources are being considered. It shows that passing legislation is only the first step, and that people need to follow the implementation process closely.
“Ultimately, I think there will be industry and others that will find a way to push and protect their interests,” Calvo said.
Trash incinerators are considered renewable energy sources in most Minnesota jurisdictions, but that has long been a contentious point with environmental justice advocates who point to the substantial pollution created by those facilities and their locations near diverse, low-income areas. Minnesota lawmakers stripped the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) in Minneapolis of its renewable energy status when they passed the 100% clean energy bill in 2023. Six of the seven incinerators in Minnesota are still considered renewable energy sources, which is a lesser standard than being “carbon-free.”
Wood biomass, the burning of wood chips to produce electricity, has controversially been considered carbon-neutral for years. The technology is popular in the European Union, which often sources its wood from the United States and Canada.
Minnesota Power operates a large wood biomass facility in Duluth, the Hibbard Renewable Energy Center, and submitted comments to the PUC arguing that the technology should be considered carbon-free. But that facility produces a large amount of greenhouse gas pollution, according to a 2021 study examining Minnesota Power’s operations. The study was commissioned by Fresh Energy, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the Sierra Club.
A coalition of environmental groups led by rural advocacy organization CURE submitted a comment letter Friday arguing that including trash incineration and wood biomass as renewable energy sources would allow further greenhouse gas pollution near diverse and low-income areas.
“Our pathway to carbon-free electricity should be grounded in the dual goals of achieving real emissions reductions while also assuring that already overburdened communities don’t bear undue costs,” the group wrote.
The PUC received dozens of comments on their query and plans to hold a hearing to decide what counts as carbon-free sources in late September, but doesn’t have a set date for the hearing or a decision, according to a commission spokeswoman.
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit digital newsroom covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color.
The UN chief on Thursday issued an urgent call to action to better protect billions around the world exposed to crippling effects of extreme heat, as global temperature rise continues unabated.
The appeal comes against the backdrop of record temperatures and deadly heatwaves – from the United States to Africa’s Sahel and Europe to the Middle East – that have killed several hundred people this summer.
During the Hajj, for instance, scorching heat claimed over 1,300 pilgrim lives.
“Billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic – wilting under increasingly deadly heatwaves, with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius around the world. That is 122 degrees Fahrenheit – halfway to boiling,” Secretary-General António Guterres said at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.
“The message is clear: the heat is on. Extreme heat is having an extreme impact on people and planet. The world must rise to the challenge of rising temperatures.”
The UN chief highlighted that while “crippling heat is everywhere”, it does not affect everyone equally.
Those most at risk include the urban poor, pregnant women, children, older persons, those with disabilities, the sick, and the displaced, who often live in substandard housing without access to cooling.
According to UN estimates, heat-related deaths for people over 65 years of age increased by about 85 per cent over the past two decades, while 25 per cent of all children today are exposed to frequent heatwaves and by 2050, that could rise to almost 100 per cent.
“We must respond by massively increasing access to low-carbon cooling, expanding passive cooling – such as natural solutions and urban design and cleaning up cooling technologies while boosting their efficiency,” Mr. Guterres said, calling for scaling up of finances to protect communities from “climate chaos”.
Mr. Guterres also underscored the need to step up protections for workers.
Over 70 per cent of the global workforce, or 2.4 billion people, are at substantial risk of extreme heat, according to new report from the UN International Labour Organization (ILO).
The situation is particularly dire in the Africa and Arab regions, where more than 90 per cent and 80 per cent of workers are exposed, respectively. In Asia and the Pacific – the world’s most populous region – that figure is three in four workers (75 per cent).
In addition, heat stress at work is projected to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030, up from $280 billion in the mid-1990s.
“We need measures to protect workers, grounded in human rights,” Mr. Guterres stressed.
“And we must ensure that laws and regulations reflect the reality of extreme heat today – and are enforced.”
He also underscored the need to strengthen resilience of economies and societies, citing impacts such as infrastructure damage, crop failures, and increased pressure on water supplies, health systems, and electricity grids.
Cities are particularly vulnerable, experiencing heating at twice the global average rate.
To address these challenges, Mr. Guterres called for comprehensive and tailored action plans based on scientific data are essential for countries, cities and sectors.
“We need a concerted effort to heatproof economies, critical sectors and the built environment.”
The UN chief reiterated that it is crucial to recognize the myriad symptoms beyond extreme heat, such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires and rising sea levels.
The core issue is the reliance on fossil fuels and climate inaction, he stated, stressing that governments, especially G20 nations, the private sector, cities and regions, must urgently adopt climate action plans to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Alongside, countries must urgently phase-out fossil fuels and end new coal projects.
“They must act as though our future depends on it – because it does.”
Watch: Extreme Heat: UN Secretary-General's Call to Action | United Nations by United Nations.
OIL & GAS: As the U.S. shifts toward renewables, the Tennessee Valley Authority doubles down on gas generation with eight newly proposed gas-fired plants since 2020, including a planned 500 MW natural gas-fired power plant in Mississippi. (WPLN)
ALSO:
WIND:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An all-Republican school board in North Carolina votes to cancel a contract with Duke Energy for three electric school buses. (Port City Daily)
PIPELINES: Virginia regulators fine the Mountain Valley Pipeline $30,500 for nearly two dozen erosion and sediment control violations during a three-month period before it began operations. (Cardinal News)
NUCLEAR: The founder of a failed Appalachian indoor farming company has re-emerged as the cofounder and CEO of a startup that wants to deploy a 6 GW nuclear-fission reactor fleet by the mid-2030s. (Canary Media)
EFFICIENCY: A study finds nearly half of families in Memphis, Tennessee, face high energy burdens, paying at least 6% of their income toward energy bills due to low income, inefficient housing and outdated appliances. (Citizen Tribune)
COAL: Alabama receives a $20 million federal grant to rehabilitate abandoned coal mines. (WIAT)
GRID: Texas officials launch an investigation of CenterPoint Energy over poor communication and its slow pace of response to power outages caused by Hurricane Beryl. (Texas Tribune)
OVERSIGHT:
CLIMATE:
POLITICS:
NUCLEAR: The nation’s top nuclear regulator says a decommissioned Michigan nuclear plant could reopen by August 2025 if an environmental review remains on schedule and is approved. (MLive)
WIND: Wind development continues to divide residents in Midwest states, as misinformation leads to restrictive local regulations and local economic benefits can take years to materialize. (Associated Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Businesses in popular northern Michigan tourist towns are helping to fill gaps in electric vehicle charging infrastructure by hosting onsite chargers. (Bridge)
GRID: Utility regulators in Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota and Illinois sign a letter supporting a recent federal transmission order that they say will give states a larger role in transmission planning and cost allocation. (Utility Dive)
UTILITIES: A recent event in Detroit featured a panel of DTE Energy customers who discussed the emotional toll that power outages have had in an effort to promote community-owned power. (Planet Detroit)
PIPELINES: The Summit carbon pipeline developer says the delay in its plan to re-apply for a permit in South Dakota is unrelated to an upcoming referendum on a state law that critics say benefits pipeline companies. (South Dakota News Watch)
SOLAR:
EFFICIENCY: Northern Michigan utilities invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in residential and commercial energy efficiency rebates to reduce customer costs and power demand. (Record-Eagle)
COMMENTARY:
TRANSMISSION: The U.S. Energy Department awards eight projects in six Western states $92.9 million to fund initiatives aimed at “uplifting communities impacted by transmission development.” (news release, RTO Insider, subscription)
ALSO: Western state utility regulators support a new federal rule giving states a larger role in transmission planning, saying it will lower energy costs. (Utility Dive)
OIL & GAS:
UTILITIES:
POLLUTION: Satellites detect high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide pollutants around e-commerce distribution hubs and warehouses in southern California. (New York Times)
ELECTRIFICATION: Washington state officials certify a November ballot initiative seeking to overturn rules aimed at phasing out natural gas and encouraging electrification in buildings. (Washington State Standard)
SOLAR:
BATTERIES: A developer brings a 147 MW battery energy storage system online at a solar facility in southern California. (Solar Quarter)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A southern California police department adds a Tesla Cybertruck to its fleet as a community outreach tool, not a patrol car. (Los Angeles Times)
HYDROGEN: A California company’s hydrogen-electric aircraft successfully completes a 523-mile flight. (Mercury News)
COAL: The Colstrip coal plant in Montana urges a federal appeals court to block the U.S. EPA’s new emissions standards, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning the Chevron deference. (Montana Free Press)
CLIMATE:
Massachusetts officials, advocates, and businesses are hoping proposed changes to the state’s solar incentive program will help reinvigorate a flagging market and give more disadvantaged residents access to the benefits of renewable energy.
“The program has been pretty set in stone since it first launched,” said Katie Moffitt, project development manager for solar investment firm Sunwealth. “I am very excited about making the program more responsive to the needs of the solar industry and allowing us to adapt with the times.”
The state’s energy department earlier this month unveiled an extensive set of proposed adjustments to the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, program, the first major overhaul since the program launched in 2018. The suggested changes include strategies to ensure subsidy rates keep up with the solar market, incentives to encourage more installation of solar on buildings and previously developed land, and plans to make solar power more accessible to low- and moderate-income residents.
The state is accepting feedback on the proposal until August 2, and expects to file final draft regulations in the fall.
The proposal comes at a moment when the state has seen significant declines in new solar power coming online. In 2021, Massachusetts saw more than 600 megawatts of new solar installed, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association; in 2022 and 2023, less than 400 megawatts were installed each year. Yet the state’s climate plan calls for at least 27 gigawatts of solar to meet its goal of going carbon-neutral by 2050.
“We know, based on historical deployment rates, that we’re falling behind those goals,” said Samantha Meserve, director of the state’s renewable and alternative energy division. “We need to spur more development.”
Much of the slowdown in solar development is due to a mismatch between market conditions and state incentive rates, said those in the industry. SMART works by providing a fixed rate for every kilowatt-hour of power generated by a solar installation, with increased rates (called “adders”) available to projects that advance certain policy goals, like serving low-income populations. The set rates were intended to help encourage development with financial support and also create stability and predictability for developers.
The base rates were set when the program launched in 2018, and were designed to decline as more installations were built. The idea was that the solar market would gain steam and prices would continue falling, making state support less necessary over time.
However, the market did not cooperate with this vision: Supply chain problems made equipment more expensive, inflation increased costs for materials and labor, and rising electricity rates canceled out much — and sometimes all — of the financial benefit the SMART payments provided.
“That model theoretically would have worked fine in a noninflationary environment, but worked very poorly in the inflationary period,” said Isaac Baker, co-CEO of solar developer Resonant Energy.
The proposal tackles this problem by instituting an annual system for setting rates. Each year, the state will undertake an analysis of the current market conditions and progress toward state solar targets, and use this information to determine the program’s rates and capacity for the following year. Developers will provide real cost details to ensure the accuracy of the process.
“We achieved a lot of certainty in the last program, but we now need certainty with flexibility,” Meserve said. “We know we’re losing momentum to get to some of our goals because of that certainty.”
The proposal’s approach to deciding how much capacity to support each year, however, has some in the industry a bit wary. For the first two years, the capacity for projects larger than 25 kilowatts would be set at 300 megawatts; in subsequent years, the annual analysis would determine the capacity.
This limit does not help encourage more development, said Lindsay Bourgoine, vice president for policy for the Solar Energy Business Association of New England. And the starting point of 300 megawatts a year does not come close to supporting the state’s goal of hitting 10 gigawatts of solar power by 2030, she said.
“We remain pretty concerned about the use of caps,” Bourgoine said.
Additional changes to the program aim to encourage more solar installations on buildings, parking lots, and other already-developed land.
“We’re making it more attractive to site projects in the built environment,” Meserve said.
A 2023 study found the state has highly suitable sites for 54 gigawatts of rooftop and canopy solar potential. At the same time, some environmental groups have been raising concerns about large solar installations disturbing important wildlife habitats and forests that can pull carbon from the air.
“We can’t be doing that with state money,” said Michelle Manion, vice president of policy and advocacy for Mass Audubon.
However, the economics of building large, ground-mounted arrays on previously undeveloped land have generally been more favorable. The new SMART proposal lays out several ideas to rebalance that equation. The proposal would lift the cap on subsidizing developments smaller than 25 kilowatts, a category that includes most residential projects and many installations for nonprofits, houses of worship, and small businesses.
The proposal also increases adders connected to projects in the built environment. The adder for building-mounted projects would go from 2 cents to an estimated 3 cents, and the adder for building over a landfill would increase from 4 cents to 6 cents.
Canopy-mounted systems would see both an increased adder — from 6 cents to 8 cents per kWh of energy produced — and a new definition. Whereas the current program awards a canopy adder only to projects over parking lots, pedestrian walkways, and canals, the revamped program would widen the criteria to include any array mounted on a structure high enough to maintain the function of the area beneath. This change opens the door for canopy projects shading everything from junkyards and gas stations to compost piles and picnic areas.
“You’ll start to see a lot more interesting and creative applications like that,” said Ben Underwood, Baker’s co-CEO at Resonant Energy.
A new adder, likely starting out at 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, would also be created for raised racking on rooftops: mounting systems that raise solar panels up high enough that other equipment such as climate control systems can still operate and be accessed beneath them. This addition has the potential to unlock enormous amounts of roof space for development, Underwood said. On some of Resonant’s smaller projects, it could even triple the size of projects that could fit on a roof, he said.
While the changes incentivize solar in the built environment, they also attempt to narrow the criteria for building in previously undeveloped greenfields to make sure only “cream of the crop” sites are developed, Meserve said. While the existing program decides whether land can be developed by looking at the entire parcel, the updated iteration would look more closely at the footprint of a proposed array to make sure it is not disturbing the most valuable green spaces and habitats.
The proposal also calls for an increased “subtractor” — a reduction in the base SMART rate — for greenfield developments. The rate would go down 6 cents plus an additional 0.4 cents per acre of land affected, a significant increase from the current subtractor which tops out at 0.1 cents. Developers can earn back the 6 cents through a community engagement adder by proving they’ve worked with the community to mitigate the impacts the project will have, an element Meserve said will help the state focus on only the best developments.
Bourgoine, however, said many solar installers are worried that the hefty subtractor will slow down solar development too much at a time when the state needs to be accelerating its move to renewable energy.
“There are situations where the subtractor could cause damage where it doesn’t need to,” she said.
New strategies could also make the benefits of solar energy more accessible to low-income households, which have so far made up only a very small fraction of the consumers using SMART-subsidized power.
The proposal would expand the list of facilities that qualify for low-income adders to include deed-restricted affordable condominiums, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, and other affordable housing buildings not covered by the current definition.
The new plan would also broaden the definition of a low-income customer. Under current guidelines, a low-income customer is someone who receives a discounted rate from the electric utility or who lives in a designated low-income area. The new definition would also include consumers enrolled in other needs-based programs to qualify as low-income, and those who self-attest that they fall under the set income caps.
“This will make participating in low-income solar a much more accessible option,” Moffitt said.
Furthermore, community solar developments will now be required to enroll a minimum of 40% low-income customers to receive the community solar adder of 7 cents. Though community solar is fairly widespread in Massachusetts, customers have generally been those with higher incomes and credit scores. The current program includes an adder for low-income community solar, but it is not often used because of the obstacles of locating customers — obstacles the new definitions would lower significantly.
“This new program will lead to there being a massive shift in value coming from stand-alone community solar,” Baker said. “A huge amount of that value is going to be directed to low-income tenants and ratepayers throughout the commonwealth, which is a really positive step.”
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