By Herman K. Trabish | GreenTech Media
A new, more rigorous method for calculating the value of solar could give regulators the tools they need to resolve the growing tension between utilities and rooftop solar builders.
“Calculated values will differ from one utility to the next,” declares A Regulator’s Guidebook: Calculating the Benefits and Costs of Distributed Solar Generation, from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), but “the approach used to calculate the benefits and costs of distributed solar generation should be uniform.”
The paper was written for IREC by attorney Jason B. Keyes, a veteran of the utility industry, and former utility executive and Texas regulator Karl Rabago. It takes lessons learned from sixteen distributed solar generation valuations summarized in a recent Rocky Mountain Institute study to construct “a standardized valuation methodology” for settling disputes over the net metering incentive that is in place in 43 states.
