Nevada rooftop solar benefits reach USD 14m per year – study

May 24, 2016 17:14 CEST by Tsvetomira Tsanova

May 24 – Nevada’s 257 MW of solar capacity under net metering brings annual benefits of up to USD 14 million (EUR 12.6m) for all utility customers and this has to be taken into account in the ratemaking process, a new study says.

US firm SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released the peer-reviewed paper “Distributed Energy Resources in Nevada”, which evaluates the benefit variables left unassessed in the Nevada Public Utilities Commission’s (PUC) 2015 analysis.

The study found that rooftop solar generation provides a benefit of USD 0.016/kWh, or roughly USD 7 million annually, for all Nevada utility customers. The annual benefits double when environmental and health externalities are added to the calculation.

These numbers relate to the cumulative rooftop solar capacity in the first quarter of 2016, which stood at 257 MW. The total benefits could climb to about USD 30 million with future net metering systems bringing the capacity to 557 MW in 2017-2019.

The SolarCity/NRDC paper calculated costs and benefits using variables identified by the PUC itself, including estimates on the amount of energy the electric utility needs to purchase; the number of new power lines that need to be built; fossil fuel power plant emissions and their health impacts; and regulatory costs, such as meeting Nevada’s pollution reduction targets under the federal Clean Power Plan.

The PUC identified 11 variables, but said it had “insufficient time or data” to quantify nine of them. At the end of 2015 it approved a proposal to cut the compensation rates that net metering customers receive for sending power back to the grid and introduced higher grid fees for such customers. At that time, SolarCity and other solar installers said they are ceasing operations in the state. One of the main arguments in support of the new rules for net metering was that non-solar customers are facing higher costs to support the net metering programme.

“As Nevada policymakers are planning the energy grid of the future, we encourage them to consider the potential of distributed energy resources to build a smarter, more resilient grid to power our economy with affordable clean energy,” said Jon Wellinghoff, Chief Policy Officer of SolarCity.

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