Publications
Here are some documents — some produced by Vote Solar, some by other organizations — that we've found helpful to the cause.
Municipal Property Tax Financing
Vote Solar has written a paper on the innovative use of municipal property tax financing to help residents invest in solar. Find the paper and additional information here.
Incentives Model
To help inform policy choices, Vote Solar commissioned a model that analyzes the incentives necessary to deliver the same customer economics under three different policy scenarios: upfront incentives, performance-based incentives, and a feed-in tariff. Tool, instructions, and terms of use here.
Quantifying Solar's Benefits
Vote Solar commissioned a study (PDF) to document the value of solar energy's ability to reduce peak demand for electricity, lessen the consumption of natural gas in power plants, avoid environmental damage from power plant emissions, help the electric grid operate more efficiently by reducing line losses and save investment capital by delaying costly upgrades to the electrical transmission and distribution system. The findings of this study indicate that the value of on-peak solar energy in California in 2005 is between 23.1 cents and 35.2 cents per kilowatt hour depending, in large part, on the location of the solar electric systems.
Solar Power Purchase Agreements (SPPAs)
SPPAs provide a model for buying solar electricity rather than solar panels. This guide, released by the Rahus Institute, help organizations and businesses learn about this model and decide whether or not it will work for them. Download the report here.
Solar in Renewable Portfolio Standards
Vote Solar has also developed a document (PDF), suitable for distribution, that illustrates the benefits of state investments in solar power and how a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) can build a solar market.
Developing State Solar Markets
Vote Solar prepared a paper (PDF) with the Center for American Progress that provides a blueprint of all the elements necessary to build a successful solar market.
Net Metering
Vote Solar, IREC, and the Solar Alliance all helped the Network for New Energy Choices produce an authoritative report (pdf) grading states' net metering and interconnection policies.
Job Creation
Grad students at UC Berkeley conducted an analysis (PDF) of job creation in the solar industry. While specific to the California Solar Initiative, it can be used to extrapolate figures for other programs.
Rate Design
Ryan Wiser and the good folks at the Lawrence Berkeley lab produced a very important report on rate design--an issue that needs much more attention by policymakers everywhere. Download "The Impact of Retail Rate Structures on the Economics of Commercial Photovoltaic Systems in California" here (PDF).
Utility External Disconnect Switch: Why we don't need it
The following report reviews practical, technical and legal reasons to eliminate the utility external disconnect switch. The report makes the case that the UEDS fails to provide “fail safe” protection (the rationale for its existence), is functionally redundant to the traditional practice of “pulling the meter,” and adds unnecessary cost to a PV system; the report recommends adhering to Best Practices for PV system interconnection which provides the needed safety without the UEDS or its unfavorable impacts. Download here (PDF).
Other Resources
Many important documents can be found on the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs website.
The Regulatory Assistance Project has an excellent repository of important studies.
Severin Borenstein published an important paper: "Valuing the Time-Varying Electricity Production of Solar Photovoltaic Cells".
Dr. Borenstein has also published a much less important paper titled "The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Production". We've provided a response to why Dr. Borenstein's paper misses the point here. And here's a paper (pdf) that discusses the technical problems with Dr. Borenstein's analysis.