Clean Energy Finance Forum

New York’s Long Island Power Authority upped the incentives offered to community solar projects in its territory, providing some concessions to solar developers but ultimately falling short of what the industry said it needed to provide the certainty to finance projects there.

"Policies to foster competition in energy are important especially in states like Michigan with regulated electricity markets. In Michigan, regulated investor-owned utilities are the only providers of electricity in the service territories in which they operate."

Seven states – Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, South Carolina, and Vermont – have enacted legislation to promote pollinator-friendly solar development. A new white paper by the Clean Energy States Alliance provides an overview of these state efforts and offers suggestions for what other states can do to promote solar while also creating or preserving healthy habitats for pollinators.

The New York Public Service Commission directed the state's energy development authority to offer additional financial options beyond traditional fixed-price contracts when soliciting bids to build renewable energy projects.

Now, in states from New York to California, the focus of the conversation has moved from: How can utilities weather the shift toward distributed energy without suffering big losses? to: How can utilities, their customers and the electric grid as a whole best harness the benefits of distributed energy resources?

The program is a "bridge" between the Solar Renewable Energy Certificate and "a yet-to-be determined successor incentive program," the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said in a statement announcing its decision. New credits established under the program, Transition Renewable Energy Certificates, will be capped at a fixed price over a 15-year contract.

The Ohio Supreme Court threw out FirstEnergy Solutions’ lawsuit arguing that the recently enacted law bailing out its two nuclear power plants on Lake Erie cannot be subjected to voter referendum.

The Alliance for Clean Energy New York says in a report that putting a price on carbon will help New York meet its aggressive goal of 70% of its electricity coming from wind, solar and other renewable sources by 2030.