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The Extraordinary Waste Of Our Antiquated Electric Utility Business Model

May 11, 2015

Every year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory publishes a graphic representation of energy flows in our economy. The most recent (above) shows that:

Tesla Batteries Cheap Enough to Prevent New Power Plants

May 7, 2015

Tesla’s Powerwall home battery has dominated energy news recently, but the real news was the price tag on its utility-scale big sister, the Powerpack: $250/kWh.

Utility Scale Powerpack Deployment

“There’s nothing remotely at these price points,” said Tesla product architect Elon Musk.

Massachusetts reaches halfway mark on 1600 MW solar target

May 7, 2015

A press release issued today by the Governor's office announces that Massachusetts has reached the halfway mark for the 1600 MW solar target.  This is great news!  Legislators need to raise net metering caps to ensure we can get the rest of the way.  The press release is included below.

Press Release

Solar community responds to release of Net Metering and Solar Task Force Report

May 4, 2015

The Net Metering and Solar Task Force wrapped up its work last week.  The final report, which includes a set of solar policy recommendations, was made public late Friday night.  A press release reacting to the report from the Mass Solar Coalition was released shortly thereafter.  The full text of the press release is included below.

Enabling Our Clean Energy Future

April 29, 2015

Dear Chair O’Connor and Acting Commissioner Burgess:

Shining Cities: Harnessing the Benefits of Solar Power

April 28, 2015

Today, Environment Mass released a new report, Shining Cities: Harnessing the Benefits of Solar Energy in America, comparing the amount of solar currently installed in 64 major U.S. cities.


Environmental groups express concern over minimum bill proposal before Task Force

April 27, 2015

With the month of April coming to a close, the Net Metering and Solar Task Force is preparing a set of final recommendations for the legislature.  Among them, is a possible recommendation to implement a minimum bill for all electricity ratepayers.  A minimum bill sets the floor for electricity bills.  Their appeal, from the utility perspective, is that they effectively guarantee that every electricity account will have to pay some amount of money to the utility every month regardless of how much electricity is used, solar power is generated, etc.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

April 23, 2015

You say solar is working in Massachusetts. I hear conflicting reports.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Massachusetts has had an incredible string of solar successes. We are a national leader in solar power. The Commonwealth ranks 2nd nationwide for the number of solar jobs created and 4th in terms of total installed capacity. The solar power systems installed in Massachusetts generate enough electricity to power 120,000 homes. 

Solar continues to be held captive to net metering limits

April 22, 2015

With this winter's snow all but melted and the temperatures climbing, solar projects across the Commonwealth remain on hold thanks to net metering cap limits. As of 4/22, more than 60 MW of solar was on the waiting list in National Grid territory (see table below).  The current backlog of solar projects is greater than the total amount solar installed in Massachusetts in 2011.  Stalled projects include low income, community shared and municipal solar projects.

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