THIS WEEK’S BIG STORY

Biden announces $7 billion for residential solar

Earth Day is the new Christmas — or at least it is this year, with President Biden announcing $7 billion in grants for residential solar projects.

What’s new: The cash is being distributed through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Solar for All program and will go to 60 recipients including state and local governments, Tribal governments, and non-profits.

• The funding is intended to help people in low-income communities install residential solar systems.
  

• Grant recipients are spread across all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and US territories.
  

• The EPA said the program will benefit 900,000 households and create around 200,000 new jobs in the sector.

Our take: Residential solar capacity grew by 12% in 2023 from the prior year, lagging overall solar capacity which grew by 51%. Much of that growth was concentrated in California — elsewhere, installations slowed as higher interest rates made loans to cover high upfront costs less affordable. This funding could help improve that trendline (and in an election year paying for people to reduce their energy bill probably isn’t bad politics, either). 

Dig deeper: See the full list of grant recipients on the EPA’s website.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

​​California court will hear NEM 3.0 challenge

• The California Supreme Court will review a case challenging the state’s NEM 3.0 metering rules, which changed how much homeowners with rooftop solar panels get paid for surplus energy they produce.
  

• Under the previous NEM 2.0 system, homeowners were typically paid market rates for their surplus energy. NEM 3.0 pays them for the actual value of the energy generated, which has reduced payments by around 75%.
  

• Supporters of NEM 3.0 argue the previous NEM 2.0 system unfairly paid homeowners with solar much more than their energy was worth, but the change does seem to have depressed residential solar growth — new installations have fallen 66% since last year.

White House to restore tariffs on bifacial panels

• The White House is expected to scrap a tariff exemption on imports of bifacial panels, a two-year measure that’s allowed installers to affordably import the important tech, mainly from China.
  

• The change is aimed at bolstering US-based production of panels and came at the request of South Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, which has committed to a $2.5 billion expansion of its plant in Georgia.

Solar lifts renewables past coal

• Solar capacity growth has pushed the installed generating capacity of renewables past coal in the US for the first time, according to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission data.
  

• FERC forecasts show that utility-scale solar is projected to outpace nuclear and wind capacity by 2027.

STATE-BY-STATE

• Pennsylvania: Governor Josh Shapiro said he plans to make half the state’s agencies run on solar power.
  

• Tennessee: Highland Materials received a 48C investment credit worth $255 million to build a polysilicon plant in Surgoinsville.
  

• Texas: Construction began on El Paso’s largest solar plant, a $200 million, 150-megawatt project.

THE WATER COOLER

• NextEra reported net income of $2.2 billion in Q1, above analyst expectations of $1.3 billion. Revenue came in at $5.7 billion, missing a target of $6 billion.
  

• Stellantis paid $100 million for a 49.5% stake in 360 Energy Solar, an Argentinian solar power producer. The automaker is pushing to produce more clean energy for its plants.
  

• Japan-based Sumitomo will spend $1.3 billion to build battery facilities across Japan to store excess energy from solar and wind farms.

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ONE BIG STAT

Megawatt-hours of electricity wasted by California in 2022. 95% of that wasted energy was generated by solar power (or around 5% of the state’s total solar generation that year). The problem of excess capacity is caused by very little demand at certain times, which can occasionally turn electricity prices negative. The trend is increasing the urgency of expanding storage capacity.