Local Solar

A Policy and Practice Project on Local Solar Systems Designed for Accessibility, Affordability and Resilience

Despite the headwinds now blowing against renewable energy in the United States, this policy and practice project on local solar systems has found that it is possible to significantly increase the ability of Americans across the income spectrum to self-generate their electricity. Local solar generation is technologically straightforward and is popular with the American public. States, localities and not-for-profit utilities, like municipal utilities and electric co-operatives, are in a position to take action.

There is a “solar spectrum” of policy and practice choices from which localities can choose – from small “balcony solar” plug-in systems for apartment renters (see Plug-In Solar-Electricity Offsets and Cost Savings) to a solar saturation strategy for whole neighborhoods (see Blueprint for Local Power Networks). In the near term, the models in this spectrum could be piloted on a small scale at the local level, testing and demonstrating approaches that could be implemented nationally once the federal government returns to an energy transition, as it surely must, and seeks models on which to build.

This project is supported by grants from
the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Family Fund.

Blueprint for Local Power Networks

A Policy and System Design Blueprint for Local Solar
for Reliable and Affordable Electricity

The Blueprint lays out the system design and policy framework to create solar-based Local Power Networks (LPNs) in communities across the United States. LPNs are mini-grids, locally-owned and operated, comprised of electricity generation and storage at both the individual building level and at the network level. LPNs can operate in “island” mode most of the time, with the grid serving as the standby power source – a reversal of existing practices in which microgrids are standby systems to be used in emergencies.

The Technology Design section explains how local solar plus storage sites can be networked and power can be pooled in a “reservoir”, enabling entire neighborhoods to operate in an islanded mode, with the network drawing power from the bulk electric grid only as a backup. The Institutional Design section presents options for ownership and operation of LPNs within existing regulatory structures. The Financial Design section draws on approaches other countries have used to dramatically reduce the cost of solar self-generation – techniques that could be replicated in US localities now.

Plug-In Solar – Electricity Offsets and Cost Savings

A study of electricity bill reductions that households can potentially achieve as plug-in solar rolls out in the U.S.

At a time of high and rising electricity costs in many places in the United States, “plug-in” solar, also called “balcony solar”, can offset the electricity usage of home appliances and reduce electricity bills. These simple, do-it-yourself solar kits allow people to generate electricity for their home by plugging the panels into a standard electrical outlet. This study calculated savings that could be achieved in offsetting electricity usage by specific appliances, as well as savings overall in a medium-size apartment, focusing on cities in New England and California. Potential savings vary, depending on the electricity rate charged by the utility, and the location and angle of panel installation. A small system (400 to 800 watts) could offset 100% of cost of a refrigerator or washing machine and even a window-unit A/C in three of the four sites studied. Potential annual savings overall for a medium-size apartment range up to $1,363 per year for a larger 1,600-watt system in San Diego, which has the highest electricity rates of sites studied. Of particular interest for this study is the extent to which plug-in solar can reduce dangerous summertime heat exposure and consequent heat-related deaths and illness for people who cannot now afford the operating cost of window A/C units. For people in a location with very high ambient heat in summer, like Bakersfield, California, a 1,600-watt system can offset 100% of the cost of a window A/C unit, enabling the A/C to be run “for free”.

Local Solar: International Cost Comparisons

Why Do Americans Pay 3 Times as Much as Australians for Rooftop Solar?

Why Don’t Americans Have Plug-In Solar, Like Germans Do?

Siting solar electricity generation close to where it is used is more energy-efficient and can be less expensive than remote, centralized generation. Australia and Germany have taken steps and enacted policies to foster local solar, resulting in significant shares of their populations self-generating their electricity. Australia used public policy to target and expand local solar, reducing the acquisition cost of rooftop solar systems by creating a high-volume business environment with economies of scale, lowering costs for system installations while continuing to pay workers living wages. As a result, in Australia, where the average cost per watt of rooftop solar installation is 82¢(USD), 33% of homes have rooftop solar, compared to only 7% of homes in the US, where the average installation cost is $2.53 per watt. Germany, besides lowering the cost of rooftop solar, is a leader in promoting and supporting “balcony solar” – small, inexpensive systems that even apartment renters can employ. Our investigation found that there is ample opportunity for localities in the US to draw on these models and reduce both soft costs and hard costs of local solar installations.

The Economics of Abundant Energy

Electricity has arguably become a fundamental human need. Solar is the most abundant energy resource on earth. The amount of solar energy hitting the earth in one hour is more than  enough to power the world for one year. Siting solar electricity generation close to where it is used is not only more energy-efficient and potentially less expensive than remote, centralized generation, but it also avoids energy dissipation from long-distance transmission and the despoilation of large land areas required by utility-scale solar. Yet, most people in the United States are not able to access abundant solar energy to self-generate electricity.

Most Americans get their electricity from private, for-profit corporations, called investor-owned utilities (IOUs). These private companies and their industry associations have successfully carried out a campaign to impede and derail rooftop solar in the US, fearing “grid defection” and an industry “death spiral”. These corporations receive guaranteed profits in an environment that is nearly unique among US industries, operating as a “natural monopoly” in the territories they cover. The advent of local solar generation, however, disrupts this industrial model and topples the natural monopoly argument. As The Economist put it, “Rooftop solar offers an alternative to a monopoly that can no longer be considered natural.”

Renewables are deflationary. With their near-zero marginal cost of production, these energy sources could reduce electricity rates for customers. However, low or zero prices for solar and wind can drive prices down across the market – an unwelcome result for commercial electricity suppliers. Prices for solar electricity can even drop below zero, and negative prices can result in electricity “curtailment”. With no market value, particularly during peak production hours, renewable electric power is, in effect, thrown away.

Local solar self-generation for self-consumption can be an antidote to these problems.