Hi there, solar enthusiasts! Today, I’m incredibly excited to share with you the good news: solar companies, and, by extension, everyone who’s warming up to the idea of investing in solar panels for their home, just received a major boost. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has just published a guide that offers us a window into the mysterious world of integrated resource plans (IRPs) that utility companies use to forecast their future generating capacity.
The guide’s central focus is to aid state regulators, solar companies and even you, my solar-loving readers, make a compelling case for more solar arrays for homes. For years, we’ve all been arguing that including more solar and storage in the plan is a surefire way to build a desirable, low-cost and reliable system. And this guide equips us to better understand this process.
Preparation of IRPs is a mandate for utilities in most US states. These IRPs inform future power-generation capacity using data inputs, assumptions, and power system models. Now for the novices among us, let’s demystify what an integrated resource plan is. By definition, an IRP is a roadmap that utilities employ to project the electricity they will need in the future.
Sounds technical, right? Well, lucky for us, the guide has been divided into beginners and advanced levels—one isn’t thrown into the deep end right away.
Adding more weight to the significance of the guide, the NASEO senior managing director for electricity and energy security, Kirsten Verclas, praised it for its ability to enlighten people about energy modeling. Clear understanding of this process grants power on the hands of regulators to ensure that all future models incorporate state energy goals.
Similarly, Maggie Shober, research director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, provides her stamp of approval on the guide. She lauds the NREL for helping them make resource planning more accessible, in turn paving the way for more significant strides in regulating solar and storage resource deployment at an accelerated rate and in an equitable manner.
The good news doesn’t stop there! Three states, Arizona, New Mexico, and Michigan, have gone a step further—they now demand that utilities make a transparent modelling of their resource planning. This means each utility must provide the data sets used, a license, and manual for the model they used for their resource plan.
So, the solar industry rolls ahead with another win in the bag as we can now engage in the utility planning process better. The better we understand, the stronger our case for inclusion of more solar panels for our homes in future energy plans.
Remember that every solar array for home, no matter how small or large, brings us closer to our shared goal of a more sustainable future! So, kudos to every individual and every solar company contributing to converting more rooftops into mini power stations.
Stay tuned to my blog for more solar industry updates and happy solar shopping!
Original Articlehttps://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/06/18/nrel-guide-for-anyone-seeking-more-solar-and-storage-in-utility-resource-plans/
