Solar Market Pathways Sustainable Communities Leadership Academy

solarmarket PATHW AY S

SOLAR MARKET PATHWAYS SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

A Workshop Guide for Solar Leaders

#SMPathways #SunShot Sustainable Communities Leadership Academy

May 4-6, 2015 Salt Lake City, UT

Awardee Profiles Participant Contact Information & Biographies Resource Team & Staff Contact Information & Biographies

#SMPathways #SunShot Acknowledgements

This Sustainable Communities Leadership Academy (SCLA) serves the Solar Market Pathways program and its 14 award- ees. It was produced by the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISCVT.org) in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI.org) and the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAPonline.org). This SCLA and Solar Market Pathways are part of the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative.

The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot, the Energy Department supports efforts by private companies, universities, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Learn more at energy.gov/sunshot.

The information, data, or work presented herein was funded in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Number DE-EE0006907.

The information, data, or work presented herein was funded in part by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

Front photo courtesy of Walmart, www.flickr.com Map of Participating Teams

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 31 ECOLIBRIUM3

9 CITY & COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 35 EXTENSIBLE ENERGY, LLC DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT 40 MIDWEST RENEWABLE ENERGY ASSOCIATION 13 CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK 45 PACE ENERGY AND CLIMATE CENTER 18 COOK COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL 48 SALT LAKE CITY CORPORATION 54 SOLAR ELECTRIC POWER ASSOCIATION 23 COUNCIL OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES IN VIRGINIA 58 THE SOLAR FOUNDATION 28 DOMINION VIRGINIA POWER 62 VERMONT ENERGY INVESTMENT CORPORATION

66 RESOURCE TEAM AND STAFF

Awardee Team Summaries | 3 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Center for Sustainable Energy

Virtual Net Metering Market Development Plan

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $712,269

BACKGROUND With 2,374 MWs, California is a solar market leader and ranks first in the nation in installed capacity largely due to innovative policies and programs fostered at state and local levels – programs such as the California Solar Initiative (CSI) and the Multi-family Affordable Solar Housing (MASH), or tariffs like the Net Energy Metering (NEM) which helps drive customer-sited or rooftop solar adoption. Despite all of these programs, expanding solar PV adoption outside of traditional commercial or single-family rooftop systems has been a challenging proposition for many solar markets, because renters or businesses in multi-tenant structures typically pay for their own electricity and have no authority to install solar on the building they occupy. California features one of few Virtual Net Metering (VNM) tariffs in the country, which allows kilowatt hour (kWh) credits from one solar system to be distributed to numerous utility accounts throughout a property based on a predetermined allocation formula. Developed through the California Solar Initiative's MASH program, the VNM tariff addresses one of the costliest barriers to installing solar PV systems by eliminating the need for a separate inverter for each meter in multi-metered buildings.

The VNM tariff has since been expanded to all multi-tenant and multi-meter properties including residential, commercial and industrial properties. Despite this expansion, a lack of clear understanding and awareness by customers, and issues with utility coordination regarding site qualifications and communication of historic utility consumption data, has prevented wider use of this tariff. While VNM may yield tremendous opportunity for California’s three million apartment buildings, only a small number of projects have been completed in the state.

Center for Sustainable Energy | 4 PROJECT SUMMARY The Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE) aims to expand the awareness, effectiveness and use of VNM in California and beyond. The project team will engage solar contractors across California, regulators at the California Public Utility Commission, utility interconnection departments, and key customer segments, including commercial property management associations and condominium developers, to identify, catalog and resolve the challenges impeding widespread adoption of virtual net metering.

Together with partners California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) and Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), CSE will document current implementation of VNM in California’s three largest Investor- Owned Utility (IOU) territories as well as in other states, create a residential VNM pilot program in California, survey the commercial market potential for VNM projects in the state and assess potential for expansion, and conduct stakeholder and contractor surveys to better understand the degree of adoption and barriers to implementation of the VNM tariff in California. CSE will utilize these findings to create a market development plan that will serve as a tool to help inform policymakers in California – and across the country – of best practices for designing effective virtual net metering options that work well for customers, contractors and utilities. The plan will also help contractors better leverage the VNM tariff to spur solar purchase in multi-tenant and multi-meter properties.

GOALS • Expand the adoption of VNM to multi-family and multi-metered homes and facilities. • Identify and address the barriers to widespread adoption of the VNM tariff in California and beyond.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Research existing VNM rules and regulations with the review of IOU tariffs, policy objectives and complete VNM policy background and tariff structure summary report. • Develop pilot program for the multifamily housing sector utilizing the VNM tariff. • Conduct surveys and focus groups to measure current VNM adoption within the multi-family housing segment. • Complete a VNM market deployment plan. • Engage market actors in California’s commercial sector who could benefit from the findings of the VNM market deployment plan. • Disseminate lessons learned in regulatory environments and markets outside of California.

Center for Sustainable Energy | 5 THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Understanding the current state of the VNM market in California, including building stock, building type and total load available to offset. • Gaining transparency into utility process, and understanding the level of adoption and interest witnessed by each utility. • Building a robust contact list of multi-family and multi-tenant stakeholders, and identifying the project decision makers, as well as understanding the nuances of each sector (apartments, condos, home owner’s associations, commercial, mixed use). • Public outreach and resource dissemination to a variety of stakeholder audiences. • Finding and engaging with multi-tenant property owners and contractors who have experience with the VNM tariff. • Defining appropriate goals and metrics for tracking pilot program successes and shortfalls.

Photo courtesy of mjmonty, www.flickr.com

Center for Sustainable Energy | 6 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE City and County of San Francisco – Department of the Environment

Solar+Storage for Resiliency

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $1,321,200

BACKGROUND Like cities throughout the country, San Francisco is creating more comprehensive disaster response plans to prepare for climate change-related emergencies. As part of its efforts to increase community resilience, the City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) are now working to develop solar and energy storage (solar+storage) solutions to provide electricity during outages; these will be implemented through the creation of disaster preparedness zones.

San Francisco has many foundational elements in place for this work. They are one of the first 32 cities to take part in the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Challenge, and the city recently hired its first Chief Resilience Officer for the initiative, which will prepare residents and buildings to better withstand shocks caused by natural disasters.

In addition to resilience planning, San Francisco has also been working to develop solar financing and renewable energy strategies. The Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program GreenFinanceSF, gives commercial property owners in San Francisco county access to new forms of financing for the installation of energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation improvements. GoSolarSF, administered by the San Francisco Public Utility Commission with a maximum annual budget of $5 million, encourages installations of solar power systems by offering incentive payments to reduce costs for homeowners, businesses and nonprofits. In addition, the city recently offered the second round of SunShares, a solar group purchase program designed to help city and local business employees install solar on their homes. Through SunShares, over 1,200 San Francisco employees received a solar quote for their home and over 660kW have been contracted or installed throughout the Bay Area. Through San Francisco’s eco-district planning efforts, the city has performed modeling of PV and storage to supply buildings in the event of a 72-hour power outage.

City and County of San Francisco – Department of the Environment | 9 PROJECT SUMMARY San Francisco’s Solar+Storage for Resiliency project will expand the solar market by serving as a national model for integrating solar and energy storage into existing disaster preparedness plans. The project team will work closely with stakeholders to overcome regulatory, financial and technical barriers and create a road map for deploying solar+storage for resilience both locally and nationally.

Initially, the City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) will create a comprehensive research compendium draw- ing on work done to date in the US, such as the Florida Solar Shelters which power emergency shelters with solar PV and energy storage. Based on this research, the project team will then facilitate a working group made up of utilities, first responders, emergency service providers, relevant city departments and other community and business stakeholders to assist in preparing a solar+storage component to be integrated into a disaster preparedness plan.

CCSF and partners will work to identify disaster preparedness zones in San Francisco and pinpoint where buildings can be grouped to form a microgrid and share power in the event of an extended outage. In order to understand what retrofit equipment may be required to allow existing buildings with solar+storage to operate in an extended outage, CCSF will explore the technical feasibility of solar+storage systems in San Francisco. Ultimately, the team will address technical and economic barriers to solar+storage by producing a roadmap depicting how microgrids, electrical storage and "islandable" distributed solar systems could be integrated into existing infrastructure. In addition, a financial subcommittee will detail existing finance mechanisms for installing solar+storage projects in San Francisco and nationally. Finally, the team will package and disseminate the report and roadmap to regional, state and national networks.

GOALS • Expand the solar market by serving as a national model for integrating solar and energy storage into the city’s emergency response plan. • Provide a holistic assessment of financial models that account for varying designs and cash flows. • Work with stakeholders to overcome regulatory barriers. • Create a roadmap (finance, technical and policy) for deploying solar+storage for resilience. • Shorten the timeframe for other cities integrating renewables into their emergency response plans.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Produce roadmap and four case studies. • Develop set of maps identifying potential microgrids. • Create financing methods report. • Develop custom tool for sizing solar+storage for a particular building. • Create San Francisco’s solar+storage disaster recovery plan. • Disseminate best practices manual for integrating solar+storage into disaster preparedness plans.

City and County of San Francisco – Department of the Environment | 10 THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Regulatory barriers, such as moving power across property lines. • System ownership, operation, management and maintenance decisions. • Prioritization of critical and supporting facility clusters and identification of specific priority loads within buildings. • Design of financing models for multi-asset and multi-property projects. • Development of consensus and support in local community.

Photo courtesy of Jason, www.flickr.com

City and County of San Francisco – Department of the Environment | 11 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE City University of New York

NYSolar Smart DG Hub – Resilient Solar Project

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $859,720

BACKGROUND Sustainable CUNY, of the City University of New York (CUNY), has worked with the Mayor’s Office, NYC Economic Development Corporation, Con Edison, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the New York Power Authority and other stakeholders to address and reduce barriers to large-scale solar deployment since 2006. As a result, solar in New York City has grown from less than 1MW in 2006 to 46MW in 2015 with an additional 17MW in the pipeline. However, as the majority of deployed solar is not equipped with smart inverters and storage capacity, the city is currently unable to harness most of the solar energy generated during emergencies and blackouts.

New York City, with a population of 8.1 million people and over 1 million buildings, was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, leaving much of the city without electricity. Sustainable CUNY found that during the outage, 672 solar arrays installed in the areas affected by the storms were unable to provide power – this 6,500 kWh/day could have been used to power critical loads across the five boroughs. Some of CUNY’s facilities, which were utilized as emergency shelters for 2,700 of NYC’s 9,000 evacuees, faced fuel shortages that affected vehicles, backup generators and buildings. Resilient solar PV on emergency shelters and hospitals could provide alternative power and act as a fuel multiplier to generators that cannot always be refueled. Even a small amount of power, supplied from solar inverters equipped with emergency power outlets that function during grid outages, could alleviate simple power needs during these challenging times.

Following Sandy, there has been strong support for the development of resilient Distributed Generation (DG) and storage in NYC from stakeholders, including new and existing solar customers, but the city lacked a clear process for implementing this new infrastructure. In 2013, Sustainable CUNY convened a Smart Distributed Generation (Smart DG) working meeting for local, regional, and federal agencies, as well as key industry partners – creating

City University of New York | 13 a platform for integrating resiliency into the renewable energy infrastructure as well as emergency planning. The group came to the consensus that NYC would benefit from coordinated focus on incorporating DG into emergency and resiliency planning and that there is a strong need to align policies and incentives to trigger the development of resilient PV.

PROJECT SUMMARY CUNY, together with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Meister Consultants Group, Inc., New York City, and other partners, will address and reduce the barriers to growing the resilient solar PV sector in New York State. Together, they seek to streamline processes that will reduce soft costs, and create scalable, replicable models for the US. The project will convene key decision makers from local government, inverter and software technology companies, utilities, and public interest groups into four working groups, covering the largest challenges to implementing resilient PV: Policy and Legal; Hardware Technologies; Software and Communication Technologies; and Economics and Finance. Focusing initially on the commercial sector, specifically on critical infrastructure facilities, these working groups will analyze and map the current resilient PV market to form a baseline cost for installed resilient solar, identify potential barriers to implementation, and produce fact sheets to facilitate increased understanding across communities.

The project team will incorporate key barriers, solutions, and recommendations from the working groups into a Smart DG Roadmap for Resilient Solar. This roadmap will include a five-to-seven year implementation plan and short, medium, and long-term goals and guidance for meeting the goals through existing and new policy. The project team aims to create guidelines for model resilient PV codes, regulations and technologies; a developed cost-reduction pathway and framework; and broader adoption of the framework on both the state and national level. Upon completion of the roadmap, the project team will distribute lessons learned and best practices to government agencies, solar industry stakeholders, and consumers and host trainings for installers and code officials on resilient solar PV.

In addition, the project team will develop and publish a Critical Infrastructure Resilience Guide identifying best practices for increasing resiliency of key municipal operations and infrastructure through solar and storage. This guide, targeted at those who manage emergency shelters, hospitals, police and fire stations, water treat- ment plans, and the like, will be disseminated through the project's network of partners and through trainings, webinars and outreach events. Together with the working groups, CUNY will expand the NYS Solar Map and Calculator to identify areas in NYC where resilient solar PV will be most beneficial, and estimate the cost and return on investment of resilient systems. Working with solar developers of resilient solar systems, the project team will create case studies for dissemination on such topics as resilient PV for critical infrastructure, or resilient PV with microgrid integration with other forms of DG.

Engagement of stakeholders for the development of these tools, planning documents, and educational resources will create a more resilient distributed energy system with a coordinated focus on integrating solar PV into emergency preparedness and resiliency plans.

GOALS • Enable enduring growth of resilient PV in NYC and leverage to NYS through workshops and trainings. • Create a Roadmap for Resilient Solar in NYC that can be replicated for NYS and across the US. • Expand the Solar Calculator to include resiliency components showing the multiple value streams of resilient solar. • Reduce barriers to integrating solar into emergency and resilience planning in NYC and NYS.

City University of New York | 14 MAJOR MILESTONES • Year 1: Convene Smart DG Hub, working groups, and stakeholders to develop the Smart DG Roadmap for Resilient Solar; conduct a grid-side technical analysis of select critical infrastructure examining the feasibility of deploying resilient PV on these sites. • Year 2: Publish and distribute the Roadmap, fact sheets, and guidelines for ready-for-market grid communication and model policies; establish a protocol for tracking and mapping where resilient PV is deployed. • Year 3: Provide outreach and education to state and city decision-makers, installers, and consumers; expand the solar calculator to show the revenue streams available for resilient PV; complete case studies.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • The Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative currently underway in New York State presents exciting opportunities for DG and energy storage, as the distribution grid is transformed to increase system efficiency and resiliency, and better serve customers. Changes that comes as a result of REV proceedings will impact the tools and resources created by the Resilient Solar Project, as policies change to encourage more DG and resiliency in New York. Furthermore, the value streams available for resilient PV projects will also be affected by REV outcomes. The project team is engaging stakeholders involved in the REV process to stay informed. • While there is strong demand for greater resiliency in NYC’s energy infrastructure, few resilient PV systems have been installed in the city. One reason for this is the high cost of deploying these systems, including soft costs associated with permitting and interconnecting resilient PV. Due to a lack of national guidelines on codes for energy storage, local agencies must thoroughly vet energy storage technologies and use cases to ensure safety concerns are met. Working groups will engage these agencies to identify unanswered questions and seek resources to support their needs.

Photo courtesy of Nick Normal, www.flickr.com

City University of New York | 15 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Cook County Department of Environmental Control

Facilitating Deployment of Community Solar PV Systems on Rooftops and Vacant Land in Northeast Illinois

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $1,238,308

BACKGROUND Cook County (population 5.2 million, with 130 municipalities) is a developing solar market with great potential for growth. Cook County faces solar deployment challenges that are familiar to many large metropolitan areas, including different zoning and permit requirements at the municipal level, the large number of multi-family housing units with different ownership structures and property with inadequate roofs. These challenges, combined with relatively low electricity costs and an uncertain policy environment have slowed solar adoption. Although Illinois has strong net metering policies and renewable energy standards, community solar and virtual billing remain unused.

Despite these challenges, there are many reasons to be hopeful about the future of solar in the region. The State of Illinois has strong solar targets, mandating 25% of total energy supply from renewable energy by 2025 with 6% solar and 1% distributed generation carve-outs; however, due to technical constraints, the state has yet to make significant progress towards the distributed generation goals. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has committed to a goal of 80% reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2050. Cook County has leveraged Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant funding to work with nearly 60 partners on more than 90 energy efficiency projects including a solar installation at the Village of Chicago Ridge. Through a partnership with local organizations and the City of Chicago, Cook County launched Solar Chicago to lessen the soft costs of advertising and client recruit- ment to solar installers and incentivized residential solar. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are a critical part of the Mayor of Chicago’s Sustainable Chicago 2015 plan and action agenda, which targets an additional 20 MW of installed renewable energy capacity by the end of 2015. Chicago previously leveraged SunShot Initiative funding to launch Solar Express, resulting in a one-day permitting process for residential pitched roofs, a 25% reduction in permitting fees, and accelerated enrollment and interconnection with the local utility, Commonwealth Edison.

Cook County Department of Environmental Control | 18 PROJECT SUMMARY The Cook County project will demonstrate replicable models for community solar through five case study projects in an effort to expand participation in distributed generation to more Cook County residents and businesses, including seniors, low-income, apartment, and condominium residents and others who, due to physical or financial constraints, cannot benefit from conventional solar PV. The project team will model and disseminate information on costs and benefits of community solar projects for scalability and market potential and complete a market assessment addressing barriers to adoption.

The project will inventory the current community solar marketplace in northeast Illinois and identify potential suitable sites, customer base and demand. Through a review of inventories of owned and managed lands, Cook County and Elevate Energy will assess vacant lots and rooftops for appropriateness of community solar and work with ComEd, West Monroe Partners, City of Chicago and the Environmental Law and Policy Center to develop appropriate ownership, financing and management models for each eligible site. The project team seeks to help residents who have been unable to install solar due to site restrictions, the Cook County and Chicago Housing Authorities, affordable, senior and public housing, as well as large property management companies, to use solar generated through a community-based project or through solar energy generated on their own rooftops.

The project team will engage a stakeholder group of nonprofits, solar developers, state regulatory bodies, community organizations, and citizens – forming three working groups around Regulatory/Policy, Business Models, and Education/Outreach. These groups will work to identify, and find ways to eliminate, barriers to adoption. The project team and partners will analyze five pilot case study projects – advancing at least three projects to full plans with the goal of creating replicable models and best practices to guide other projects in the region and the country. These case studies will identify, describe and define community solar configurations and installation models, identify of typical barriers as well as the means to resolve them and identify project-ready sites and potential investments in Cook County.

GOALS • Demonstrate replicable models for community solar and identify structural and policy barriers to community solar and how they might be overcome. • Democratize access to solar for urban populations and expand demographics to seniors, and low- income, apartment, condominium residents, and others who are not able to invest in on-site solar electric installations. • Facilitate affordable access to solar PV so that 30,000 people in Cook County and nearly 45,000 region- ally can gain access to solar by 2022.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Inventory baseline of existing community solar projects in Cook County and the surrounding area. • Market analysis of available, suitable sites within the county. • Summary of local economic and policy barriers and proposed resolutions developed and reviewed with steering committee. • Conduct at least five feasibility studies for pilot sites. • Complete analysis on shared solar scalability and local impacts.

Cook County Department of Environmental Control | 19 THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Stakeholder identification and continual engagement. • Ownership models and financial analysis. • Volatility of Illinois solar legislation, policy and incentives. • Facilitating relationships with utility, public, nonprofit and private partners to advance pilot projects. • Illinois’ low-cost energy environment.

Photo courtesy of Steven Vance, www.flickr.com

Cook County Department of Environmental Control | 20 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia, Inc.

A Solar Market Pathway for Independent Colleges in Virginia

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $807,563

BACKGROUND

The Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia (CICV) is a nonprofit 501(c) 1. Appalachian School of Law (6) organization founded in 1971 that represents 28 accredited nonprofit 2. Bridgewater College independent colleges and universities in Virginia. CICV has a long and successful history and of leading collaborative initiatives with external partners 3. Eastern Mennonite University that help campuses control operating costs, improve efficiency, mitigate 4. Emory & Henry College risks and resolve disputes. 5. Ferrum College 6. Hampton University The Commonwealth of Virginia lags behind neighboring mid-Atlantic states 7. Hollins University in solar deployment with only 6MW installed in 2013, compared to 25MW, 8. Lynchburg College 335MW, and 91MW for Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, respec- 9. Mary Baldwin College tively.1 Virginia currently has a voluntary renewable portfolio standard, a limited ability to utilize third-party ownership models that make solar 10. Marymount University development more cost-effective and a lack of incentive structures. These 11. Randolph College market conditions, combined with below average electricity prices and high 12. Roanoke College installation costs, have stifled the solar market. 13. Shenandoah University 14. Virginia Union University CICV will work with 15 colleges, which collectively serve approximately 15. Washington & Lee University 30,000 students, cover 3,500 acres and consume more than 125 million kilowatt-hours of purchased electricity annually, which is predominantly coal generated. These colleges are interested in reducing their carbon footprints and increasing campus sustainability. More than half are signatories to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. While interest in solar is high, logistical issues associated with solar installations are daunting.

1 ‘State Solar Policy | SEIA’ [accessed 27 May 2014].

Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia, Inc. | 23 PROJECT SUMMARY The CICV team will develop collaborative and replicable processes for campuses that are preparing for – and purchasing – solar PV installations. All 15 colleges in the Council of Independent Colleges of Virginia will participate in an initial assessment and preparation process for deployment of solar on their campuses. The CICV team will then develop one or more replicable multi-year solar master plans for participating universities to utilize, helping them prepare for and purchase solar PV. Feasibility assessments will help determine specific opportunities for solar deployment and a joint solar procurement program will leverage the collective purchasing power in order to reduce costs and result in the deployment of at least 30MW within a five-year period. Meeting this goal would offset roughly 25% of the electricity consumed by the participating colleges and more than double the current installed capacity for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. Solar PV will reduce operating costs and includes a host of associated economic and environmental benefits.

Through this project, the CICV team will also help address the local solar processes related to permitting, zoning, interconnection and financing. The CICV team will leverage the Solar Roadmap platform (www.solarroadmap. com) developed by Optony to enable hometown local governments and utilities to benchmark their existing solar policy framework to national best practices and develop an actionable path forward.

Lastly, this project will also engage and educate students – many of the participating colleges will offer clinical academic credit to their students who work to bring the proposed projects to fruition. This work will provide an opportunity for students to gain knowledge and skills they can apply in professional or public service roles that can help spur sustainable, cost-competitive solar deployment in Virginia and elsewhere beyond the period of this project.

GOALS • Develop multi-year solar master plans for each participating institution. • Create a replicable statewide solar deployment plan for higher education institutions. • Install 30MW of solar over a five-year period as a direct result of this program. • Advance solar readiness in participating communities. • Conduct community-level solar policy and program benchmarking. • Reduce soft costs associated with solar deployment by leveraging the economic benefits of collaboration and other innovative models. • Disseminate findings, lessons learned, and best practices.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Establish group of internal and external stakeholders that will guide program implementation. • Conduct a comprehensive review of solar policies, programs, and processes. • Develop tailored policy and planning roadmaps for participating communities. • Create solar master plans for each participating college. • Conduct site feasibility assessments. • Design and implement Joint Solar Procurement Program. • Share project lessons learned via a learning network for participating colleges.

Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia, Inc. | 24 THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Financing and making the case for solar with colleges and communities that have limited resources. This is especially difficult due to the low-cost energy market and challenging regulatory framework in Virginia. • Helping 15 unique and geographically dispersed campuses coordinate and collaboratively capitalize on the potential value of solar to their financial bottom line, their reputation and mission, their curricula, and their services to students and community.

Photo courtesy of Renee, flickr.com

Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia, Inc. | 25 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Dominion Virginia Power

Virginia Solar Pathways Project

TOTAL PROJECT COST: $2,430,682

BACKGROUND Dominion Virginia Power (DVP) is a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D), which is one of the nation's largest produc- ers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 23,600 megawatts of generation, 10,900 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,400 miles of electric transmission lines. DVP serves more than 2.5 million retail electric customers in the Commonwealth of Virginia and portions of North Carolina. Currently, Dominion has approximately 344MW of utility scale solar capacity operating or under construction in six states and over 2,500 solar rooftop systems in three states. In Virginia, DVP has announced the development of 400MW of utility scale solar by 2020, beginning with a 20MW solar facility in Remington, Virginia. Additionally, DVP has several solar programs in Virginia, including a solar purchase program, a solar partnership program, a net metering program and a community solar program (currently pending before the Virginia State Corporation Commission). Dominion seeks to discover new utility-administered solar models that can be broadly implemented in many low-cost regulated environments.

PROJECT SUMMARY Dominion is leading a broad-based team that includes representatives from state government, research institutions, environmental organizations, local communities and solar businesses to develop sustainable models for solar deployment that will benefit Virginians and others throughout the Southeast. These models will be developed into a statewide utility-administered solar strategy reached through a collaborative, advisory process. The project team will assess Dominion’s existing solar programs for wider scale deployment, and perform technical engineering and business planning studies to identify PV integration impacts across the generation, transmission and distribution systems.

Lastly, Dominion will produce an economic study of utility-administered solar, which will include an evaluation of the impacts of tax policy on solar deployment and an assessment of soft cost reduction opportunities.

Dominion Virginia Power | 28

GOALS • Develop a collaborative utility-administered solar strategy for the Commonwealth of Virginia. • Integrate existing solar programs with new options appropriate for Virginia’s policy environment and broader economic development objectives. • Promote wider deployment of solar within a low rate environment. • Serve as a replicable model for use by other states with similar policy environments – including the entire Southeast region.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Develop the Virginia Solar Pathways Strategy. • Assess Dominion’s existing solar programs for wider scale deployment. • Identify PV integration impacts across the generation, transmission and distribution systems. • Create an economic study of utility-administered solar. • Develop a solar workforce strategy for the Commonwealth of Virginia. • Hold a public information session to share the Solar Strategy.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Fostering economically sustainable solar and adhering to policy direction.

Photo courtesy of Arlington County Environment, www.flickr.com

Dominion Virginia Power | 29 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Ecolibrium3

Local Energy Matters: Solar Market Development in Duluth, MN

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $209,005

BACKGROUND Minnesota is a nascent solar market with high solar soft costs and few solar installations. Even though the state has higher-than-average electricity rates, Minnesota lags in growth of grid-tied solar PV capacity. According to NREL, the state has a potential rooftop capacity of 12,000MW, which can produce approximately 21% of the state’s electricity needs, while ground-mounted utility-scale solar PV in Minnesota could provide 150x the state’s current demand.

Prior solar development in Duluth has been hampered by a lack of process clarity in permitting, inspections, inter- connections, and high soft costs driven by the custom nature of projects (lack of economy of scale). Currently, rooftop solar prices are approximately $7.85/watt with $5.65 to $6.20/watt representing soft costs. Despite these challenges, Duluth has several key opportunities to advance its solar PV market, including: general support and interest from the community; pilot projects to integrate solar for historic homes and new housing developments; a grassroots effort to take a pilot faith-based energy efficiency program to the next level with solar; engagement in creating energy generation zoning overlays in the newest revision of Duluth’s comprehensive plan; and a local business pursuing the first C-PACE for solar financing program in the state. These developments combined with recent solar standards legislation requiring Investor-Owned Utilities (IOU) to generate 1.5% from solar and 10% (of 1.5%) from small (<20kW) distributed generation by 2020 presents a promising opportunity for developing a solar market transformation plan.

Ecolibrium3 | 31 PROJECT SUMMARY The Local Energy Matters project is a strategic, integrated approach to solar market development in Duluth, Minnesota across multiple sectors to maximize impact and installations. During Phase I of the project, Ecolibrium3, together with the City of Duluth, will engage local government, university, nonprofit, utility, business and citizen stakeholders to identify and address barriers to solar adoption and develop multi-sector solar deployment projects within Duluth city limits. This cross-sector Solar Market Advancement Resource Team (SMART) will create and begin implementation of a five-year solar market transformation plan for the city, which will establish solar baseline development goals for residential rooftop, community, institutional, and utility sectors. The plan will also include a solar generation overlay for zoning, community-scale finance programs, streamlined permitting and inspection processes, and will ultimately result in the implementation of a community-based project modeled after the successful Duluth Energy Efficiency Program.

During the stakeholder process, the project team will also work with the local Investor Owned Utility to: find potential solar installations that will help the utility meet or exceed their solar portfolio standard; and establish a Value of Solar Tariff case for northeastern Minnesota. The project team will engage in revising Duluth’s Comprehensive Plan and year-long city-designated land use planning process to incorporate energy generation. In addition, the project will review and incorporate solar practices into the city housing plan, develop a framework for solar installation in a historic neighborhood, and identify appropriate brownfield development sites.

The cross-sector five-year Solar Deployment Plan (SDP) will adapt best practices from the region with the goal of reducing total installed costs by 50% from the measured baseline. During Phase II, the project team will work to implement the SDP to catalyze participation by Duluth’s residential and commercial sectors, as well as establish community solar installations with the goal of reaching 1 MW in capacity by the end of 2017. The team will produce replicable demonstration projects, which include integrated design, construction, and financing packages for implementation across multiple sectors.

GOALS • Create a five-year solar market transformation plan for the city of Duluth. • Install 1 MW of residential rooftop or community solar capacity at 50% against baseline. • Create model projects for rooftop, community, institutional, industry/commercial sectors. • Engage in revising Duluth’s Comprehensive Plan and year-long city-designated land use planning process to incorporate energy generation.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Facilitate a stakeholder process to identify and address solar deployment barriers. • Complete a baseline analysis, benchmarking current installed capacity, financing, costs, and permitting processes and procedures. • Establish a Value of Solar Tariff case for northeastern Minnesota. • Develop and complete demonstration project designs and a streamlined pathway for multi-sector installations. • Implement and facilitate continued financial viability of the demonstration projects with a reduced Investment Tax Credit (ITC). • Complete installation on 1 MW of solar and five-year solar deployment plan.

Ecolibrium3 | 32 THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Help overcome barriers to solar adaptation in a northern climate. • Minnesota Power has yet to determine tariff structure and approach to community solar. • Determine which local barriers to address, as many regulatory and policy issues have not been decided. • Identifying best practices for interconnection.

Photo couresty of Randen Pederson, www.flickr.com

Ecolibrium3 | 33 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Extensible Energy, LLC

High-Value Integrated Community Solar SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $800,000

NATIONWIDE

BACKGROUND Community solar programs give customers an alternative to placing solar on their property by enabling them to use an offsite solar energy system. These programs are particularly attractive to those with financial or siting constraints. Community solar has the potential to significantly increase the deployment of solar PV, especially through effective utility engagement, driving innovations in solar system design, siting, and resource integration, plus streamlined customer acquisition and other economies of scale.

Utilities initiated the community solar program model about a decade ago, and according to the Solar Electric Power Association, more than half of US utilities polled were engaged in planning community solar programs in 2014. Third-party community solar programs are allowed in some states, but in most states the utility-driven model – or a hybrid model of utility and third-party cooperation – is predominant. Typically, the utility constructs and owns its own solar generation or purchases electricity from a third-party project within its service area. Customers are then given the option to participate, either by investing in a share of the capacity (kW) or output (kWh) of the project.

While installed capacity of community solar projects has quickly grown to an estimated 70 MW in the US, technical aspects need to be addressed to facilitate full-scale replication, especially for local, distributed community solar projects. The Extensible Energy team will focus on use of market-ready innovations to increase the net production value of installed solar through strategic siting and design, strategic pricing, and enhancing the community solar program offer with complementary demand response and thermal or battery storage. Minimizing the impacts of solar variability at the program level minimizes the need for more costly engineering solutions or regional integration services, and boosts utility acceptance for greater solar market penetration.

Extensible Energy, LLC | 35 PROJECT SUMMARY Extensible Energy, LLC, is working with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), and other utilities, to develop a new business model to increase the scale, reach, and value of utility-based community solar. The project team, including Cliburn and Associates, Navigant Consulting, and Olivine Inc., will develop economical, market-ready innovations in community solar design, deployment, and integration for distribution utilities across the country, suited to their market and regulatory environments.

The stakeholder process begins with cross-department utility staff, and also engages key local government and community players and solar industry representatives. This stakeholder group will create a plan for the commitment of up to 20 MW of distributed solar generation in SMUD territory by 2020, and it will shape a decision framework for utilities replicating the model. A utility forum of interested distribution utilities and industry partners will enhance the decision framework and speed replication. For example, the framework will guide decision-making about market assessment, program scale and timing, selection of solar sites and development partners, best-practice solar designs, understanding the opportunity-value for matching solar with demand- response programs, finding the most economical balance among energy storage options, demand response, and market-based integration solutions, targeting-marketing and prosumer engagement, pricing, program administration, and more. Charter members of the utility forum and replication team include Public Service of New Mexico, five utilities in Colorado, and numerous members of the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities.

As a result of the project effort, the team expects to drive up to 40MW of community solar, recognizing that the mid-term market potential for high-value, utility-driven community solar is readily 10GW or more. More importantly, this project seeks to engage utilities directly with their customers, via community solar, in increasing the net value and practical integration of distributed solar, as part of the larger project to reinvent utility systems in the 21st century. The use of new approaches to demand response, along with thermal and battery storage are much talked about as part of the ultimate solution to the duck curve (a graph that shows steep ramping needs and overgeneration risk), variability risks, and other symptoms of rising solar penetration. The decision framework that results from this project will open market pathways to such solutions.

GOALS • Increase the scale, reach, and value of utility-based community solar programs by using strategic solar technologies and design, by systematically prioritizing local sites and by integrating companion measures, such as demand-response (DR) & thermal or battery storage in order to address solar variability in different time domains. • Increase the utility’s ability to integrate more PV, more cost-effectively.

Extensible Energy, LLC | 36 MAJOR MILESTONES • Engage the stakeholder group at Sacramento Municipal Utility District in developing an enhanced community solar model and program design, which covers technical, marketing, financing and implementation, and then bringing that model to market through a full-scale, multi-year, 6–20MW plan. • Define established utility-based community solar business models, suitable for high-value enhancements. • Analyze alternatives for solar project siting and design, and technical options that may economically offset integration requirements, providing a technical foundation for a new high-value integrated community solar model. • Address program-design issues, necessary to bring technical innovations successfully to market. • Engage SMUD in testing this model in their service territory. • Provide expert guidance to replicating utilities in how best to adopt and adapt the newly developed community solar model, tested by SMUD, to their own territories. The primary replicating utility will be Public Service of New Mexico; other members of a national utility forum will also replicate the model in whole or in part. • Disseminate project results nationally.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Research on market-ready strategies to address solar-variability and integration challenges in technical areas including, solar siting & design, complementary storage (battery and thermal) and demand response. • Market acceptance research, leading to practical integration of demand-response program elements. • Assessing integration-value economics, as there is little precedent for such cross-technical strategies at the distribution level. • Adapting the model efficiently for different market and regulatory environments.

Extensible Energy, LLC | 37 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Midwest Renewable Energy Association

The Solar Endowment: A Solar Deployment Roadmap for US Colleges and Universities

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $1,025,400

BACKGROUND US colleges and universities account for nearly $450 billion in total investments and are currently in a position to make substantial solar project investments both on and off-campus. Enabled by the Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, which has been adopted by nearly all states, university foundations can invest directly in solar PV systems as an investment or program-related asset. For many higher-learning institutions, investment in solar PV and renewable energy demonstrates positive action in light of the student-led fossil fuel divestment movement. Also, PV installations can stimulate foundation contributions and support program activities such as development of a renewable energy degree, sustainability office, and demonstration projects for students & the community.

Universities in the Midwest are part of an emerging solar PV market. This region has three percent of the nation’s installed capacity but represents the fastest growth rate of any region in the US. Four universities – representative of four Midwestern states – manage a diverse portfolio of investments and strong relationships with alumni and donors that support university programs and endowments. These universities showcase a diverse set of market conditions with significant potential for innovation and replication.

• Illinois State University purchases electricity from an Investor-Owned Utility (IOU), is part of a deregulated market with robust net metering legislation and a renewable portfolio standard featuring solar and distributed generation carve-outs. • Missouri University of Science and Technology features a campus microgrid and is served by a municipal utility in a market that allows net metering for systems up to 100kW.

Midwest Renewable Energy Association | 40 • University of Minnesota purchases electricity from an IOU. The Minnesota market features community solar installations and a value of solar tariff. • Purdue University in Indiana produces electricity at its own utility plant and makes additional purchases from Duke Energy, an IOU. The Indiana market allows net metering to 1MW and power purchase agreements with 20-year terms for 2–5MW projects.

PROJECT SUMMARY The Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) will work with Illinois State University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota, and Purdue University to create solar PV investment proposals for consideration by university governance boards at each campus and share lessons learned nationally to spur solar deployment at US universities. Together with the university energy, facility, real estate and sustainability offices; as well as engineering programs, local electric utilities; and regional and national experts, the MREA team will define a roadmap with strategies for engaging university foundations in solar deployment of at least 1MW on each participating university campus. The project team will also work to build understanding and leadership within university governance to consider off-campus solar PV investment opportunities.

MREA will engage student deployment teams led by graduate students at each campus in building student, faculty, and alumni support of solar PV deployment and investment. These student teams will develop complete site assessments through the MREA Site Assessment Certification Program to select potential solar deployment project sites on each campus. MREA will then support the student teams in developing a solar investment proposal for each partnering university campus including recommendations for the adoption of campus solar deployment goals based on the site assessments, adoption of policies to guide investment in solar and approval for the competitive solicitation for solar installation contractors. The project and student teams will then engage the university foundations in building a campaign targeted at alumni and donors to solicit support for solar deployment on each campus.

This work will culminate in the development of the University Roadmap for Solar Investment for national dissemination. In this roadmap, MREA will summarize the research, experiences, strategies and lessons learned through solar deployment efforts at each partnering campus to create resources available for use by universities and colleges across the US. This suite of stakeholder-targeted reports will define specific strategies related to university deployment and investment efforts.

GOALS • Create an applied certificate program to guide university students, staff, and faculty to define PV deployment potential and priorities on their campus and provide a market-relevant credential to participants. • Develop solar PV investment proposals for each partnering university campus and garner support from university governance. • Develop a University Roadmap for Solar Investment, including case studies of each partnering campus to disseminate nationally.

Midwest Renewable Energy Association | 41 MAJOR MILESTONES • Conduct baseline research defining state of US university solar deployment. • Launch student-led deployment teams and perform stakeholder engagement. • Select priority solar PV deployment sites at each partnering university campus and develop site assessments. • University governance boards at each campus actively consider policy recommendations, adoption of solar deployment goals and competitive solicitation process for installation contractors. • University governance boards demonstrate support for proposals.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Advancing consistent timelines and coordinating assistance at partnering university campuses. • Developing projects in different regulatory environments. • Defining stakeholder and programmatic benefits of campus PV deployment to overcome potentially low projected returns. • Defining finance solutions that provide lasting investment strategies for university foundations.

Photo courtesy of Clean Energy Resource Team, flicker.com

Midwest Renewable Energy Association | 42 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Pace Energy and Climate Center

Northeast Solar Energy Market Coalition (NESEMC)

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $599,908

BACKGROUND The Northeast solar market, is one of the strongest in the US – and could become even more robust with policy and regulatory uniformity across state and local jurisdictions. Current work on many key solar PV policies and market incentives is underway, including support for combining storage and PV for grid support and resiliency in New Jersey, community solar and PACE legislation in Connecticut, support for the increase in the solar Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard in Pennsylvania, and value of solar studies and tariffs in several states. However, frag- mented and ineffective coordination between state and local jurisdictions yields high transaction costs and project risks, thus reducing financial returns and the number of projects that are developed. The widely divergent policies, standards and practices as well as the current lack of cooperation between solar market stakeholders provides for the tremendous opportunity to improve coordination and coherence of the market for solar PV development.

PROJECT SUMMARY The Northeast Solar Energy Market Coalition (NESEMC) is a partnership of state and regional solar associations, representing more than 500 solar businesses in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. It aims to create sustainable growth across solar PV markets via harmonizing regional policy and market conditions. The Pace Energy and Climate Center will support the coalition and work with state and regional solar advocates and business associations, energy industry finance institutions, environmental and sustainability non-governmental organizations, and electric utility providers to identify and engage with critical market policy initiatives, communicate best practices to regional and national audiences, and provide clarity and market certainty for existing and future solar businesses in the region. The NESEMC will focus on value of solar tariffs (compensating for the net value of solar PV energy via appropriate tariffs), transpar- ent and efficient financing mechanisms, direct interaction with regional utilities and regulatory bodies, state pilot demonstrations and utilizing time varying rates to align demand with solar output.

Pace Energy & Climate Center | 45 GOALS • NESEMC is a fully funded and autonomous organization by 2018. • NESEMC will become the recognized solar market policy analysis and education leader in the region. • Harmonize state policy to create business certainty. • NESEMC analysis and education materials will be solidly integrated with the agendas of other major regional policy organizations. • Drive region-wide value chain efficiencies, customer understanding and utility cooperation.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Establish and operationalize the coalition. • Establish regional market policy leadership. • Market policy landscape mapping. • Engage three–five highest priority ongoing pilot and demonstration projects in the region. • Develop fundamental NESEMC outreach and education materials to support regional solar market growth.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Convening a nine-state coalition together on a single agenda. • Navigating various state solar policies and debates. • Compiling market policy activity in the region. • Effectively engaging stakeholders and issues in a complex and rapidly changing policy environment.

Pace Energy & Climate Center | 46 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Salt Lake City Corporation

Wasatch Solar Project

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $600,000

BACKGROUND Although Utah has some of the most plentiful solar resources in the nation, the solar PV market is still nascent. Current capacity in Utah is approximately 20MW, but according to NREL, the state has the potential for 6,000MW of rooftop PV and 2,404GW of utility-scale PV. Utah’s rapidly growing population, paired with strong solar potential, yields tremendous opportunity for solar development in the state. Current market conditions include rising energy demands, increasing solar capacity and declining costs.

Solar PV has broad support across Utah. Due to the collaboration of Salt Lake City Corporation, Utah Clean Energy, and other active leaders and jurisdictions in the state, Utah’s cumulative solar capacity has increased by 82% annually since 2009.

Salt Lake City Corporation, Utah Clean Energy and key partners have successfully completed numerous solar programs funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative since 2005 that have enabled solar deployment. In 2012, Utah’s first bulk-purchase community rooftop solar PV program helped reduce PV costs to more than 40% lower than Utah’s average. In 2014, Utah Clean Energy partnered with the University of Utah to launch the first solar discount program sponsored by a university. Community solar programs continue to thrive, and to date, have driven over 2.5MW of residential solar in Utah.

Utah will have 500MW of utility scale solar by 2016 thanks to declining solar prices and Utah’s new avoided-cost calculation method developed under the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act for renewable qualifying facilities. The City, Utah Clean Energy and county partners are responsible for leveraging U.S. Department of Energy funds to remove policy and regulatory barriers resulting in Utah’s largest PV installations – including 1.65MW on the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City; enabling third-party power purchase agreements for Utah’s governments, schools, and churches; and a renewable energy direct purchase option for large energy consumers.

Salt Lake City Corporation | 48 In addition to the statewide solar PV market expansion efforts, specific initiatives have advanced Salt Lake City’s goals. Mayor Ralph Becker and the Salt Lake City Corporation view solar and renewable energy as a critical component of the region’s energy future, and solar energy development strategies are included in the mayor’s agenda. To reach Salt Lake City’s goal of 2.5MW cumulative capacity of renewable energy generation on municipal facilities and a total of 10MW of distributed energy in the community by 2015, the city installed a 1MW solar farm and two rooftop installations in 2014. These projects will generate 1.7 million kWh annually.

PROJECT SUMMARY The Wasatch Solar Project will propel Utah’s nascent solar market towards a cumulative capacity of 1,075MW of solar PV by 2024 by addressing major barriers and developing actionable strategies. Salt Lake City, Utah Clean Energy, and partners – together with a broad set of stakeholders – will lay out comprehensive strategies with clear action-oriented recommendations to accelerate solar deployment in a 10-year solar deployment plan for Utah, which will be disseminated to government, community, business and non-governmental organizations across the state and nationally.

In addition, the project will produce model solar deployment strategies for emergency preparedness in the health care industry with emphasis on the development of a pilot project that can be readily adopted and replicated to foster community resiliency.

In an effort to facilitate market certainty in the state, the project team will conduct a net metering cost-benefit analysis of the value of rooftop solar with broad stakeholder input, and initiate a replicable Commercial Property- Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing program for Utah.

These project objectives will create a path for continued solar price reductions, increased market penetration, and improved market certainty for Utah’s solar industry and consumers. A substantive, collaborative stakeholder process will build new partnerships and help to ensure success as the team engages and solicits input from key decision-makers from the solar industry, local and state government, business and community leaders, and utility, regulatory, construction, and finance representatives.

GOALS • Take Utah’s nascent solar market to the next level and create a clear path for sustained growth. • Create increased market certainty for industry and consumers in Utah.

MILESTONES • C-PACE program guidelines for Utah finalized and approved by advisory council, and initiation of statewide C-PACE program. • 20+ stakeholders convened to identify barriers and solutions to solar deployment, resulting in a 10-year solar deployment plan. • Complete NEM cost-benefit analysis with broad stakeholder input. • One to two health care institutions analyze and implement solar PV with battery storage projects for emergency preparedness. Publish and disseminate case study highlighting solar PV in emergency preparedness pilot project(s).

Salt Lake City Corporation | 49 THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Engaging diverse interests and facilitating a collaborative process. • Low awareness of Utah’s solar resource, changing technologies, and the benefits solar can bring to the state. • C-PACE and solar for emergency planning are relatively new arenas; the project team will utilize best practices and collaborate with other Solar Market Pathways teams to ensure success. • Solar and other customer-side-of-the-meter technologies are evolving rapidly, and it is difficult for the public, industry, and other regulators to keep pace.

Photo couresty of Mike Renlund, www.flickr.com

Salt Lake City Corporation | 50 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE

Solar Electric Power Association

Community Solar Design Models for Consumer, Industry & Utility Success SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $705,830

NATIONWIDE

BACKGROUND Since the first community solar project was completed in 2006, at least 50 more have been developed in over 17 states. SEPA defines community solar as “a voluntary program whereby a solar-electric system provides power and/or financial benefit to multiple community members in which community members may or may not own the system itself.” Because community solar provides access to solar without the complexities of installing, owning and operating individual systems, these programs have become increasingly popular in the US. However, expansion of community solar faces challenges of replicability across different states, utility territories, and solar market types. Many models have emerged with varying degrees of regulatory and market frameworks behind them and little consistency as to how programs are administered, participant benefits are assigned and customers are charged. While it is assumed that community solar meets the needs of customers, no comprehensive or comparative research has been conducted on the various models and costs. Understood benefits of community solar are largely based on anecdotal evidence.

Additionally, the term community solar means different things for different stakeholders. For example, some utilities have tried to implement traditional green pricing programs as a form of community solar. These programs typically offer customers an opportunity to pay a premium price to support renewable energy (often by securing renewable energy credits). However, these programs do not offer any economic or energy value to participants. Similarly, community bulk purchasing programs have also sometimes been referred to as community solar. These programs

Solar Electric Power Association | 54 harness the collective buying power of a large group of customers to reduce the costs of small, distributed solar projects for everyone within the community. Bulk purchasing programs typically drive the growth of individually- owned solar systems. Neither of these examples meets the definition of community solar as described above.

Greater standardization of community solar models and better understanding of customer interest will prompt the expansion of community solar deployment nationwide.

PROJECT SUMMARY The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) aims to spark growth of community solar models that are more closely aligned with the needs and interests of consumers and stakeholders. The project team will work to produce a range of more standardized, streamlined and cost-effective business models that can be easily localized for different regions across the country by researching and comparing models, conducting consumer market research and disseminating research results to solar industry stakeholders.

Research on community solar models will be driven by a working group made up of diverse stakeholders including utilities, solar industry representatives, and state governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs),and consumer advocacy organizations. The working group will identify, characterize, and analyze options for community solar models and produce a report summarizing how the models can best meet customer and utility needs.

SEPA, together with the Shelton Group, will conduct consumer market outreach to gain insights on how consumers from various geographic, demographic, utility type and market type customer classes: view attributes of community solar models, explore perceptions of community solar, and test and vet the most promising models. Based on focus groups and national surveys SEPA and the Shelton Group will highlight best practices in identifying and marketing to target participants from various demographic groups.

Lastly, the project team will provide technical assistance to eight organizations interested in modifying their current model or adopting one of the newly standardized community solar models. These organizations will be selected through two open-solicitation processes that will take place in 2016. The technical assistance selection process will ensure that the standardized community solar programs are deployed and tested under a broad range of circumstances (demographic, utility type, and market type). SEPA will stagger technical assistance engagements between early 2016 through close of 2017. Ultimately, these technical assistance engagements will result in the installation of at least 4MW of new solar.

GOALS • Conduct comprehensive and collaborative research on the intersection of community solar business models and consumer demographics. • Produce a range of more standardized, streamlined and cost-effective business models that can be easily localized for different regions across the country. • Expand national participation in community solar models.

Solar Electric Power Association | 55 MILESTONES • Engage solar stakeholders in a project advisory working group that will assist in identifying, analyzing, and comparing community solar model types. • Engage at least 1,500 residential customers and 150 businesses in evaluating at least four community solar models. • Inform at least 5,000 solar stakeholders on project findings and educate 200 unique industry professionals. • Consult with at least eight potential community solar projects that will lead to the development of at least 4MW of new solar capacity for at least 2,000 participating customers.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Securing sufficient working group participation: Making sure that all working group members actively participate in the process, specifically providing detailed feedback on community solar program attributes through an online survey process. • Building consensus among members of a diverse working group: Balancing opinions and feedback to develop program models that are not biased towards one particular administrative model (i.e. utility, third-party, special purpose entity). • Achieving widespread dissemination of results: Ensuring adoption of program models beyond the eight selected technical assistance recipients. Not only proving tools and resources to the general public, but ensuring that those resources are used throughout the duration of this project and well beyond. • Developing appropriately descriptive names for each program model, and ensuring proper use within the industry. • Completing technical assistance within allotted timeframe: Based on past experience, SEPA understands that building internal consensus on program design can be a timely process for community solar program administrators. It will be critical for SEPA to assess preparedness for all technical assistance applicants to ensure timely program adoption (within the 18-month timeframe) is possible.

Solar Electric Power Association | 56 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE The Solar Foundation Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy for Tax-Exempt and Public Entities (C-PACE+)

SUNSHOT AWARD AMOUNT: $900,034 TIER 1: CA, CT, DC TIER 2: FL, GA, OH, MI, MN, NY TIER 3: AR, LA, OR, MD, TX, VA

BACKGROUND Currently, 200 C-PACE projects have been completed. By the end of 2013, projects funded by C-PACE reached a cumulative value of $60 million – five times the amount seen just two years before. There is more than $215 million worth of new projects in the pipeline across 27 states with enabling statutes. However, despite these positive growth trends, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) does not expect C-PACE to attain more than 5% of commercial solar financing in the coming years.

A key complication to C-PACE’s expansion is that many potential adopters face constrained access due to their status as a tax-exempt organization: nonprofits are often considered ineligible for PACE because they do not pay property taxes. CivicPACE provides a critically needed tool to address underwriting and access challenges for tax-exempt entities such as faith-based houses of worship, nonprofit affordable housing, community clinics and educational institutions.

PROJECT SUMMARY The CivicPACE project will assess the potential for expanding Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing to tax-exempt entities in jurisdictions with active PACE markets, thus becoming CivicPACE. This type of financing would enable affordable housing units, schools, faith-based and nonprofit organizations, and others that do not pay property taxes to receive a loan for solar energy installations. The CivicPACE team, comprised of The Solar Foundation, Urban Ingenuity and Clean Energy Solutions, Inc. will support the development of CivicPACE markets in several states by providing policy recommendations; engaging stakeholders such as financing, legal, solar and storage developers, and nonprofit champions; and implementing replicable pilot projects.

The Solar Foundation | 58 The project team will progress from more mature PACE markets to less mature markets, and from affordable housing to universities to other tax-exempt entities; ultimately creating pilot projects in two locations. Starting in the leading PACE markets of California, Connecticut, and Washington DC, the CivicPACE team will focus on developing strategies for market penetration and case studies for replication. During phase two, the project team will move to support developing markets in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York, which feature favor- able PACE policy environments and have programs in place, but require broader public marketing to nonprofit and community organizations. Lessons learned will be compiled from both phase one and two and applied to phase three, which will target emerging PACE programs in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oregon, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia. These six states feature policy and public support, but do not yet have the capacity to maintain active programs. The project team will help expand these programs to establish CivicPACE by helping local jurisdictions work through legal and financial concerns of pursuing C-PACE for tax-exempt entities.

Ultimately, the lessons learned and best practices from the pilot projects, and replicable plans summarizing the structure, development, and implementation process for CivicPACE projects will be distributed as case studies intended for program designers and practitioners nationwide.

GOALS • Unlocking C-PACE for tax-exempt customers including affordable housing organizations, schools and nonprofit organizations. • Leading at least four jurisdictions to implement practices and procedures to enable use of C-PACE+. • Establish at least two pilot projects of small commercial scale for tax-exempt entities. • Create sustained interest in CivicPACE among at least seven jurisdictions such that they implement practices and procedures enabling CivicPACE. • Develop public materials defining CivicPACE including sample contracts, guides and checklists allowing for program replicability. • Engaging a cross section of stakeholders that will form the foundation of a community of practice beyond the life of project funding.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Conduct initial market scans of policy and program landscape for PACE and CivicPACE. • Hold stakeholder meetings in at least 15 jurisdictions. • Directly support five jurisdictions in focusing efforts on C-PACE to include PACE for tax-exempt entities. • At least one pilot project identified by end of year one. • Development of two pilot projects by end of year two.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Engaging local jurisdictions, identifying the local champions. • Navigating diverse legal and regulatory environments to support CivicPACE tax assessments. • Implementing pilot projects, including financing and ownership arrangements. • Creating financial models that support CivicPACE feasibility once federal income tax credits for solar sunset. • Developing sufficient private sector interest to gain multi-market interest and replicable best practices.

The Solar Foundation | 59 AWARDEE TEAM PROFILE Vermont Energy Investment Corporation

Solar and Distributed Generation as Key Elements in Meeting Vermont's Comprehensive Energy Plan Goals

TOTAL PROJECT COST: $674,817

BACKGROUND Solar PV represents the fastest-growing form of renewable energy in Vermont. Since 2011, Vermont has quadrupled its installed solar energy capacity to 120MW (installed or applied for) and in 2014, average commercial and residential system prices dropped by 16%, compared to 8% across the nation. Though the state currently has 3,600 net metering projects and the highest number of solar jobs per capita in the country, solar in Vermont still only accounts for about 2% of electricity generation.

Vermont’s governor, legislature, largest utility and transmission companies all support increasing solar deployment and transitioning to an advanced solar market. Legislation in 2014 increased the net metering cap from 4% to 15% of the utility’s peak demand, and expanded the size of installations – ground or roof-mounted solar systems – permissible under the 10-day permitting process to 15 kW. With this streamlined process, a resident fills out a one-page application to the Vermont Public Service Board, which then grants a permit after 10 days. The primary reason a permit might not be granted relates to whether the local utility raises an interconnection issue. These policies help to increase the size of the market, but also involve state regulators in frequent action.

In 2011, the Vermont General Assembly adopted ambitious renewable energy goals, which were incorporated into the Vermont 2011 Comprehensive Energy Plan (CEP). The CEP says that by 2050, 90% of the state’s total energy needs (defined as electricity, thermal, and transportation energy needs) will be met with renewable energy. Achieving these goals will require major contributions from distributed resources, including solar PV, and developing supporting infrastructure such as energy storage, electric vehicle charging stations, and distribution system upgrades.

PROJECT SUMMARY The Vermont Solar Development Pathways project will coordinate and facilitate a structured stakeholder process to agree broadly on a solar deployment plan that can map to the CEP targets. The project seeks to detail levels of policy, regulation and market development necessary by 2020 and 2025 to reach these targets. It also seeks to help stakeholders understand what expanded solar deployment will look like in Vermont.

Vermont Energy Investment Corporation | 62 The VEIC team and partners will conduct analyses on seven strategic focus areas related to distributed generation. Net metering, electric vehicles, heat pumps, smart grid, energy storage, incentives and social equity. The team will integrate key information drivers from these focus areas into a framework for scenario analyses. Through an exten- sive stakeholder engagement process, the project team will enlist solar energy market actors, citizen and consumer advocates, legislators, utilities, regulators, the real estate industry, lending industry, the statewide energy efficiency utility and academic experts to address challenges and opportunities created by high levels of distributed solar generation. This active stakeholder process will inform the creation of a reference scenario (business as usual), a scenario based on CEP targets (90% renewable energy by 2050) and a Vermont Solar Deployment Path scenario, in which solar will reach 20% of the total energy mix in Vermont by 2025 and thus be on track to meet the CEP targets.

The project team will use the scenarios to determine the investment and project development needed in solar PV as Vermont progresses toward the 2050 goals. Stakeholder groups will examine and reach general agreement on key policy, regulatory, and technical market issues in each of the focus areas. The Vermont Solar Deployment Plan will specify where broad agreement could and could not be reached, and expected levels of solar deployment needed for Vermont to make substantial progress toward meeting the CEP targets. This plan will be the engine for Vermont’s transition to a high-saturation market with 1+ GW of installed solar PV generating capacity.

VEIC will also provide a public summary report of the plan and a final report detailing a path toward meeting Vermont’s solar deployment goals. These reports will offer the opportunity for the state, local jurisdictions, policymakers, regulators, industry, investors and consumers to understand their roles in addressing the policy, regulatory, and market conditions and applying lessons learned.

GOALS • Move Vermont from a developing solar market to an advanced saturation market, with 20% of electricity generation coming from solar by 2025, on the way to reaching the statewide goal of 90% of total energy generation from renewable energy by 2050. • Facilitate a broad stakeholder process to develop a consensus-driven Solar Deployment Plan that will help lower the costs, increase the speed, and lower the barriers to expanding the market.

MAJOR MILESTONES • Stakeholder engagement results in creation of a solar deployment path scenario and a barriers and integration brief for the Solar Deployment Plan. • Complete and distribute a net metering topic brief to stakeholders, comparing net metering options such as the value of solar tariff and bidirectional distribution charges. • Vermont Solar Deployment Plan and Summary Public Report complete by end of 2016. • Solar Deployment Plan and lessons learned dissemination during 2017.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD • Keeping stakeholders engaged and building consensus across a year-long process. • Show that the lessons learned and products of this project can be replicable beyond Vermont, which has a uniquely progressive political and social environment compared to other regions.

Vermont Energy Investment Corporation | 63 HEADQUARTERS 535 Stone Cutters Way Montpelier, VT 05602

T 802-229-2900 F 802-229-2919

WASHINGTON DC 888 17th Street NW, Suite 610 Washington, DC 20006

T 202-777-7575 F 202-777-7577 iscvt.org sustainablecommunitiesleadershipacademy.org

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