Virginia Solar Pathways Project Report
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Virginia Solar Pathways Project December 4, 2017 Report 2 Virginia Solar Pathways Project 2017 Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................................3 Background and Project Objectives .................................................................................................................5 Developing and Implementing the Solar Strategy ........................................................................................6 Challenges.....................................................................................................................................................6 Solar Economics ..................................................................................................................................6 Generation, Transmission, and Distribution ...................................................................................7 Community Solar ................................................................................................................................8 Core Elements of the Statewide Solar Strategy ......................................................................................9 Customer Programs and Distributed Generation .........................................................................10 Large-scale Solar ...............................................................................................................................17 Community Solar ..............................................................................................................................19 Long-term Forecast for Solar to Serve Dominion Energy Virginia’s Customers .................... 20 Overcoming Challenges to a Successful Solar Strategy ............................................................................21 Federal Tax Policy ......................................................................................................................................21 State and Market Distinctions ................................................................................................................. 22 Cost and “Least Cost Standard” in Virginia ................................................................................. 22 Permit by Rule ................................................................................................................................... 23 Emerging Challenges and Opportunities ..................................................................................................... 23 Uncertainty Around Carbon Regulation ................................................................................................ 23 International Trade Developments ......................................................................................................... 23 Aging Grid Infrastructure and the Opportunity for Grid Modernization ...........................................24 Local Pushback and Other Siting/Permitting Challenges ....................................................................24 Fiber Optic/Communication Availability ................................................................................................25 Lack of Wide Deployment of Energy Storage ........................................................................................25 Solar Workforce Development Strategy ....................................................................................................... 27 Findings and Recommendations for Replicating the Virginia Solar Pathways Strategy for Sustainable Solar Deployment ....................................................................................................................... 28 Engage in Stakeholder Collaboration .................................................................................................... 28 Work to Avoid Unintended Adverse Consequences of State Policy Changes ................................. 29 Foster and Maintain Dialogue with Large Customers ......................................................................... 29 Listen to Customer Preferences and Match Them to Resource Availability/Attributes ................. 30 Develop Customized Approaches to Modeling and Planning for Solar Integration ....................... 30 Prioritize Grid Modernization and Customer Empowerment ..............................................................31 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................ 33 List of Acronyms and Descriptions ................................................................................................................ 33 Endnotes ............................................................................................................................................................ 35 This work is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, under Award Number DE-EE0006914. This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored 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. © 2017 Dominion Energy 2017-462 Photography: Dominion Energy and Cameron Davidson, page 3. Cover photo: Remington Virginia Solar Pathways Project 2017 3 Dominion Energy, Inc. (formerly Dominion Resources, Inc.) (Dominion Energy) currently has more than 27 solar generating installations either operational or under development in Virginia. This equates to approximately 744 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity, enough to power more than 186,000 homes at peak solar output. However, at the end of 2014, before the grant- term began, the situation was very different. At that time, Dominion Energy’s generation fleet in Virginia included only four solar distributed generation (DG) facilities (listed in yellow below) totaling a little more than one megawatt with FIGURE 1: DOMINION ENERGY SOLAR ASSETS IN VIRGINIA AS OF no large-scale solar facilities operational in the DEC. 4, 2017 Commonwealth. Since then, Dominion Energy has announced 23 additional solar generation 1 facilities that are either operational or under 7 development in Virginia. (See figure 1 for the 27 2 total facilities.) In addition, Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion Energy Virginia or 3 the Company) is expanding its renewable-related programs and tariffs for customers from 7 to 4 5 12 12, and its current 2017 long-range integrated 10 11 26 resource plan (IRP) includes up to 5,280 MW of 1 additional solar capacity by 2042. 13 17 27 6 8 9 14 18 15 16 19 20 21 24 23 25 22 Solar in operation or under development 9. Scott 17 MW 21. Woodland 19 MW (includes power purchase agreements): 10. RMC 0.05 MW 22. Southampton 100 MW** Up to 744 MW 11. UVA Hollyfield 17 MW 23. Western Branch HS 0.8 MW Initial four facilities in yellow (1.18 MW) 12. Essex 20 MW* 24. ODU 0.13 MW 1. Clarke 10 MW 13. VUU 0.05 MW 25. Oceana 18 MW 2. Remington 20 MW 14. New Kent 20 MW** 26. Accomack 80 MW** 3. Merck 1.5 MW 15. Capital One 0.5 MW 27. Cherrydale 20 MW 4. UVA 0.4 MW 16. Philip Morris 2 MW 5. Whitehouse Solar 20 MW 17. UVA Puller 15 MW * Reflects power purchase agreement 6. Buckingham 20 MW** 18. Canon 0.5 MW executed with Dominion Energy Virginia 7. Prologis 0.74 MW 19. Canon 1 MW ** Amazon Solar Farm Virginia 8. Scott II 20 MW** 20. Sappony 20 MW** Note: 300 MW of solar generation under development in partnership with Facebook, not reflected on map. WHITEHOUSE SOLAR 4 Virginia Solar Pathways Project 2017 Dominion Energy’s recent rapid expansion of solar how it has implemented its solar strategy to-date and capacity in Virginia is the result of a comprehensive solar providing recommendations to other utilities who wish strategy. This report is the result of a three-year project, to adopt this strategy, the pages that follow also offer the the Virginia Solar Pathways Project, funded by the Solar Company’s take on how best to answer this question. Energy Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This paper also documents how Dominion Energy’s strategy has allowed it to surpass its goal three years A central goal of the Virginia Solar Pathways Project early to have 400 MW of large-scale solar under was to develop workable models for sustainable solar development in Virginia by 2020.3 Dominion Energy is deployment that are appropriate for states with policy now ranked 6th in the nation among investor-owned and program frameworks similar to the Commonwealth. utility holding companies in terms of ownership of Primarily, these are southeastern states that share operating and planned solar capacity. The Virginia Virginia’s policy model of vertically integrated utilities Solar