Energy decentralization in California and New York: Conflicts in the politics of shared solar and community choice

Hess, David J.; Lee, Dasom

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2020.109716

Cited by 42 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Low levels of rooftop PV uptake can be facilitated without many regulatory changes, however, as penetration levels become significant, as is occurring in Australia, political support to enable the required policy and regulatory changes becomes increasingly critical. Hess and Lee [8] argued that there are often convoluted political policy logics in play, which has allowed conflicting policy proposals to be argued for by both incumbent and emergent technologies. This has the effect of slowing the transition process.…”

Section: Socio-political Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rooftop PV and the Renewable Energy Transition; a Review of Driving Forces and Analytical Frameworks

2021

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Rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) are accelerating the transition towards low carbon electricity systems in many countries, particularly in Australia. This review paper provides an overview of the (1) technical, (2) economic, (3) socio-political, and (4) regulatory and institutional aspects that should be considered concurrently when navigating the transition towards a rooftop PV-dominated electricity system. We consider the suitability of two prominent long-range transitions theories for understanding the importance and interaction of elements within these four aspects during the transition. The multi-level perspective (MLP) of transitions theory is considered best suited for this task as it addresses fundamental shifts in the socio-technical systems, rather than being weighted towards technological and/or economic solutions. We find that relatively little research has been undertaken where the renewable energy transition is being driven by the uptake of rooftop PV within the distribution network of established islanded electricity systems. These islanded electricity systems will be the first to experience system impacts from high levels of rooftop PV. This review provides further analysis of important gaps in understanding the rooftop-PV-led energy transition and the implications for policy makers in maintaining stable electricity supplies during the transition.

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Section: Socio-political Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems are now installed on over a third of homes in some Australian states [2,3]. The rapid uptake of renewable energy is starting to redefine the way electricity systems and their associated markets can operate in Australia and many places around the world [4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rooftop PV and the Renewable Energy Transition; a Review of Driving Forces and Analytical Frameworks

2021

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“…At the meso-level of tool design (cell 2 Figure 1) fostering partnerships with the administration is a cornerstone of effective application of smart grids that, at the outset, relies on 'new interconnection, dispatch and tariff policies to address market barriers and incentivize decentralized generators ' (REN21, 2019, p. 184). At the level of cities or federal states (such as in the United States), procedural functions such as devising permitting and interconnection procedures, reducing installation and other fees for end-users, overall 'rule-making' for implementing legislative goals and even conflict management and arbitration are carried out by public utilities commissions that are appointed at the jurisdictional level and supported by the legislature (Hess & Lee, 2020). The deliberate designing of these initial procedural functions can both enable as well as limit for how the substantive tool is able to subsequently address its stated objectives (e.g., to increase the share of distributed PV in the national energy mix).…”

Section: Net-metering and Smart-gridsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the level of calibrations (cell 4, Figure 1), procedural means to facilitate the implementation of net-metering and the uptake of smart-grids rely heavily on the coordinating capacity of administrators and regulators to jointly enable transmission and siting initiatives (Table 1). Maintaining partnerships with key stakeholders (such as households producing energy and state utilities purchasing this at a favourable rate) falls under the purview of the administration that must continuously calibrate payment structures as the supply of decentralized renewable energy grows, as has been shown in the experience with net metering in the United States as well as member states of the European Union (Hess & Lee, 2020;Iliopoulos, Fermeglia, & Vanheusden, 2020). Procedural roles of regulators are additionally detrimental to the vertical coordination between suppliers and utilities in the substantive implementation of net metering policy.…”

Section: Net-metering and Smart-gridsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the procedural in policy instrument ‘Compounds’: a renewable energy policy perspective

Mukherjee

2021

Policy and Society

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Contemporary research in the policy sciences places effectiveness as the central goal of policy design. This emphasis permeates both micro-level design considerations for specific policy calibrations, as well as more meso-level policy tool and tool mixes. Effective instrument design, therefore, augments the task of looking at individual tools to considering them as tool 'compounds', that comprise of substantive and procedural means interacting through the process of designing tools and subsequent tool calibrations. The academic study of policy tools thus far has proffered several perspectives on how they can individually be distinguished by their different substantive components and categorized based on common governance resources that need to be mobilized to create them. However, it is eventually how well policy tools are able to coordinate the support of common procedural means and how well they are able to align their enactment plans, which determine how effectively they work together as a deliberate toolkit. In line with the growing literature on policy design and multi-component policy means, this paper magnifies policy instrument design as a complex of procedural and substantive means. To illustrate the notion of such design compounds, this paper synopsizes the state of knowledge on the formulation of three classes of energy policies as an illustration of how substantive and procedural components interact during policy instrument design.

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“…On the social side, LEC allows an energy system with more participation and democratic control by citizenship [5,13,14], a new source of funding for renewable energy projects, energy-related knowledge generation, expertise and cohesiveness among the members of the community [13] and increase community awareness on sustainable issues [6,13]. Moreover, LECs promote renewable energy production by energy users that did not have access to the necessary space or funds to undertake the installation of renewable installation [15]. Thus, LECs are capable to deliver the benefits of low carbon technologies to lower-income socioeconomic groups compared with individual installations [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Energy Communities in Spain: Economic Implications of the New Tariff and Variable Coefficients

et al. 2021

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The European Union advocates for legislative support to local energy communities. Measures include the promotion of dynamic energy allocation and discriminatory electricity tariffs such as the recent Spanish framework. However, the impact of these normative changes is not yet evaluated. This paper inquires into the impact of dynamic allocation coefficient and different electricity tariffs on the profitability of local energy communities. To do so, a linear optimisation model is developed and applied to real consumer data in Spain around a variable capacity photovoltaic generation plant. Comparing the economic performance of the static or variable power allocation under the effect of changing electricity tariffs. While both measures are beneficial, the new electricity tariffs result in larger profitability increases than the planned variable coefficients. The combination of measures allows for profitability improvements of up to 25% being complementary measures. However, installations that maximise the potential for electricity generation are still not as profitable due to the low purchase price of surplus energy. While discriminatory electricity price tariffs and variable allocation coefficients are positive measures, further measures are needed for these communities to install generation plants as large as the potential that each case allows.

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Energy decentralization in California and New York: Conflicts in the politics of shared solar and community choice

Cited by 42 publications

References 18 publications

Rooftop PV and the Renewable Energy Transition; a Review of Driving Forces and Analytical Frameworks

Rooftop PV and the Renewable Energy Transition; a Review of Driving Forces and Analytical Frameworks

Rethinking the procedural in policy instrument ‘Compounds’: a renewable energy policy perspective

Local Energy Communities in Spain: Economic Implications of the New Tariff and Variable Coefficients

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