Distributed solar and batteries are helping North Carolina communities that were cut off from grid power by flooding. Should utilities build them into resilience plans?
For years, Duke Energy has studied the threats that climate change poses to its power grid. It has produced tomes forecasting the risk to its power lines, substations, and power plants from fires, heat waves, and floods.
But the scope of Hurricane Helene’s devastation in the utility’s inland Carolinas territories — more than 350 substations disabled and a handful completely destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people still without power a week after the floodwaters receded — has blown its risk forecasts out of the water.
Now, as tens of thousands of utility workers from across the country struggle to rebuild swaths of Duke’s grid from the ground up, energy experts warn that it and other utilities must start to consider alternatives to the century-old paradigm of utility poles, wires, and substations — like distributed power and microgrids.
Solar panels and batteries can power homes, businesses, churches, schools, and sometimes entire towns. These clean, distributed energy systems can reduce or replace the need for fossil-fueled backup generators during emergencies. They can also provide clean energy to the grid under normal conditions, helping to lower reliance on the fossil-fueled power plants responsible for climate change.
In parts of western North Carolina and South Carolina where floods swamped towns and knocked out highways, these technologies may be more cost-effective investments in climate resiliency than trying to harden traditional grid infrastructure against extreme weather.
Just how valuable distributed energy could be as an additional layer of protection against these threats is not yet clear, however. That’s largely because utilities and regulators haven’t fully baked those options into their existing methods of assessing climate change risks to their grids.
“It’s always hard right after these storms to talk about next steps, because all energy and time has to be spent on the emergency response,” said Jenny Brennan, a climate analyst at the nonprofit Southern Environmental Law Center. At the same time, it’s important to think ahead about “how to build for the next time a storm comes, so you’re more resilient as a community, and hopefully don’t have the same scale of destruction.”
In 2021 and 2022, Brennan was a member of a technical working group advising Duke on a climate resilience and adaptation study. That multiyear project assessed climate risks to a grid serving a roughly 56,000-square-mile service area in North Carolina and South Carolina. But that grid-focused report also touched on the idea of “supporting and encouraging local power options” such as microgrids, rooftop solar, and community solar.
Those distributed energy resources may be particularly well-suited for the mountainous, harder-to-reach parts of Duke Energy’s territory, Brennan said. “We’ve got to consider these different needs, and design an infrastructure that can be adaptive and address these problems.”
The utility-centric option: advanced microgrids
The more remote the town, the costlier it is to connect it to the grid — and to ensure that the connection remains intact. That’s why Duke Energy created a microgrid in Hot Springs, a town of about 535 residents just under 40 miles northwest of Asheville.
That project wasn’t cheap — Duke spent about $14.5 million to install 2 megawatts of solar power and 4.4 megawatt-hours of battery storage along with technology to control it as a grid resource. But according to the utility, that was cheaper than the grid upgrade required to provide the town with reliable power.
Hot Springs is connected to Duke’s larger grid by a single 10-mile power line that crosses mountainous and wooded terrain. The line is subject to frequent outages. Duke easily won regulatory approval in 2019 to build the cheaper microgrid instead of a second power line as a backup.
During Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, the microgrid was quickly restored and started providing power to Hot Springs’ downtown area after “the substation that fed the town was washed away by the floods,” Jason Handley, general manager of Duke’s Distributed Energy Group, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Depending on solar output, we’ve also been able to bring on other load segments for periods of time.”
Duke is planning more microgrids at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and at a middle school that serves as a hurricane evacuation shelter in Florida. But at present, microgrids — or what Duke Energy calls “non-traditional solutions” — play only a minor role in the utility’s broader grid plans.
That’s largely because they are deemed cost-effective only for the most remote and vulnerable communities on its grid.
“If an energy storage system is the most cost-effective, feasible approach, Duke Energy will then pursue further development of the project,” the utility wrote in its climate resilience plan. Once such projects are identified, “the development cycle for these efforts is typically on the order of seven years.”
The basics for customers: rooftop solar and batteries
Tyler Norris, a Duke University doctoral fellow and former solar developer and special adviser at the Department of Energy, thinks that utilities like Duke Energy should look at more options than utility-managed microgrids.
“There needs to be an entire report dedicated to the role of distributed energy resources on a medium- and long-term solution set,” he said — including the kind of distributed energy that could have helped his elderly parents, whose home in Fairview, North Carolina, was without power for more than nine days after Hurricane Helene.
Norris spent a week with his parents, helping them manage without power or running water. “They have their own spring, but because we didn’t have power for the water pump, you have to haul water up the mountainside by hand,” he said. “I was trying to use a gas generator to charge our electric vehicle, which required jury-rigging it to the house ground.”
Rooftop solar systems can provide enough power to run a handful of household necessities — like a water pump — during daytime hours, he said. But most residential systems aren’t designed to keep power flowing during grid outages. Typically, these systems shut off when the grid goes down, a safety feature meant to prevent power from the solar panels from flowing back through downed utility lines and electrocuting utility workers doing repairs.
“It’s shocking how many of these existing behind-the-meter solar systems were not designed to provide any form of backup power,” Norris said. Some more recently installed systems are designed to disconnect from the grid and stay on during outages, but that’s far from universal. “I suspect that’s going to be an area of focus going forward.”
Some new high-end residential developments like Babcock Ranch and Hunters Point in Florida have been built with solar power and batteries designed to function during broader grid outages. But such microgrid-enabled communities are few and far between in the U.S., and the cost of solar and batteries remains out of reach for many households.
Meanwhile, utilities aren’t incentivized to promote solar and batteries for their customers, since their proliferation could erode utility revenues. Like most investor-owned utilities, Duke Energy has pushed to reduce the value of rooftop solar for customers, saying that it unfairly shifts costs from homes that can afford solar onto its broader customer base.
“Unless there’s a major change in incentives — which may require legislation — this will have to be driven from the ground up by local governments and community organizations,” Norris said.
Community resilience hubs: power for neighbors to help neighbors
That’s the route Michelle Moore, CEO of Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit Groundswell, is pushing for at community resilience centers in the Southeast. Her group has helped finance solar and battery projects for churches and community centers that already provide shelter and food for people in need.
One of those projects at the Vicars Community Center at the Community Church Atlanta rode through Hurricane Helene without losing power. But if it had, “there’s enough battery storage to keep critical systems going for three days, even if it can’t be recharged by solar,” she said. “If the sun shines, it can go on and on.”
WINSTON-SALEM, NC — The regionwide community-based group-buying program Solarize the Triad has rapidly reached its 5th price tier based on 32 Triad property owners agreeing to purchase new renewable energy systems for their homes.
Residents in the region have just over two months – until Nov. 30 – to sign up for free in order to become eligible for unique community campaign’s group-purchasing discounts.
When residents, business owners, churches and nonprofits contract for solar installations through Solarize the Triad, savings accrue for all participants. The 5th price tier for residential purchasers – one of eight in that dimension of the program – means a new lower price range of between $2.30-$2.45/watt (depending on equipment selected). This tier was reached through initial contracts totaling 329.41 total kW.
Once these homes’ installations are completed, 644,458 lbs. of CO2 in the Triad region will be avoided. That’s the equivalent of removing more than 9,619 trees cleaning the air for one year. Adding to these homes’ reliability, battery purchases have also been popular with homeowners and accompanied nearly every system.
Already more than 225 Triad property owners have signed up to receive a free proposal. Those who choose to buy through the Solarize the Triad campaign will receive a rebate based upon the lowest-price tier reached. In addition, Duke Energy Carolinas is offering rebates for customers participating in itsPowerPair program. In addition, a federal tax credit of 30 percent for newly installed solar energy systems and batteries is available.
“After hearing about the campaign, my wife and I decided to get a free evaluation on our house and were shocked at how much sense it made,” said homeowner and Solarize participant Gary Knight of Winston-Salem. “I was skeptical but after doing the analysis, it was a no-brainer.” Added Mr. Knight: “We’re both very excited that in a few short weeks, we’ll be reducing our power bill, our carbon footprint, and will also have a battery backup for the house. The folks at Renu have been so easy to work with and have met or exceeded every expectation thus far.”
To help Triad property owners – including both residential and business owners – learn more about financing a system through the Solarize campaign, a free public online event is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 2 from 12-1 p.m. This virtual info session will feature:
A close-up look at and discussion of various financing options available;
Experts in solar energy from Renu Energy Solutions, the installer company chosen by the Coalition via competitive bidding;
Information about potentially applicable federal tax incentives;
How one can enroll for a free solar-energy assessment of residence or places of businesses or nonprofits through Solarize the Triad.
To attend this info session for free, RSVP here for a link.
Solarize the Triad is currently encouraging enrollment in the campaign since its official launch in July. Those interested may go to SolarizetheTriad.com to learn more about the program and sign up to receive a free evaluation. There is no obligation to receive a proposal and consider purchasing a system.
The coalition of individuals and organizations in The Triad region fostering Solarize the Triad are dedicated to increasing awareness of local solar energy benefits; providing practical education, community outreach and support; reducing costs through group purchasing;; and creating a path toward greater and speedier local solar adoption. For assistancetransforming your yard into a beneficial habitat for birds, pollinators, and wildlife through native plants, please visit forsythaudubon.org.
According to the latest data released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), renewables have provided nearly all – 99.2% – new U.S. generating capacity since the beginning of 2024 through April. The SUN DAY Campaign reviewed the data and found that in the first four months of 2024, solar and wind added 7,899 MW and 1,825 MW, respectively, while biomass added 3 MW and hydropower added 1 MW. The balance consisted of 67 MW of gas, 5 MW of oil and 3 MW of “other.”
Specifically for the month of April, 1,324 MW of solar were placed into service along with 737 MW of wind. The balance for April was provided by gas at just 16 MW.
The new solar capacity added from January through April this year was more than double the solar capacity (3,777 MW) added during the same period last year. Year-to-date, solar accounted for 80.6% of all new generation placed into service.
Solar has now been the largest source of new generating capacity for eight months straight: September 2023 through April 2024. For six of those eight months, wind took second place.
The latest capacity additions have brought solar’s share of total available installed utility-scale generating capacity up to 8.56%, further expanding its lead over hydropower (7.84%). Wind is currently at 11.77%. With the inclusion of biomass (1.13%) and geothermal (0.32%), renewables now claim a 29.62% share of total U.S. utility-scale generating capacity.
Installed utility-scale solar has now moved into fourth place – behind gas (43.58%), coal (15.79%) and wind for its share of generating capacity after having recently surpassed that of nuclear power (8.06%).
The combined capacities of just solar and wind now constitute more than one-fifth (20.33%) of the nation’s total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.
However, a third or more of U.S. solar capacity is in the form of small-scale systems that is not reflected in FERC’s data. Including that additional solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar + wind closer to a quarter of the nation’s total.
“The combination of wind and solar is now more than a fifth of U.S. generating capacity and may be closer to a quarter if one adds in small-scale solar,” noted SUN DAY Campaign executive director Ken Bossong. “Including distributed solar, the mix of all renewables is now poised to surpass natural gas capacity within the next three years.”
By Kelly Pickerel | April 24, 2024
SunPower principal executive officer Tom Werner today released a letter to employees that announces layoffs and division closures.
To achieve financial viability, SunPower will move to a low fixed-cost model that should better react to market fluctuations. The company will wind down its SunPower Residential Installation (SPRI) locations and close SunPower Direct sales. SunPower will reduce its workforce by approximately 1,000 people in the next few weeks — likely close to 20-25% of SunPower’s staff. The company reported having 4,710 full-time employees as of Jan. 1, 2023, while Reuters is reporting the company had 3,800 employees recently. Those impacted by the job eliminations should have been contacted today.
“After a short transition period, all pipeline operations from pre-installation through system activation will be handled by Blue Raven Solar, full-service installation partners and our trusted network of SunPower-certified dealers — all who meet our standards of integrity, design, quality and customer service,” Werner stated. “As we make this transition over the next month, we are dedicated to handling our customer experience with the highest levels of care and with minimal impact on timelines.”
SunPower will focus its efforts now on its Dealer Network and installation partners. The company is also planning to continue its work with new home-build construction.
SunPower has been on a bumpy road since diversifying its business at the beginning of this decade. The company sold its large-scale O&M portfolio to NovaSource in May 2020, spun off its solar panel manufacturing arm to Maxeon in August 2020, acquired Blue Raven Solar in October 2021 to refocus its residential efforts, sold its commercial installation division to TotalEnergies in February 2022 and just lost its exclusive solar panel supply agreement with Maxeon last month.
The company revealed this week that it had identified misstatements in its results for fiscal year 2022 and expects a $15 million to $25 million decrease in income from continuing operations before income taxes and other adjustments for the year that ended Jan. 1, 2023. Among the reason for the misstatements include wrongly classified sales commissions as cost of revenue.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces $7 Billion Solar for All Grants to Deliver Residential Solar, Saving Low-Income Americans $350 Million Annually and Advancing Environmental Justice Across America
EPA announces 60 selectees under Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grant competition to deliver solar to more than 900,000 low-income and disadvantaged households nationwide through the President’s Investing in America agenda
Contact: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)
Washington – April 22, as the Biden-Harris Administration celebrates Earth Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced 60 selectees that will receive $7 billion in grant awards through the Solar for All grant competition to deliver residential solar projects to over 900,000 households nationwide. The grant competition is funded by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda through the Inflation Reduction Act, which created EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The 60 selections under the $7 billion Solar for All program will provide funds to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofits across the country to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar, lowering energy costs for families, creating good-quality jobs in communities that have been left behind, advancing environmental justice and tackling climate change.
“Today we’re delivering on President Biden’s promise that no community is left behind by investing $7 billion in solar energy projects for over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “The selectees will advance solar energy initiatives across the country, creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, saving $8 billion in energy costs for families, delivering cleaner air, and combating climate change.”
“Solar is the cheapest form of electricity—and one of the best ways to lower energy costs for American families,” said John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy. “Today’s announcement of EPA’s Solar for All awards will mean that low-income communities, and not just well-off communities, will feel the cost-saving benefits of solar thanks to this investment.”
“Residential solar electricity leads to reduced monthly utility bills, reduced levels of air pollution in neighborhoods, and ultimately healthier communities, but too often low-income and disadvantaged communities have been left out. Today’s announcement will invest billions to ensure that affordable housing across the U.S. can access solar and increase energy efficiency and climate resilience,” said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman. “HUD is honored to have played a key role in today’s monumental announcement, which will provide meaningful household savings to households in low-income and disadvantaged communities, reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs, and deliver electricity during grid outages for low-income households.”
“Sunlight is powering millions of homes across the nation, and we’re working hard to ensure Americans everywhere can benefit from this affordable clean energy resource,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “DOE is proud to work alongside our partners at EPA and across the Federal government to help communities access the limitless energy of the sun to light their homes and power their businesses.”
“The United States can and must lead the world in transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuels,” said U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (VT). “The Solar for All program – legislation that I successfully introduced – will not only combat the existential threat of climate change by making solar energy available to working class families, it will also substantially lower the electric bills of Americans and create thousands of good-paying jobs. This is a win for the environment, a win for consumers, and a win for the economy.”
EPA estimates that the 60 Solar for All recipients will enable over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed solar energy. This $7 billion investment will generate over $350 million in annual savings on electric bills for overburdened households. The program will reduce 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions cumulatively, from over four gigawatts of solar energy capacity unlocked for low-income communities over five years. Solar and distributed energy resources help improve electric grid reliability and climate resilience, which is especially important in disadvantaged communities that have long been underserved.
Solar for All will deliver on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to creating high-quality jobs with the free and fair choice to join a union for workers across the United States. This $7 billion investment in clean energy will generate an estimated 200,000 jobs across the country. All selected applicants intend to invest in local, clean energy workforce development programs to expand equitable pathways into family-sustaining jobs for the communities they are designed to serve. At least 35% of selected applicants have already engaged local or national unions, demonstrating how these programs will contribute to the foundation of a clean energy economy built on strong labor standards and inclusive economic opportunity for all American communities.
The Solar for All program also advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which set the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. All of the funds awarded through the Solar for All program will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities. The program will also help meet the President’s goal of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.
Solar for All will expand existing low-income solar programs and launch new ones. The 60 selected applicants will serve households in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and territories, as well as increase access to solar for Tribes. EPA has selected 49 state-level awards totaling approximately $5.5 billion, six awards to serve Tribes totaling over $500 million, and five multistate awards totaling approximately $1 billion. Solar for All will deploy residential solar for households nationwide by not only providing grants and low-cost financing to overcome financial barriers to deployment but also by providing services to communities to overcome other barriers such as siting, permitting, and interconnection. A complete list of the selected applicants can be found on EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Solar for All website.
The 60 selected applicants have committed to delivering on the three objectives of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: reducing climate and air pollution; delivering benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities; and mobilizing financing to spur additional deployment of affordable solar energy. Solar for All selected applicants are expanding existing low-income solar programs and launching new programs. In at least 25 states and territories nationwide, Solar for All is launching new programs where there has never been a substantial low-income solar program before. In these geographies, Solar for All selected applicants will open new markets for distributed solar by funding new programs that provide grants and low-cost financing for low-income, residential solar.
To date, many of the 60 selected Solar for All applicants have supported low-income and underserved communities in installing innovative residential solar projects. With this new funding, selectees can launch thousands more projects like these throughout every state and territory in the nation:
The threat of storms is a major reason Athens, Georgia resident Delmira Jennings and her husband John used selected applicant Capital Good Fund’s Georgia BRIGHT leasing program to install a 13-kilowatt solar and 10-kilowatt-hour battery system in February. “Last year, we spent two days without power after what seemed like a mini tornado,” Jennings said. After a recent outage, Jennings noted that she didn’t even know she lost power. “The batteries kicked in and all the power items we were using were on battery backup.”
Last year, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, whose successful pilot initiative served as the basis for selected applicant Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara (MHA) Nation’s Northern Plains Tribal Solar for All program, took major steps toward a clean energy future with the completion of the first phase of the White River Community Solar project. This project will deploy 15 solar systems at the homes of elders while piloting a groundbreaking approach to solar ownership and management that is intended to set an example for Tribes across the nation.
Through its Solar Access for Nationwide Affordable Housing (SANAH) program — a model for equitably providing solar to low-income renters in disadvantaged communities — selected applicant GRID Alternatives’ team in San Diego installed a solar energy system at Trolley Trestle, home to youth transitioning out of the foster care system. Energy cost savings estimated at over $600k over ten years, will be reinvested to provide additional services to those who call Trolley Trestle home, including more job and life skills training.
Review and Selection Process Information
The 60 applicants selected for funding were chosen through a competition review process. This multi-stage process included review from hundreds of experts in climate, power markets, environmental justice, labor, and consumer protection from EPA, Department of Energy, the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, Department of Treasury, Department of Agriculture, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Energy’s National Labs – all screened through ethics and conflict of interest checks and trained on the program requirements and evaluation criteria. Applications were scored and selected through dozens of review panels and an interagency senior review team.
EPA anticipates that awards to the selected applicants will be finalized in the summer of 2024, and selected applicants will begin funding projects through existing programs and begin expansive community outreach programs to launch new programs in the fall and winter of this year. Selections are contingent on the resolution of all administrative disputes related to the competitions.
