The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
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Customer interest in onsite solar photovoltaic and energy storage systems (PVESS) is being driven in part by customer demand for backup power. While that demand may be fueled by increasing frequency and severity of long, multi-day power interruptions, most power interruptions are relatively short duration, typically lasting minutes to hours. They are also unpredictable, and the ability of a PVESS to provide backup power during any particular interruption event partly depends on how fully charged the battery happens to be at the beginning of the event.
This technical brief estimates the expected performance of a PVESS for providing backup power …
View Full ResourceThis report summarizes publicly available data on key trends in U.S. utility-scale solar sector with a focus on ground-mounted projects 5 MW.…
View Full ResourceIn 2021, the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) produced a two-volume report on Solar for Manufactured Homes, An Assessment of the Opportunities and Challenges in 14 States, as part of its Scaling Up Solar for Under-Resourced Communities project. In this report, the third volume in the Solar for Manufactured Homes series, CESA offers an update relating to recent developments, including how the Inflation Reduction Act can support solar for manufactured homes, how community solar can be used to benefit households residing in manufactured homes, and two case studies illustrating pilots testing new strategies.…
View Full ResourceIndividual demand for emerging technologies can be influenced by the demand of other individuals within defined peer groups. These so-called peer effects have been demonstrated in emerging clean energy technologies such as rooftop solar. To date, peer effects have disproportionately driven solar adoption among relatively affluent households. The report uses household-level income estimates of rooftop solar adopters to explore how peer effects drive adoption for low-income households. They find evidence of peer effects for both high- and low-income households and find that peer effects are generally stronger within than across income groups. The results indicate that peer effects translate to …
View Full ResourceThe U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) aims to accelerate the advancement and deployment of solar technology in support of an equitable transition to a decarbonized economy no later than 2050, starting with a decarbonized power sector by 2035. Its approach to achieving this goal includes driving innovations in technology, hardware, and soft cost reductions to make solar even more affordable and accessible for all. As part of this effort, SETO tracks solar cost trends to focus its research and development (R&D) investments on the highest-impact activities.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) publishes benchmark reports …
View Full ResourceCommunity solar (CS) projects often face uncertain interconnection costs and fees associated with distribution grid infrastructure upgrades required to connect the project.
These costs can determine the economic viability of a CS project, but they are difficult to assess. Cost uncertainty can discourage new projects and prevent communities from accessing the benefits of community solar projects. At the same time, CS deployment strategies hold potential to defer or avoid some distribution costs due to new loads.
This is the first analysis that has systematically studied the technical impacts of CS projects on a wide range of distribution feeders using state-of-the-art …
View Full ResourceThe Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) prepared this case study to describe how New York’s state energy office, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), collaborated with community-based organizations (CBOs) while administering the state’s PON 3414 Affordable Solar and Storage Predevelopment and Technical Assistance Program. This program has benefitted many low-and-moderate income (LMI) residents in New York by providing equitable access to solar energy and/or energy storage. The program is flexible to the needs of CBOs representing LMI communities, ensures the benefits of the solar and/or storage projects flow to LMI residents, and provides funding for the …
View Full ResourceThe National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and collaborators have created a clear-sky probability analysis to help guide viewers to the 2023 annular solar eclipse and the 2024 total solar eclipse. Using cloud and solar data from the NREL National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB), the analysis provides cloudless-sky probabilities specific to the date, time, and location of each eclipse with a 4-km resolution. Though not intended to be an eclipse weather forecast, the detailed maps can help guide eclipse enthusiasts to likely optimal viewing locations. Additionally, high-resolution data are presented for the centerline of the path of each eclipse, representing the …
View Full ResourceIn 2022, after several years of stagnation caused by the COVID pandemic, a record 9.5 million off-grid solar products were sold in 2022. Collectively, they had a capacity of 94 MW.
This resource provides a summary of recent developments in the solar industry.…
View Full ResourceA thorough predevelopment process for a potential solar or solar+storage project is essential to deciding whether the project can and should move forward. Predevelopment includes site identification, financial modeling, estimating equipment and installer expenses, customer outreach and enrollment, and other details about the scope of the project. This process can be expensive, and many for-profit solar developers only invest money into predevelopment when they already believe a project is likely to be able to move forward. Financing for predevelopment costs is usually not available to community-based organizations working to develop solar or solar+storage to benefit low-and-moderate income (LMI) residents because …
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