[amor de cosmos]

Solar subsidies are a catalyst, not a crutch, says Enphase chief
Microinverter company believes technology can compete on its own merits and says falling costs will continue to drive growth in traditional markets
By Will Nichols
07 Mar 2014

Solar can't survive without subsidies, critics say. Take away government funding and the industry is no more. But according to Paul Nahi, chief executive of Enphase Energy, which supplies microinverters to solar systems, nothing could be further from the truth and, in fact, it is traditional energy supplies that benefit the most from government support.

"It's a little bit challenging when people tell me solar is subsidised. It is, but we're not subsidised to anywhere near the degree traditional fossil fuels are," he says, citing the $544bn of subsidies the International Energy Agency calculates traditional fuels received in 2012 - more than five times the $101bn given to green energy. "Subsidies should be a catalyst not a crutch. I would very much be in favour of an environment that had no subsidies - not for solar, not for wind, and not for fossil fuels," Nahi adds. "Let us compete in the marketplace."

Nahi argues that in many parts of the world declining costs of solar modules and rising price of fossil energy ensure solar is already competing with conventional fuels and subsidies simply distort the market. The fact that subsidies vary across territories - and are constantly at risk of change - make basing a business model on support highly uncertain.

However, Nahi is in favour of charging polluters who currently dump emissions into the atmosphere for free as a means of leveling the playing field between mature and emerging energy technologies.

"If we were to do nothing but get rid of the subsidies solar would be competitive - in fact solar would be more competitive than fossil fuels today," he says. "But what would end up happening is that the cost of fossil fuels would rise. The 'net' is a more productive environment for solar - and it would allow us to compete by receiving the appropriate market signals."

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/inte...-enphase-chief

SunEdison Expects 90% Growth in 2014, To Complete Over 1150 MW Worth Of Solar PV Projects

Solar PV heavyweight SunEdison is expecting a huge surge in the number of large PV power plant projects completed this year, according to recent reports.

The company is predicting a 90% (CAGR) increase in project completions in 2014, as compared to 2013 — with an estimate that they will complete the installation of up to 1.15 GW worth of project capacity this year.

The new figures — which were presented at SunEdison’s Capital Markets Day event — are an increase over the previous predictions for 2014, which were for 800-1,050 MW worth of capacity to be completed.

SunEdison also announced its aim to hit over 1,500 MW of installations in 2015 and over 2,000 MW in 2016.

PV Tech provides more:

With increased focus on retained value of PV projects, SunEdison guided that it expected projects totalling between 50-60 MW to remain on its balance sheet in the first quarter of 2014 and between 400 and 500 MW for 2014.

Management highlighted that countries with large electricity markets and growing demand would drive PV adoption as well as countries with high solar irradiation levels in the coming two to five years. Many of which would find PV at grid parity in that timeframe.

The company also noted that it expected the transition towards ‘distributed generation’ including residential and small commercial to continue at a steady pace through 2020.

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/07/...projects-2014/

How Solar Breaks Traditional Planning on the Distribution Grid
And how utilities are acting to fix it
Ben Kellison
March 7, 2014

The deployment of distributed solar has the potential to force drastic changes to the electric utility industry. Changes in rate structures, government and utility incentives, customer loyalty, consumerization of supply, and consumption of power are being discussed in a variety of states with growing rates of solar penetration, such as Arizona and Hawaii.

These large, business-defining discussions steal the spotlight in the news and at industry conferences, often pushing the more technical questions and obstacles to utility engineers to figure out. GTM recently launched the Grid Edge Executive Council to tackle these issues and more.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...nd-engineering

Distributed Solar Power Is Forcing Change at the Grid Edge
ConEd, SolarCity, Gridco and Sunlight Capital discuss what distributed solar power means for the grid.
Eric Wesoff
March 6, 2014

Last night, Greentech Media, Solar One and NYC ACRE hosted this year's first Clean Energy Connections event in the 2014 series, The Expansion of Distributed PV in the Age of the Grid Edge, live from the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in New York City.

The theme of this year’s series is the grid edge, which GTM views as the setting for the potential transformation of the electric grid. Last night's discussion was about solar, distributed generation, and its impact on the grid.

Rick Thompson, Greentech Media founder and President, set the stage with some background on the concept of the "grid edge," a term coined by the GTM Research team. The grid edge is the zone of the grid most impacted by increased rooftop solar and distributed generation -- and the "two-way flows" of power mentioned by ConEd's Margarett Jolly. Thompson spoke of the increased dynamism on the grid edge caused by distributed generation, the inherent intermittency and unpredictability of PV, the need for resiliency in the face of emergencies, and an available energy-centric IT set, as well as the changing nature of the electric utility. (True grid modernization is happening at the edge of the grid, and we're the first to cover it in depth. Join us at Grid Edge Live to be a part of the transformation.)

The grid edge cube presented by Thompson (with a nod to the seven-layer OSI stack) is a detailed model of the system that divides into a utility-facing side, a customer-facing side, and a set of applications and new business models riding on top.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...-The-Grid-Edge

• Video Link

High-Concentration Solar Photovoltaic Systems to Reach Greater Efficiencies, Boosting Appeal Against Conventional Solutions
Category: Design & Supply Chain, Design & Supply Chain Media, EHS & Sustainability, Energy & Power, Technology
Friday, March 7, 2014 5:00 am EST

Munich, Germany (March 7, 2014)—Consistent improvements in technology and gradually lower costs will drive high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) systems to superior efficiencies, making HCPV an increasingly viable rival to conventional solar-generating solutions, according to the latest analysis from IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS).

The cell efficiency of HCPV systems, currently at 40 to 42 percent, will exceed 45 percent by 2017. Such cells, used with concentrating optics, will then lead to commercial-system efficiencies approaching 40 percent, compared to the less than 35 percent conversion rates typical at present, as shown in the attached figure.

“Efficiency is the most important requirement in CPV technology in order to generate competitive energy costs,” said Karl Melkonyan, photovoltaic analyst at IHS. “And with the solar industry continuing to be firmly engaged in a quest for ongoing improvements through the development of new technologies, the efficiency of HCPV cells will advance over the years.”

The anticipated improvements in HCPV systems are based on cell efficiencies having reached 44.7 percent in laboratory conditions, indicating that further advances are possible.

Even so, the gains in efficiency will have to be balanced against the additional manufacturing costs expected to be incurred when implementing the improvements, Melkonyan noted.

These findings can be found in the report, “CPV on the Edge of Breakthrough,” from the solar research service at IHS.

Top HCPV regions in the world

Driven by falling system prices, HCPV is gradually becoming attractive in several regions of the world. IHS forecasts that the United States and Central America will install the largest number of HCPV systems between 2012 and 2017, serving as the world’s biggest regional market. Installations for the region reached 54.1 megawatts in 2012.

Most HCPV suppliers are, in fact, based in the United States, and their forays into the domestic U.S. market will provide notice to rival conventional PV suppliers. Mexico is also forecast to become a large part of this regional market, with plans in place for a 450-megawatt installation.

Meanwhile, enormous growth will occur in South America, where the HCPV market is projected to surge by 560 percent from the time installations start in 2013 until the end of the forecast period in 2017. The primary driver of South American expansion is Chile, which has the world’s highest solar irradiation levels important for solar-power generation.

But the greatest increase in the HPCV market will take place in the Middle East and Africa region. HCPV installations for the region—excluding South Africa, which is tracked separately because of its more advanced PV market—will grow to 155 megawatts in 2017, up from just 1.8 megawatts in 2012. Morocco and Saudi Arabia will be the main drivers.

China could also emerge as an important player soon as suppliers from the country grow in number, with parts of southwest China shaping up to become prime HCPV locations.

http://press.ihs.com/press-release/d...greater-effici

Singyes Solar starts initial 300MW phase of 1.1GW PV power plant project
By Mark Osborne - 07 March 2014, 13:36
In News, Power Generation, Project Focus

China-based PV project developer and manufacturer, China Singyes Solar Technologies Holdings, said it had started developing the first phase of a 1.1GW PV power plant project at the Hongshagang Industrial Park in Minqin County, Gansu Province, China.

The company said that the 300MW ‘first phase’ was expected to be completed by the end of 2014 and have an average annual power generating output of 480 million kWh.

The 1.1GW PV power plant project is being developed with the government of Minqin County, which also includes R&D facilities that are intended to develop PV and related products for agricultural applications in the region.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/singyes_..._plant_project

Can Solar Power Help Marijuana Growers?
Chris Meehan
March 07, 2014 | 0 Comments

The sun has been around for a long time. So has marijuana, but legal pot in the U.S. hasn’t been around quite as long. In fact, earlier this year Colorado became the first state to sell legal marijuana in the U.S. With the country’s — if not the world’s — eyes on Colorado’s new policy, growers are looking for opportunities to better use their profits while still dealing with federal roadblocks. One potential is investing in solar to offset soaring utility costs for growers in Colorado that use warehouses. The issue was at the heart of one of the sessions at Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association’s Solar Power Colorado conference last week.

While marijuana could grow outdoors without much additional care even in Colorado’s climate, it’s illegal under the state’s marijuana laws. As such growers must work in enclosed spaces like warehouses and, in some cases, greenhouses. Growing in warehouses particularly becomes expensive.

Sean Coleman, president of 36 Solutions, a lobbying organization focused on marijuana and other issues, said his clients in the marijuana industry have electric utility bills that start at $30,000 a month and go up to $100,000. This is largely spent to mimic the light of the sun to grow the plants. “It’s not just about having lights, it’s about having lights with the right spectrum,” he said. “There’s only a certain amount of compromise when you’re doing agriculture which wants to be outdoors, indoors.”

Colman’s largest client pays more than $1 million annually in utilities. “If they have the opportunity to invest $500,000 in solar instead, they would do it now,” he added.

But the equation isn’t so simple. Session moderator Ricardo Baca, The Denver Post’s marijuana editor said that under warehouse conditions, producing a pound of marijuana requires roughly 2,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. Meanwhile producing a pound of aluminum takes 7 kilowatt hours of electricity. Already, Baca said it’s estimated that 1 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. powers marijuana growth operations, and in California that number reaches up to 3 percent.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...ijuana-growers

Veterans Medical Center Goes Solar in Florida
Published on 7 March 2014

South Coast Solar LLC, Gulf Building & Hernandez Consulting Joint Venture, along with solar mounting manufacturer Renusol America announced the installation of a grid-connected 217.62 kW photovoltaic (PV) system at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida (US).

The system is comprised of 806 Suniva OPT270-60-4-1B0 monocrystalline modules installed on the rooftops of Building 10 and Building 13 at the Medical Center. The panels were attached to the metal roofs with S5 Clamps and the Renusol VS mounting system for pitched roofs. The system also included two Solectria PVI 100kW inverters to convert the generated energy from DC to AC power.

The system will generate an estimated 281,925kWh in the first year, which will offset 84% of the combined buildings electricity usage. Over the 25-year warranty lifetime of the solar modules, the system will produce an estimated 6,641,011kWh while offsetting 5,285 tons of CO2 generated into the atmosphere. South Coast Solar provided full design, procurement, installation, utility coordination and commissioning services for the system. Gulf/Hernandez served as the prime contractor for the project. All of the materials used on the project are Buy American Act compliant (BAA) compliant.

http://www.solarnovus.com/veterans-m...ida_N7537.html

Greenwood Biosar completes Panama's first utility-scale solar PV plant at 2.4 MW

Joint venture Greenwood Biosar has built a 2.4 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Panama for Enel Green Power's (Rome) Panama subsidiary. This is the first utility-scale PV plant in the nation.

The plant is located 14 kilometers from the town of Chitré in Herrera Province, and is connected to the EGESA grid network. A commissioning ceremony for the Chitré plant was attended by Panamania President Ricardo Martinellli.

“Latin America is one of the world's most dynamic solar power markets, and we are excited to demonstrate our skill building utility-scale distributed clean energy generation projects on budget in this key geographical region,” said Camilo Patrignani, CEO of JV partner Greenwood Energy.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-mag...-at-24-mw.html

France's solar PV market falls 45% to 613 MW in 2013

France's Ministry of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development has released preliminary figures for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants commissioned in the fourth quarter and full year 2013, finding that the nation's PV market fell 45% to only 613 MW over the year.

This is substantially lower than a previous estimate of 743 MW for 2013 published by French grid operator RTE (Paris), and may reflect different criteria. Despite this overall downward trend, in the fourth quarter of 2013 161 MW of PV plants were connected to the grid, a capacity 69% higher than the fourth quarter of 2012.

Another trend was larger plants. Nearly half the capacity was made up from plants larger than 250 kW, at 294 MW of new capacity. Nearly ¾ of new capacity was from PV plants larger than 36 kW.

Again in 2013 the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region led with 133 MW installed. However, Languedoc-Roussillion was not far behind with 105 MW. Both are located in the South of France on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

France lagging behind other Western European nations

According to the Ministry's numbers, at the end of 2013 France had installed 4.67 GW of PV. The agency also states that the nation's PV plants produced 4.3 TWh over the full year 2013, an increase of 16% over 2012 levels.

This means that France met around 0.9% of its electric demand with PV. This is a lower portion of demand met with PV than in Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy or Spain, and about equal to the UK. It is also more than double the portion of demand met with solar in the United States.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-mag...w-in-2013.html

Germany installs only 193 MW of solar PV in January 2014

Germany installed 193 MW of solar photovoltaics (PV) in January 2014, according to figures released by the nation's Federal Network Agency. This is a 16% increase over December 2013 but below any other month in the last four years.

January 2014 installations bring the nation to 35.9 GW of installed PV. Due to the low rate of installations, feed-in tariff degressions have been at the minimum level of 1.0% since the beginning of 2014.

Feed-in tariff levels currently range from EUR 0.0938 (USD 0.13) per kWh for PV plants 1–10 MW in size to 0.1355 (USD 0.19) per kWh for PV plants smaller than 10 kW.

During the month only four PV plants larger than 4 MW were installed. The four were two PV plants totaling 16.2 MW in Bavaria, a 10 MW PV plant in Rhineland-Palatinate, and a 9.9 MW PV plant in Mecklenburg-Pomerania.

Another 23 plants 1–4 MW were installed, across a range of states.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-mag...uary-2014.html

NY State announces 33.6 MW of solar PV projects, support for cost reduction, energy storage

The U.S. state of New York has selected 29 large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totaling 33.6 MW for support under the NY-Sun Initiative, as well as eight initiatives for reduction of PV system “soft” costs.

Awards for these projects total USD 28.6 million. Additionally, the state will award USD 1.4 million to six companies to develop working prototypes of new technologies for energy storage through the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST) program.

“With these awards, we aren’t just investing in clean, renewable energy: we are investing in New York’s future,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

“New York State is continuing to expand its clean-energy economy by partnering with the private sector to support innovative solar projects. The NY-Sun initiative has played an essential role in our efforts to grow the solar industry in New York and create cleaner communities across the State.”

Average incentives fall to USD 0.77 per watt

Under NY-Sun, a total of 299 MW of PV plants have been installed or placed under development in the last two years. New York Governor Cuomo's office notes that the average incentive for these projects has dropped from USD 1.30 per watt in 2011 to USD 0.77 per watt under the latest round of awards.

The 29 PV projects were chosen under NY-Sun's competitive PV solicitation, which provides incentives for PV systems larger than 200 kW. These projects will also receive USD 58.6 million in private investment, resulting in roughly USD 84.4 million in total investment.

New York City to host 10 large PV projects

New York City alone will host ten new PV projects, including four in Staten Island, three in the Bronx, two in Brooklyn and one in Queens. The city will also benefit from programs for solar installations on low-income housing a community PV purchasing program, as well as a program to analyze technical risk factors for grid interconnection in New York City.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-mag...y-storage.html

Solar Energy Soars, Now Generates Enough Power for More than Two Million Homes
John Rogers, senior energy analyst, Clean Energy
March 6, 2014

The latest solar numbers have just come in, and the celebration continues. The latest industry report shows another 4,751 megawatts (MW) went in during 2013, with great progress for both photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP). Solar in the U.S. now generates enough to power over 2 million average households.

The figures are from the just-released SEIA/GTM Solar Market Insight 2013 report, a treasure trove of data and, well, insights (including a factsheet and an infographic). The tip of the 2013 solar info iceberg:

http://blog.ucsusa.org/solar-energy-...lion-homes-439

AES, SolarCity advance energy storage options
By Ethan Howland
March 7, 2014

Dive Brief:

• AES Energy Storage Thursday released a new modular energy storage package that the company believes can replace natural gas-fired peaking plants. The company is targeting a capital cost for the battery systems of $1,000/kW compared with $1,350/kW.
• AES' new storage package, which for the first time can be bought by third parties, can range from 10s to 100s of megawatts and can provide power from 30 minutes to more than four hours.
• Meanwhile, SolarCity's plans for widespread solar with energy storage will be able to provide a range of services to utilities, according to the company. The batteries could be used to provide peaking resources to the grid.

Dive Insight:

As more energy storage gets deployed, its costs will fall, it will gain commercial and regulatory acceptance, and it will begin encroaching on alternative technologies like conventional power plants. Sounds like disruption 101.

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/aes-...ptions/236301/

Record-year for photovoltaic markets in 2013, Asia taking over the leading role

With at least 37GW of newly-addedcapacity globally, 2013 was another record-year for photovoltaic (PV) installations. The internationalisation trend of PV markets already observed in 2012 accentuated in 2013, with Asia taking the lead over Europe as the n°1 region for new PV installations.

Brussels, 06 March 2014 – According to preliminary figures gathered by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and presented today during its 9th Market Workshop in Brussels, the world added at least 37 GW of new PV capacity in 2013. The global PV cumulative installed capacity reached an impressive 136.7GW at the end of last year, which represents a 35% increase compared to the year before.

http://www.epia.org/fileadmin/user_u...PR_2014_01.pdf
http://www.epia.org/news/news/#news-271

Space-Based Solar Power
March 6, 2014 - 12:10pm

You can’t collect solar power at night. Well, at least not on Earth. Since it’s Space Week, we thought it'd be appropriate to look at one promising, but futuristic, idea that could change the face of solar power generation: Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP). While the Energy Department is not actively researching SBSP, we hope you’ll take a moment to learn about this far out concept.

The idea of capturing solar power in space for use as energy on Earth has been around since the beginning of the space age. In the last few years, however, scientists around the globe -- and several researchers at the Energy Department’s own Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) -- have shown how recent technological developments could make this concept a reality.

On earth, solar power is greatly reduced by night, cloud cover, atmosphere and seasonality. Some 30 percent of all incoming solar radiation never makes it to ground level. In space the sun is always shining, the tilt of the Earth doesn't prevent the collection of power and there’s no atmosphere to reduce the intensity of the sun’s rays. This makes putting solar panels into space a tempting possibility. Additionally, SBSP can be used to get reliable and clean energy to people in remote communities around the world, without relying on the traditional grid to a large local power plant.

*snip*

Microwave Transmitting Satellites

Microwave transmitting satellites orbit Earth in geostationary orbit (GEO), about 35,000 km above Earth’s surface. Designs for microwave transmitting satellites are massive, with solar reflectors spanning up to 3 km and weighing over 80,000 metric tons. They would be capable of generating multiple gigawatts of power, enough to power a major U.S. city.

The long wavelength of the microwave requires a long antenna, and allows power to be beamed through the Earth’s atmosphere, rain or shine, at safe, low intensity levels hardly stronger than the midday sun. Birds and planes wouldn’t notice much of anything flying across their paths.

The estimated cost of launching, assembling and operating a microwave-equipped GEO satellite is in the tens of billions of dollars. It would likely require as many as 40 launches for all necessary materials to reach space. On Earth, the rectenna used for collecting the microwave beam would be anywhere between 3 and 10 km in diameter, a huge area of land, and a challenge to purchase and develop.

Laser Transmitting Satellites

Laser transmitting satellites, as described by our friends at LLNL, orbit in low Earth orbit (LEO) at about 400 km above the Earth’s surface. Weighing in in at less than 10 metric tons, this satellite is a fraction of the weight of its microwave counterpart. This design is cheaper too; some predict that a laser-equipped SBSP satellite would cost nearly $500 million to launch and operate. It would be possible to launch the entire self-assembling satellite in a single rocket, drastically reducing the cost and time to production. Also, by using a laser transmitter, the beam will only be about 2 meters in diameter, instead of several km, a drastic and important reduction.

To make this possible, the satellite’s solar power beaming system employs a diode-pumped alkali laser. First demonstrated at LLNL in 2002 -- and currently still under development there -- this laser would be about the size of a kitchen table, and powerful enough to beam power to Earth at an extremely high efficiency, over 50 percent.

While this satellite is far lighter, cheaper and easier to deploy than its microwave counterpart, serious challenges remain. The idea of high-powered lasers in space could draw on fears of the militarization of space. This challenge could be remedied by limiting the direction that which the laser system could transmit its power.

At its smaller size, there is a correspondingly lower capacity of about 1 to 10 megawatts per satellite. Therefore, this satellite would be best as part of a fleet of similar satellites, used together.

http://www.energy.gov/articles/space-based-solar-power

Heard on the Street
Lights Flicker for Utilities
By Liam Denning
Dec. 22, 2013 6:18 p.m. ET

What if the stock market's safest sector was doomed?

Utilities seem indispensable. Yet suddenly there is talk on Wall Street of a looming "death spiral" for the business, with solar power being the culprit.

Hyperbole? Yes, but only up to a point. Back in May, the Dow Jones Utility Average came within a whisker of its precrisis all-time high set early in 2008. High dividends sell well with investors when interest rates are so low, especially when such payments are backed by something as solid as the electricity grid.

But danger can come out of a clear blue sky or even a cloudy one. Take a look at Germany. Generous subsidies there caused solar panels to sprout all over what is hardly a tropical paradise. As traditional utilities E.ON and RWE have struggled to adapt, their combined market value has slumped 56% over the past four years in a rising German stock market.

The death-spiral thesis runs thusly. Subsidies and falling technology costs are making distributed solar power—panels on roofs, essentially—cost-competitive with retail electricity prices in places like the southwestern U.S. As more people switch to solar, utilities sell less electricity to those customers, especially as they often have the right to sell surplus power from their panels back to the utility.

The result: Utilities must spread their high fixed costs for things like repairing the grid over fewer kilowatt-hours, making solar power even more competitive and pushing more people to adopt it in a vicious circle.

But distributed solar power is still in its infancy. In sunny California, costs shifted onto customers without panels from those with them amounted to just 0.73% of that state's utilities' revenue last year, according to Moody's. So why worry?

The utilities sector divides into two broad camps. Regulated utilities operate integrated networks of power plants, transmission and distribution grids. They agree to spending plans and an allowed rate of return with state regulators, determining customers' monthly bills. Meanwhile, merchant generators operate power plants selling electricity to the highest bidder.

Despite the perceived threat to regulated utilities, it is actually the merchant generators who look more exposed to distributed solar power for now.

As a rival power source, solar takes market share from traditional generators. And once panels are installed, the sun's energy is free, so it will displace more expensive sources such as gas-fired plants. This serves to reduce prices overall, so solar power cuts both volume and price for traditional generators. Not the sort of outlook that garners a high earnings multiple.

David Crane, chief executive of merchant generator NRG Energy, calls the spread of distributed energy the biggest change to hit the industry since the grid was built many decades ago. To adapt, NRG is investing in solar and other distributed sources, essentially taking cash generated today by its traditional business and redeploying it into growth opportunities.

For regulated utilities, the idea that solar panels will enable everyone to leave the grid, making such networks redundant, is overstated. Solar power is intermittent. Batteries can help, but ISI Group estimates their price needs to drop by a factor of 10 to be competitive with grid power.

Moreover, distributed energy's small penetration means the existing grid is needed for a while to come. So regulators have to balance encouraging renewable power with the continuing need to prevent blackouts. Last month, regulators curbed Arizona Public Service's planned charge to solar-panel owners to mitigate the costs of grid maintenance being pushed onto nonowners—but didn't reject the idea of that fee altogether.



Distributed power will keep eating away at the traditional utilities' share of an electricity market that is barely expanding anyway. U.S. electricity consumption this year is forecast by the Energy Department to be 2% below the peak in 2007. Efficiency efforts keep eroding electricity requirements.

"Essentially, we do not see the recent slowdown in electric load growth as cyclical anymore; it is a new and permanent feature of modern life," says Julien Dumoulin-Smith of UBS.

That structural element is why, even if the sound of bells tolling is faint, the impact on utility stocks will be felt much sooner. Greg Gordon and Jon Cohen of ISI Group point out that absent expected growth in demand, regulators may be reluctant to approve regulated utilities' investment plans. Why saddle bill payers with the cost of an asset built to last 40 years if it might only be needed for 15 or 20? And in this business, less investment means less allowed return—and, therefore, earnings.



The gyres may look exceedingly wide, but that spiral is taking shape.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...70362739732266