Community Solar Industry in MA at Risk Due to Regulatory Changes

More and more people are interested in ‘going solar,’ but most people cannot put solar panels on their roof.
Originally published on RenewableEnergyWorld.com
Imagine this: you want to go solar, get an on-site assessment, and find out that your roof is not adequate due to tree shading, direction of the roof, or age of the roof. Over […]

Economic Modeling Basics for A Solar Project

Happening on the  Solar Executive MBA Discussion Board…
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Construction Debt/Loans, SRECs & Purchasing vs. Leasing a Site
Student 1:

1. What is the difference between project debt and the construction loan?
2. What is SREC and Single SREC?
3. If the site is purchased and not leased, would one discount the purchase price with the same hurdle rate as the Customer NPV […]

Are Solar Renewable Energy Credits Taxable?

There has been much recent discussion on solar and energy blogs and in other discussion forums relating to the tax treatment of Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (“SREC”) income.

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of the taxability of SREC income for both commercial and individual taxpayers.

What is an SREC?

An SREC is […]

August 2nd, 2012|Categories: Financing, Solar, Solar Design & Installation|Tags: , , , |

Detailed 2012 SREC Market Update: NJ, MA, PA, CT, IL, DC, MD

7 Months ago we did an SREC 101 Episode for HeatSpring TV. The goal of the first interview was simple: to provide basic information on what SRECs are, the state of the current market, and what installers should know about SRECs to sell projects to their clients.

We’ve decided to provide a regular update with SRECTrade on the status and the development of the SREC markets. We’ll discuss policy updates, events that are impacting the supply and demand of existing markets, and expectations for upcoming markets. For example, last week Maryland changed their RPS requirements.

SRECs are extremely important in specific markets because they impact a contractor’s or developer’s ability to sell projects. However, they are changing rapidly and sometimes it’s difficult to get clear answers.

For this update, I spoke with Steven Eisenberg who is the VP of Business Development with SRECTrade. He manages the relationships between all the buyers of SRECs and the sellers of projects that are larger then 250kW. Because he is at the intersection of clients that are buying and those that are selling SRECs, he has great insights into the dynamics of the SREC market.

(Please note: The interview was filmed on Friday, March 30th and some SREC policies have changed since filming)

Here is the full agenda of what we talked about: 

Question: What is happening in each market regarding legislation that will impact SREC prices, supply and demand, in the next couple months?

NJ: Coming from 2011 and prior periods there was an under-supply leading to high prices and this lead to a huge build up and now the market is oversupplied. The market has hit a point that through February 2012, 689MW of capacity can is eligible for SRECS .40MW was installed in February 2012.
There is huge oversupply. NJ state only needs 370MW operational throughout the 2012 compliance year to supply the needed SRECs required by the RPS. The requirement for 2013 and 2014 is LESS THAN what has been installed through February 2012.
There have been a variety of different policy groups looking to increase the RPS requirements to take up some of that supply, but it is uncertain this will happen in the near term.
In our March NJ spot auction, SRECs were traded at $145 per MWh and traded at $135 per MWh in the April auciton. Other transactions have since traded below the $135 level.
Without any legislative change, NJ will be oversupplied for the next few compliance periods.

Question: In some ways, is this news good for the NJ industry? It will drive out unprofitable solar EPC companies?

Answer: Surely the most competitive financiers, developers, EPC contractors, and customers with high energy costs will be in the best position.
The decline in equipment cost is also really helping.
Projects now need to be really competitive to pencil out.

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What is an SREC? [HS TV Ep. 2]

In the past, we’ve written on the basics of SRECs but I wanted to get a more in-depth perspective on what an SREC is, how the markets are developed and are different from each other and how the SREC market will develop in the future.

Two weeks ago, I did a gerat interview with Sam Rust from SRECTRade. Now that the east cost solar market is mainly driven by SRECs we’ve been getting a lot of questions from solar installers about SRECs, what they need to know about them, and how to communicate their value to clients.

The full interview is at the bottom of the post. I originally posted this on Renewable Energy World as a felt the topic and discussion points would lead to a great conversation but wanted to share it with the HeatSpring crowd as well.

On a side note, HeatSpring TV is on a role and we’re getting into our grove. I fully expect to have a new episode at least every other week and we may start doing weekly episodes very soon as well. I plan to put out an editorial calendar in the next 2 weeks for HeatSpring TV and start to line up guests for those spots. If you have a suggestion for a theme, please leave it in the comments section. Read below to see the full interview, join HeatSpring’s linkedin group to connect with other clean energy pros or ask a business questions you may have.

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September 1st, 2011|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |