Solar Co-ops Support Clean Energy Advances in D.C. — Episode 64 of Local Energy Rules Podcast

Last time we talked, it was a different issue. It was about monopolies and about the proposed merger between Exelon and Pepco in Washington D.C. We’re back because there’s some new and interesting policy things happening in Washington D.C., some great news in terms of growth for Solar United Neighbors. Anya, welcome back to the program.

The first one I was interested to ask you about, it’s called the Clean Energy D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018. It’s a mouthful. But there are a lot of different pieces in there. But one of them is 100% renewable energy standard by 2032, which is very aggressive. There are some other really interesting things, including some targeted energy assistance for low income customers. So, I’m just interested in getting your perspective. Is this bill a good thing? Are you excited about it? Are members working it? Tell me more about what’s going on here.

So, it’s really the first time where the debate within the community is about the implementation details rather than the goal. There’s big repercussions for that. So, that’s been really hard. Then there’s this really weird thing that happens. Tell me if I’m talking too long. But when you go to 100%, all of a sudden, these questions come up like, well, if we’re 100%, do we still need to do energy efficiency? Because it’s all renewable in theory, right?

So, the question is does this new bill endanger the existing program? Because if you don’t continue to have a strong solar carve out, which is what financed the program, do you lose funding for the program? I think it’ll all come together in the end. But you caught us right in the middle of the scrum of the details of exactly how this is going to work out.

So, to what degree are those economic benefits going to be shared? Because is the utility does it, they’re going to pay a few big project developers to build wind farms and solar farms. We’ll get clean energy, and maybe we have to pay a little extra for the transmission lines to get it to where we are going to use it. But what we’re talking about here really is the tension then between can we get to this larger goal, but also can we do it in a way that respects the opportunities, the jobs creation, etc., that comes from distributed energy?

So, we’re revisiting that debate. But I think in the end, D.C.’s going to do what’s best for the people who live in D.C. We have the luxury of being a city-state. So, it gives us a little bit more democratic control over what happens. There’s not a bifurcated sort of rural-urban kind of issue or anything. It’s just the city.

This thing is saying, if I read it right, instead of the utility company deciding how we might deploy infrastructure to support the grid, we’re going to have this independent authority demonopolizing that decision making and letting people bid in with other solutions that might include rooftop solar and storage. So, first of all, do I have that right? Tell me a little bit more about why that’s exciting.

We do have a case in D.C. right now. It’s a big infrastructure case, it’s the Mount Vernon Square, where the utility’s proposing to build a big substation and it’s actually going to go on top of a neighborhood community garden. The D.C. Department of the Environment has paid for an analysis showing that a non-wires alternative would be cheaper for rate payers and a more effective and more resilient solution. So, we are actually in a docket fighting that particular case right now. Then along comes this DERA bill and the DERA bill requires a non-wires alternative analysis for every infrastructure upgrade.

Obviously, they wouldn’t have individual records. They couldn’t find John Farrell’s bill and see how much he’s spending on electricity. But they can get system analytics, they can get block analytics, and that means that it’s really forcing open the market for microgrids, non-wires alternatives, alternative infrastructure, peer to peer, all kinds of potential things that fundamentally, the utility holding on to the data with iron fists is what’s preventing … One of the main things, not the only thing, but it’s one of the main things that’s preventing those kind of markets from flourishing.

So, the data, it’s like our data and this bill is really saying it’s our data and give it to us. So, that’s really, again, it seems like that shouldn’t be that radical. But in the world of utility and management, it’s a crazy, freaky idea, I think.

The utility will say, “Oh, we just need to build a big substation, this big piece of infrastructure.” As you point out, they’ve got an incentive to do so. They make a huge profit on it if they’re able to build that piece of infrastructure. I think that’s what’s so great about this bill is what it says is we’re actually going to look for the solution that’s best for the grid, best for the customer.

If that ends up being something that the utility builds for us, that’s fine. Then they can still get their profit on it. But if not, then we have a chance to save everybody money and to be more efficient and to encourage local solutions that create local jobs. So, it seems like a win-win-win. But I can understand why, having fought monopoly utilities in a lot of ways, it can be an uphill fight.

So, it seems to me like this is a good compromise, in a way. It’s like instead of going down that road of blowing open the whole market in a very big change, here’s a way that we can incrementally look toward introducing some level of competition in a way that allows the utility to continue to play, but allows innovative solutions as well.

So, we’re doing all these, spending millions of dollars on climate planning and all these other things and nobody has the basic data to measure the impacts of the program. So, there’s a lot of good public policy reasons to do this.

Every year, ISLR’s small staff helps hundreds of communities challenge monopoly power directly and rebuild their local economies. So, please take a minute to go to ilsr.org and click on the donate button. That’s ilsr.org. If making a donation isn’t something you can do, please consider helping us in other ways. You can help other folks find this podcast by telling them about it or by giving it a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. The more ratings from listeners like you, the more folks can find this podcast and ILSR’s other podcasts, Community Broadband Bits and Building Local Power. Thanks again for listening. Now, back to the program.

I know that policy work is only one leg of the stool for Solar United Neighbors. I’d love you to talk a little bit more about how is it that you bring people into the fold and get to talk to them about policy? That’s usually not the first thing that you’re talking to them about. I’ll just say again as a thing of disclosure, I’m not only a volunteer board member, but I’m a participant in a solar co-op in Minneapolis right now-

We’re still fundraising to try to fill out the funding for the programs, but we’re pulling the trigger. So, we’re super excited about it. We’re doing co-ops in all those states. I think, was just talking to Aaron Sutch, who’s our Virginia program director, and he said that they’ve done almost 30 co-ops in Virginia since he started.

Then we work with the installer to make sure people are getting really good service. Sometimes, that means going to the permitting authority and getting something fixed or going to the utility to get the interconnection. So, all the way through, all the things that make solar sometimes complicated, we address as a group with group power to address that. It really makes a difference in terms of building markets. So, that’s the basic process.

We’ve also started a new offer, in which it’s just single memberships. So, if you live in a state or a location where there’s not a co-op, we can support you. You have to pay because then we can’t afford to do it all for free. But it’s an $85 membership. You sign up and then we basically handhold you through the process. So, it’s like a mini version of the same thing.

Here, Solar United Neighbors can not only help them find customers, but help their customers understand some of the basic issues around solar before the installer even has to have a conversation with them.

So, they have a very high close right. They close usually 35% of the leads that they get from us. So, that saves them, usually it costs an installer about $3,000 per person to find a customer. So, that’s saving them a lot of money and a lot of those savings get passed on to the homeowner, depending on the market and stuff.

So, when we present about solar, we don’t just tell them what it costs. What we say, this is what net metering is. This is the policy that enables you to get compensation for your excess generation and how it works. This is how it works in your state and this is how it works in other states. We talk about interconnection, we talk about RPS, we talk about all the value and all the policy that impacts them. So, by the time they’re done going solar, they’ve been introduced to a lot of new concepts.

Then we stay in touch with them. So, we have a monthly newsletter for each state where we’re working that tries to keep up to date on cool projects, things that are happening, Solar 101, but also big policy developments. Then we do the advocacy, like a lot of other groups. But we really do it from the perspective of the solar owners. So, what do you care about? What impacts you? What’s going to motivate you? Then we also work with a lot of volunteers and have the volunteers directly educate their elected officials.

So, they’re often meeting with, sending emails, sending pictures to their congressman or their city council member, their local legislator and saying, “I have solar. It saved me money. This is why it’s important to me.” So, we really build a feedback loop that really empowers a lot of people to have a really high level of impact on building this rooftop solar revolution.

They’re energy people, often they’re engineers, maybe they care about the impact of their job on the environment, they want to do something. Whole range of values. Maybe it’s just saving money in private property. But because we really create room for a whole range of values to come together, we get a lot of just interesting alliances and networks of people. I think it helps underscore the pragmatic aspect of solar, that it’s like there’s no reason not to do it, I guess.

I’m just curious, what advice would you have for them about reaching that goal? Because you’re on the ground implementing. You’re talking to people every day who want to go solar, who want to do something that would help reach that goal. What practical advice do you have for people who are approaching this? They’re at the visionary stage. They maybe haven’t really wrestled yet with what are the particulars of how to get there. What do you see as the route for them to be successful?

So, I think that’s the most important thing is really being, not getting too idealistic and really staying more grounded in the pragmatic, who does this impact and how and trying to figure out, there’s so many solutions now on the table as the cost of renewables and storage and all that have gone. There’s so many win-win solutions on the table. So, being real and pragmatically embracing, what’s the impact going to be, and therefore, what’s a pragmatic solution and not be in the ideological realm where people tend to get polarized.

You can hear about other communities taking the 100% renewable energy plunge in our Voices of 100% special podcast series and see them on our newly upgraded company power map. While you’re at our website, you can also find more than 50 past episodes of the Local Energy Rules podcast. Until next time, keep your energy local and thanks for listening.