Resource Library
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Solar Energy Prospecting in Remote Alaska
“This analysis provides a high-level examination of the potential economics of solar energy in rural Alaska across a geographically diverse sample of remote villages throughout the state. It analyzes at a high level what combination of diesel fuel prices, solar resource quality, and PV system costs could lead to an economically competitive moderate-scale PV installation at a remote village. The goal of this analysis is to provide a baseline economic assessment to highlight the possible economic opportunities for solar PV in rural Alaska for both the public and private sectors.”
Categories: Report -
Military Base Off-Taker Opportunities for Tribal Renewable Energy Projects
“This white paper surveys DOD installations that could have an interest in the purchase of energy from renewable energy projects on tribal lands. […] This white paper builds on a geospatial analysis completed in November 2012 identifying 53 reservations within 10 miles of military bases (DOE 2012). This analysis builds on those findings by further refining the list of potential opportunity sites to 15 reservations.”
Categories: Report -
The Role of Advancements in Solar Photovoltaic Efficiency, Reliability, and Costs
The authors of this report envision solar-energy cost reductions through lower PV module and balance-of-system (BOS) costs as well as improved system efficiency and reliability. After reviewing the recent history of PV price reductions, we demonstrate that numerous combinations of PV improvements could help complete the path to SunShot’s solar LCOE goals. This range of possibilities is created by the tradeoffs among key metrics like module price, efficiency, and degradation rate as well as system price and lifetime. For example, high module efficiency is important but probably not sufficient on its own to meet the aggressive LCOE goals. System reliability (lower degradation rates, longer system lifetimes) might be equally important.
Categories: Report -
Advancing Concentrating Solar Power Technology, Performance, and Dispatchability
Concentrating solar power (CSP) is well on the path to reaching the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative goal of 6 cents/kWh by 2020. In this report, we revisit the original plan for reaching this objective and identify factors related to the market and the technology that have changed.
Categories: Report -
Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Financing Solar
This report discusses the necessary transition to these new sources and what solar finance might look like over the long term as the market matures toward a steady-state environment. Section 2 briefly describes federal, state, and local incentives currently supporting solar deployment, as some of these incentives can have a significant impact on solar project financing. Section 3 summarizes historical financing methods, including their challenges and shortcomings. Section 4 summarizes recent innovative solutions to the challenges described in Section 3. Section 5 discusses where solar finance may be headed over the long term and what this could mean for achieving widespread adoption of solar energy. We offer conclusions in Section 6.
Categories: Report -
Renewable Energy Development in Indian Country: A Handbook for Tribes
“[…] this Handbook is intended to provide tribal leaders, tribal economic and energy enterprises and those supporting them with:
- a general overview of the renewable energy project development process;
- […] how to structure a renewable energy project transaction to protect tribal interests […];
- a general overview of key energy development agreements, including power sale agreements, transmission and interconnection agreements, and land leases; and
- […] ways tribes can finance renewable energy projects”
Categories: Guidebook -
Techno-Economic Renewable Energy Potential on Tribal Lands
“This study estimates the technical and economic potential for renewable energy development on tribal lands. […] This study was developed to support American Indian tribes and Alaska Natives in decision making as they evaluate technologies, potential scales of development, and economic viability. The resources analyzed here include wind, solar photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP), woody biomass, biogas, geothermal, and hydropower.”