Solar power in Connecticut

Solar power in Connecticut establishes Connecticut as the second state in the US to reach grid parity, after Hawaii, due to the high average cost of electricity.Exhibit 3 Installing solar panels for a home provides an estimated 15.6% return on investment.

CT Solar Lease was a program to install solar panels at no up-front cost, and a fixed lease price for 15 years, with an option to extend the lease for five years at a reduced cost. CT Solar Lease owns and sells the RECs generated by the system, but turns over all but $15/REC plus 100% of the sale over $30, or 50% of the sale of the REC up to $30/REC, to the homeowner in a Solar Dividends account for maintenance and to allow the purchase of the system at the end of the lease. RECs sold for from $18 to $24 each. Applications ended on August 19, 2011.

Regulations Connecticut's renewable portfolio standard requires 7% of power in the state will be from renewable resources by 2010, and 23% by 2020. A bill passed in 2011 requires incentives that will produce at least 30 MW of new residential PV installed by the end of 2022. Net metering is available for all up to two MW sites, and is reconciled annually at either the avoided cost or the time of use/generation rate, which is higher but requires time of use metering.

Statistics

Potential generation The average insolation in Connecticut is about four sun hours per day, and ranges from less than two in the winter to over five in the summer.

Source: NREL

Installed capacity Connecticut electricity consumption in 2005 was 33,095 million kWh.

Connecticut grid-connected PV capacity (MW)Connecticut SolarYearCapacityInstalled% change 2008 8.8 6.0 214% 2009 19.7 10.9 124% 2010 24.6 4.9 25% 2011 31.1 4.5 26% 2012 39.6 7.5 24% 2013 77.1 37.5 95% 2014 118.8 41.7 54% 2015 219 91 71% 2016 322 103 47% 2017 418 96 30% 2018 555 137 33% 2019 748 193 35% 2020 878.6 130.6 17% 2021 1,097.4 218.8 25% 2022 1,214 116.6 11%20231,48126722%

Utility-scale generation + Utility-scale solar generation in Connecticut (GWh) Year Total Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2014 9 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2015 19 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 2016 25 1 2 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 2017 43 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 4 3 2 2 2018 107 2 3 8 9 11 11 10 8 6 6 5 28 2019 139 7 9 12 13 13 15 18 15 14 9 8 6 2020 228 12 14 19 20 25 25 26 23 21 16 14 13 2021 196 15 14 26 25 31 30 27 28

See also

Wind power in Connecticut Solar power in the United States Renewable energy in the United States

References

External links CT Clean Energy