{"id":450,"date":"2016-02-17T10:07:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T15:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/?p=450"},"modified":"2016-02-16T16:14:16","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T21:14:16","slug":"solarcity-california-could-save-1-4-billion-with-power-grid-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/solarcity-california-could-save-1-4-billion-with-power-grid-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"SolarCity: California could save $1.4 billion with power grid changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Solar energy provider SolarCity released a report early this month detailing how making changes to the electricity grid in California could yield $1.4 billion a year.<\/p>\n<p>In the report, SolarCity proposed that instead of building more power lines, substations and other parts of the electric grid, the state <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-solarcity-electricity-costs-20160203-story.html\" title=\"should instead focus on localized electricity generation\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>should instead focus on localized electricity generation<\/strong><\/a>, such as rooftop solar and battery storage. <\/p>\n<p>This, SolarCity argued, could help shift utilities away from the old mentality of &#8220;build more, profit more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Revamping the electric grid could yield huge cost savings, SolarCity report says <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uQK31Z3msM\">https:\/\/t.co\/uQK31Z3msM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; L.A. Times Biz News (@latimesbiz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/latimesbiz\/status\/695292139480068101\">February 4, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Utility companies battling rooftop solar advocates<\/h3>\n<p>California utilities have been battling energy consumers for some time on multiple fronts. Back in December, California regulators <a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/california-regulators-reject-steep-solar-fees-proposed-by-utilities\/\" title=\"rejected a proposal by state utility companies\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>rejected a proposal by state utility companies<\/strong><\/a> that would have raised fees and costs for new solar customers. And more recently, California\u2019s Public Utilities Commission <a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/california-net-metering-changes-get-squashed-barely\/\" title=\"upheld a net metering policy\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>upheld a net metering policy<\/strong><\/a> that benefits homeowners with solar panels. <\/p>\n<div id=\"inlink\"><a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/california-net-metering-changes-get-squashed-barely\/\" title=\"California net metering changes get squashed - barely\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/electricity-meter_p7l0iw4-150x150.jpg\" title=\"California net metering changes get squashed - barely\" alt=\"California net metering changes get squashed - barely\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/california-net-metering-changes-get-squashed-barely\/\" title=\"California net metering changes get squashed - barely\"><h4>California net metering changes get squashed - barely<\/h4><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/california-net-metering-changes-get-squashed-barely\/\" title=\"California net metering changes get squashed - barely\" class=\"hide375\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Mix these recent politically-charged events in with the <a href=\"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/california-drought-takes-toll-on-electricity-production\/\" title=\"energy complications due to the recent drought\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>energy complications due to the recent drought<\/strong><\/a> in the state, and it&#8217;s easy to see that California&#8217;s energy policies could be due for a deeper look.<\/p>\n<h3>California leads the way in solar<\/h3>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/openpv.nrel.gov\/rankings\" title=\"The Open PV Project\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Open PV Project<\/strong><\/a>, California leads the nation in number of solar PV systems installed with 291,515 (as of 2\/11\/16). Those numbers are leaps and bounds above the next closest state, Arizona, which boasted 49,498 installs (as of 2\/11\/16).<\/p>\n<p>With those numbers in mind, it&#8217;s hard to argue that California needs to focus more on solar itself. Now, the argument is shifting to how to best optimize the grid for the future.<\/p>\n<span class=\"source-attribution\">Source &rarr; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-solarcity-electricity-costs-20160203-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">LA Times<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SolarCity released a report in February that detailed how making changes to the electricity grid in California could save the state up to $1.4 billion a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11,41,3,6,8],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar","tag-california","tag-electricity","tag-solar-energy","tag-solar-power","tag-solarcity"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarenergylocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}