Solar-to-Grid: Trends in System Impacts, Reliability and Market Value of Solar in the United States

With continued deployment of solar across the United States, assessing the interactions of solar with the power system is an increasingly important complement to studies tracking the cost and performance of solar plants. This webinar will highlight the historical contribution to reliability, trends in market value, and impacts on the bulk power system of solar deployed in the U.S. through the end of 2019.

The scope of this analysis includes the seven organized U.S. wholesale power markets and ten additional utilities, and is based on historical hourly solar generation profiles for each individual plant larger than 1 MW or county-level aggregate profiles for smaller solar. We will start with an overview summarizing the current state of solar deployment and review practices of determining solar’s capacity credit. We then assess solar’s energy and capacity value, contextualize solar’s changing market value with its increasing penetration and compare it to recent power purchase contracts. We conclude with an analysis of solar’s overall system impact, ranging from altered price patterns to increasing ramp rates. Click here for more information.