 Solar resource variability is just one issue that solar-plus strategies help address,
leading to greater resource value.
The Solar Value Project represents leading energy thinkers and do-ers, ready to make community-scale solar better through strategic design, storage and load flexibility. This website is your place to follow utility-driven and customer-engaged solar-plus innovations and to review your options, including access to customized professional support.
Our website address recalls the long-standing and popular Community Solar Value Project. We are still about commun-ity-focused projects and programs, whether centered on shared-solar or on other forms of utility-driven partnerships. Further, we have continued on a path that we helped pioneer under the CSVP, driving "solar-plus" innovations that build integration value and support aggressive renewable energy goals. The CSVP acronym refers mostly to our shared-solar work, documented under the Solutions Toolkit and Archives tabs. We will share new work under our Blog tab and soon, under a new tab for Solar-Plus. |
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Site Sponsors Cliburn and Associates and Extensible Energy first joined forces in 2015 to initiate the Community Solar Value Project, with partners from Olivine and Navigant Consulting (now Guidehouse). We were joined SMUD, New Mexico's PNM and other utilities that wanted to "make community solar better." Our path led to ground-breaking work in solar-plus-storage and load flexibility (demand response). Today, Cliburn is the lead contact for this website, leading client work and the Solar Plus for Electric Co-ops project, co-funded by NREL. Extensible Energy CEO John Powers is fully engaged with a software introduction, using load flexibility to boost commercial PV value. 
Announcing SPECs: Solar-Plus for Electric Co-ops, a new project led by Cliburn and Associates, to help optimize the procurement and operations of local battery storage projects for electric cooperatives. The project was selected by the U.S. DOE for the second round of the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN). Contact us for details. Favorite Blogs Some material on any website is likely to get outdated, and with the speed of solar and storage development lately, we can barely keep up. But here a a few oldies that still bring good lessons to light: It's Time for Community Solar Plus Timing (for the ITC) is Not Everything |
Cliburn and Associates Launches SPECs Project in Spring 2020, as Part of the U.S. DOE Solar Energy Innovation Network Solar-Plus for Electric Co-ops (SPECs) is a new project led by Cliburn and Associates, to help optimize the procurement and operations of local battery storage projects for local electric cooperatives. The project was one of eight selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for the second round of the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN). Cliburn and Associates in joined by a number of partners on this project, including Cobb Electric Membership Corp., Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, United Power, and North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, among others. SEIN supports multi-stakeholder teams pursuing new applications of solar energy and other distributed energy resources in unique locations and contexts. The solutions developed by the teams are demonstrated and validated in real-world contexts, making them ready for replication and scale. With a virtual kick-off meeting planned for mid-April, the Cliburn and Associates team is well-aware of the need for integrated DER planning that "expects the unexpected." Watch this space for details, including a new web page, dedicated to this project effort. See also, our Blog, for current observations on the increasing value of local solar plus storage and load flexibility. News and Resources Manage Demand and Increase Solar Use Without Batteries? Since CSVP culminated initial work with utilities on high-value solar-plus, our site co-sponsor Extensible Energy has led work on this question. Extensible is focused on commercial buildings, where solar is a hard sell due to persistent high-demand costs, and where batteries on the recommended scale are seldom affordable. Extensible has led development of a software-based solution to optimize existing building operations in tune with utility rates and solar resource availability. To learn more about the solution, its field performance and its far-reaching promise, check Extensible’s project summary, and notices of future webinars here. Cliburn Recognized by American Solar Energy Society The American Solar Energy Society, which is the nation's longest-standing organization of solar energy scientists, professionals and organizers, honored CSVP's Jill (Kunka) Cliburn as one of two Fellows inducted at its 48th Annual Conference in Minneapolis this past August. Cliburn contributed to early solar market development in the Midwest and has worked for two decades on integrated-resource strategies and DERs nationwide. She also has worked for broader participation in the field. Close-Up on the Integration Challenge If you found the September conference scene overwhelming, the Peak Load Management Alliance offers an alternative. This organization is large enough, and yet small enough, to host a productive dialog among utilities, solution-providers, policy leaders and stakeholders concerned with high-penetration renewables integration. PLMA will do just that at its 40th Conference in St. Petersburg, FL, this November. CSVP is a frequent contributor to PLMA conferences, including leadership on its Integration Interest Group. See the website or contact us for details. Updates from LBL and SEIA To pull a quote from a popular CSVP Blog, disruption waits for no one. Here are a couple of reports, just released that we find on our "required reading" list: Tracking the Sun 2019, reviewing a new year of distribution-scale solar market data and trends. Another report from SEIA, published with Wood Mackenzie Power and Renewables, updates the U.S. solar market through Q3 2019. It predicts a doubling of the U.S. solar market within the next five years, even without assuming the most beneficial policy conditions. Download Presentations and Check Out Our RFP Library. Our presentation from the Rocky Mountain Utility Exchange conference in Aspen, Colorado, is downloadable here. Other popular resources in our Library include community solar RFPs. Time flies, but these best-practice presentations and resources are still very current, and we think you will enjoy them. AVAILABLE NOW: Your Complete Guide to High-Value Community Solar Program Planning and Implementation. Go to our Solutions Menu, to find six ways to think outside the box about community solar challenges, so you can speed your internal processes and add program value for your utility and your customers. These approaches and tools were developed over the course of the CSVP project, working with at more than a dozen utilities nationwide. For a quick peek, here's a blog that previews the Solutions site. Second chance to give a listen. CSVP as concluded its webinar series. But you can revisit top webinars in our archive. If you like what you hear, please send us a note through our Contact page.
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