Category: Solar

Shedding Light on Entergy’s $4.6B Resiliency Plan

11/13/2023

By Constantine Gonatas, AAE Consultant & Jessica Hendricks, AAE's State Policy Director

On December 19, 2022 Entergy filed an application at the Louisiana Public Service Commission requesting $4.6B for upgrades to the transmission and distribution system it claims will reduce future hurricane recovery costs and shorten outage durations following storms. This request is for Phase I of Entergy’s two part $10B total resilience investment plan.

Entergy’s plan uses a complex simulation model to predict damage following a hurricane but has never checked any of its predictions against a single actual hurricane to validate the complex analysis it relies on, raising questions about the accuracy of their analysis.

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The City Council Votes to Make Solar Power Accessible to More People

10/31/2023

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At the New Orleans City Council's Climate & Sustainability Committee Meeting yesterday, October 30th, the Committee unanimously voted to adopt Resolution R-23-507, amending the Community Solar Rules so that Community Solar can thrive in Orleans Parish.

The Alliance commends the Council for taking bold action to amend our city’s broken community solar rules. The amended rules are more favorable to communities and community solar developers alike, which we expect will encourage more solar development in New Orleans.

The Basics of Community Solar

Community solar programs make the benefits of solar power accessible to more people by allowing residents, including renters, to access solar energy without installing solar panels on their property. According to the DOE definition, “community solar customers typically subscribe to—or in some cases own—a portion of the energy generated by a solar array, and receive an electric bill credit for electricity generated by their share of the community solar system” (DOE).

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Creative Solutions for Resilience in a Regulated Utility Market

8/14/2023

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By Jessica Hendricks, AAE's State Policy Director

With so much going on at the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) you may be wondering why I spent the morning digging through an old, stalled out Docket. But, that under the radar Docket (U-36507), is an application for a microgrid in Louisiana and extremely relevant to resilience and deregulation.

Ingevity Corporation is a chemical manufacturer in DeRidder, LA, and a current Cleco customer. Ingevity is not satisfied with the reliability of Cleco Power, citing frequent power outages.

Verdant is a microgrid company with no existing ties to LA. Ingevity and Verdant teamed up and drafted a plan whereby Verdant would build a microgrid, consisting of 1000 kW of solar, 2000kW of Combined Heat & Power (CHP) and a heat recovery steam generator (“HRSG”) on Ingevity owned property. Verdant would then sell the power solely to Ingevity, and Ingevity would continue to rely on Cleco Power for 10-20% of its electric load.

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It's time for Community Solar Rules that produce results

6/22/2023

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By Jesse George, AAE's New Orleans Policy Director

In April of this year, the New Orleans City Council took action on a motion by Madison Energy Investments to amend the City’s community solar rules. The Council granted Madison’s motion in part, increasing the eligible project size from 2MW to 5MW, and re-opened the docket for comment by stakeholders on a variety of issues.

Since the Council adopted the City’s community solar rules in 2019, there has been no development in community solar. Quite simply, the current rules do not provide adequate financial incentive to community solar developers.

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There’s a lot going on at the LPSC these days!

4/7/2023

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By Jessica Hendricks, AAE's State Policy Director

Entergy Louisiana (ELL) has filed two applications for solar resources. One application, for 224 MW, includes a 175 MW Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) facility and a 49 MW ELL constructed facility, both located in the Amite South region where transmission congestion has been a long standing problem. The other application is a much bigger application for up to 3 GW in solar resources. Given the scale, ELL plans to prove that these resources are needed in Phase I.

Phase II is where we’ll discuss costs, structure & where the identified potential resources will be located.

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St. James Parish temporary blocks solar farms, despite pleas from Entergy CEO, advocates by David J. Mitchell

8/18/2022

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Article by David J. Mitchell
Originally published on The Advocate
August 18, 2022

After weeks of debate, St. James Parish officials adopted a temporary halt on new large solar complexes in the parish to take a closer look a rules for the land-intensive operations.

The St. James Parish Council voted 6-1 for the moratorium despite pleas from the backer of a 3,900-acre solar project in Vacherie that has rankled neighbors.

Entergy Louisiana's top executive urged the council not to approve the moratorium because of the poor signal it would send to investors. Environmental and community groups also opposed the measure as backward looking that would end up leaving the parish behind.

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A new model for hurricane response? Nonprofit eyes churches, community centers as recovery hubs by Matt Sledge

6/1/2022

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Article by Matt Sledge
Originally Published on Nola.com
May 24, 2022

A LaPlace church that served food and organized volunteers after Hurricane Ida will be outfitted with solar panels in the first phase of a $40 million project to create dozens of “resilience hubs” across southeast Louisiana, officials said Tuesday.

Supporters of the far-reaching project hope that they can eventually equip up to 100 churches and community organizations with solar power and batteries. The first batch includes the New Wine Christian Fellowship and nine other locations. One goal is to create places where residents can get cool and charge up after a hurricane.

But supporters also hope to cut electricity bills throughout the year and to transform community groups like churches into disaster responders.

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Solar Rebates: Saving the Planet and Your Pockets

8/2/2019

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By Amelia Walley, AAE Economic Analyst Intern

Solar power is clean and sustainable, and though its costs have dropped substantially over the past years, it is still too expensive for some to make the leap. By reducing the initial cost barrier of switching to solar, solar rebates are a great way to incentivize customers to install solar photovoltaic systems.

In order to open the market to a wider array of customers and income levels, rebates have been a successful way to reduce the initial cost barrier.

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Solar Roundtable Recap 1/9/2013

1/15/2013

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The Alliance and GSREIA would like to thank everyone who attended our first Solar Roundtable of 2013, which was a resounding success. We would like to thank our host John Williams of Williams Architects, our very own AAE board member, who graciously opened his business doors and provided the delicious refreshments. We had a great turnout and the participation/discussion was lively and informative.

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