Given the relevance of SRECs in financing solar, SRECTrade has been involved with the Distributed Solar Finance & Investment Summit for the past few years and will be attending Distributed Solar East this summer in New Jersey. The event runs June 8th-10th, 2011 in Newark, NJ and is one of the best opportunities to network with a variety of stakeholders in the solar financing world.
For more information or to register, visit the event’s website.
Recent legislation passed by the council of the District of Columbia now allows non-residential solar thermal systems to be registered to produce DC SRECs. Under the new legislation non-residential systems must be SRCC OG-100 certified. The legislation went into effect on March 12, 2011 and will expire on October 23, 2011. Previously the District only accepted SRECs from residential SRCC OG-300 certified solar thermal systems.
The new legislation has the following requirements for solar thermal systems:
Solar thermal non-residential systems producing or displacing more than 10,000 kW-hrs per year must be SRCC OG-100 certified and the annual energy output must be determined by an onsite OIML compliant meter.
Solar thermal non-residential systems producing or displacing 10,000 kW-hrs or less per year must be SRCC OG-100 certified and their annual energy output can be determined by the SRCC OG-300 performance rating protocol OR by an onsite OIML compliant meter.
Residential SRCC OG-300 certified solar thermal systems are not affected by this legislation and can continue to be registered in DC.
Given the current supply dynamics of the DC SREC market, this legislation will continue to provide more supply to the oversubscribed program. While SREC prices could continue to decline in the near term, it may be beneficial for solar thermal system owners, previously not eligible for the DC market, to register and receive certification as an option for potential SREC liquidity.
For an update on the current capacity certified to produce DC SRECs see the SRECTrade SREC Markets Report: March 2011.
Additionally, the Distributed Generation Amendment Act of 2011, could have a positive impact on the oversupplied DC SREC market. The legislation is still pending and details associated with the cut off date for grandfathering in out of state DC registered systems are still unknown. SRECTrade will continue to monitor this piece of legislation and provide additional information as it becomes available. For more background on the proposed amendment see these blog posts:
Could Change Be Coming to Washington DC’s SREC Market?
DC Bill Introduced to Limit Out-of-State Facilities
For information on registering a solar thermal system directly with DC Public Services Commission see this page, or consider registering through SRECTrade’s EasyREC service.
SRECTrade SREC Markets Report: March 2011
The following post outlines the megawatts of solar capacity certified and/or registered to create SRECs in the SREC markets SRECTrade currently serves.
PJM Eligible Systems
As of the end of March, there were 13,888 solar PV (13,634) and solar thermal (254) systems registered and eligible to create SRECs in the PJM Generation Attribute Tracking System (GATS) registry. Of these eligible systems, 46 (0.33%) have a nameplate capacity of 1 megawatt or greater, of which only 3 systems are greater than 5 MW. The largest system, currently located in Ohio, is 12 MW, and the second largest, located in Chicago and eligible for the PA, DC, and MD markets, is 10 MW. The third largest system, located in NJ, is 5.6 MW.
Massachusetts DOER Qualified Projects
As of March 16, 2011, there were 337 MA DOER qualified solar projects; 314 operational and 23 not operational. Of these qualified systems, 11 (3.3%) have a nameplate capacity of 1 megawatt or greater, of which only 3 are between 1.5 and 2 MW. Two of the projects greater than 1 MW are currently operational.
Capacity Summary By State
The tables above demonstrate the capacity breakout by state. Note, that for all PJM GATS registered projects, each state includes all projects certified to sell into that state. State RPS programs that allow for systems sited in other states to participate have been broken up by systems sited in state and out of state. Additional detail has been provided to demonstrate the total capacity of systems only certified for one specific state market versus being certified for multiple state markets. For example, PA includes projects only certified to sell into the PA SREC market, broken out by in state and out of state systems, as well as projects that are also certified to sell into PA and Other State markets broken out by in state and out of state systems (i.e. OH, DC, MD, DE, NJ). PA Out of State includes systems sited in states with their own state SREC market (i.e. DE) as well as systems sited in states that have no SREC market (i.e. VA). Also, it is important to note that the Current Capacity represents the total megawatts eligible to produce and sell SRECs as of the noted date, while the Estimated Required Capacity – Current and Next Reporting Year represents the estimated number of MW that need to be online on average throughout the reporting period to meet the RPS requirement within each state. For example, New Jersey needs approximately 255 MW online for the entire 2011 reporting year to meet the RPS requirement. Additionally, the data presented above does not include projects that are in the pipeline or currently going through the registration process in each state program. This data represents specifically the projects that have been approved for the corresponding state SREC markets as of the dates noted.
