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.