STATE POLICY STAGING TO OPTIMIZE PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN SOLAR TECHNOLOGIES

摘要

Understanding how policies encourage private investment in the development of solar markets is critical to optimizing implementation of cost-effective state-level policies. This report summarizes a statistical analysis of state policy effectiveness, and while acknowledging the complexities of the relationships, includes the following major findings: 1) market preparation policies that have low costs for state and local governments, interconnection and net metering for example, are correlated with private investment in markets; 2) low-cost policies that align with established best practices for distributed generation support are statistically linked to states with higher PV penetration; and 3) well designed market preparation policies seem to bolster the effectiveness of more expensive policies. In addition, the paper provides an overview of current efforts to further explore the effect of low-cost-enabling policies. The study normalizes for resource and demographic factors that affect solar installations regardless of which policies are implemented. Results to date suggest that specific policy pathways can be effective for streamlined market development in various state economic and demographic environments.