Solar & Storage: Making Commercial Retrofits Pay Off in Massachusetts
We will present new analyses showing how commercial facilities in Massachusetts (and beyond) can maximize energy savings and resiliency by installing solar + electric storage systems. We will review and explain how to take advantage of a suite of incentives and revenue streams including the SMART solar incentive with storage adder, the new energy efficiency performance incentive, the federal investment tax credit (ITC), demand charge management, and net metering. This will help Massachusetts building owners understand how the incentives and opportunities for solar+storage systems interact, how “value stacking” works (and when it doesn’t), how to optimize system sizing and operations, and how systems pencil out in real economic terms, using real existing commercial buildings as examples. Finally, we will address common barriers in financing, interconnections and metering. This presentation will be discussing the results of two reports scheduled to be published in the fall of 2020.
Session Speaker(s):
Session Chair(s):
Event Time:
Room / Location:
Marina I
Experience Level:
CEU Information:
AIA 1.0 LU
Learning Objectives:
- Summarize the solar and storage incentives available through existing Massachusetts programs, and how to stack incentives
- List the variables that determine the building economics of solar+storage systems, including load curves, utility demand rates, tax appetite and location
- Explain markets and revenue opportunities including net metering, capacity markets, demand charge management, demand response and energy arbitrage
- Describe tools to help building owners estimate the economic profile of a solar+storage system, and how to size a system to meet the needs and capacities of the host facility