Posts Tagged ‘North Carolina’

What Happened to the North Carolina SREC Market?

Posted June 23rd, 2011 by SRECTrade.

Since its inception last summer, the North Carolina SREC market has not materialized into the type of market seen in other states like New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts. There are several factors lending to the stagnation of this market, many of which were covered in our blog post “Where is the NC SREC Market?” published last August. Since then, the nascent NC market has continued to dwindle. Most small solar facilities in North Carolina have been selling their SRECs into the DC market, an opportunity that will be closing as new legislation in DC shuts the market to out-of-state facilities.

A few factors  impair the viability of the North Carolina market:

1) The absence of both an SACP and transparent market prices make it difficult for projects to find viable SREC-based financing.

2) There is a shortage of buyers. The two main buyers, Duke Energy and Progress Energy, which serve 65% of NC utility customers and provide 71% of the state’s electricity, have both met their NC REPS compliance needs for solar, with Progress locking out SRECs until 2014 and Duke having ample supply through 2018, the final year of RPS compliance.

3) North Carolina accepts 25% of its SRECs from out of state sited facilities.

In an effort to curb these seemingly premature accomplishments by utilities, legislators in North Carolina introduced two important clean energy bills in the last few months: the Solar Jobs Bill (HB495/SB473) and the Energy Independence and Job Creation Bill (SB694). The former aspired to increase the solar requirement for utilities from .2% to .4% of retail electric sales by 2018 in an effort to further develop the state’s solar industry, while also requiring that no more than 12.5% of the RECs applied towards the RPS requirements come from out-of-state generators. If this bill were to pass, it would help catalyze an NC SREC market as utilities would need to find additional sources of SRECs to meet new compliance targets. To create more flexibility, the Energy Independence and Job Creation Bill allowed for “third party sales” of renewable energy, or the ability for facilities with third-party owned renewable systems to buy electricity directly from the third-party without classifying them as utilities, so long as their capacity is under 2 MW. This bill would open the North Carolina market up to third-party financing companies like SunRun, SolarCity and Sungevity, which would foster the development of solar leasing and PPAs.

Unfortunately, neither of these bills were taken up by legislators by the crossover deadline on June 9th, effectively rendering them dead until the start of the 2013 session. For now, the future remains unclear for a more active SREC market in North Carolina.

Additional Resources:

Relevant Utility Rebates

NC Sustainable Energy Association – legislative news

NC GreenPower – non-profit created by the NC Utilities Commission

SRECTrade Now in North Carolina

Posted June 18th, 2009 by SRECTrade.

North Carolina is a brand new market for the exchange of SRECs. There are no restrictions on selling North Carolina SRECs to eligible states in the PJM network. North Carolina has a Renewable Portfolio Standard mandated by the state, with a specific carve-out for solar energy. 12.5% of all energy sold by suppliers must be from renewables by 2021, with 0.20% of that coming from solar energy.

Utilities are required to provide the above portions of electricity from solar sources. Your SRECs help the utilities to reach this minimum threshold. Normally, if they do not reach the threshold, they are forced to pay a Solar Alternative Compliance Payment (SACP). The state of North Carolina has not yet determined what the price of their SACP will be. When this is decided, the price of SRECs will respond. For now, the price will be around the regional average, $200-$250.

Getting Started in North Carolina

Talk to your installer to get your PV installation certified in North Carolina and other states where it is eligible. Once you have these state certification numbers, we’ll be able to help you establish an account and manage your SRECs. We’ll cross-list your SRECs on our multi-state auction platform every month to make sure you get the best price for your SRECs. Alternatively, if you choose to manage your own SRECs, you would need to register with the appropriate state SREC agency. After that you can choose to sell your SRECs month-to-month on SRECTrade.com.