Solar power in Washington, D.C.

Solar power in Washington, D.C. has been growing in recent years due to new technological improvements and a variety of regulatory actions and financial incentives, especially a 30% tax credit, which has been extended with a phase down approach. A bill signed on Dec 18, 2015 extends the 30% Solar Investment Tax Credits for both residential and commercial projects through the end of 2019, and then drops the credit to 26% in 2020, and 22% in 2021 before dropping permanently to 10% for commercial projects and 0% for residential projects.[1] Washington, D.C. has the potential to install 2,100 MW of rooftop photovoltaics using technology available in 2012, which would generate 21% of the electricity used in 2010.[2][3]

Solar Decathlon house on the National Mall

Every two years a Solar Decathlon is held on the National Mall. Contestants are challenged to build an energy efficient building that is capable of generating all of the energy used. In 2013 the Solar Decathlon was held outside Washington, D.C. for the first time, and was located in Orange County.[4]

The Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative and DC SUN

In 2006 Mount Pleasant residents Anya Schoolman and George Musser's sons Walter and Diego had watched Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth and suggested that their families do something about the climate change problem.[5][6] Upon investigating the possibility of going solar, Schoolman found the problems of building code, financial and contracting issues too complex to be solved by a single person, so Schoolman, Musser and their two sons formed the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative to bring greater time, expertise, lobbying and buying power to the problem. In 2009 45 houses in Mount Pleasant went solar. Since then that number has grown to about 250.[7] Soon a Capitol Hill Solar Co-op was calling seeking Mount Pleasant's expertise. Eventually there were solar coops in every ward in the District. In 2010 the eleven neighborhood solar coops of Washington, DC formed an umbrella organization, DC Solar United Neighborhoods (DC SUN).[8] The SUN model has begun spreading to additional states, including Maryland and Virginia. In 2011, Schoolman founded the Solar United Neighbors[9] (then called Community Power Network), a nonprofit organization bringing together the efforts of local renewable energy groups. As of May 2019, Solar United Neighbors is active in 12 U.S States.[10]

Anya Schoolman and the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative were the subject of a segment in M. Sanjayan's Discovery Channel series, Powering The Future[11] and have been recognized by the White House's Champions of Change program.[7][12]

Availability

Insolation is good at about 4.7 sun hours/day.[13]

Installed capacity
Grid-Connected PV Capacity (MW)[14][15][16]
Year Capacity Installed % Change
20070.5
20080.70.240%
20091.00.343%
20104.53.5350%
201111.67.2158%
201213.92.320%
201316.52.619%
201419.53
2015277.5
201643.516.5
20175915.5
201883.324.3
201990.817.5
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See also

References
  1. "Impacts of Solar Investment Tax Credit Extension". SEIA. Retrieved 2017-01-09.
  2. Renewable Energy Technical Potential Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine
  3. State Electricity Profiles
  4. Great Park accepts federal grant for Solar Decathlon
  5. Musser, George (13 August 2009). "The Pleasant Way to go Solar: Neighborhood Cooperatives". Scientific American. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  6. Robinson, Robert (30 March 2011). "A Solar Cooperative: How it Grew". Solar Today. American Solar Energy Society. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  7. Wiener, Aaron (17 April 2014). "White House Honors D.C. Solar Leader Anya Schoolman". Washington City Paper. Atlanta, Ga.: CL Washington, Inc. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  8. Jenkins, Mark (2 April 2012). "D.C. SUN is a Group Approach to Renewable Energy". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  9. "Solar United Neighbors".
  10. "How to go solar in your state". Solar United Neighbors. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  11. Muttulingam, Sanjayan (19 July 2010). "Part 4: Leading the Change". Powering the Future. Discovery Channel. Retrieved 28 August 2014. (the segment on the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative is at 10:30-19:50)
  12. "Champions of Change: Anya Schoolman". WhiteHouse.gov. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  13. Sterling, Virginia
  14. Sherwood, Larry (August 2012). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2011" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). p. 16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  15. Sherwood, Larry (July 2012). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2012" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). p. 16. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  16. Sherwood, Larry (July 2014). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2013" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Retrieved 2014-09-26.
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