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Solar ABCs Newsletter
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November 2007
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Upcoming Stakeholder Meetings
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Advisory Committee Members Sought
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The Solar ABCs is currently forming an Advisory Committee to provide
input from diverse stakeholders. You can nominate yourself or someone
else to serve on the Advisory Committee. Click here for more details.
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Greetings!
Welcome to the first newsletter for the Solar America Board for Codes
and Standards (Solar ABCs). In this newsletter you will learn about
several of the issues Solar ABCs is addressing including fire official requirements, automated metering, and PV module arcing concerns. There
will be three Stakeholder Meetings in December and one in January (all by conference
call). Look for the details and sign-up for the ones in which you have
an interest. Space is limited. If you want to play an active role in discussion, debate, and the preparation of position statements and policies, you may sign up to become an active member
of one or more panels. The Solar ABCs is organized into five different
panels with each having responsibility for different topics related to
specific codes or standards. Let me know if you have any suggestions for future newsletters or any other comments for Solar ABCs.
Sincerely,  Larry Sherwood
Project Administrator Solar ABCs
On behalf of the Solar Energy Technologies Program of the U.S. Department of Energy, welcome to the inaugural newsletter for the Solar America Board for Codes and Standards (Solar ABCs). As part of President Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative, the Solar America Initiative strives to achieve cost-competitiveness for solar electricity across all market segments by 2015. One of the fundamental barriers to this goal is the patchwork of codes and standards across the U.S. that often deters solar technology deployment or does not address solar issues at all. The Solar ABCs is the first truly national institution dedicated to resolving solar codes and standards issues. With support from the Department of Energy and the leadership of New Mexico State University and its partners, the Solar ABCs will serve as a centralizing body for continual improvement in solar codes and standards, including issues of importance to you. I urge you to participate in its efforts as we cooperate to make solar a clean, affordable energy option across America.
Sincerely,
Thomas P. Kimbis
Director, Market Transformation
Solar Energy Technologies Program
U.S. Department of Energy
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 Californians Meet to Establish
PV Standards for Fire Safety
Over the past several years various fire districts in California and throughout the U.S. have raised concerns about the safety of fire fighters working on buildings with PV systems. Many of these concerns centered on how to ventilate a roof covered with PV modules, or how to disconnect the live circuits so that fire fighters will not be shocked by exposed conductors. Isolated discussions and remedies have been implemented over these last several years, but no organized approach was ever formulated to address the issues. Last year the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CalSEIA), with funding from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, proactively developed a set of training materials for fire departments in an effort to provide much needed training to these districts. These materials were sent to every fire district in California, which raised the awareness and understanding of PV systems within the fire protection community. However, with awareness came questions and the desire for some standardized requirements for building with PV systems.
Earlier this year, the City of Los Angeles fire department released a revised set of requirements for PV systems on buildings for projects in their jurisdiction. These guidelines can be accessed online at http://lafd.org/prevention/pdfforms/solar_pwr_req.pdf. Because of several controversial requirements in this document, news traveled quickly within the solar community about these requirements. Since fire districts were searching for an authoritative requirement to use for their communities, the Los Angeles document was an obvious choice to use as a template. PV installers began running into this requirement throughout California, and it became clear to the solar industry that the process needed statewide attention.
Read on for more details.
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Product Safety Panel Studies Arcing and
Over-temperature PV Module Failures
In response to recent increases in PV module field failures due to
over-temperature and arcing within high voltage PV systems, the Product Safety Panel
has identified development of an arc fault interrupter (AFCI) as a
technology research area that may lead to improved reliability and
reduced costs for PV systems.
In October, Tim Zgonena of UL
attended an IEC workshop (see the Solar ABCs website for description of IEC Standards) on PV arcing issues and potential protection
means. He made a presentation on UL experience, information gathered
to date on the topic and concluded that a PV AFCI product would
mitigate many of the potential PV fire hazards that this industry is
starting to encounter. A significant portion of the attendees
and some of the other presenters were supporting a means to minimize
the arc fault hazard by increasing the quality and reliability of the
existing PV systems components. Unfortunately, while this method will
potentially reduce the number of failures, it does not mitigate the hazard when it
does occur. The non US participants in the meeting were totally unaware
of the existence much less the wide spread use of AC AFCI circuit
protection in the USA. The IEC group is very interested in the
results of the Product Safety Panel AFCI research and intends to
develop IEC PV AFCI requirements starting in 2008.
You can comment on this issue at the Product Safety Panel Forum.
The
Product Safety Panel will host a conference call meeting on December 17 at 4pm EST to further discuss this and other issues. Click here to see the complete agenda and to sign-up
for this stakeholder meeting.
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Automated Metering and Small Distributed Generation
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 required state regulatory commissions,
and certain non-regulated utilities, to consider time-based pricing as
an important element of demand-side response. While some state
commissions have embraced and approved state-wide time-based pricing
through the deployment of automated metering infrastructure (AMI),
others have cautiously approved pilot programs, while still others have
dismissed the idea as not yet cost effective. However, some utilities
firmly believe that AMI can create significant operational benefits,
and that full AMI deployment more than justifies its cost. The
November 2007 issue of the IREC Newsletter, Connecting to the Grid takes
a high-level look at the industry's push for AMI and its potential
impact on small distributed generation, interconnection, and net
metering. While the IREC assessment may not be comprehensive, we found
enough evidence to convince us that AMI is indeed "the next big thing,"
and that it has the potential to bring the basic economics of supply
and demand to the retail energy markets-and thereby change everything. The most interesting AMI findings include the following:
- Many utilities believe AMI will maximize demand response in a cost-effective manner
- Some
investor-owned utilities, which want full AMI deployment, are being
reined in by state regulators who would prefer a pilot test
- A few states are requiring AMI meters to have net metering capability (CT, MD)
- Critical peak pricing can be as much as five times the regulated retail tariffs (KY)
- Much AMI activity has occurred in the last 60 to 90 days
Link to the complete report.
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Interconnection and Net Metering Panel Studies Time-of-Use
Pricing and External Disconnect Switches
The solar industry has the potential to become a vital contributor to the mainstream energy industry. However, before this can happen, thoughtful consideration must be given to some of the industry's most critical issues-some of which are creating barriers to implementation. During summer 2007, the 5-year Solar ABCs project began this process of thoughtful consideration. (See kickoff presentations). Over the next few weeks, an intense, multi-participant study will begin for three "first-year" interconnection and net metering topics: the impact of time-of-use pricing, as facilitated by advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), upon net metering; the real usefulness of distributed generator external disconnect switches, as required by many utilities; and, the reasoning and references that formed the foundation of the IREC Interconnection Model.
We are currently inviting a variety of well-informed stakeholders to participate in the study panels through quarterly teleconferences. The first such multi-participant teleconference will be held on December 14, 2007 at 2 p.m. Read on for the meeting agenda and to sign-up. Space will be limited to about 35 participants.
Three panels will guide this effort: an interconnection/net metering study panel; an interconnection/net metering coordination panel; and, a Regulatory/State Energy Office/Legislator implementation panel. These panels will be led by the following industry experts: Jane Weissman, Chris Cook, Jason Keyes, Kevin Fox, and Mike Sheehan, from IREC; Keith McAllister and Joan Ward from the North Carolina Solar Center at NCSU; Gobind Atmaram and Bob Reedy from the Florida Solar Energy Center; and, Chuck Whitaker from BEW Engineering.
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Local Codes Study Panel Activities and Priorities
Based on the meetings of the Local Codes Study Panel members and the input received at the Stakeholders meeting in Long Beach, CA on September 27, 2007, the following three local codes study topics have been prioritized:
- Fast Permitting: This activity will focus on developing the procedures and recommendations to facilitate timely and efficient permitting of PV systems by building inspectors and other jurisdiction officials.
- Solar Access Rights and Model Ordinance: This study will involve a comprehensive review of solar access rights in 50 states, identification of solar friendly and favorable statutes and regulations, and development of model ordinance with solar access rights for promotion in target states.
- High Wind Loads and Model Code: This study will cover a review of the wind load requirements on Gulf Coast and Eastern seaboard and their applicability to PV array attachments. The focus will be on the identification of high wind permeable and resilient installations that allow adjustments of design wind loads.
The Panel invites well-informed stakeholders to discuss these topics at a conference call meeting on December 17 at 2pm EST. Click the link to see the agenda for the stakeholder meeting and to register.
Read on for more details on the plans for the Local Codes Study Panel.
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Building Electrical Codes Panel to Develop
Proposals for National Electrical Code
The Building Electrical Codes Panel (along with the PV Industry Forum) will develop a comprehensive set of coordinated and well-substantiated proposals related to PV systems for the 2011 NEC. These proposals are due no later than November 2008.
If you are interested in actively participating in the development of these proposals or know of someone who will or should participate, please send an e-mail to John Wiles. If you are just interested in tracking the proposals as they are developed, they will be posted on the NMSU web site below starting in late 2007 after the 2008 NEC is available. For more details on what is involved and required, please see the Building Electrical Codes Panel briefing at the Solar ABCs kickoff briefing.
Much of the development work for proposals for the 2011 NEC will be conducted via e-mail, although there may be one or two meetings in mid to late 2008.
Visit the NMSU/Institute for Energy and the Environment/Southwest Technology Development Institute web site for additional information on PV systems and the NEC. There are numerous articles, a suggested practices manual, a PV installer Checklist, and a list of upcoming workshops.
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National and International Standards Panel Needs Your Help
In a mature PV market, technical process, and even some business process, will depend on consensus standards to assure consistency and thoroughness for the manufacturer and consumer alike. Developing consensus standards requires the committed and willing participation of technical experts representing the range of market interests: consumers, producers, general interest, academia, and others. The Solar ABCs' National and International Standards Coordination (NISC) Panel is charged with promoting participation of these PV industry interest groups in various standards development organizations, including IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 21 (SCC21), Underwriters Laboratories Standards Technical Panels (STPs), ASTM E44.09 and IEC Technical Committee 82 (TC82). More information on these committees can be found at the links provided on the NISC home page.
A NISC presentation given at the Solar ABCs Stakeholder meeting on September 27, 2007 and notes from the Standards Breakout session provide some additional information.
A teleconference meeting of the NISC will be held on January 16, 2008 at 2pm EST to discuss the following topics:
� General status and progress of the various standards organizations
� How to join each standards organization
� Ideas for identifying and soliciting new expert participants
� Suggestions for new standards and how and where to pursue them
� Planning for PV Standards Forum-a joint meeting of these standards organizations
Click here to register for this meeting.
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Related Reports and Announcements
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Renewable Systems Interconnection (RSI) study during the spring of 2007. The RSI study consists of 14 individual reports that address the technical, regulatory, and business issues that have the potential to limit the market uptake of distributed photovoltaics (PV) and other renewable technologies. Click here for more information and to download the reports.
Sandia National Laboratories in conjunction with the US DOE Solar Energy Technology Program is issuing a Request For Information (RFI) for the Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems program (SEGIS). The emphasis of this RFI is on the development of advanced inverters, controllers, and other balance-of-system components for photovoltaic (PV) distributed power applications. The goal of the SETP is to increase the value of PV as large numbers of systems are incorporated into the utility distribution system. A formal solicitation is anticipated in November - December 2007.
More details.
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Telephone Seminar on Solar Rights
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council will host a telephone seminar on solar rights policies on Thursday, December 6 at 2pm EST (1pm CST, noon MST, 11am PST, 10am Alaska, 9am Hawaii).
California is the only state to enact a statutory-based right to access to sunlight for solar energy projects. However, many other states have enacted legislation, which help protect a consumer's solar rights. This seminar will examine the consumer's right to sunlight and give examples of how these laws are applied around the country.
The two speakers are experts on solar rights and both have written recent papers on the topic. Scott Anders, Director of the Energy Policy Initiatives Center, will discuss the California Solar Rights Act and the California Solar Shade Control Act. Erik J.A. Swenson, Partner at King and Spalding LLP, will discuss the legislation in other states.
Read on for more information and to register for this free seminar.
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