SI2 Interconnection White Paper
The Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) released a comprehensive white paper on interconnection challenges in the solar and storage industry and proposed new solutions to accelerate the clean energy transition.
The report builds on recent analyses from Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy and recommends that grid operators and regulators create more holistic comprehensive regional transmission planning processes and a new funding paradigm for transmission upgrade costs. These recommendations would more equitably distribute transmission upgrade costs and reduce uncertainty in the interconnection process, resulting in lower interconnection costs, a more robust transmission system, and faster build out of renewable energy.
"using the interconnection process to pay for major improvements to the transmission system is deeply flawed."
FERC, Congress and grid operators must reimagine the interconnection funding paradigm to limit grid upgrade costs to measures that safely connect projects to the local transmission network. By creating a more significant queue entry fee that supports comprehensive transmission needs and limiting queue entrant costs to local network upgrades, policy makers would streamline the interconnection process, thereby reducing queues and interconnection costs and allowing for more rapid build out of renewables.
About SI2
The Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) is accelerating the transition to carbon-free electricity through clean energy research and analysis. SI2 aims to use policy research, public education initiatives, and direct outreach to policymakers to explain the benefits of clean energy and develop pathways to widespread solar and storage use. SI2 is the charitable and education arm of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.