Browsing by Author "Grimley, Matthew"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Barriers and Opportunities for Distributed Energy Resources in Minnesota's Municipal Utilities and Electric Cooperatives
    (2019-02) Chan, Gabriel; Lenhart, Stephanie; Forsberg, Lindsey; Grimley, Matthew; Wilson, Elizabeth
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    Barriers and Opportunities for Distributed Energy Resources in Minnesota's Municipal Utilities and Electric Cooperatives (Issue Brief)
    (2019-02) Chan, Gabriel; Lenhart, Stephanie; Forsberg, Lindsey; Grimley, Matthew; Wilson, Elizabeth
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    Community Ownership in Community Solar Projects
    (2023-08) Grimley, Matthew; Chan, Gabriel
    With the recent boom in community solar projects and programs, and new state and federal commitments to energy justice, many have renewed interest in community-owned community solar. This fact sheet provides a description of 11 different forms of community ownership of community solar, how they operate, and brief examples of each.
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    Community Shared Solar in Minnesota: Learning from the First 300 Megawatts
    (2018-03) Chan, Gabriel; Grimley, Matthew; Arnold, Elizabeth; Evans, Isaac; Herbers, Jacob; Hoffman, Maureen; Ihde, Benjamin; Mazumder, Poulomi; Morgan, Jordan; Neuman, Nick; Streitz, Ryan
    Community shared solar is an emerging approach to deploying solar energy that promises to expand the market for solar by allowing a group of electricity customers without roof space or access to capital to own, finance, or lease a share of an offsite, centralized solar facility. Community solar programs are being developed across the country, and as of March, 2018, Minnesota had the country’s largest set of programs, with over 300 MW-AC installed. In this paper, we analyze the economic and political factors driving the emergence of Minnesota’s 33 community solar programs, and investigate the opportunities and barriers faced in developing community solar in different utility territories. We draw contrasts between Minnesota’s programs to illustrate the heterogeneity in approaches to designing community solar programs in terms of accessibility, affordability, subscriber acquisition, utility benefits, and subscriber agency. Our study takes a mixed methods approach: we conduct six in-depth case studies of Minnesota community solar programs, relying on a combination of informal interviews and primary source analysis; we conduct 12 semi-structured interviews with utility managers overseeing different community solar programs in the states; and we collect and analyze contracts of nearly 100 community solar subscription offers across the 31 utilities with a detailed cash flow analysis. We conclude with reflections on the Minnesota experience for reforming program and policy development in the state and lessons for the other 34 states developing community solar programs.
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    “Cooperative is an Oxymoron”: The Polycentric Energy Transition of Midwestern Electric Cooperatives to Load Management Technologies, 1940s to Present
    (2019-05) Grimley, Matthew
    Since the 1940s, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Great River Energy (then United Power Association and Cooperative Power), Dairyland Power Cooperative, and East River Electric Power Cooperative in the Midwestern United States have deployed nearly 600,000 load management devices with their more-than 1.2 million member-owners. Building upon technological innovation systems theory and using case studies of the co-ops, I show the importance of intermediaries such as contractors and distribution cooperative managers in facilitating the deployment of these distributed energy resources for the co-ops. I then use common pool resource rules to highlight the intermediary functions that helped drive the common pool resource of the co-ops’ innovations. This research has implications for future decarbonized distributed energy resource deployments and the electrification of formerly fossil-fueled technologies. More widely, this study shows the potential need for appropriate levels, connectedness, and locations of polycentric governance within a far-reaching, deep, and distributed energy resource transition.
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    Design choices and equity implications of community shared solar
    (Elsevier, 2017) Chan, Gabriel; Evans, Isaac; Grimley, Matthew; Ihde, Ben; Mazumder, Poulomi
    What is the best way to deploy solar energy to maximize clean energy growth while equitably sharing benefits? A promising model is community shared solar, which enables energy consumers to purchase shares of electricity generated in an offsite project. Noting how different states and utilities have approached program design, we explore how design decisions affect access to solar and the equity of cost and benefit sharing. We conclude with a set of questions for future research.
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