Event Description

Boston Area Solar Energy Association (BASEA) Forum
Karl Rabago on The Value of Solar/Distributed Energy Resources
May 12, 7 pm

First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist; 3 Church Street, Harvard Square
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; Presentation begins at 7:30 p.m

"The Boston Area Solar Energy Association is proud to welcome Karl Rabago, known as the foremost national authority on Value of Solar calculation methodology. Our Net Metering and Solar Task Force's first recommendation called for a Value of Solar study to inform fair compensation for solar energy production by tying it to the real "value and impact of solar in Massachusetts". This is where solar policy is going, graduating from arbitrary one-for-one kilowatt-hour compensation - as if a clean energy kilowatt-hour has no more value than one generated burning polluting fossil fuels.

A weak solar bill just passed (April 11th), granting an anemic raise in net metering caps, which unfortunately lasted only 2 weeks and 3 days until the cap was hit once again (April 28th), while also slashing compensation for low income and community shared solar projects. Next, the legislature plans to craft an 'omnibus energy bill', figuring it had got solar out of the way. Can we move to inject the sanity of Value of Solar (Distributed Generation) into this omnibus bill?

Karl Rabago has a knack for cutting through complexity to clearly and concisely present the broad view of how distributed energy resources are integrated from an economic and ratepaying perspective, honed through deep career experience in utility systems and policy work. (View Mr. Rabago's recent address to the Rhode Island state legislature for a primer, here.) Proper valuation of distributed energy resources is essential to the health of the new energy economy, as we transition from fossil fuel based centralized generation to add more and more local, clean energy."

Karl R. Rábago is the Executive Director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center, at the Pace Law School in White Plains, New York. The PECC mission is to protect the earth's environment through solutions that transform the ways that society supplies and consumes energy. Karl has some 25 years experience in energy and climate policy markets. Karl serves as Chair of the Board of the Center for Resource Solutions, a San Francisco-based non-governmental organization that works to advance voluntary clean energy markets. He also sits on the Board of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Karl also is co-director and principal investigator for the Northeast Solar Energy Market Coalition, a US DOE SunShot Initiative Solar Market Pathways project.