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Harmon, Jenna

Publications and source records attributed to Harmon, Jenna.

State Policies and Programs for Community Solar

The purpose of this dataset is to summarize current community solar policies and related stipulations by state in the United States. The dataset is updated multiple times per year. The current version is the first file located below. Previous versions of the dataset published before August of 2024 can be found in the dataset below labeled “ARCHIVE_State Policies and Programs for Community Solar_Before 08.24.“ This list has been reviewed, but errors may exist, and the list may not be comprehensive. NLR invites input to update or add to the database. Please submit updates, additions, and corrections to Jenna Harmon (Jenna.Harmon@nlr.gov) and Sonja Berdahl (sonja.berdahl@nlr.gov).

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DEPRECATED - State Policies and Programs for Community Solar (2024 Q3 Update)

This data set is no longer current – The most current data and all historical data sets can be found at https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/249 The purpose of this dataset is to summarize current community solar policies and low-income stipulations by state in the United States as of June 2024. The "State_Program" sheet summarizes the key policy details for each state. This list has been reviewed, but errors may exist, and the list may not be comprehensive. NREL invites input to update or add to the database. To submit updates, additions, or corrections please find contact information on the current data set page linked above.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DEPRECATED - State Policies and Programs for Community Solar (2024 Q2 Update)

This data set is no longer current – The most current data and all historical data sets can be found at https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/249 The purpose of this dataset is to summarize current community solar policies and low-income stipulations by the state in the United States as of April 2024. This list has been reviewed, but errors may exist, and the list may not be comprehensive. NREL invites input to update or add to the database. To submit updates, additions, or corrections please find contact information on the current data set page linked above.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Weatherization Assistance Program and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for Solar Survey Responses and Plan

This data contains the results of surveys given to Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)/Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) administrators in 2022, 2023, and 2024, as well as spreadsheets coding states' annual LIHEAP and WAP plans from 2021, 2022, and 2023 for mentions of solar energy. This data is the second version of the original dataset which has been updated to include the most recent years of LIHEAP and WAP plans. The original version of the dataset is also part of this record but has been deprecated.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Solar Pathways in Federal Energy Assistance Programs: Expanding the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) are federal programs to help low-income households reduce their energy costs. LIHEAP provides direct assistance to help households cover energy costs and stay connected to utility services, as well as weatherization and minor energy-related repairs, and WAP provides no-cost energy efficiency measures to reduce energy use and energy bills while also improving home comfort for income-qualified households. Across the U.S., states are implementing or considering solar energy as an eligible measure for LIHEAP and/or WAP funding, but the successful implementation pathways remain largely undocumented. This report fills that gap by analyzing states' LIHEAP and WAP annual plans, surveying administrators from LIHEAP grant recipients and WAP grantees about their challenges implementing solar or barriers to doing so, and conducting interviews and workshops with program administrators.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Data Analytics for Residential PV from Permit to Interconnect (Final Technical Report)

The main objective of this research is to provide novel insights into the effects of permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII) processes on PV system installations—and in particular, into the relationship between PII processes and adoption timelines. This research can then be used to clarify the potential effect of various process changes on reducing PII timelines, customer cancellation rates, and related costs nationwide. NREL completed this research by assembling a data set of distributed, largely residential rooftop solar systems less than 50 kilowatts in size from participating solar installers. NREL produced five publications describing the effects that PII processes can have on adoption timelines nationwide, in addition to publishing an interactive data viewer with five years of PII cycle time data. This tool can be used by stakeholders to identify potential adoption timelines by local government.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Residential Solar Adoption Timelines and Impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this study we evaluate PII and other PV adoption timelines from 2017-2021. We use project-level data collected by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the Solar Time-Based Residential Analytics and Cycle Time Estimator (SolarTRACE). Additionally, we conducted a survey of 171 AHJs about their experiences, challenges, and process changes during the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey findings were supplemented with follow up interviews with 5 AHJs from 4 states. We find that the pandemic moderately increased the duration and variability of pre-install timelines (contract signing to install), particularly in the permit review phase (permit submit to approval). In contrast, post-install timelines (install to final utility interconnection) continued to decline during the pandemic. The net result is that overall project timelines (contract signing to final interconnection) continued to decline during the pandemic. Our findings suggest that AHJs and installers faced challenges throughout the pandemic but ongoing improvements in PII processes - particularly post-install processes - more than offset these challenges. Furthermore, the pandemic may have catalyzed or accelerated a widespread adoption of online/electronic permitting, among other process efficiency improvements.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Behind-the-Meter Storage Policy Stack

A variety of studies and disparate data sets track state energy storage policies, but these datasets do not cover all BTM-related storage policy. Moreover, these databases do not align policies with the policy stacking framework. Thus, it is unclear which BTM storage policies are adopted across the country, what should comprise a complete storage policy framework or stack, or how states policies compare with that stack. This first-of-its-kind BTM storage policy stack includes 11 parent policy categories and 31 policies across the market preparation, creation, and expansion policy components.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Check the Storage Stack: Comparing Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage State Policy Stacks in the United States

A variety of studies and disparate datasets track state energy storage polices, but these datasets do not cover all BTM-related storage policy. Moreover, these databases do not align these policies with the policy stacking framework. Thus, it is unclear what BTM storage policies are adopted across the country, what should comprise a complete storage policy framework or stack, and how states policies compare against that stack. This report addresses this gap in the literature by developing a state policy stack for BTM battery storage that we compare across all fifty states. This first-of-its-kind BTM storage policy stack includes 11 parent policy categories, and 31 associated policies divided across the market preparation, creation, and expansion policy components.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗