Solar power in Connecticut
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Solar power in Connecticut establishes Connecticut as the second state in the US to reach grid parity, after Hawaii, due to the high average cost of electricity.[1] Installing solar panels for a home provides an estimated 15.6% return on investment.[2]
CT Solar Lease was a program to install solar panels at no upfront cost, and a fixed lease price for 15 years, with an option to extend the lease for 5 years at a reduced cost. CT Solar Lease owns and sells the RECs generated by the system, but turns over all but $15/REC plus 100% of the sale over $30 or 50% of the sale of the REC up to $30/REC to the homeowner in a Solar Dividends account for maintenance and to allow the purchase of the system at the end of the lease. RECs have been selling for from $18 to $24 each. Applications ended on August 19, 2011.[3]
Connecticut's renewable portfolio standard requires 7% of power in the state will be from renewable resources by 2010, and 23% by 2020.[4] A bill passed in 2011 requires incentives that will produce at least 30 MW of new residential PV installed by the end of 2022.[5] Net metering is available for all up to 2 MW sites, and is reconciled annually at either the avoided cost or the time of use/generation rate, which is higher but requires time of use metering.[6]
Statistics
Potential generation
The average insolation in Connecticut is about 4 sun hours per day, and ranges from less than 2 in the winter to over 5 in the summer.[7]
- Source: NREL[8]
Installed capacity
Connecticut electricity consumption in 2005 was 33,095 million kWh.[9]
| Connecticut Grid-Connected PV Capacity (MW)[10][11][12][13][14][15] | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Capacity | Installed | % Change | |||||||||
| 2008 | 8.8 | 6.0 | 214% | |||||||||
| 2009 | 19.7 | 10.9 | 124% | |||||||||
| 2010 | 24.6 | 4.9 | 25% | |||||||||
| 2011 | 31.1 | 4.5 | 26% | |||||||||
| 2012 | 39.6 | 7.5 | 24% | |||||||||
| 2013 | 77.1 | 37.5 | 95% | |||||||||
| 2014 | 118.8 | 41.7 | 54% | |||||||||
| 2015 | 219 | 91 | 71% | |||||||||
| 2016 | 322 | 103 | 47% | |||||||||
| 2017 | 418 | 96 | 30% | |||||||||
| 2018 | 555 | 137 | 33% | |||||||||
| 2019 | 748 | 193 | 35% | |||||||||
| 2020 | 878.6 | 130.6 | 17% | |||||||||
| 2021 | 1,097.4 | 218.8 | 25% | |||||||||
| 2022 | 1,214 | 116.6 | 11% | |||||||||
| 2023 | 1,481 | 267 | 22% | |||||||||
Utility-scale generation
| Year | Total | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2015 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2016 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2017 | 43 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 2018 | 107 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 28 |
| 2019 | 139 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 6 |
| 2020 | 228 | 12 | 14 | 19 | 20 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 23 | 21 | 16 | 14 | 13 |
| 2021 | 196 | 15 | 14 | 26 | 25 | 31 | 30 | 27 | 28 |
