To support the emerging utility market for solar PV,
Electric SUN has become Strategic Solar Solutions, LLC.
Same mission, business focus.

It is Now Time to Deploy Solutions

Electric SUN was launched in 2004 to transform the market for profitable, utility-driven solar resource development. Principals Chris Robertson and Jill Cliburn initiated a new dialog with utilities, stakeholders, and other industry partners to test a solar value hypothesis, based on PV’s promise to address utility peak-capacity needs and specific infrastructure constraints, environmental concerns, and marketing and business opportunities.

Until the advent of this strategy, the industry was focused almost exclusively on a customer-driven model for PV development, through which many of these strategic benefits are left on the table. Electric SUN marked significant progress in opening utility market channels so these benefits could be realized and shared by utilities, their customers, their shareholders and community stakeholders. The business models explored include various utility-ownership and third-party (IPP) models, through which the utility could direct the proper siting, scale, orientation, and operation of PV to enhance its strategic value. By mid-2008, the market changes anticipated by Electric SUN had begun to take hold:

• Pioneering utilities, such as Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Lakeland (Florida) Electric, have been joined by large players, such as Southern California Edison and Duke, in planning and/or implementing plans to deploy large amounts of PV directly to capture PV strategic value.

• Utilities that have been slower to adopt highly distributed PV strategies have begun to procure small central-station PV plants, in the range of 1 to 5 MW. These PV plants offer many of the benefits of distributed PV, while achieving necessary economies of scale.

• State and regional distributed resource initiatives have taken a particular interest in accelerating the deployment of utility-integrated distributed PV. A short list of these includes the Mid-Atlantic Distributed Resource Initiative, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, California Energy Commission R&D on the impacts of significant amounts of PV on the T&D system, U.S. DOE and Solar Electric Power Association research into the utility capacity value of solar PV and interconnection issues. Electric SUN principals have consulted with some of these, as well as engaging in other, specific PV-value research projects.

• New trends are emerging in the PV industry, including greater value chain integration, from manufacturing through utility interconnection. PV industry players are increasingly interested in working directly with utilities to achieve mutual goals of cost reduction and value enhancement. Electric SUN principals have worked directly with the solar industry, the investor-community, and utilities to identify and assess these opportunities.

• An advocacy community that had been hesitant to envision a robust utility role in PV deployment is now engaged in this forum. Electric SUN facilitated this, first through a paper on PV, efficiency, and demand response integration for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy Summer Study in 2006, and subsequently through dialog with diverse industry players, including utility associations that are beginning to look at the potential for “virtual power plants” and more finely integrated supply- and demand-side portfolios. Electric SUN also initiated dialog on the importance of the utility role in assuring the equitable deployment of solar resources throughout communities and of benefits-sharing from an “end-use, least-cost, best-fit” perspective.

• The growing awareness of a need for climate mitigation and more sustainable business practices is also a part of this shift. Electric SUN principals have been actively engaged in state and regional climate policy discussions.

Dramatic Progress Signals Time
For Turnkey Utility-Solar Deployment

Electric SUN and Millennium Energy LLC principals have created Strategic Solar Solutions, LLC as a practical answer to the question, “What’s next for significant solar market transformation?” Strategic Solar Solutions, LLC (S3) develops solar energy projects that benefit the project investors, site owners, the utility, and its customers. The goal is to build the lowest-cost, highest-value solar energy and capacity resources in the industry. S3 provides both project development consulting and integrated development services, including feasibility assessment, project financing, engineering design, installation, construction management, and commissioning.

The S3 team includes Electric SUN principals Chris Robertson and Jill Cliburn, representing decades-long experience in utility planning, program design, and analysis along with pioneering experience in the solar industry. S3 also includes Joe Bourg, who brings direct experience in the development of utility-scale PV through his company, Millennium Energy. The team is backed by world-class legal and financial business partners and a national network of design-build partners for single or aggregated projects of significant scale. The Strategic Solar Solutions Web site is currently under construction, but we urge you to contact us for more information or solar development support via information@electricsun.org .