Personal Impact*
Waste Diversion Electricity Zero-Carbon Energy Transportation
Solar Photovoltaics
In 2021, the Residential Solar Investment Program exceeded its goal and fulfilled the intent of the program to promote residential solar PV.
Thousands of Connecticut homes now use the sun to generate much of their own electricity. In 2021, 10,280 residential solar PV systems were installed for a total capacity of 80,169 kilowatts (kW).73 Of this total, 3,883 solar PV systems were installed with assistance from the Residential Solar Incentive (RSI) Program for a total capacity of 36,073 kW. From 2005 through the end of 2021, the total number of residential solar PV projects that received assistance from the RSI Program exceeded 46,918 projects with a total capacity of more than 378 megawatts (MW), exceeding the revised goal of 350 MW ahead of December 2022 program end.74 On January 1, 2022, the new Residential Renewable Energy Solutions program replaced the previous net metering and RSI Program for residential renewable energy projects. The Residential Renewable Energy Solutions program offers residential solar installations the opportunity to sell the energy produced and the renewable energy certificates (RECs) at a fixed 20-year price by selecting one of two incentive rate structures (tariffs).
Goal: Legislation adopted in 2015 set a goal of 300 MW of new photovoltaic capacity installed on residential properties. That goal was increased to 350 MW in 2019 (CGS 16-245ff).
Utility Scale and Behind-The-Meter Solar PV
The Independent System Operator for New England (ISO-NE) projected that the total solar PV capacity in Connecticut could be over 790 MW through 2021. The ISO-NE also projected that a total of approximately 1,626 MW of solar PV capacity could be installed in Connecticut by 2030.75 The environmental and social impact of solar PV installations in Connecticut is mixed. The primary advantage of solar PV electric generating equipment is that it produces electricity with zero emissions – no air pollution, wastewater, or noise. The 790+ MW of installed PV capacity in the state in 2021 is estimated to have produced more than one million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity in 2021, which is calculated to have potentially displaced over 290,000 metric tons** of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions.76 However, an issue with land-based solar PV installations, primarily for utility scale solar PV installations, is the impact such development has on farmland, forests, shrublands, and the species that inhabit these ecosystems.
Regulation of Certain Solar PV Systems
As a result of citizens’ concerns regarding the proliferation of land-based solar PV systems in Connecticut, the Council issued a special report in 2017, Energy Sprawl in Connecticut, that identified deficiencies in state policy regarding the selection and siting of land-based PV installations and recommendations to ensure prime farmland and core forest habitats were protected. In response to citizen concerns, Public Act 17-218 was enacted, which requires certain solar projects to acquire written confirmation that the subject proposal would not materially affect the status of such land as prime farmland or core forest. Since Public Act 17-218 was enacted, the capacity of individual commercial PV projects, submitted to the Connecticut Siting Council for regulatory approval through the Petition for Declaratory Ruling process, has decreased.
Certain provisions of Public Act 17-218 require written determination regarding the impact to core forest and prime farmland only apply to certain commercial solar PV proposals. Indeed, ten of the 14 proposals for commercial solar PV systems submitted to the Siting Council in 2021 were exempt from the requirements of the law (71 percent). These exempt proposals, which totaled 52.7 MW of PV capacity (75 percent of the capacity proposed in 2021), were exempt either because the projects’ capacity was less than two MW, the project was reopened from an earlier date, the project was selected as part of a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) request for proposals (RFP), or because the proposals were submitted to the Siting Council as an application for a Certificate (as required by Connecticut General Statutes (CGS) Section 16-50k), not through the Petition for Declaratory Ruling process. In fact, one of the Petitions submitted in 2020 (Petition 1437) withdrew their project and refiled the project in 2021 as an application for a Certificate (Docket 497), after receiving correspondence from the DEEP that the proposed project would have a material affect on core forest resources.77 Notwithstanding the exemptions associated with Public Act 17-218, all state agencies can submit comments to the Siting Council for all proposal filings, within the schedule provided, which are considered by the Siting Council in their deliberations.
Technical Note: *Personal impact indicators illustrate trends in behavior or practices that can be expected to influence the condition of tomorrow’s air, water, land and wildlife. **Based on Annual Average Generator Emission Rates (lbs/MWh) for New England - 633 lbs/MWh.
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73 Residential solar PV data acquired from Eversource – January 25, 2022 and United Illuminating – January 26, 2022.
74 Connecticut Green Bank; personal communication from L. Charpentier, January 6, 2022.
75 ISO-New England, Final 2021 PV Forecast, April 29, 2021; www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2021/04/final_2021_pv_forecast.pdf
76 ISO-NE 2019 ISO New England Electric Generator Air Emissions Report, March 2021; TABLE 5.1; www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2021/03/2019_air_emissions_report.pdf.
77 Connecticut Siting Council; portal.ct.gov/CSC.