The pv journal USA tour of photo voltaic incentives final cease was Oklahoma, and now strikes to Arkansas, which is known as the “Pure State”. Additionally it is a pure fuel state. It produces giant quantities of pure fuel as a major gasoline used for power manufacturing, with coal and nuclear energy following carefully behind.  

Presently Arkansas has a small however growing quantity of solar energy producing capability, which accounted for about 10% of the state’s renewable electrical energy era in 2021; an 18x enhance from 2016.  

In line with the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA), in mid-2022 the state nonetheless ranked 30th within the U.S. for photo voltaic producing capability total with 587.9 MW of whole photo voltaic capability, with 177.1 MW of undertaking installations in 2021. 

However in response to the Midcontinent System Operator interconnection queue submitting, Arkansas represents 1.65 GW of the MISO area’s 5.77 GW of recent photo voltaic and power storage undertaking growth, a big buildout proposition for a state which lately faired within the backside two dozen states for photo voltaic as represented by SEIA.  

In line with the Southern Renewable Vitality Affiliation, a clear power advocacy group, greater than $28 billion in funding alternatives lie within the Arkansas photo voltaic market out of the group’s forecast of 25.3 GW of long-term photo voltaic growth alternatives.   

Arkansas nonetheless doesn’t have a Renewable Vitality Portfolio customary as of late 2022, in response to the EIA.  In 2010, the PSC created a Sustainable Vitality Assets (SER) Motion Information, which required investor-owned utilities to cut back electrical gross sales and pure fuel gross sales in comparison with a 2010 baseline. 

Web metering 

Regardless of no statewide RPS, Arkansas’ PSC does enable web metering, enabling households with small, customer-sited photo voltaic panels, wind generators, or different renewable installations no bigger than 25 kW to obtain credit from utilities to promote extra electrical energy again to the grid.  

Companies with renewable energy methods as much as 300 kW in capability are additionally eligible to obtain the identical incentives for web metering as residential prospects. 

In Could 2022, the Arkansas Courtroom of Appeals dominated in favor of solar energy, upholding the speed construction for web metering, which beforehand had said that photo voltaic prospects would obtain the total retail fee for extra power they ship to the grid.  The Appeals courtroom ruling ended a tumultuous battle among the many PSC, photo voltaic firms together with Scenic Hill Photo voltaic, and rural electrical cooperatives together with the Arkansas Electrical Cooperative Corp. and Petit Jean Electrical Cooperative of Clinton.   

Entergy for its half had requested a discount within the present $0.10 cents/kilowatt-hour web metering fee. However the Arkansas PSC voted on June 1 to retain the present 1-to-1 full retail credit score for web extra era, for each residential and industrial prospects. 

In January 2022, the state started two applications to broaden EV charging infrastructure. One program offers rebates to authorities and non-profit teams that set up Stage 2 charging stations and the second program provides funding help for 3 DC quick charging stations. 

Entergy turning a inexperienced web page

Entergy Arkansas operates a service territory that encompasses greater than 80% of the state’s land space, whereas a western band of the state is split amongst rural electrical cooperatives, AEP SWEPCO and Oklahoma Gasoline & Electrical, with 12 communities that additionally present their very own electrical energy. 

Earlier than this yr, many argued the state gave the impression to be shifting slowly to undertake widespread photo voltaic subsequent to its coveted fuel and coal-fired energy vegetation.  Nonetheless, utility Entergy Arkansas revised its 2021 IRP mid-year.   

On June 30, 2022, the out-of-state investor-owned utility filed a request for proposal for 1 GW  of photo voltaic and wind era sources, to enter operations between Could 2025 and December 2026. Then Entergy held one other local weather change assembly and introduced its long-term renewables proposal to 4 GW of recent capability by 2030.  

On the 2022 UN Local weather Change Convention, an MOU between Entergy Arkansas and the U.S. Common Providers Administration was introduced targeted on attaining web zero power sources within the firm’s service territory.  

Entergy Arkansas, the state’s largest utility firm owned by New Orleans-based Entergy, filed a 2021 built-in useful resource plan, which from 2023 to 2042 will see the Arkansas utility firm shift away from pure fuel mixed cycle fuel generators and different baseload era in favor of extra renewable power sources coming on-line comparable to its first three photo voltaic tasks. 

Previous to revising its 2021 IRP this yr with web zero targets, the majority of the utility’s power transition was fueled by pure fuel mixed cycle fuel turbine (CCGT) amenities, with lower than a number of hundred MW of anticipated photo voltaic capability. However following the utility’s 2022 shift, Entergy Arkansas’ gasoline combine shifted to incorporate greater than 4 GW of recent photo voltaic, power storage and a few wind developments. 

It’s price noting that Entergy Arkansas has the very best capital spend plan of all Entergy’s utilities for brand spanking new era sources within the coming years, with Arkansas as the one state to see $1 billion dedicated to new era investments in 2024 alone, up from $455 million in 2023, reflecting the shift from previous baseload era to new renewables sources.  

Two remaining Arkansas coal-fired producing vegetation, White Bluff (1.8 GW) and Independence (1.7 GW), could also be shut down by 2026 timeframe fairly than 2028 as initially deliberate, stated the SREA, nicely forward of schedule on 2030 web zero plans.  The curtain name for the coal sources offers a big sufficient displacement for brand spanking new photo voltaic, storage and wind developments to fill.

Landmark photo voltaic installations

Arkansas’ two largest photo voltaic farms every have 100 MW of producing capability and got here on-line over the past two years. 

The Chicot Photo voltaic Farm in Lake Village, Arkansas got here on-line in September 2020. The undertaking has 350,000 photo voltaic panels unfold over 825 acres and provides sufficient energy for 18,000 houses.  The undertaking was developed by NextEra Vitality Assets and is the second of 4 photo voltaic tasks be procured for Entergy Arkansas beneath a 20-year energy buy settlement. 

Entergy’s third photo voltaic undertaking, Searcy Photo voltaic farm, is positioned northeast of Little Rock and got here on-line in January 2022. Searcy marks the primary photo voltaic plus power storage deployment within the state with storage capability of 10 MW (30 MWh) of capability and was put in by NextEra. 

Entergy’s first photo voltaic undertaking to come back on-line was Stuttgart Photo voltaic, an 81 MW facility positioned in Arkansas County about 55 miles east of Little Rock. The undertaking was activated in 2018 and offers $8 million in further tax income to the county.  

Future tasks within the state are aiming larger and bolder. Driver Photo voltaic, a 250 MW photo voltaic facility being developed by Lightsource bp, is predicted to enter industrial scale operations in late 2024. 

Up subsequent 

The subsequent cease on the pv journal USA tour of photo voltaic incentives can be Louisiana.