New England Solar Cost-Reduction Partnership: Accomplishments, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations

In 2013, five New England states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, with support and coordination from Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), — forged the New England Solar Cost-Reduction Partnership to help drive down regional solar soft costs and enable scaled deployment of rooftop solar. Over the past three years, the Partnership tackled a wide range of “soft cost” barriers to PV deployment, including: difficult, costly, and slow permitting and interconnection processes in some locations; the need for new financing tools and cost-efficient group purchasing arrangements; and unfavorable zoning rules for solar in some jurisdictions. This report offers the public insights about project accomplishments, successes, lessons learned, and recommendations for future actions.

CESA hosted a webinar on this report in November 2016. In this webinar, guest speakers from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont discussed the New England Solar Cost-Reduction Partnership’s activities and accomplishments, as well as lessons learned from the project. Watch it here.