Renewable energy advocates have long touted the system-wide benefits of distributed solar, and Synapse's research adds a new data point to the argument. SunCommon officials said they knew solar contributes "in a big way" to the system during heatwaves, but "wanted to put numbers to it," co-founder James Moore said in a statement. The report says the amount of solar produced during the week-long July heatwave was the equivalent of removing 1.37 million homes from the grid. According to the analysis, states with higher load and more distributed solar experienced greater wholesale cost savings than states with less solar and lower power demand. SunCommon says Massachusetts holds about half of New England's solar capacity, and contributed $9.3 million in savings from solar during the period analyzed. New England solar power has increased times 60 between 2010 and 2017, the Synapse report notes. That growth is showing up in several ways. Absent efficiency and distributed resources, ISO-NE forecasts that overall electricity use would grow nearly 1% annually over the next 10 years. But when load modifying resources are considered, the ISO concluded both overall energy use and peak demand will decline. Tellingly, New England electricity consumers saw a day in April when mild weather and high solar output depressed daytime loads below those in the middle of the night — the opposite of typical patterns. Officials said it was a first for the system, but had been expected due the proliferation of distributed resources.
Solar energy produced during New England's this year heatwave in July resulted in wholesale power costs falling by almost $20m, equivalent to removing 1.37 million homes from the grid, according to Synapse Energy Economics. Analysis from ISO-New England said solar is expected to save 2,162 GWh week-long, rising to almost 4,800 GWh in 2027, with energy use and peak load shrinking due to efficiencies brought about by distributed solar.