With the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to rapidly decarbonize the energy sector, community solar has emerged as a powerful solution to promote energy equity, resiliency, and sustainability.
Community solar projects provide individuals and businesses with access to renewable energy sources without the need to build private systems. By increasing the amount of renewable energy on the grid, community solar projects play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving local air quality, and supporting climate action goals.
One of the biggest challenges faced by community solar project developers is connecting their projects to the grid. The interconnection process is time-consuming, complicated, and expensive, leading to delays and increased costs. Swift and efficient interconnection is essential to achieving climate targets and accelerating the adoption of renewable energy.
In this post, we'll explore how Kevala's Project Siting solution is specifically designed for solar and storage developers who develop community solar projects between 0.5 and 10 megawatts (MW) and the unique challenges they face in grid interconnection.
The Challenges of Grid Interconnection for Community Solar Developers
Connecting new projects to the grid can be a complex task. It involves finding optimal sites that meet regulatory and interconnection feasibility requirements, which can be difficult due to the challenges of land evaluation and acquisition. Additionally, the interconnection process can be complicated and expensive, requiring developers to submit applications and comply with safety and reliability standards.
Finding the ideal location for grid-connected solar or storage projects typically requires extensive research, travel, and the expertise of land consultants, which can be costly and time-consuming. Efficiently evaluating interconnection feasibility is crucial, as project development delays can result in significant financial losses.
But it's not just the difficulty in evaluating interconnection feasibility or finding an optimal site that poses challenges for project developers. Limited access to accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date grid data adds another layer of complexity to the process. As multiple stakeholders, including utilities, regulators, and other parties are involved, the interconnection process can become even more convoluted and lead to further delays.
Despite these challenges, the interconnection process is critical to the success of community solar projects, as it enables the delivery of renewable energy to customers. To overcome these challenges, developers can turn to Kevala's Project Siting solution to locate optimal sites, evaluate interconnection feasibility, and access up-to-date grid data.
How Kevala Helps Developers
Kevala's Project Siting solution is designed to help solar and storage developers overcome the challenges associated with locating and acquiring optimal development sites.
With Kevala’s cloud-based data analytics and visualization platform, project developers can access frequently updated data on hosting capacity and queue information, allowing them to make informed decisions about their projects. We have the most comprehensive grid and carbon datasets available on earth, which helps developers plan their projects for efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.
Developers can customize Kevala's platform to meet their specific project requirements, whether it's renewable integration, cost optimization, or other key objectives. Our collaborative workflow and team management tools facilitate seamless coordination among project teams and stakeholders.
Trusted by industry leaders, Kevala's solution delivers reliable data and insights, accelerating project timelines and driving the success of community solar initiatives.
Conclusion
Kevala is committed to supporting the growth of community solar by providing reliable, efficient, and cost-effective solutions for grid interconnection.
Our mission is to radically decarbonize the global economy, and we know that community solar developers are key players in achieving this goal. That's why we developed Project Siting, a solution that can help solar developers overcome the challenges of interconnection and bring clean, renewable energy to more people.
Request a Demo today to learn more about how Kevala can help make your community solar project a success.
