BRIDGES TO NEW SOLAR BUSINESS MODELS

The report argues that current U.S. distributed solar (DPV) business models are overly customer-centric and fail to capture operational grid benefits, leading to conflict between utilities and solar companies. It proposes three 'bridge' business model building blocks: increasing access via subscription models, optimizing deployment for capacity and grid services, and bundling solar with other distributed energy resources (DERs). The authors emphasize that maximizing DPV value requires collaboration to reduce 'soft costs' and a shift toward standardized valuation methodologies and transparent data sharing between stakeholders.

• Distributed solar photovoltaics (DPV) in the U.S. are growing rapidly but remain a small part of total generation, producing only 0.2% of electricity, while the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative targets 14% by 2030 and 27% by 2050.
• Existing DPV business models primarily focus on reducing upfront capital and hardware costs, ignoring critical operational value drivers such as location, timing, reliability, flexibility, predictability, and controllability.
• Significant opportunities to reduce DPV 'soft costs' exist through utility and solar company collaboration in areas such as site identification, customer acquisition, permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII), and financing.
• DPV can increase its capacity value for the grid by aligning production timing with peak load (e.g., using west-facing modules or trackers) and by being sited in constrained locations to defer expensive infrastructure investments.
• Advanced inverters enable DPV to provide grid support services beyond energy and capacity, including reactive power, voltage support, and frequency response, which can reduce system operating costs and future capital expenditures.
• The report proposes three 'bridge' business model building blocks to create 'win-win-win' outcomes: (A) Increasing access through subscription and community solar models; (B) Optimizing deployment as a grid resource; and (C) Bundling DPV with other DER technologies like storage and energy efficiency.
• A lack of standardized analytical methodologies and fragmented data access between utilities and solar companies hinder the ability to accurately calculate and monetize the net value of DPV.

APA

Bell, M., Creyts, J., Lacy, V., & Sherwood, J. (2014). BRIDGES TO NEW SOLAR BUSINESS MODELS. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/Bridges-to-New-Solar-Business-Models-report_2014.pdf

Chicago

Bell, Mathias, Jon Creyts, Virginia Lacy, and James Sherwood. BRIDGES TO NEW SOLAR BUSINESS MODELS. RMI, 2014. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/Bridges-to-New-Solar-Business-Models-report_2014.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bell |first1=Mathias |last2=Creyts |first2=Jon |last3=Lacy |first3=Virginia |last4=Sherwood |first4=James |title=BRIDGES TO NEW SOLAR BUSINESS MODELS |publisher=RMI |date=November 2014 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/Bridges-to-New-Solar-Business-Models-report_2014.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bell2014bridges, author = {Bell, Mathias and Creyts, Jon and Lacy, Virginia and Sherwood, James}, title = {{BRIDGES TO NEW SOLAR BUSINESS MODELS}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2014}, month = nov, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/Bridges-to-New-Solar-Business-Models-report_2014.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }