Search

Graphical abstract Highlights • Technology cost and utility rate structure are key drivers of economic viability of solar and storage systems. • Solar-plus-storage systems are more often economical under time of use and demand charge rates. • Savings from storage-only projects come mainly from demand charge reductions; solar combined with storage also provides energy charge savings. • Savings from solar with storage is largely independent of building load variability, likely due to the energy cost reductions from the solar. Abstract This paper explores the economics of solar-plus-storage projects for commercial-scale, behind-the-meter applications. It provides insight into the near-term and future solar-plus-storage market opportunities across the U.S. We explore the impacts of location, building load profile, technology cost, utility rate structure, and policies on solar-plus-storage economic viability, and identify which factors are most significant to project economics. While savings from storage-only projects are largely derived from demand charge reductions, solar combined with storage also provides significant energy charge savings. A common assumption is that load profiles with peaks are likely candidates for savings from storage, due to the opportunity for demand charge reduction. Our results indicate that potential for savings from combining solar with storage is independent of building load variability, likely due to the energy cost reductions from the solar. Systems are more often economical under time of use and demand charge rates, particularly when demand charges are >$10 per kilowatt. Where systems were found to be economical, expected lifetime savings averaged between 7%–10%, with savings of 30% in numerous cases. Near term markets exist for solar-plus-storage in locations such as California and New York. As technology prices drop, the number of building types that can benefit increase, and additional markets appear in Colorado, New Mexico, and Alaska. All data from the study and interactive modeling results are available at: https://openei.org/wiki/Solar+Storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role imported funds play in California's (CA) economic development. It comments on the role that out-of-state mortgage investments have played in the provision of real estate facilities such as housing. It states there are six primary sources for mortgage investment funds in CA: savings and loan associations, life insurance companies, the U.S. Federal National Mortgage Association, mutual savings banks, commercial banks, and the domestic Cal-Vet program, with the single largest out-of-state investor being life insurance companies. It comments on transmission belts for capital imports with the most significant transmission belt being federal housing credit programs.

This article explains how industrial growth is related to expanding metropolitan areas and sets forth specific recommendations for assuring balanced growth of the two. Two specific questions which are which are fundamental to an understanding of the problem are discussed. First, what is the relationship between the expansion of manufacturing and population growth in metropolitan areas? Second, how can the available resources of an area be most effectively managed as population expands? These questions are considered as they apply to several developing metropolitan areas in California.

Foods derived from genetically modified (GM) crops include fruits, vegetables and grains and are the result of a process by which foreign genes are spliced into a related or nonrelated species resulting in a genetically modified organism. GM modified foods have been a part of the food chain in the United States for more than a decade while incurring little of the controversy exhibited in European countries. Paralleling this divergence in consumer attitudes are differences in national policies regarding labeling of GM foods. The countries of the European Union and others have adopted a policy of mandatory labeling of GM food content while the United States has followed a policy of voluntary disclosure. California Proposition thirty seven called for the implementation of mandatory labeling of GM foods within the state and has major implications regarding policy in the rest of the United States. This study examines the literature regarding national policies toward GM food labeling in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan and other economies and is followed by a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of GM labeling policies that has been developed in this research stream. The results of the recent election in California are presented and the implications for policy changes in the United States are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]