A community solar project by Castillo Engineering.
Today, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is unveiling a new policy agenda that details the critical actions that local, state and federal leaders must take to strengthen the reliability of America’s electric grid with solar and storage technologies.
As the Trump Administration strives to meet the skyrocketing energy demands of AI, data centers and new American innovation, SEIA’s policy blueprint aims to chart the course to generate the electricity the economy needs.
With solar and storage making up the vast majority of new electric generating capacity being added to the grid, SEIA’s “Solar and Storage Industry Policy Agenda for a Reliable, Secure Grid” offers a blueprint for modernizing energy infrastructure, supporting development of domestic supply chains, heavily investing in battery storage and more.
“The reliability of our electric grid — and America’s ability to meet future energy demand — depend on adding more solar and storage to the energy mix,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA. “Today, reliable low-cost solar and storage account for the vast majority of the new power generation being built in America. If this administration is serious about winning the AI race, we need policymakers at every level to put in place commonsense, grid-strengthening policies that accelerate solar and storage deployment. Enacting this agenda will help us meet skyrocketing demand for energy and keep energy prices down for families.”
The policy agenda calls for reliability-focused policy actions at the local, state and federal level, including supporting development of domestic supply chains, reforming interconnection, scaling energy storage technology, leveraging the benefits of distributed solar and storage and investing in transmission infrastructure that brings reliable clean energy to every community.
SEIA’s reliability policy agenda includes:
- Supporting development of domestic supply chains and traceability standards for solar and energy storage products and components
- Meeting the demand challenges of AI and data centers by creating regulatory fast tracks for solar and storage projects co-located in high-growth load zones
- Reforming interconnection processes to reduce costly delays and get solar and storage on the grid faster
- Modernizing transmission infrastructure to expand the grid’s capacity to transmit more electricity
- Investing in long-duration storage by fostering new research and deployment strategies
- Reforming wholesale market design to properly account for the value solar and storage bring to the grid
- Reforming state utility resource planning to evaluate solar and storage as capacity and energy resources that support reliability
- Incentivizing Distributed Energy Resource (DER) programs, including unlocking virtual power plants to strengthen the local and bulk power grid
In July, SEIA launched a new grassroots advocacy campaign to mobilize Americans nationwide to urge state officials to support policies that strengthen the reliability and security of our electric grid by investing in solar and storage.
SEIA and its members will be advocating for this agenda in statehouses and Washington, D.C. in the coming months.
News item from SEIA
