[act-ma] BASEA Forum, Thursday. May 12th, 7pm: Value of Solar, with expert Karl Rabago

[Mike H]

Location: First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist;  3 Church Street, Harvard Square

Time: Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; Presentation begins at 7:30 p.m

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The Boston Area Solar Energy Association is proud to welcome 
Karl Rabago, known as the foremost national authority on Value of Solar 
calculation methodology. Our Net Metering Solar Task Force's first 
recommendation called for a Value of Solar study to inform fair 
compensation for solar energy production by tying it to the real "value 
and impact of solar in Massachusetts". This is where solar policy is 
going, graduating from arbitrary one-for-one kilowatt-hour compensation -
 as if a clean energy kilowatt-hour has no more value than one generated
 burning polluting fossil fuels.

A weak solar bill just passed (April 11th), granting an 
anemic raise in net metering caps, which unfortunately lasted only 2 
weeks and 3 days until the cap was hit once again (April 28th), while 
also slashing compensation for low income and community shared solar 
projects. Next, the legislature plans to craft an 'omnibus energy bill',
 figuring it had got solar out of the way. Can we move to inject the 
sanity of Value of Solar (Distributed Generation) into this omnibus 
bill?

Karl Rabago has a knack for cutting through complexity to 
clearly and concisely present the broad view of how distributed energy 
resources are integrated from an economic and ratepaying perspective, 
honed through deep career experience in utility systems and policy work.
 (View Mr. Rabago's recent address to the Rhode Island state legislature
 for a primer,  here.) 
 Proper valuation of distributed energy resources is essential to the 
health of the new energy economy, as we transition from fossil fuel 
based centralized generation to add more and more local, clean energy.

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Karl  R. Rábago is the Executive 
Director of the Pace Energy and Climate  Center, at the Pace Law School 
in White Plains, New York. The PECC  mission is to protect the earth's 
environment through solutions that  transform the ways that society 
supplies and consumes energy. Karl has  some 25 years experience in 
energy and climate policy markets. Karl  serves as Chair of the Board of
 the Center for Resource Solutions, a San  Francisco-based 
non-governmental organization that works to advance  voluntary clean 
energy markets. He also sits on the Board of the  Interstate Renewable 
Energy Council (IREC). Karl also is co-director and  principal 
investigator for the Northeast Solar Energy Market Coalition,  a US DOE 
SunShot Initiative Solar Market Pathways project.


His  past positions include 
Commissioner, Texas Public Utility Commission;  Deputy Assistant 
Secretary at the US Department of Energy; Vice  President of Distributed
 Energy Services at Austin Energy; Director of  Regulatory Affairs for 
the AES Corporation and AES Wind; and Managing  Director & Principal
 of the Rocky Mountain Institute. A graduate of  Texas A&M 
University with a Bachelor of Business Administration  degree in 
Business Management, Karl is an attorney (University of Texas  Law 
School, J.D. with Honors) with post-doctorate degrees in  environmental 
(LL.M., Pace University School of Law) and military law  (LL.M., US Army
 Judge Advocate General's School). A veteran of more than  12 years in 
the US Army, he served as an Armored Cavalry officer and  member of the 
Judge Advocate General's Corps, and is Airborne and Ranger  qualified.
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