Workshop: Reimagining Interconnection for Solar Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) hosted the second Reimagining Interconnection for Solar Energy (RISE) workshop on June 10, 2021, from 12 – 5 p.m. ET. This workshop convened non-utility stakeholders in the transmission and distribution space to discuss innovative ways to achieve faster, fairer, and more equitable interconnection while enhancing grid reliability with the addition of solar and solar+ resources such as solar+storage and solar+wind.

This workshop connected SETO staff with participants who are developing, building, and supporting large-scale, community-scale, and residential solar and solar+ resources to brainstorm and provide feedback. It included roundtables and Q&A sessions with developers, off-takers, designers, and solution providers to discuss the state-of-the-art and future landscape of solar and solar+ interconnection.

Participants were from the following sectors that deal with interconnection:

• Solar and Solar+ Developers (Transmission-, Community-, and Residential-scale)
• Solution Providers in Software, Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS), and Data Analytics
• Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Firms
• Community Solar and Solar+ Off-takers
• Commercial and Industrial Off-takers
• Financing and Insurance Sectors
• Independent Power Producers
• Regulators
• Other Non-utility Stakeholders (specify in registration)

This workshop was the second in the RISE series. The first workshop focused on utility stakeholder perspectives on solar interconnection.

Presentations and key takeaways from this workshop will be added to this page soon.