Rooftop solar in N.E. boosts grid reliability even in winter

I missed one of the big stories in the recent ISO-NE analysis of the New England grid. I reported on the way it shows rooftop solar reduces costs for everybody, even those without solar – but I didn’t notice that ISO-NE acknowledged that behind-the-meter solar has gotten so big that it no longer needs to subsidize the huge Mystic gas-fired power plant in Massachusetts because even in winter, it can stabilize the grid.

I was alerted by the latest Carbon Copy podcast, in which Boston-area climate reporter Stephen Lacey (of the late, lamented Energy Gang) talks about this with another New England energy reporter, Ben Storrow: “Solar summer reliability? That makes sense – you don’t have to explain that too much in depth. Solar winter reliability? I think that’s a little counter-intuitive for a lot of people.