Yesterday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and state Attorney General Martha Coakley announced an innovative approach to guiding solar development in the state. 2008′s Green Communities Act gave the state’s four investor-owned utilities through 2012 to develop up to 50 MW of solar capacity. But each service territory and customer base is very different from the others, and while diversity is great, it doesn’t make for cost-effectiveness. Accordingly, the official press release announced that:

…the Attorney General’s Office has agreed to work with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), and its Department of Energy Resources (DOER), to identify a unified and streamlined mechanism to serve consumers in all four service territories and develop the most cost competitive solar projects…In June, the Attorney General’s Office responded to Western Massachusetts Electric Company’s (WMECo) proposal to develop solar generation, the first of its kind under the Green Communities Act, by raising the statewide pooling concept as a way to provide more solar power generation to a wider customer base at lower cost.

We all know that solar’s biggest challenge is cost. We haven’t been deterred yet by its high price tag because it’s not only a sexy technology, it’s also one of the best renewable energies for distributed generation–state facilities might have acres of flat rooftop on which solar could be adding value, and which can’t host lower-cost technologies like wind or hydro. While state officials can’t make Massachusetts solar cheap just by wishing it, they are trying to keep the cost down with a centralized process. One entity would oversee all aspects of development, from identifying the sites to financing the solar projects.

Instead of each utility developing new infrastructure to deliver its solar goals in its own service territory, the new joint venture would be charged with developing the most cost competitive projects statewide through a series of procurements for large-scale (100kW or larger) projects.  The competitive procurement process will identify the most cost-effective projects for solar PV installation on commercial and industrial rooftops, municipal and state facilities, and other sites suitable for solar energy development.