Executive Summary
Background
Solar photovoltaics (PV) is a commercially proven
technology and, in markets with incentives, can compete
with traditional fossil fuel-based power. Wider adoption
and decreases in manufacturing costs are driving down
the cost of solar electricity. As the industry grows and
matures, it will optimize and standardize its practices
to further reduce costs and make solar energy accessible
to a mainstream market. The crucial role of policy in
accelerating this industry growth and maturation cannot
be understated. Today, however, several barriers remain
to bringing solar PV to scale:
- Transaction costs can be high. Because the industry
is fragmented and installation processes are not
standardized around the country, each developer
has different procedures and negotiated contracts.
Allocating internal staff resources to research solar
power and to negotiate fair contracts for each
potential site can be expensive.
- Learning takes time and effort. Potential buyers
have to learn on their own about the solar market,
financing, and technology, while building internal
consensus for moving forward.
- Demand is fragmented with many individual sites
being developed opportunistically. The current
patchwork approach of designing, permitting,
contracting, and installing systems for one facility at
a time is inefficient.
These barriers help explain the slow pace of solar
PV adoption among commercial and government
consumers. However, collaborative purchasing can
help overcome these barriers and scale up solar PV
deployment. By organizing interested consumers
(and their potential installation sites) into groups,
collaborative purchasing can reduce transaction costs,
educate potential buyers, and aggregate demand so that
solar panels can be installed at lower-than-average costs.
Purpose
This Best Practices Guide is intended to assist
commercial and government entities in the process of
organizing and executing a collaborative solar purchase.
A measure of success will be the number of readers who
use this guide in purchasing solar power to meet their
electricity needs more sustainably and at an affordable
price. The guide outlines a list of best practices, which
together constitute a 12-step process to capture the
economic and practical benefits of a joint purchase. The starting point for participating in such an effort is
simply an interest in purchasing solar electricity. The best
practices are intended as a resource for project planning
and decision making. They provide specific actions in
chronological order, with milestones to indicate when
to move from one step to the next. The end goal is
that regional groups of participants will have solar PV
installed on their facilities at competitive prices.
Experts in the solar energy field, including those
specializing in regional collaboration, helped to develop
the best practices presented here. They are based on
extensive research and real-world experiences, and
are supported by case studies (one a private sector
collaborative and one with public-sector participants).
These two cases were unique models of regional
collaboration, among the first in the country at this
scale. Like all new approaches to a problem, both efforts
encountered challenges along the way. Throughout
the guide, we illustrate the lessons learned from these
challenges, point out pitfalls to avoid, and highlight ways
to streamline the process. We also provide resources,
such as solicitation and procurement documents,
participant questionnaires, and evaluation criteria.
<
p>By promoting the use of this guide and sample
documents, we hope to encourage the use of these
models for regional collaborative efforts. Successful
collaboration can lead to lower costs, increased
competition and vendor performance, and better projects
with higher visibility.
<
p>
Twelve Steps for Collaborative Solar Purchasing
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1
Early regional recruiting
RESULTS:
Initial participants indicate interest and agree to proceed with site identification and assessment in next stage.
2
Initial participant questionnaire
RESULTS:
List of potential participating organizations with site opportunities and considerations documented.
3
Solar project workshop
RESULTS:
All participants share common understanding about the basics of collaborative purchasing, key metrics to evaluate, timeline, and expectations of them. Lead organization has been identified.
4
Consolidated analysis of sites
RESULTS:
Compelling technical overview of total purchase size and individual bundles. This initiative overview is consolidated into packet including talking points explaining expected benefits for participants and lead organization.
5
Internal decision maker consultation
RESULTS:
Buy-in to proceed in procurement process to drafting RFP is obtained from decision makers in each participant/lead organization.
6
Design of procurement process & documents
RESULTS:
All participants agree to procurement process, template contracts, and standard terms with understanding of risks and opportunities.
7
Request for proposals
RESULTS:
RFP issued with compelling bids received from potential vendors.
8
Proposal evaluation
RESULTS:
Winning bidder is selected for each bundle through competitive process that ensures best-value vendor selection.
9
Negotiations and award
RESULTS:
Negotiations are complete with successful award and signed contracts with a qualified vendor for each bundle, within agreed timeline.
10
Installation project management
RESULTS:
Solar PV systems are properly built to meet or exceed specifications and safety standards.
11
Commissioning and operations
RESULTS:
Successful solar installations demonstrate energy production and savings as planned for 25 years or more.
12
Celebration of success
RESULTS:
Participants’ internal and external stakeholders, regional community, and government are aware of the positive impact of this effort and support future projects.
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