Why Distributed Power?

Recurrent Energy’s distributed solar projects enjoy several important advantages over central-scale projects: they deliver higher value to the grid, have less environmental impact, and feature shorter development timeframes. That means we can offer the quickest, most direct path to realizing the promise of solar—it’s a win-win-win for our customers, investors, and the environment.

Distributed power delivers higher value to the grid. Recurrent Energy’s distributed solar power projects feed electricity to utility distribution networks or directly offset customer loads. By locating our plants at the distribution level, we benefit from the fact that power is progressively more expensive as it flows to the point of consumption. Further, distributed power enables utilities to defer investment in new peaker plants and network upgrades, further enhancing its value in electricity markets.

Distributed power bypasses time-consuming land use issues. A core part of our approach is to avoid use of pristine wilderness—instead we site our projects on brownfield land, industrial and previously disturbed land, parking lots, and industrial rooftops.

Distributed power plants don’t require new transmission. One of the things that slows central-scale development timeframes is the permitting associated with bringing new transmission to remote sites. Distributed-scale projects can be directly connected to the existing grid, bypassing the transmission permitting and approval process.

Distributed solar projects can be interconnected faster. Projects under 20 MW benefit from faster interconnection approvals. Furthermore, solar projects can be sized to fit the existing transmission capacity on the grid which further accelerates approval.

Distributed-scale projects are quicker to permit and build. By focusing on projects in the 2 MW – 20 MW range, we avoid the intensive permitting complexities of central-scale power projects. Once permitted, distributed-scale projects can be completed in a matter of months.