Impacts

Learn about the Distributed Generation Market Demand (dGen™) Model’s impacts on distributed generation research at NREL and beyond.

Photo of a building in a rural setting. The building has solar panels and medium-size wind turbines in the background.

Distributed Wind Energy Futures Study

NREL added new, higher-resolution data and modeling capabilities to the Distributed Wind model—a module within the dGen model suite—to understand opportunities for widespread U.S. distributed wind deployment in 2035.

dGen-Supported Studies

Photo of a Tesla power wall on the side of a house.

New York State Case Study

dGen modeled the potential of behind-the-meter and front-of-the-meter distributed solar and wind systems for each parcel of property in New York State, where the New York State Public Service Commission has been pioneering new compensation mechanisms for distributed energy resources.

Rooftop Solar Potential Analysis for Orlando Utilities Commission

NREL analysts customized dGen for the Orlando Utilities Commission, helping to better understand the city's rooftop solar potential. With dGen detailed insights, Orlando energy planners now know where exactly to focus grid infrastructure efforts.

Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study

dGen modeled customer-adopted distributed energy resources for each building in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s service territory, identifying how much is technically feasible, economically viable, and ultimately adopted. Read Chapter 4: Customer-Adopted Rooftop Solar and Storage in The Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study.

Graphic of five icons interconnected with lines, including hydrogen, batteries, pumped hydropower, wind, solar, and a globe to represent diverse storage technologies and how they contribute to the grid.

Storage Futures Study

dGen modeled cost-effectiveness and customer adoption of battery storage coupled with solar photovoltaics for residential, commercial, and industrial entities in the United States with different technology costs, storage valuation, incentives, and compensation. Read Distributed Solar and Storage Outlook: Methodology and Scenarios.

Illustration showing various electricity consumers (e.g., buildings) along an electrical cord emanating from various power sources (e.g., a wind turbine), with an outline of the contiguous United States as a background.

Electrification Futures Study

dGen provided operating and maintenance cost data for distributed photovoltaics to support analysis on the changes to U.S. generation and transmission infrastructure investments, fuel use, system costs, and emissions from widespread electrification. Read Scenarios of Power System Evolution and Infrastructure Development for the United States.

Standard Scenarios

dGen models customer adoption of distributed photovoltaics to feed into the annually released Standard Scenarios—a technology cost and performance database that captures a wide range of possible power system futures to study market and policy impacts on the electricity sector.

Photo of a person installing rooftop solar on a house.

Credit for Renewable Energy Program Payments Preference Review

NREL provided Washington State Legislature’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee with technical assistance using dGen to model the impacts of a state tax credit program for renewable energy payments. Based on dGen results, the committee recommends that Washington State let the program expire in 2030. Read 2021 Tax Preference Performance Reviews: Credit for Renewable Energy Program Payments.

Wisconsin Rooftop Solar Potential

Cadmus, a technical consultancy, customized dGen to simulate market adoption potential of rooftop solar PV in the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin service territory. dGen projects significant solar technical potential, but only a small fraction could be adopted by 2034. A statewide net metering policy could accelerate adoption.

In the News

Lower Battery Costs, High Value of Backup Power Drive Distributed Storage Deployment

NREL's dGen™ Analysts Team Up With Orlando Utilities Commission to Forecast Customer Solar Adoption

2020 Standard Scenarios Outlook Models Possible Evolution of U.S. Electricity Sector With Expanded Metrics

NREL Unveils Open-Source Distributed Generation Market Demand Model

Into the Unknown: Ben Sigrin Models How Consumers Adopt Renewables