As the penetration of distributed PV has increased, concern over cross-subsidization has grown as fewer customers are available to pay for fixed infrastructure costs (e.g., transmission and distribution costs). In 2013, Minnesota passed legislation allowing investor-owned utilities to offer a Value of Solar (VOS) tariff as an alternative to net metering which compensates excess PV-generated electricity at full retail rates. On March 12, 2014, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 to approve the specific methodology for calculating the value of distributed solar generation.

On February 13, 2014, a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the commercial operation of the 392 MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Located in the Mojave Desert on the California-Nevada border, the project is the largest solar thermal power project in the world and represents nearly 30% of the solar thermal energy capacity in the United States.

On February 25, 2014, the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and partners released a new report outlining the potential for appreciable customer defection from the electric grid in major markets by 2025. The report concludes the combination of solar PV and battery storage becomes cost competitive with retail electricity rates within the 30-year economic life of typical utility investments. Key drivers include the declining cost of distributed electricity generation and storage. Underlying these price declines is the growth of solar PV and the mass production of batteries for electrics vehicles.