Legislature must act to keep solar glowing
Sunday, June 28, 2009
One of the keys to the expansion of solar power has been the opportunity for homeowners and businesses to receive credits for the amount of excess electricity they send back to the grid. This incentive - known as a "net metering" requirement - was broadened under the 2006 California Solar Initiative, which was designed to put the state in the forefront of alternative energy generation.
That law required investor-owned utilities, such as the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., to provide such credits to its customers, within certain constraints. The intent was to give homeowners the chance to lower their energy bill, not to turn single-family residences into major power stations. The offsets - which owners of solar panels gleefully refer to as "spinning the meter backward" - could not exceed a customer's historic peak demand.
The program has been so successful that it is about to bump up against another limitation in the California Solar Initiative: Utilities were required to accept as much as 2.5 percent of their total electricity load from net-metering customers.
PG&E is expected to reach that 2.5 percent threshold next year.
The end of net metering would deprive Californians of a economic incentive to install solar panels on their roofs.
To keep the solar momentum rolling, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, introduced AB560 to raise the net-metering limit to 10 percent of a utility's load. Her bill, which cleared the Assembly on a 47-22 vote, is scheduled to face its first Senate hearing this week.
This bill would seem to be a slam dunk, but it has encountered resistance from several fronts, some predictable and some unexpected.
One of the arguments against net metering is that it is a subsidy for the rich. As Skinner noted, however, there is a significant public benefit to the net-metering projects installed on schools, jails, post offices and small businesses.
"They made that investment because it hedges them against future utility costs," she said. "They're not doing this just to be green, they want the security of lower electricity bills for 20 to 25 years."
Also, the expansion of the solar industry - which is accelerated by incentives such as net metering - is the key to driving down the price and making the solar option more inviting to middle-class customers.
The other barrier to passage of AB560 is opposition from investor-owned utilities - including PG&E and Southern California Edison. In a letter to the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, PG&E suggested it would be premature to raise the net-metering cap without a "complete understanding of the costs associated with such an increase." PG&E asked legislators to withhold action until the California Public Utilities Commission completed a study on the costs and benefits of net metering.
However, the CPUC position on AB560 is clear: Its commissioners voted unanimously to endorse the measure.
This is hardly a radical move. Eighteen other states with net metering do not put any ceiling on the amount of customer-generated electricity that utilities can accept. Utah recently raised its net-metering limit to 20 percent of a utility's load.
"California has had almost 500 megawatts of solar installed to date, most of that in the last two years as a result of the California Solar Initiative," said David Hochschild, a leading solar advocate. "So a failure to get this bill out of the state Senate would undermine all the job creation and clean air benefits that the solar industry can provide to California."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to take an official position on AB560, but Skinner is confident he will sign it if it reaches his desk.
"It completely aligns with his goal of a million solar roofs," she said.
It's now up to the California Senate to keep this laudable goal on track.
Contact: Encourage your state senator to support AB560. You can find names and contact information at www.senate.ca.gov. Sen. Alex Padilla, chair of the Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, can be reached via e-mail at senator.padilla@sen.ca.gov.
This article appeared on page E - 10 of the San Francisco Chronicle
And a little further expanation (also from the Chronicke):
SOLAR INCENTIVES
Spinning the meter backward
Sunday, June 28, 2009
How it works:
Customers with solar panels are provided credits for the full retail value of the electricity they send back to the grid.
Over a 12-month period, a net-metering customer pays only for the net amount of utility electricity they consumed at their location.
The annual credits cannot exceed a customer's utility bill.
Who uses net metering?
There are more than 40,000 net-metering customers statewide, including more than 100 government and public entities (cities, water districts, counties, schools, federal installations) and hundreds of private companies of all sizes.
Are state incentives working?
Of the 500 megawatts of solar installed to date, most of that has been in the past two years, since the adoption of the California Solar Initiative, which set an ambitious target of 3,000 megawatts of solar by 2017.
What happens without AB560?
Electricity generated by net metering is expected next year to reach 2.5 percent of PG&E's load - which means the utility would no longer be required to accept new net-metering customers.
States without net-metering limits:
Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Wyoming. The District of Columbia also has a net-metering program without a cap.
Source: www.solaralliance.org
I'm calling my State Senator. Are you?
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