By William Opalka
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill Monday that raises the net metering cap for solar energy systems while cutting payments to some solar owners by 40%.
The caps were raised from 4% to 7% of peak load for privately owned systems and from 5% to 8% for municipally owned installations. Single-phase systems below 10 kW and multiphase systems below 25 kW — such as residential rooftop arrays — will be exempt from the cap and reduced payments. Government systems will continue to receive full payment.
The increase comes as one local distribution company, National Grid, has already met its cap and another, Eversource Energy, was approaching its limit.
The bill grandfathers those systems connected under the lower cap for 25 years. Going forward, owners of new projects will be paid at 60% of the retail rate.
The bill also allows utilities to apply to state regulators for “a monthly minimum reliability contribution” — a fixed charge from the owners of solar systems.
The level of payments has been a sticking point for various stakeholders. (See New England Stakeholders Debate Solar Subsidies.)
The state’s business lobby blasted the compromise, saying it will continue to raise costs and that the exemption for public systems is merely an example of “taking care of your own.”
“The bill will not save ratepayers money and will not bring our program in line with other states. In fact, the bill will add $8 billion to the cost of energy over the next 10 years — 2 cents/kWh for residential customers and 1.6 cents/kWh for commercial and industrial customers,” the Associated Industries of Massachusetts said.
The Sierra Club also found fault with the bill, especially the lower payments that will be made to community solar or similar projects meant to benefit lower-income residents. “The bill as it stands sends a clear message that Massachusetts is not a safe place to invest in solar, even though it’s a clean energy resource that has brought increased economic investment and jobs to the state,” it wrote.
The solar industry claims 15,000 employees in Massachusetts, many of whom were laid off after legislators and the governor were unable to agree on a bill at the end of last year.
“The [bill] will put solar workers back on the job and enable more families and communities to save with solar, and for that we thank the hard work and perseverance of House and Senate leadership and all the Conference Committee members. However, we are concerned about some of the tough choices in this short-term compromise and hope to remedy them in future sessions,” said Sean Garren, Northeast regional manager for Vote Solar, an organization that promotes solar power as a way to fight climate change.
Garren and other advocates expect the higher cap to be reached as soon as the end of this year, forcing legislators to address the issue again.