Mass. Senate lifts solar cap as part of climate change bill
In an effort to help facilitate the state's goal of developing 1,600 megawatts of solar power by 2020, the Senate voted Thursday to raise the cap on the amount of solar power that can be sold back to the grid by consumers.
The provision, which was attached to broader climate change preparedness bill, would lift the cap to 1,600 megawatts of solar power, consistent with the goal set by former governor Deval Patrick. Gov. Charlie Baker has endorsed the goal, though his energy secretary, Matthew Beaton, has previously said he believes it could be met without lifting the cap.
The net-metering caps are calculated as a percentage of the peak electrical usage, and Sen. Benjamin Downing, who sponsored the provision, said the change would nearly double the cap.
Net metering, which allows utility customers with solar panels to sell power back to the grid at retail rates, is one of the incentives offered to encourage clean energy production. Utility companies have resisted efforts to lift the cap, arguing that customers without solar end up paying for it.
Downing's amendment, which provided a welcome surprise to environmental lobbyists who had watched the debate, was endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican. The full Senate adopted it on a voice vote.
The climate change bill passed the Senate unanimously after several amendments — which Tarr said would encourage climate change action plan developers to consider the cost-effectiveness of their recommendations — were rejected.
The bill moves to the House, where advocates say the bill’s prospects are unclear. Both branches are expected to recess after next week for the month of August.
"There's been a lot of discussion in the theoretical, but not enough in the actual, and the hope is that this is something concrete for people to react to, and I would hope that if the House or if the administration has a different way of going about this that they would put it on paper and we can get to what is our broadly shared goal," Downing told reporters.
The House is working on a "comprehensive energy bill," a spokesman for House Speaker Robert DeLeo said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Marc Pacheco said the climate change bill, which requires the state to develop a comprehensive preparedness plan, is "equally important" to the solar net metering cap lift.
"They're both important because one talks about preparing for the future based upon reacting to the severe weather effects of climate change that we can't change now, while at the same time preparing and cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions that will help us eliminate the worst effects of climate change in the future," Pacheco told reporters.
The current caps limit solar development to 4 percent of peak electricity load for private projects and 5 percent for public projects, with no limit on residential projects.
Utlities would be allowed to spread costs
Utility companies have urged the lawmakers to back a minimum charge on electric bills so that solar customers who generate most or all of their own energy consumption contribute toward the cost of maintaining the electrical grid. Downing said the state Department of Public Utilities would be empowered under the bill to spread the cost of additional solar across providers and service territories, so that one utility wouldn't have to shoulder the entire cost.
Downing's legislation would also lessen the divide between service areas, making customers throughout the state share the cost of solar. The cap has been reached in the National Grid Service area and Downing said it would soon be reached in areas covered by Eversource.
"The lines that are drawn for the utility service territories are pretty arbitrary," Downing said. "A solar development in Adams has just as much benefit for towns in the Eversource areas right around it as it does for Adams itself."
Since National Grid hit its net-metering cap in the spring, advocates have warned that solar projects are stalled. Downing said that if a cap lift is not signed into law by the early fall, projects will "start to go away" and the state will put its "leadership position" in the solar industry at risk. Starting with only a couple of megawatts of solar production in 2007, the energy source took off during Patrick's eight years in office and now totals roughly 860 megawatts, according to Downing.
The Downing amendment would also direct the Baker administration to develop a strategy to further develop the state’s solar industry beyond the cap into the future.
Tarr, who praised Downing's approach as a "prudent course of action," said the solar community would be "adversely impacted if we do not lift this cap." Separating the cap lift from the development of a longer-term approach for encouraging solar development would avoid mingling weighty policy considerations with the urgency that surrounds the net-metering cap, Tarr said.
Janet Besser, vice president of the New England Clean Energy Center, said that without a cap lift, projects in roughly half of Massachusetts were being stalled, with the exception of small, residential projects exempt from the limits.
"We did not know this was coming, but we're very pleased," Besser said, saying her organization would work hard to convince House lawmakers and the administration about the importance of lifting the cap soon.
Besser said the new 1,600-megawatt cap should carry the industry through at least January 2017, when federal tax credits are due to expire, ensuring that Massachusetts does not leave "federal dollars on the table." As for the state's solar generation targets, she said," It would be very difficult to get there without lifting the cap and it would be very expensive," relying mostly on small residential projects and limiting participation for a larger portion of the population.
The broader climate change legislation would direct the Baker administration to oversee a study to assess and develop an action plan to address threats posed by climate change to what Sen. Pacheco described as the "built and natural environment."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments