Solar Bill Passed in Maine Sets the Stage for an Innovative Alternative to Net Metering

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http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Solar-Bill-Passed-in-Maine-Sets-the-Stage-for-an-Innovative-Alternative-to

Lawmakers in Maine voted last week to override a veto by Gov. Paul LePage to pass LD 1263, a legislative resolution that could help end debates on how to fairly compensate distributed energy producers.

The Resolve, as the legislation is labeled in Maine, directs the Maine Public Utility Commission to convene a stakeholder group to develop an alternative to net metering for the state legislature to take up in the new year. Under the current policy, utilities in Maine are required to credit customers at the variable retail electricity rate (about $0.13 cents per kilowatt-hour) for distributed solar generation produced on-site that is sent back to the grid.

The stakeholder initiative opens the door for utilities and solar advocates -- which have clashed in several other states -- to collaborate on a new, long-term solar incentive policy, before the federal solar tax credits expire at the end of 2016.

“[The Resolve] overcomes the current gridlock around net metering because it acknowledges that net metering works now and should continue to exist in the near term, but because it also acknowledges that at a certain penetration point, net metering will be replaced by a mechanism that is more market-sensitive,” bill sponsor Rep. Sara Gideon, a Democrat from Freeport, wrote in an email. “In this way, it is good for all customers, whether they are energy producers, energy consumers or both.”

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