By Chip Martin, Special to Solar Wakeup
I don’t know Brian Keane, except by reputation. My fellow solar advocates tell me he’s a really nice guy: smart, eloquent and a strong advocate for renewable energy and energy efficiency through his organization SmartPower.org.
I glanced at his LinkedIn profile and could tell immediately he was honest: In 1992, he worked for the Paul Tsongas campaign. I didn’t vote for Mr. Tsongas, but I respected and admired his probity and honesty. The fact that Tsongas allowed Keane to be such an intimate part of his campaign speaks volumes — all good — about his character.
A quick glance at SmartPower’s website shows his heart is in the right place when it comes to the solar industry. But I fear his head is not.
Those fears deepened when I saw the article Keane bylined for SmartGridNews.com.
He starts out well, lauding the rapid growth of solar and giving credit for the growth to net-metering. He writes:
That situation involves “net metering” — an ingenious program that allows residential solar owners to sell energy back to the utility when they aren’t using it. Net metering has been a key component — with other financial incentives — to building the solar market in the United States. Indeed, in the mid-2000s, as solar was struggling to get a toe-hold, it provided much of the momentum to keep solar moving forward.
So far, so good. Keane assesses the role net-metering has played in solar’s exponential boom of the past 10 years. He’s absolutely right about that, and it continues to play a vital role in its continued success. And we are winning almost all the battles on that front.
The incomparable Rosana Francescato, curator of the PV Solar Report, wrote a stellar piece detailing the wins net-metering has had so far — and will continue to have as 2014 continues. Rosana’s money quote is fabulous:
It’s because net metering has been so successful, and continues to be so popular, that utilities and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a primary trade association for U.S. utility companies, are fighting it so hard. The pattern is to attempt to undermine net metering through legislation that directly attacks consumer energy choice, while maintaining an energy monopoly.
(By the way, the PV Report is an invaluable source of news for the PV solar industry. If you’re not signed up for its e-newsletter and you’re in the industry, you’re nuts. Go do it now, for crying out loud — you won’t be disappointed.)
Starting with the epic battle in Arizona last year, it’s been a string of victories for net-metering. Massachusetts looks like consumers will win their net-metering battle there. Washington kicked ALEC back in the gutter where they belong. And Vermont just increased its net-metering cap to 15%
If you support the solar industry, you have to support net-metering, don’t you?
Not according to Keane:
Net metering is still a win for the solar customer and for the installer, but increasingly it’s less and less beneficial to the utility companies, who have been — and must continue to be — real partners in rooftop solar. If the economics don’t work for the utility companies, their non-solar customers and their regulators, solar will be the loser.
Um, what?
Why do solar consumers have to care at all about the utilities’ interests? Really? These state-supported monopolies, with set prices and guaranteed profits (sounds awfully socialist to me)? I gotta make sure they are happy?
Yeah, I’ll pass. After all, solar is about shattering the status quo, not supporting it.
And then there’s this (emphasis mine):
As a result of those shifting dynamics, we may be on the precipice of a classic case in which the policies need to catch up with the technology and the marketplace. If we want solar to be financially viable for the long term, it’s right to take a look at net metering — and all our incentive programs — to ensure that they are doing the job that the solar industry needs to make it attractive to all key players.
The 1603 Treasury Grant program was an incentive. State SRECs are incentives. Rebates are incentives.
Net-metering? Not so much.
In fact, net-metering is far more free market than the utilities (which, of course, is why EEI and ALEC are trying to scuttle the programs). The consumers produce electricity and sell it back at a fair market price, set by — wait for it — the utilities.
That’s the wizard behind the curtain that no one wants you to see. Forget the “unfairness” argument (usually versions of “solar customers are moochers because they’re using the grid without paying for it, which is nonsense — but that’s a column for another day). It all comes down, as most things do, to Cold. Hard. Cash.
Solar threatens the entire basis of utilities’ existence, so they’re going to fight — hard — to destroy the single most successful program in encouraging solar’s growth.
I’m sure Brian Keane means well, but I worry that he doesn’t fully understand the implications of his argument. Those of us who understand net-metering and its importance — without revisions — to the solar industry might want to reach out to him and ask him to reconsider his position.