By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
Community solar is taking the United States by storm, and it’s increasingly being used by states to provide access to solar to non-traditional solar constituencies like low-income and communities of color. And as Utility Dive reported this week, Washington is the latest state to announce the rules it will use to govern these projects.
To say they are a bit byzantine is an understatement, and solar advocates in the state told Utility Dive that they’re afraid the new regulations will have the opposite effect than the one intended.
…the regulation comes from a place of concern over consumer protections and against for-profit entities entering the market and “overpromising the benefits of community solar to potential customers,” [Jaimes Valdez, policy manager at Spark NW] said.
However, “especially the housing agencies that are trying to develop community solar are overly burdened by incentives intended to apply to larger companies that are more sophisticated,” he added. “We hope there can be a longer term view of what community solar means outside of this incentive program and ways for people to actively participate in a renewable energy future … including communities of color that haven’t traditionally been able to access that solar.”
One of the problems is that the state incentive for community solar is capped at $110 million by statute, and the number of project currently in the queue have put it close to hitting its cap.
As advocates told Utility Dive,
Spark NW, along with NW Energy Coalition and Solar Installers of Washington, fears that the new regulations may prevent smaller entities, such as affordable housing groups or nonprofits, from clearing the layers of red tape needed to apply.
While Washington’s heart may be in the right place in trying to protect consumers, making community solar more difficult to access – and limiting the entities that can do it to large companies and/or utilities – defeats the democratizing (small ‘d’) effects community solar is trying to achieve. It’s time for the legislature to go back to the drawing board and rethink its approach to community solar so more people have the opportunity to participate in it.