By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: This is going to shock a lot of you, but utilities would like the solar industry to stop harping on net metering and move to what they call "rate design."

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: This is going to shock a lot of you, but utilities would like the solar industry to stop harping on net metering and move to what they call "rate design."

• K Kaufmann, communications manager for the Smart Electric Power Association (the utilities' arm of the solar discussion) (SEPA), lays out the case for why moving the conversation away from net metering will help utilities.
• Oddly, however, it doesn't explain why there would be any advantage to the solar industry to move off net metering.

[caption id="attachment_9386" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Is the image of the sun setting on a utility pole too heavy handed? I worry it's a little heavy handed.[/caption] SolarWakeup’s View:  Sometimes, the jokes write themselves. So over at the Smart Electric Power Association (SEPA) blog, K Kaufmann lays out the case for why the solar industry should abandon its fight over net metering because...I guess...it hurts the utilities' feelings or something? The basic argument in the piece, apart from the head-nod to the vague concept of "rate desgin," is that fighting for net metering sets up a false conflict between the solar industry and utilities. After all, Kaufmann writes, utilities are adding solar at ever-rapidly increasing rates - why isn't the solar industry telling those stories, huh? In a vacuum, of course, Kaufmann is right. Utilities are adding solar at an ever-increasing rate. But what her analysis misses is the reason they are adding solar: They're afraid of losing their monopoly on electricity generation and, therefore, their livelihoods. At least, that's what most utility executives would tell you if you pumped them full of sodium pentathol and asked. In one of the most revealing passages in her piece, Kaufmann writes:

From colonial times to present day, the U.S. energy system has been built on successive transitions. The historical record clearly documents that such transitions are, by their very nature, messy, uncomfortable and confusing for all involved.

Who can argue with that? But here's my question in response: Why should we cling to a distribution and transmission system befitting a 19th century vision of the grid and the means to power it? As distributed generation grows - by which, to be clear, I mean non-utility-owned solar for purposes of this conversation - utility monopolies are becoming increasingly irrelevant. And while I'd never deny that transitions can be scary, I'd agree with Kaufmann that:

On the upside, they also create a lot of room for experimentation, innovation and cross industry collaboration.

But asking solar to renounce its most potent growth mechanism and put its faith in the benevolence of utilities is an absurd premise unless you are only looking at things from the utilities' perspective instead of looking at the question from all sides. This is the kind of reasoning that occurs when the utilities are in control - and that is not in solar's best long-term interests. More: The stories we aren’t telling: Focus on net metering misses the bigger picture (SEPA)

SPI Host Says, Forget Net Metering. Rate design is a false flag meant to lure solar advocates into a discussion of how we move into a large solar integration conversation. By changing the conversation from simple net metering to a complicated discussion about fixed charges, SEPA is saying to you, forget net metering. Last year ~3GW was distributed versus almost 10GW in utility scale. Gutting net metering is a fight to take energy choice away from the largest source of energy demand, the buildings across America so that more rate base can be invested. The larger point is that almost $4million from the trade shows we all attend goes to fund this rhetoric and I’m a bit tired of the status quo. Fighting for net metering means that all solar has a chance and grows across all of the value chains and we can’t have half of our trade show money going to values that don’t align with 90%+ of the solar industry because what does it say about our values if we don’t spend it on likeminded ventures.

A Runaway American Dream. The era of Chris Christie is over, Governor Phil Murphy is in the house now! NJ is going big with an enhanced RPS, SREC fixes and a community solar program. All of that on top of the PJM market will likely create some new development opportunities in Jersey. I look forward to seeing how this plays out over the next few years.

Exhibit A. For the past week, you (the readers) have been clicking on the South Carolina story of the day which caused Frank to have to cover the daily play by play. That’s the interesting part of the second story, we don’t control the topic, you do! But look at what happened in South Carolina where solar advocates, including Sunrun which has been reaching across the proverbial aisle as much as anyone, asked for a cap increase while utilities were busy losing billions on unbuilt power plants. After losing the vote, utilities pushed for a crazy rule that required the NEM cap increase to be approved by 2/3 of the House. What picture am I missing?

Exhibit B. Germany had a renewable energy auction and solar won all of the contracts with an average rate of 4.67 euro cents per kWh. In dollars that’s about 6 cents per kWh and Germany doesn’t have an ITC and has higher income taxes. Germany also has a similar irradiance level as Washington State or Southern Alaska. That’s the problem with ratebased solar power, the private sector can do the exact same thing but better and cheaper without a double digit return. If I were a regulator, I would require any rate based renewable energy or energy storage to have to compete with an open RFP. Get the picture?

Exhibit C. Here’s the bigger picture. (TL;DR) The monopoly system doesn’t work anymore. The market is moving on to consumer and retail choice. Produce your own, procure responsibly; cheaply or do nothing and go with the wires provider. Nuclear is a good example, the utility sector is pushing to build new and consumers through legislators supported this. Then it required money so they approved advanced cost recovery. Then the delays happened, bankrupt suppliers and whistleblowers. Now solar with storage is less than 5 cents per kWh in sunny areas. Time to move on and let the market handle the 21st century. Picture that.

Opinion

News

 

Have a great day!
Yann

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: John Tynan, executive director of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina, penned an excellent op-ed for The State, expressing his ... disappointment with the decision by the legislature to smother the solar industry in its crib by not removing South Carolina net metering caps. Some choice quotes:

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: John Tynan, executive director of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina, penned an excellent op-ed for The State, expressing his ... disappointment with the decision by the legislature to smother the solar industry in its crib by not removing South Carolina net metering caps. Some choice quotes:

• "H.4421 would have saved more than 3,000 solar jobs and ensured that the South Carolina solar industry will continue to thrive."
• "It’s clear utilities will stop at nothing to continue to keep making profits. And when customers install solar panels, utilities lose revenue."
• "... the utilities expect to get reimbursed for the electricity they’re not selling if I use solar energy."
• "I will not give up on the citizens and legislators who support H.4421. We will continue to fight."

SolarWakeup’s View:  I don't get writer's envy often anymore. After making a career out of this for the past 25 years, I'm pretty sure I've shown I know how to do this for a living and help support a wife, two kids, three cats and a dog on the proceeds. But sometimes someone writes something I wish I had, and so is the case with John Tynan's powerful piece about the South Carolina net metering debacle I have written about - but I lack the perspective of a homegrown South Carolina resident. Tynan, executive director of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina, wrote an op-ed for The State in which he excoriated the legislature for killing a bill that would have eliminated arbitrary residential net-metering caps that passed by overwhelming majorities just last week. In case you didn't read our coverage, I'll summarize what happened next this way:

UTILITIES: OVERRIDE THIS VOTE ON SOUTH CAROLINA NET METERING OR WE WILL NEVER SUPPORT YOUR CAMPAIGN(S) AGAIN! Some South Carolina legislators cowering in the corner: "OK, sure, whatever you say, bosses."

Which is how it came to pass that a net-metering cap bill became a "tax increase" bill, which needed a 2/3 majority to pass the House - which it failed to do by nine votes. Tynan wrote:

H.4421 recognized the irrationality of the utility argument and supported customer choice and the free market. It would have prevented non-solar customers from having to repay utilities for lost profits because other customers installed solar. This is what is fair.

And he ended his piece on what sure seems like, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, a note of hope:

While Tuesday was a dark day for solar in South Carolina, today I’m looking for the silver lining. I’m grateful for the foresight of many of our key leaders in the Legislature who supported solar jobs and lower rates for customers. I’m grateful for their dedication to protecting our future by protecting our rights and our energy choices, and I remain optimistic that we will ultimately come to an agreement that will protect South Carolina’s ratepayers and strengthen our clean-energy future.

As stirring as Tynan's words are, he can't do it alone. If you live in South Carolina or know someone who does, get on the phone right now and fight ... for your right ... to go solar. More: If we use solar, why should utilities get to charge us for electricity we don’t use? (The State) Utility Monopolies Screw SC Solar After Sneaky Shift On Bill South Carolina Sends Solar Soaring With Cap Removal

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The New Jersey legislature yesterday passed two bills - one in the House and one in the Senate - designed to jumpstart the state's solar industry by:

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: The New Jersey legislature yesterday passed two bills - one in the House and one in the Senate - designed to jumpstart the state's solar industry by:

• increasing the overall RPS to 50 percent by 2030
• enabling a community solar program
• shutting down its problematic sREC program
• reducing the overall cost of the current solar Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) by lowering the Solar Alternative Compliance Payment.

SolarWakeup’s View:  New Jersey has been quietly fuming as New York leapfrogged over it as a progressive state in the race for solar leadership. Well, yesterday, the Garden State told the world it was going back to the future and reclaiming the solar prominence it enjoyed under former Governor Jon Corzine. It's easy to forget now, but New Jersey once sat in the second spot of the Solar Energy Industries Association's Top 10 Solar States annual report not that long ago. But under a chaotic solar renewable energy credit (sREC) program combined with an exceedingly modest renewable portfolio standard (RPS), it had fallen all the way to fifth. And when most recent Governor Chris Christie left office with an RPS increase bill tucked neatly in his back pocket, the solar industry sighed heavily and resigned itself to slowly sinking even further. But take heart, New Jerseyans - Governor Phil Murphy is here, and the legislature is about to send him a combined bill that will not provide New Jersey the springboard it needs to vault back to the top of the solar states list and grab at least a few headlines from the ... colorful and bombastic governor of New York, who has been promoting solar in the Empire State like it's the last thing he's going to do on Earth. "We applaud the New Jersey legislature for its forward-looking decision in passing twin solar bills that will set the stage for the solar industry's continued expansion," said Jesse Grossman, CEO of Soltage. "Now it's time for the state's industry - Soltage included - to roll up our sleeves and get work in returning New Jersey to its proper place top tier solar states in the union." It's time for New Jersey to hop into the Delorean and go back to the future under its new governor. Not only is it good for the state, it also shows states like my own beloved Ohio that cloudy and cold should not inhibit the growth of a solar industry. I look forward to seeing New Jersey's comeback. It's long overdue. This article was edited at 1:44 pm ET to add comments from Jesse Grossman, CEO of Soltage. More: New Jersey Legislature Passes Bill Supporting State's Solar Sector New Jersey Solar Industry Receives Much-Needed Win