A legislative conference committee trying to bridge a philosophical gap between the House and Senate on solar power is making progress, but some new stumbling blocks are emerging.
Sources familiar with the discussions say the two sides are starting to bridge their differences over how much solar developers should be paid for the electricity they feed into the power grid, in part because of pressure from House members and municipalities. A new problem has emerged, however – how much should the cap on these so-called net metering payments be increased.
Under current law, solar power generators are paid a net metering rate for the electricity they produce and the total amount of net metering payments is capped in each of the state’s utility service territories. The cap in National Grid’s service territory was hit last year, and a backlog of projects has been growing there ever since.
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
Both the House and Senate bills in the conference committee raise the cap by two percentage points. Since the two branches are in agreement, the conference committee cannot change the size of the cap increase. But there is growing consensus that the backlog of solar projects waiting to launch will exhaust the two percentage-point cap increase in a matter of months. The fear is that the two-point increase will only be kicking the can down the road a few months before the controversial issue will have to be addressed again.
Sources say Senate negotiators want to see the cap issue more comprehensively addressed in the omnibus energy bill expected to emerge from the House next month, but House officials are reluctant, fearful the controversy over solar could derail the broader energy legislation. The conference committee on solar has been stalemated since late November.
The fate of another solar incentive is also up in the air. Solar renewable energy credits, or SRECs, were scheduled to end after the state reached 1,600 megawatts of installed solar capacity and be replaced with some new, less-lucrative incentive program. The conference committee’s failure to report out a bill has also stalled the development of the new SREC program. Sources say one possibility being considered is to temporarily extend the existing SREC program until its replacement can be fashioned, which could take months once the solar legislation is passed.
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