The success of the solar industry is in our hands! Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker just announced a fabulous new solar loan and rebate program that would enable renters and homeowners the opportunity to invest in solar electric systems also called photovoltaics or PV. However, at the same time, the Massachusetts House of Representatives is considering a bill that would make it impossible for renters or people without roofs that face the sun or are too shaded to invest in PV.
The new solar loan and rebate program is designed to enable anyone to invest in solar and have monthly payments equal to or less than the electric bills they pay today. There is NO down payment. No need to own a home. Additionally, those with a household income of less than $80,000 receive a rebate of up to 30 percent.
How does it work? If you own a home and want to install PV, contact a local PV installer, and ask them to come and assess your home to see if solar can be put on it. The installers know about this new loan and rebate program, as well as all the other incentives already in place, and will calculate what it will cost to put solar on your home.
If you do not own a home, or if your home is not appropriate for solar due to solar access or other issues, you have the option of finding a company that is building what is called a community-shared solar (CSS) system. This is a larger PV system that anyone can buy a piece of. There is only one hitch! Read on.
Legislation being considered in the House (H3854) would kill the solar industry in Massachusetts. Our Legislature created the solar industry in Massachusetts in 2008 by passing the Global Warming Solutions Act. Solar now employs 15,000 people and is the fastest growing sector in Massachusetts. So why would we want to kill the industry?
The utility companies have been lobbying because they do not want to accommodate more electricity produced by wind and solar because it does not fit into their business model. For many years, they have generated electricity at large plants. But they can change and build a system like Germany’s or Denmark’s where over 50 percent of their electricity is generated by wind and solar. While utility companies are OK with small residential PV systems, they do not want the larger systems, such as community-shared solar systems to come online. They have therefore lobbied to have a cap on larger systems and we have reached that cap, and they do not want it removed or raised. If this bill passes, the option of CSS will no longer exist!
The present system also makes CSS less financially attractive than putting PV on your roof. People who install PV on their roof benefit from something called net-metering. How it works is that the utility company is obligated to purchase every kilowatt-hour of electricity generated by PV at the retail rate. For CSS, the utility company only pays the commercial rate, which is 30 percent less than the retail rate. This penalizes people who do not own a home or do not have good solar access.
There is also one more source of income that makes PV attractive today — and that is the money that flows through the SREC system. I do not have space to explain this, but suffice it to say that the legislature should reform the SREC program so that it continues.
In summary, it is incredibly important that we get solar legislation right and keep building the solar industry, which creates local jobs, avoids price shocks caused by fossil fuel availability, and cuts climate change emissions.
If you agree, I urge you to get involved! our state Reps. Paul Mark and Stephen Kulik, and our state Sens. Stanley Rosenberg and Benjamin Downing want to continue to build solar and they should be commended for their efforts. The key people who need to hear that we oppose H3854 and want regulations that support the growth of the solar industry are Rep. Thomas Golden, House chair of the Joint Energy and Telecommunications Committee; Rep. Brian Dempsey, House chair of Ways and Means; House Speaker Robert DeLeo; and Minority Leader Bradley Jones. Ask them to:
remove the cap;
demand that the net-metering rate for CSS be the retail rate as it is for PV on people’s homes;
and ask for the SREC program to be continued.
If you are a homeowner and can install solar on your home, don’t forget to consider buying solar now — and take advantage of the new Massachusetts solar loan program. We will all thank you for your efforts and benefit!
To find out more about the solar loan program go to www.masssolarloan.com.
Nancy Hazard is the former director of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), the Tour de Sol, and a member of Greening Greenfield. She can be reached at nhazard@WorldSustain.net