Draft order would allow solar panel installation under current rates, rules

“This allows customers to safely contemplate investment in solar while providing stability to the industry for the time being, a positive result for the people of Colorado and those employed within it”. Rooftop solar advocates have argued they were misled about how quickly the state would reach the cap, and fought to keep the existing rates in place.

Nevada’s Public Utilities Commission awarded the solar industry a short-term victory on Wednesday, offering a stopgap solution for the solar cap that maxed out last week.

“If you go back and look at the first quarter of this year, there were somewhere around 300 applications a week”, Kevin Geraghty, NV Energy vice president of energy supply, told the Reno Gazette-Journal earlier this month. The law, which gives such authority to the legislature, orders the PUC to establish a new net metering tariff by the end of 2015.

About The Alliance for Solar ChoiceThe Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) leads the rooftop solar advocacy across the country. In filings with the PUC, the company said that the current structure unfairly shifts costs to customers without solar. “We are grateful that the Commission’s decision will allow Nevadans to return to their jobs today, while the Commission determines long-term rules for solar net metering”.

Colorado’s Public Utility Commission ruled Wednesday afternoon that no changes were needed to the state’s net metering process, meaning that homeowners with solar arrays will continue to receive retail rates for energy they produce.

The state now limits how many consumers can participate in the program. Today’s win for the solar industry stems from more than a year of meetings and Commission deliberation in the state, said Jessica Scott, regional director of the Interior West for Vote Solar. The rooftop solar industry expects that the utility-backed proposal would reduce the rate of adoption of solar power. “But we are hopeful that Commissions and policy leaders will continue to see past the utility rhetoric, recognize the true value of distributed renewables, and uphold solar options for the consumers they serve”.