Pittsfield — Strong solar policies have created a solar energy boom across Massachusetts, ranking the state 5th in the nation for solar energy capacity per person, according to a study released by MASSPIRG Students and the Environment Massachusetts Research and Policy Center.
But slippage down the ranks is in the near future if state officials don’t do more to protect and advance solar growth, something solar advocates say requires that state officials fend off the advances of utility companies.
The state has surpassed even sunny Florida in solar movement, according to the report, which also says that government officials across the country, swayed by the utility industry’s influence, have enacted policies that are hostile to solar production.
“Massachusetts is a national leader for solar power, but inaction by our state’s leaders is threatening to change that,” said Michael Basmajian, Organizer with MASSPIRG Students at Berkshire Community College and Mass College of Liberal Arts. From 2010 to 2013, he noted, solar energy in the state grew by an average rate of 127 percent per year. “Solar is bringing major benefits to our environment and our economy. There’s no reason to limit something that has been so good for Massachusetts.”
Basmajian added that in 2014, “the solar industry supported more than 12,000 jobs statewide, according to a report from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.”
But what’s good for the people’s pocketbooks, and the environment, isn’t always so hot for utility companies that are now scrambling to adjust to the rapid increase in solar construction and production, and a public that is fed up with the old system and clamoring for more renewables.
A Frontier Group and Environment Massachusetts report called Lighting the Way III: The Top States that Helped Drive America’s Solar Energy Boom in 2014, tells part of this story.
“From 2013 to 2014,” said the report, “Massachusetts retained its spot as the state with the 6th highest total installed solar capacity. But there are already signs that Massachusetts’ solar industry has slowed in response to a limit on a key program known as net metering.”
Another report from GTM Research, a solar analyst firm, “predicts that Massachusetts will install less solar power this year than in 2014, after years of rapid growth.”
The reason for this, say solar advocates, are net metering caps, the issue at the center of a battlefield between utility companies and the solar industry and solar producers.
Net metering is a system that allows producers of electricity from photovoltaic arrays to sell energy back to utility companies. Caps limit the amount of credit for solar electricity put back into the grid. The cap was hit in March for all 171 communities served by National Grid, for instance. “As a result of the cap, many businesses, local governments, and nonprofits hoping to install solar panels are no longer able to do so,” according to Basmajian.
Sen. Benjamin Downing’s (D-Pittsfield) legislation to raise the state cap on compensation for solar producers who feed the grid met with unanimous approval in July. Gov. Charlie Baker followed by introducing a net metering bill to lift caps somewhat. Basmajian said the Governor’s legislation was a “letdown,” a bill that MASSPIRG Students say is weak and “would ultimately slow the growth of solar power and make it harder for many, including renters and residents of low-income communities to access the benefits of solar.”
Berkshire County community organizer AJ Cote told MASSPIRG Students that solar capacity expansion is critical for low and middle-income workers. “The development of decentralized solar energy in Massachusetts will help to break the grip utilities have on working families,” Cote said.
Gov. Baker is under pressure. According to MASSPIRG, “More than 350 city and town officials and 560 small business owners have called on Governor Baker to commit to a goal of getting 20 percent of Massachusetts’ electricity from solar power by 2025.”
Sen. Downing said that while Gov. Baker’s bill isn’t the one he would have proposed, he thinks the Governor has moved on the issue, since “previous statements” indicated that his administration was completely opposed to lifting the caps.
“I give them credit for listening to folks and looking at the data and seeing that we needed to do the right thing, which was transitioning to renewables,” said Downing, who advocates setting up a “process for a long term framework.” He says he is “hopeful” that when legislature reconvenes, the issue will be back on the table.
Downing also said that net metering caps are not the only reason the state might stagnate or slip back in its solar progress. “While net metering caps have a significant and negative impact on growth,” he said, “…it’s important to point out that we’re seeing slippage in solar development because the federal investment tax credit is set to expire January 1, 2017,” closing the window for project development and execution.
Basmajian says MASSPIRG Students is taking this message far and wide, just as it did when it helped the campaign to convince McDonalds to phase out, in two years, widespread antibiotic use in chickens for chicken McNuggets; the group is doing the same now with Subway over its meat products.
For its solar advocacy, the student group is wielding a grassroots campaign across state campuses and beyond to show “how much opposition there is” by the utility and fossil fuel industries, Basmajian said.
“They are advocating against good solar policy,” he added. “We want to display the dark side of special interests.”
Those special interests, says the report, are industry advocates sticking their hands in the political cookie jar, and are one reason why, for instance, states like Florida are behind the solar eight ball.
The top 10 states for solar capacity in the report are Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada, California, New Jersey, Colorado, New Mexico, Vermont, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. There appears to be a correlation between strong net metering policies and an expansion of solar capacity, since 9 of these states, including Massachusetts, have such policies for connection to the grid along with renewable energy requirements.
“Our analysis shows that policy choices are a key driver of solar energy growth,” said Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group, co-author of the Lighting the way report. “State and local government policy leadership is closely aligned with success in growing solar energy.”
“When it comes to solar, we can’t afford to be complacent,” Basmajian said.
