A Closer Look at Solar Energy in Arizona


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Smart Grid News Calls for “Reasonable Discourse” on Net Metering

Today Jesse Berst, founder of Smart Grid News, published his reaction to a new solar lobbying group’s messages about net metering:

A group of solar companies have banded together to lobby for more and better net metering standards. So far, no big deals… until you read the language they are using to describe their mission. According to this group, “monopoly utilities” are trying to “quash… renewable energy.” In fact, there is a “coordinated utility attack on net metering throughout the country.”

Really? A coordinated war campaign by all of the nation’s utilities to destroy renewable energy?

How sad to see yet another group resort to the nuclear option on day one instead of reasonable discourse. From where I sit, many utilities are opposed not to renewable energy, but to net metering regulations that force the people without solar panels to subsidize those that do. In most parts of the country, that means that lower and middle class customers subsidize wealthier customers who can afford the expense of solar panels.

 Read the full post: “Utilities’ new enemy is…the solar industry!?!”

 


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Free Enterprise Club, Americans for Prosperity AZ Weigh in on Net Metering

Yesterday the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AzFEC) released a statement on net metering, which was shared in an Americans for Prosperity Arizona blog post:

“After years of increasing energy mandates and subsidies to prop up the solar industry at the expense of ratepayers, we are pleased to see the current commission begin to reevaluate and roll back these costly programs,”  [AzFEC] Executive Director Scot Mussi said.  “Under net metering, offering an energy credit to solar customers for excess power that they put back on the grid is a reasonable idea in concept, as long as other ratepayers are not forced to pay more for the energy than what the market dictates.  The current program, however, requires utility providers to pay several times more for this energy than what it is worth, a costly burden for all other ratepayers.”

“This is not ‘energy choice’ as the proponents would suggest, in fact it is just the opposite,” the statement continued. “We hope the commission will end this discriminatory subsidy and adopt a net metering policy that is market driven and equitable to all ratepayers.”

APS has not yet made a proposal to the Arizona Corporation Commission on how to deal with the net metering subsidy but shares the concern that rooftop solar must be fair to all customers and sustainable for the long term.  


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Arizona Investment Council Weighs in on Net Metering

Gary Yaquinto, President & CEO of the Arizona Investment Council, says the current net metering system is unsustainable:
Net Metering in Arizona: Fair or Not Fair?

“It is silly to think Arizona’s utility companies want to kill solar.  Nobody is even remotely suggesting that Arizonans should not have the freedom to choose solar.  To the contrary, APS, SRP, Tucson Electric Power and other utilities have worked to make rooftop solar compatible with their systems. But, net metering compensation as it stands today is simply unsustainable.  It has to be changed.”