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Senate to vote on net metering

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On Thursday, April 7 the New Hampshire Senate will vote on HB 1116, a bill to lift the cap on solar energy net metering in New Hampshire.

Under New Hampshire law residents and businesses who install solar panels are eligible for net metering, in which utilities credit customers for any excess energy the customers generate with solar panels.  However, the law caps net metering at 50 megawatts statewide, and some utilities are close to exceeding their share of that cap.

HB 1116 raises the cap to 100 megawatts and requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to develop a revised net metering system.

Supporters of the bill argue that the booming residential solar industry creates jobs and helps reduce New Hampshire’s reliance on fossil fuels.  HB 1116 lifts the artificial, government-imposed production limit on solar energy while also ensuring the industry will develop sustainably.

Opponents of HB 1116 argue that the bill unfairly favors solar customers at the expense of others.  Under the current net metering system, solar generating customers do not pay for services they receive from the electric grid such as backup, balancing, and storage facilities.  HB 1116 instructs the PUC to consider this imbalance when it creates a revised net metering program, but the bill still allows many new residential solar installers to be grandfathered in under the old net metering system.

Business and Industry Association President Jim Roche also wrote an editorial in February arguing that residential solar customers should be credited at the much lower market rate, not the full retail rate, for electricity they generate.

Do you support HB 1116?  Share your opinion on net metering in the comments.

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