Sierra Club Maine is collaborating closely with environmental organizations and solar companies across the state to ensure Maine does not go backward on solar energy.

Right now is a critical moment for solar energy in Maine. The state’s Public Utilities Commission has issued what could be a sector-crushing mandate if it is not stopped by the state legislature.

After years of hobbling the solar industry, Gov. Paul LePage has landed what could be a decisive blow. His three appointed Public Utilities Commissioners have decided to dismantle Maine’s net-metering system, the state’s remaining pro-solar program.

Members of 350 Maine, a grassroots movement dedicated to ending the climate crisis, warn that “the PUC ruling would…[make] it extremely difficult for solar installers to continue running a business in this state, bringing Maine’s solar industry pretty much to a standstill….It will take years for the industry to recover.”

Already, Maine’s solar energy sector is lagging behind other states — including Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire — and is missing out on new job creation and economic stimulus.

Across the country, the US solar workforce increased by 25 percent in 2016, according to the US Department of Energy. This growth has been steady: the Solar Foundation reports that solar jobs in the US have grown by at least 20 percent per year for the past four years.

To salvage Maine’s battered solar energy industry, a state representative from Bowdoinham is sponsoring a bill that would curtail the new utility rule and expand solar energy. 

350 Maine and Sierra Club Maine have been holding lobbying trainings to help Maine residents learn about how they can support this bill and other pro-solar policies. Meetings have taken place in Scarborough, Bath and Cumberland. More will be held across the state in the coming weeks. 

A quick background of net metering:

Net metering provides a financial incentive to those who make an upfront investment in solar panels for their homes or businesses. As 350 Maine puts it: “[Net metering] is the only cost-effective way to enable a solar installation to pay for itself over a period of years.”  Forty-two other states besides Maine have net metering.

It works like this: In the summer, solar panels produce excess energy — more than most people’s needs — and the excess is delivered to the energy grid. The solar panel owners receive credits for the overflow of energy they provide, like a bank, from which they can draw throughout the darker months of winter when their panels don’t produce a lot of energy.

But the net-metering program is not popular with monopoly utilities and anti-clean energy politicians. Glen Brand, Sierra Club’s director, explains that opponents want to discourage people from mounting solar arrays because they see this as “threatening a utility’s financial model and profits.”

The argument put forth by anti-net metering proponents, including LePage, is that because net-metered solar users end up using less energy from the grid, they push these costs onto electricity customers who can’t afford to install solar panels.

“The truth is that numerous studies around the country, including one commissioned by the Maine PUC itself [in 2015], show this isn’t true,” Brand said.

In brief, the 2015 PUC report found that solar energy would:

• Reduce electricity prices by replacing more expensive power sources
• Reduce costs for our electrical grid system
• Reduce the need to build more power plants to meet peak demand
• Make energy prices more stable and energy more secure by contributing to a diversified energy supply

The new PUC rules, which go into effect Jan. 1, 2018, will: 

• Phase out net metering over the next 10 years
• Grandfather all existing net-meter customers and anyone who installs solar energy before Jan. 1, 2018
• Implement a fee of new solar users for the solar power they use that does not enter the grid

2017 pro-solar legislation in Maine:

The Sierra Club and other environmental groups are supporting Bowdoinham Rep. Seth Berry’s proposed bill, “An Act to Protect and Expand Access to Solar Power in Maine.”

The bill would put Maine’s net metering program into statute so the PUC cannot kill it. It also would set up a $2 million solar rebate fund, allow third party financing, and eliminate the nine-member limit on community solar farms. Community solar farms are helpful for people who live in homes or have businesses that aren’t well situated for sun-hungry solar panels.

Why is supporting a local solar industry good for Maine?

As people become more concerned about climate change and the ultimate cost fossil fuels will have on the planet and their bank accounts, they are switching to renewable energy sources.

Vermont, which has friendlier solar policies, in 2016 tallied 1,767 jobs in the solar sector, according to the Solar Foundation. Massachusetts employed 14,582 people, and New Hampshire had 1,184. Maine counted 572 people working on solar.

Sukie Rice, a Freeport resident and leader of 350 Maine, argues that by supporting (or at least preventing obstacles to) the solar industry, Maine would add new jobs to replace its fading industries. Instead, the opposite is happening. Maine’s politically uncertain solar climate is “squelching the industry,” she said. “Installers are seeing business drop off.”

Rice points out other advantages to solar energy: it is locally sourced, does not cause health or environmental problems, and “it increases our energy independence away from foreign fuels and makes us more independent from large corporate energy companies.”

The cost of solar to Maine’s residents:

Central Maine Power has to invest in infrastructure to accommodate solar power. Solar users pay $12 a month to participate in the grid and help support this infrastructure. The cost to non-solar ratepayers is an additional 90 cents a month, or about $11 a year, on their electricity bills, according to Rice.

However, studies show that after a couple years of upgrading the infrastructure, the scale will tip and the solar system will result in a lower energy bill for everyone, Rice explained. This is because CMP would be importing less energy from outside of the state, decreasing transmission and distribution costs.

But here’s the rub. Because CMP makes its profits from its transmission and distribution costs — which are generated by bringing in far-off fuel sources to Maine — it doesn’t necessarily have an incentive to support solar energy.

What Mainers who care about solar energy can do:

• Get in touch with their local representatives in the State House and tell them to vote for pro-solar bills.
• Write letters to the newspaper.
• Make comments on legislators’ Facebook pages
• Gather groups of constituents and set up meetings with local reps