WINDHAM COUNTY, Vt. – Vermont solar companies say state regulations are making projects too cumbersome to develop and hindering their efforts to reach renewable-energy goals.
Ralph Meima, development diretor for Green Lantern of Southern Vermont, said the once-booming solar industry in the area has slowed since 2017. It is a slowdown he attributes to regulations passed that year by Vermont’s Public Utilities Commission.
Solar installations last year produced half the wattage of those in 2016.
Solar capacity is still expanding Meima said, Just not as quickly as before.
The reason is the state’s shift in support for smaller capacity projects, like residential roofs, over the larger “net metering” solar fields that power schools, hospitals or town buildings. Net metering is a partnership between the solar developer, public utility and local community, that aims to benefit parties through an exchange of low-cost power for energy credits.
Net metering took the industry byu storm in Vermont, quadrupling in capacity of projects in just years. By 2016, net-metering installations accounted for half the capacity of the 70,000 megawatts generated by projects that year.
However, that rapid expansion was apparently unsettling to state regualtors. One of the rules put into effect last was limiting the power generated by a new project to 500 megawatts. Meima said that with less benefits found from reduced power, develpers have less incentive to invest.
The utility companies are not supporters of net-metering arangements, according to Meima. They contend that the when customers earn enough credits to eliminate their electricity bill, they no longer pay their share to maintain the public grid.
Another rule discouraging developers is the “prefered site requirement.” The state limits net-metering projects to locations that can’t be used for agricultural or community uses, sites such as gravel pits or landfills. The state is encouraging smaller, space-efficient solar project locations, like rooftops, rather than on farmlands or places that compromise the aesthetics of the landscape.
“Most of those [preferred sites] are complicated to develop,” Meima explained, saying they require more paperwork and regulatory approvals. The most preferrable option to developers is to aquire a letter of joint approval by a town government and two planning commissions. Yet even this requires time to gather parties, prepare presentations and await decisions.
While the regulations make Vermont less appealing to national solar companies, local companies are better equipped to scope locations and navigate the regulatory maze, Meima said.
“National companies would have to dig deep down to make it work here,” he said. “If you’re a local company, you know where to look. You can see where the payoff and growth is.”
Meima said the state will likely revise the rules to make it smoother for prospective project developers.
“This is just a bump in the road,” he said.
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