Law to Eliminate Use of Solar !
LANSING, MI — Solar industry experts say that Senate legislation overhauling Michigan’s energy policy would eliminate the ability of small-scale solar users to use their own renewable energy to offset their utility costs.
Currently small solar and renewable projects at Michigan homes, businesses and nonprofits are able to connect to the grid of their regulated utilities through a net metering program, which allows customers to offset their electricity costs with their own renewable energy and then potentially sell excess energy back into the grid.
Under the proposal, a homeowner with a solar installation would buy all of their electricity at retail rate and then sell all of the energy they produce back to the utility at what’s essentially a wholesale rate.
Dimitry said DTE is not anti-solar. They have the most rooftop solar customers of any company in the state. But they’ve learned that large-scale utility solar installations are more cost effective than rooftop systems.”It’s more expensive to do rooftop systems because of the scale. And also people tend to work with what they’ve got in terms of their roof,” Dimitry said.
That includes everything from selecting a grid size to working with the angle of one’s roof, which may not be ideal for catching the most rays.
“Utilities want to own it, control it and charge you for it,” Heart said.She cited it as a customer choice issue and a property rights issue.
The legislation wouldn’t eliminate solar as an option for homeowners, but it would change the economic equation of having solar installed.
Tom Gallery owns Leelanau Solar in Northport, and said his company is the largest solar installer in Northern Michigan. But he said the proposed legislation would destroy the state’s entire solar industry.
“Basically it will put every solar installer in the state out of business. I mean, it’s as simple as that,” Gallery said.
Dimitry said that people could still make the decision to install solar on their homes, but from an objective point of view where everybody understands the cost.”If someone wants to do solar just because they want to do it, if they’re OK with an 18 or 20 year payback, they can do it,” Dimitry said.
Competing energy legislation that’s started in the House does not make changes to the current net metering set-up. The Senate bill that would make the change is pending before the Senate Energy and Technology Committee. — Emily Lawler, Capitol/Business reporter for MLive. You can reach her at elawler@mlive.com
Source: Mlive.com