Panels are placed on a solar
array installed on the roof of a Bristol church in this April 2018 file photo.
The solar industry is lobbying to change a law that governs how residential
users generate solar power. (John Woike)By STEPHEN SINGER | HARTFORD COURANT Connecticut’s solar industry and environmental advocates are fiercely lobbying state lawmakers to reverse or at least delay action they took last year changing how consumers are compensated for solar energy generated from rooftop panels.About three dozen workers in the industry that installs solar panels gathered Wednesday at the Capitol, urging legislation they say will save industry jobs in Connecticut, estimated at more than 2,000. The legislature’s clean energy caucus said the state’s solar industry faces an “existential crisis.”Tim Schneider, co-owner of Earthlight Technologies, an Ellington installer of solar panels that employs 69 workers, said if changes are not made to last year’s law, “I’ll be laying off half my crew.”The 2018 law schedules the termination later this year of net metering, a way residential users are credited for solar energy for electricity they add to the grid.Like this? Click to receive free updatesEnding net metering “takes the financial incentive off the table,” said Michael Trahan, executive director of Solar Connecticut Inc., the industry trade group.In its place would be a system of tariffs, or charges applied by energy providers to customers for electricity use. Connecticut’s solar industry, environmental advocates and others say tariffs work in states where solar energy accounts for 10 percent or more of electricity.In Connecticut, it’s about 2 percent, Trahan said.Stephen Lewis of South Windsor told state lawmakers in written testimony for a recent public hearing that he would not have installed home rooftop solar panels in 2017 without net metering.“I use my home solar to pay for my already efficient home electric use, to charge my EV for a daily commute and have now charged 17,000 all electric miles, and to help pay for my home heat pump so I do not need to use as much home heating oil,” he said.Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport and a member of the legislature’s energy and technology committee, said a pause for a couple of years would help policymakers gather more information.The 2018 law was a “radical departure, making a rather precipitous lurch,” he said.Environment Connecticut State Director Chris Phelps told lawmakers they have the opportunity to change the 2018 law and “restore policies supporting continued growth of solar power” in Connecticut.“Over the past eight years, hundreds of megawatts of solar power have been built statewide,” he said. “Solar power, ranging from large grid-connected systems to single homes with rooftop panels, is helping move our state towards a renewable energy future.”Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told lawmakers in written testimony at a recent public hearing that the 2018 law began a transition of Connecticut’s on-site energy generation, such as rooftop solar panels, “to a more market-driven, competitive, cost-effective and transparent framework.”She said more time may be needed for project developers and financiers to adapt business models to new policies and compensation structures “and for the electric distribution utilities to adjust and modernize their metering and billing systems.”“An extension of time should not, however, halt or reverse the progress to date on new tariff development,” Dykes said.Patrick McDonnell, vice president of regulatory affairs at UIL Holdings Corp., the parent company of United Illuminating, said the 2018 law is an example of a “deliberate strategy” to promote zero-carbon energy.“While these changes are critical adjustments to the incentive policies that are important to transition renewable energy from a subsidy based offering to one that competes in the competitive energy, there needs to be a smooth transition to accomplish these goals,” he told lawmakers.Like this? Click to receive free updates