The Nevada State Legislature has passed a Senate version of a bill that reinstates net metering for residential solar projects at a discounted compensation rate, a move that was welcomed by sector players.
Just before Christmas 2015, the Nevada PUC approved, based on recommendations by NV Energy, a new scheme for net metering, lifting the utility service charge for small solar owners and reducing the credit paid to them for power sent to the grid. This led to a retreat from the local market by a number of sector players including SolarCity and Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN).
Even though the newly-accepted mechanism includes a discounted rate for customer-generated power exported to the grid, the passing of AB 405 is expected to revive the state's rooftop solar market. The legislation restores net metering rates starting at 95% of the full retail rate for excess power produced by consumers, and gives customers certainty by grandfathering their net metering credit rates for 20 years.
The bill should be signed into law by Governor Brian Sandoval within 10 days and if that happens the compensation changes will take effect immediately, while the consumer protection measures would take effect this fall.
“This bill is a compromise that doesn’t fully value the benefits of distributed solar. It will, however, allow Nevada consumers and small businesses who may have wanted to go solar, but found it uneconomic under the existing solar policies, to now proceed,” said Sean Gallagher, vice president of state affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
A number of sector players have already said they would re-enter the Nevada market.
“Thanks to the hard work of Governor Sandoval and Nevada State Legislators, we can now say with confidence that Sunrun is coming back to Nevada,” Lynn Jurich, Sunrun’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), which owns SolarCity, confirmed for Reuters that the company will resume selling rooftop solar arrays in the state as soon as the bill is signed into law.
Also this week, the Nevada Legislature passed the SB 392 measure that seeks to establish a statewide community solar programme, as well as the AB 206 bill that would raise the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), requiring power companies to generate at least 40% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
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Rooftop solar system in Nevada. Author: Pacific Southwest Region. License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic
