Connecticut’s House of Representatives passed a bill for an expansive new community solar program the day before the legislative session ended, leaving it dead upon arrival at the Senate.
Community solar enables residents to subscribe to clean energy without having to install solar on their home or apartment.
Connecticut began offering “shared clean energy program” a decade ago, but the program is capped at 50 MW, includes many types of clean energy facilities and has several additional limitations.
HB 7087 would have created a more expansive community solar program available to all classes of ratepayers and with a 600 MW cap, among other provisions.
Altus Power, a commercial-scale solar provider, CEO Gregg Felton said the the legislation would enable installers to use underutilized spaces, such as warehouse rooftops, parking canopies and brownfields, that are only viable for community solar projects.
“Large warehouses, for example, may only use a small portion of the energy their rooftops can produce,” he said. “For projects like these, without community solar, this energy has no viable offtake for the power and therefore no viable economic model.
Felton said community solar provides the “crucial mechanism” to distribute the power by sending it back into the grid and making it available for local subscribers.
As introduced, the bill initially included wind energy and established a permanent program instead of a pilot, but was amended to strictly solar and to create a pilot with a working group to study the impact of the program. The pilot program would have ended when the subscribers claim the program’s maximum allowed 600 MW capacity of all participating projects, but allowed participating projects to continue after the pilot.
Legislators also amended the bill to require the Connecticut Green Bank to establish and administer a community solar energy credit sale program. Under this program, subscriber organizations may transfer any unsubscribed or overproduced energy credits to the green bank, which then will own the credits until it sells or disposes of them.
The bill called for a working group to study:
- the costs and benefits for subscribers and other ratepayers;
- the benefits and costs, including the technical impact, of community solar projects and virtual net energy metering on utilities’ distribution grids;
- the issues, benefits and concerns about the utilities’ participation, including investor-owned companies, in community solar programs;
- virtual net energy metering’s impact on the distribution system compared to the impact of traditional net energy metering;
- any impacts the program has on the standard service procurement process;
- how community solar projects impact locational marginal prices in the state;
- its impact on energy costs, including the equitable allocation among ratepayers and reliability; and
- whether community solar projects provide a net benefit in helping the state meet its distributed generation and renewable goals.
Through virtual net energy metering, subscribers would receive credits on their electric bills for a portion of the electricity the project generates. The amount may be measured using the difference in electricity value, rather than kWh. The program capped each subscriber’s credits at 200% of their baseline annual electric usage. Community solar projects would be able to sell any excess credits it generates. Along with community solar projects owners, the bill would have allowed a collective of subscribers to contract with an outside party to finance, construct, own and operate a community solar project.
The bill also made the community solar projects responsible for paying any costs associated with small generator interconnection standards that the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority adopts. Additionally, it stipulates for Utilities Eversource and United Illuminating to offer community solar projects a “consolidated billing mechanism,” through which the utility also bills subscribers for charges (or credits) related to the community solar project’s operations.
The bill received a high degree of testimony, mostly from residents, with 41 testimonies in support of the bill. Eversource and 14 residents testified in opposition. The need to reduce electricity rates was cited by both about half of those who supported and who opposed the bill.
Community solar bills are often more successful with clear communication. For example, community solar legislation quickly gained momentum in Pennsylvania after activists adjusted their communication strategy.
Legislators also discussed community solar bills this session in states such as Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Read about other solar-related bills state lawmakers are debating this legislative session here.
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