Articles tagged "net metering"

When it comes to solar energy potential, Nevada is one of the best places in the country. That’s why some of the largest utility-scale solar power plants are located in Nevada, such as the 552 megawatt Copper Mountain Solar Facility and the 392 MW Ivanpah concentrating solar facility. Utilities in Nevada, however, aren’t quite as keen when it comes to solar panels that are owned by homeowners. After all, every kilowatt-hour of electricity that a homeowner generates with their own solar panels represents lost revenue for the utility companies.

A revision to net metering rules in California that was working its way through the California Legislature failed to get enough votes on June 2 to move forward, killing the proposal for now. The proposal, Assembly Bill 1139, was authored by state assembly member Lorena Gonzalez and contained several controversial changes to California’s current net metering rules for solar homeowners, most notably: Substantially reducing the credit paid for selling excess solar electricity back to the utility.

California is a big and sunny state, so it’s no surprise that it’s one of the largest markets for solar in the United States. This is helped by the 26% federal tax credit, but there are other rebates that Californians can take advantage of to lower their costs even further. Here’s a complete list of solar tax credits and other incentives available to California homeowners in 2021. Federal solar tax credit Homeowners across the US can take advantage of the federal Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit, also known as the solar Investment Tax Credit for the business community.

Net metering is an important policy that gives solar homeowners full credit for any solar electricity they send into the grid. But many utilities want to end the policy, claiming that it’s an unfair subsidy that raises the cost of electricity for non-solar homes. More than that, electric utilities claim that solar net metering is a subsidy for relatively rich homeowners who can afford to go solar at the expense of lower income people who can’t afford to put solar panels on their house, or don’t have that option because they’re renters.

One of the fundamental concepts of home solar is grid interconnection - otherwise known as connecting to the grid. What does this mean? First, let’s define exactly what “grid” means. When talking about home solar, the grid refers to the power grid, also known as the electric grid. It is the collection of machinery and wires that generates electricity and brings it to your home. There are two parts to the grid: generation, which consists of a variety of power plants such as coal plants, gas turbines, nuclear power plants, wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, and solar panels.

One of the big reasons that people go solar is to reduce or get rid of their monthly electricity costs. If you use The Solar Nerd calculator, you can estimate how many solar panels you’ll need to generate 100% of your electricity needs. If your roof is large enough to fit all of those panels, you can reduce your annual electricity supply costs to zero. However, having solar panels on your house does not get rid of your electric bill.

Is net metering available in New Hampshire? Yes! Net metering is currently available from all electric utilities in New Hampshire. Credits for excess generation are banked and rolled over to the next month. Such credits may be carried forward indefinitely, but customers may elect to be paid for their credits at the avoided cost rate, which will be lower than the residential retail rate for electricity. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission website has the complete text of the current net metering rules.

Is net metering available in Utah? Net metering is available with some utilities in Utah. Rocky Mountain Power, the largest utility in the state, is currently transitioning away from net metering and offers net billing to new customers. Municipal utilities in Utah offer a combination of net metering, net billing, and feed-in tariffs. We list this policies in detail below. Net metering with Rocky Mountain Power In September 2017, Rocky Mountain Power came to an agreement with solar advocates and state agencies to end net metering for new customers and adopt a net billing scheme that is still relatively favorable to solar customers in the state.

Is net metering available in Florida? Yes. Net metering is available to customers who generate electricity using solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, biomass energy, ocean energy, hydrogen, waste heat or hydroelectric power. This basic policy includes investor owned utilities, municipal utilities, and electric cooperatives. You should check with your utility for additional details. Here’s a list of website links to net metering information for the major utilities in Florida:

New York state, despite being situated in the northeastern United States instead of the Sunbelt that people normally think of when it comes to solar, was the 6th largest state for solar photovoltaic installations in 2018. This is helped in a large part by some of very best solar incentives in the country. Summary of solar rebates available to New York residents: Federal tax credit26% off system price through 2020 (22% in 2021) New York income tax credit for solar 25% off system price, up to $5,000 NYSERDA NY-Sun rebateRebate of $0.