Dive Brief:

• An electric cooperative in northeast Iowa plans to change the balancing schedule for net metering customers, a move Midwest Energy News reports is likely to undercut the nascent solar marketplace in that area.
• Beginning next year, Allamakee Clayton Electric Cooperative (ACEC) will shift from an annual true-up of energy use to a monthly analysis of how much power solar customers sent back to the grid, curbing customers' ability to use up their credits through out the year. 
• ACEC serves less than 10,000 customers and has only five dozen homes with rooftop solar in its territory.

Dive Insight:

Clean energy advocates are attempting to grow the market in Iowa, but Midwest Energy News reports a small cooperative is planning changes that could stymie growth and reduce remuneration rates for existing customers in just five years. This move follows the example of two investor-owned utilities in the state pushing to address the net metering policy.​

To ward off damage to the nascent solar market in that area, Winneshiek Energy District is hosting a conference next month on the idea of energy districts. According to the group, the concept follows development of Soil and Water Conservation Districts that emerged from the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. "To be effective at ramping up community-wide energy transformation, energy districts must work at both the customer and community levels," the group explains on its web site.

On the investor-owned side of things in the state, earlier this year it appeared that both MidAmerican Energy and Alliant Energy were preparing new solar fee proposals. Alliant told the Iowa Utilities Board that payments for net metered alternative energy production was its highest cost resource. MidAmerican told regulators that while distributed generation remains relatively small on its system, "now is the time to address price structure issues," before the pace of growth picks up.

Solar policy, and net metering specifically, is increasingly under debate around the country. According to the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, there were over 100 separate solar policy actions debated by state regulators and legislators across the U.S. in the third quarter of 2016. That spike in action has been driven by the growth of the industry: utilities are seeing residential solar growth due to declining installed costs, and supported by the extension of a 30% federal investment tax credit last year.

In total, the report identified 117 policy actions in the third quarter, spread across 42 states. Fixed charges were at the center of debate most frequently, likely meaning ACEC's decision will face scrutiny.