Dive Brief:
- Industry experts expect net metering to be scaled back across the U.S. as solar becomes more popular.
- Utilities contend that net metering policies are allowing photovoltaic (PV) owners to shift utility fixed costs onto customers without solar. Without a fixed charge for solar customers, PV will become more attractive, luring more customers to install PV.
- The studies that have been done so far on the value of rooftop solar don't include all the benefits of PV, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Dive Insight:
"There's going to be a significant scaling back of the net metering subsidy in the next generation of the policy," Matthew Freedman, staff attorney at consumer advocacy group the Utility Reform Network, said. "This is going to be scary to a lot of folks in the industry. The problem is that the current program is just too rich.”
State regulators have been reducing incentives for rooftop solar because of the rapid drop in PV prices in the last two years. It looks like net metering will likely be the next step in the process of lowering subsidies for rooftop solar. However, solar advocates will push back on the idea that net metering is a subsidy.
