New Hampshire legislature doubles net metering cap to 100 MW

Dive Brief:

The New Hampshire Senate passed a bill to double the cap on net metering, which awaits Gov. Maggie Hassan (D)'s signature, PV Magazine reports.
The bill, H.B. 1116, which was passed by the House of Representatives a month ago, and aims to expand the cap to 100 MW, allocating 50 of those MW to the state's four electric distribution utility territories and the remainder to the three investor-owned utility territories.
Eversource Energy met the existing 50 MW cap in January in its territory, causing turmoil among local solar installers who said they had to lay off workers as a result, according to PV Magazine.

Dive Insight:

New Hampshire is the latest state revising its net metering policy as utilities reach their state-mandated cap and the solar industry treads water to keep afloat.

The bill directs the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission to study new programs to support distributed solar generation after the new 100 MW cap is reached. The bill's passage came the same day as the passage of Massachusetts' much-contested net metering bill, which increases the state's net metering cap by 3%. Even so, the Massachusetts bill reduces the retail rate credit for commerical and community solar projects to the wholesale rate after the 1,600 MW solar cap is reached.

Twenty-seven states have considered changes in how to compensate excess energy exported to the grid from distributed solar systems in 2015, according a report from NC Clean Energy Technology Center.

Hawaii and Nevada are two states that underwent extensive net metering policy changes that reduced net metering reumuneration or replaced it. California's utility regulators chose to uphold the net metering policy with a small non-bypassable charge with the provision to revisit the decision in 2019. Maine is looking to replace the policy entirely with a market-based "pay-for-production" program.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the bill directs regulators to "develop a new program aimed to support distributed solar generation after the new 100 MW cap is reached." That was incorrect. The bill directs regulators to study new solar valuation methods once the cap is reached.