Dive Brief:

• Even as battles over utility net metering for distributed energy are being waged throughout the country, the Vermont Legislature voted to increase the state's solar net metering cap from 4% to 15% of a utility's peak load.
• Net metering is the practice of allowing customers to generate energy from solar roofs or other sources and get full retail-price credit for any power they don't use, which flows into the utility's distribution grid. It is this retail credit, in particular, that has stirred many utilities to try reducing or killing the practice.
• In Vermont, however, "I think having a cap is a huge problem. There should be no cap," Green Mountain Power CEO Mary Powell has said. "We should figure out how to adapt to this new future that is here and is what our customers want."

Dive Insight:

The Alliance for Solar Choice, whose members are solar companies, hailed lawmakers' action as another vote against utility efforts to squelch customer rights and protect their monopolies. Other victories have come recently in Utah and the state of Washington. Utilities in general have made the net-metering issue an increasingly defining one for them, arguing the obligation to pay customers full price for their power will eventually run their business model into the ground.