![]() Another from Idaho Power pertains to residential customers. In Idaho, the Public Utilities Commission has decided a few prior cases similar to its December decision on Idaho power that impact farmers and other commercial customers, including dockets from investor-owned utility Rocky Mountain Power. Here’s a look at some of the most noteworthy recent net metering battles as 2021 begins. As distributed solar becomes increasingly common - Wood Mackenzie forecasts 13 percent residential solar growth in 2021 - disagreements may grow over the level at which exported solar should be compensated. ![]() Idaho is one example of those struggles, but it is certainly not an isolated case. They play out a bit differently, but the overall theme is that it remains a struggle to maintain a fair compensation scheme for solar customers,” said Sean Gallagher, the Solar Energy Industries Association’s vice president of state affairs. “You see a fair amount of conflict around net metering policy in various states various markets. This year the issue also made a splash at the federal level when a group called the New England Ratepayers Association filed a petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission arguing in favor of federal jurisdiction over net metering. states have or are currently considering a successor tariff to traditional net metering, a policy that determines how solar customers are compensated for the solar power they export to the grid. While the CETC has tracked net metering policy since 2014, Proudlove has seen a surge in activity in recent years. “And of that, successor tariffs are really where a lot of the focus is.” “Net metering is definitely the biggest topic right now that we’re seeing action on,” said Proudlove, the CETC’s senior policy program director. But net metering battles, which often pit utility companies against residential-solar advocates over the value of solar, have become increasingly common in recent years, says Autumn Proudlove of North Carolina State University’s Clean Energy Technology Center, which monitors quarterly shifts in state-level clean energy policy. Solar still accounts for a marginal percentage of overall electricity load in nearly every state in the U.S. Under the ruling, new commercial solar customers of Idaho Power will now fall under a yet-to-be-determined retail rate, with no guidance so far on what the rate will be or when it will be set. That uncertainty is hurting solar's prospects in the state, according to advocates. Idaho’s solar market ranks 22 nd in the nation for installations, but the agriculture-heavy state has registered a growing interest among farmers who’d like to use solar to offset electricity costs associated with pumping water.Ī recent ruling from the state utility commission on net metering challenges that development, however. We’ve got such a wonderful growing season.but we just don’t have any water,” he said. Two years ago, Schiermeier installed solar panels to power the irrigation pumps that provide essential water to his crops. “That’s kind of the rub in Idaho. In the years since, his farm has grown to encompass more than 3,000 acres with crops such as alfalfa, corn and peppermint, and Schiermeier has experimented with carbon sequestration and cover cropping. But a decade ago, he bought a few hundred acres near the Snake River in Idaho’s high desert and began to farm. Russell Schiermeier graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in mechanical engineering.
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