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V O L . X X I I I N O. X I V J U N E 2 6 , 2 0 1 7 16 M ore affordable solar array technology, a federal tax credit, net metering and the prospect of cheap, clean electricity brought sunny days to Maine's solar industry in recent years. But the industry is bracing for the upcoming rollback of Maine's net metering rules and what some are calling a "behind-the-meter tax," which could have a chilling effect on the industry's growth. e future gets cloudy at a time when Maine is already falling behind its counterparts in New England and much of the nation. As of this writing, a bill is in com- mittee at the state Legislature that would essentially pause the rollback. e rollback has created concern among consumers and the combina- tion of policy uncertainty and overall lack of state support for solar is creat- ing challenges for solar providers. "Because we've had a good net metering policy, the federal tax credit and the price of PV modules has come down dramatically — all of that contributed to continued interest in solar energy," says Sundog Solar owner Chuck Piper. "But that's going to dry up and probably go away if the new net metering rules don't get changed. I don't know how people are going to react to that." Piper was referring to a Maine Public Utility Commission ruling, issued in January, that will phase down credits that new residential customers can receive for excess energy that's sent back to the grid. e rule will go into effect Jan. 1, 2018. Artificial surge With the new rule set to go into effect in five months, solar equipment provid- ers are seeing a surge of demand, as cus- tomers aim to get solar arrays installed under the current net metering rule. "People are coming out of the wood- work to install solar, so they can be grandfathered in," says Piper. at's creating something of a dilemma from the business-planning perspective. For now, Piper has enough work to take his crew into August, and the phone is still ringing. But he expects there could be a drop-off come Jan. 1. "I'd like to hire more people, but how can I hire people when I have to lay them off in January?" he says. "We need stability and the assurance that we're going to be able to keep them employed," especially given that it takes time to train new hires. At ReVision Energy, Maine's largest solar equipment provider, co-owner Phil Coupe is having the same problem. "We're noticing more people moving forward with contracts, but we're pretty concerned there will be a significant drop-off in that interest come Jan. 1 2018," says Coupe. "As a business trying to make responsible decisions about hir- ing and investing in trucks and equip- ment and additional space, you feel like your hands are tied, because on the one hand you have increasing demand, but on the other hand you're worried demand will fall drastically at the turn of the new year. It's really challenging to operate a sustainable business in an uncertain policy environment." PUC's phase-down According to the PUC ruling, the new rule locks in a phase-down schedule that gradually decreases the amount of credit that new residential customers can receive on the portion of their bill known as T&D, for trans- mission and distribution. Customers are locked in, at the year in which they enter, for 15 years. For example, in Year 1, customers will receive 90% of the T&D portion as a credit for each year of the 15 years. For a new cus- tomer installation in Year Two, the credit will decline to 80% for T&D. Current solar customers are grandfathered for P H O T O / DAV E C L O U G H F O C U S Chuck Piper, owner of Sundog Solar, with the company's installation of an 18.7 kW solar array with 72 solar panels at Breakwater Vineyard in Owls Head. The array produces 23,400 kilowatt hours per year. HOW MAINE'S SOLAR CAPACITY COMPARES TO OTHER STATES Rank State Cumulative solar capacity 1 California 13,242.8 megawatts 2 Arizona 2,303.2 megawatts 3 North Carolina 2,087.1 megawatts 34 Maine 19.4 megawatts S O U R C E : Environment Maine Research and Policy Center/SEIA/GTM Research U.S. Solar Market Insight Cloudy days ahead for Lack of government support may chill Maine's solar growth B y L a u r i e S c h r e i B e r

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