Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Massachusetts legislature reaches long-awaited deal on net metering

PV Tech: After five months of negotiation and a purported solar impasse that delayed more than 500 solar projects in Massachusetts worth US$617 million, an official consensus has been reached.

On Tuesday, House and Senate leaders concurred on raising the net metering cap by 3% – alleviating the obstacles for ratepayers to receive credit for generating extra power from modules. However, at the same time, the agreement means that the value of the incentives for new projects will decrease. The final wording of the bill allows smaller scale projects to benefit from higher retail reimbursements rates – which last year was around US$0.17/kWh, according to reports. Commercial or community projects however are excluded and entitled to a less favourable wholesale reimbursement rate.

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