Update to the anti-solar bill in Indiana: Eric Holcomb, Indiana’s governor, has just signed off on denying the sun.
thinkprogress.org/…
On Tuesday, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) signed a bill that shreds incentives for rooftop solar, delivering a blow to solar installers and their customers.
Currently, if rooftop solar owners generate more electricity than they use, the power utility will buy the excess power at the retail rate — around 11¢ per kilowatt-hour. This practice is known as net metering. Under the new law, the utility would buy the excess power at a little more than the wholesale rate — around 4¢ per kwh.
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- It ends net metering for new customers after 2022.
- It ends net metering for existing customers who replace or expand their solar system after 2017.
- It empowers utilities, with the approval of the regulatory commission, to charge rooftop solar owners an additional fee for “energy delivery costs.”
Additionally, the bill may be interpreted to end net metering for homeowners who lease their panels or subscribe to a shared solar array — what’s known as community solar.
Solar industry workers are probably going to have to move to other states as business dries up in Indiana. If battery costs (like Tesla’s Powerwall 2) come down substantially, this could potentially be mitigated, but most people are still going to rely on the grid to achieve adequate ROIs.