The Landmark New York Solar Price Deal

New York utilities and solar companies compromise on price of solar energy sold to utilities

June 27, 2016 (The Buffalo News)

“New York’s biggest utilities and some of the nation’s largest solar energy developers, including SolarCity…have formed an unlikely alliance to try to hammer out a mutually acceptable proposal on how much solar power system owners will be paid for the electricity they sell back to the utility…[Utilities now complain] they effectively pay solar customers higher retail prices for power they could purchase from conventional sources at a much lower wholesale price. But solar advocates say the retail price is warranted…The compromise plan would reduce the payments but also place a value on the environmental benefits of solar power and its role in helping utilities avoid having to make costly upgrades to the power grid…If it works, New York would stand out as the rare exception among states that have tackled the highly contentious issue [of net metering…A group of big industrial customers opposes the compromise, arguing it would continue, or possibly expand, subsidies for solar power at the expense of other customers…[An alternative proposal is for a ‘full value tariff’ that] would be structured much like a cellphone bill…” click here for more

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