UPDATE: FOR MUCH MORE UP TO DATE INFORMATION ON NET METERING, SEE SUBSEQUENT POST "Net Metering Update--Need For A National Law".
Like most states, Virginia has a "net metering" law intended to encourage homeowners and businesses to install sources of renewable energy for electricity. Net metering allows someone, such as the Curmudgeon, to install solar panels (but it can also be wind, geothermal, etc.) on his roof to generate electricity and plug directly into the local power company's grid, rather than install expensive batteries to store excess electricity. (For more info on the Curmudgeon's solar array, click here.)
With net metering, the utility credits a homeowner for the electricity he/she generates, as measured by the utility's meter (the meter will actually run backwards if the homeowner is generating more electricity than he is using).
Unfortunately, Virginia's law is not a very good one, and so far relatively few Virginians are taking advantage of it. A report on net metering issued in November by the Network for New Energy Choices graded the various states' net metering laws.
Virginia earned a "D". At least that's better than Maryland's "F". And better than the 16 states that still prohibit net metering. Still, Virginia can afford to do better.
The biggest problems with Virginia's law? It puts an unrealistic limit on the size of an individual homeowner's generation to 10Kw, which is a pretty small set of solar panels. This limit should be removed. In addition, the law caps net metering at a paltry 0.1% of a utility's total capacity--the cap should be removed. All ratepayers benefit when individual homes and businesses add to the energy grid because it reduces the need to produce peak power and to add additional capacity.
Virginia would be wise to look to New Jersey's law, which earned an "A." Combined with some generous state subsidies, New Jersey's law is encouraging thousands of homeowners to install solar panels and other forms of renewable electricity generation.
To Virginia's credit, it has amended the net-metering law in recent years to improve it, including expanding the types of energy eligible to participate and raising the limit on commercial generation. We encourage Governor Tim Kaine and the legislature to continue making this important law better.
2 comments:
At least Virginia made it on the list; I see NC is missing. It seems I've heard of a non-profit in the Raleigh area (being started by a SAS employee) that is trying to sell this concept, and somehow tying the idea into paying back your mortgage. How effective is the metering concept? Assuming that VA's limits were taken off, would it be possible for a household to actually make money by selling back its electricity to the utlities?
Thanks for the comment Monkey Girl. Since our post yesterday, we've done a lot more research and found that the NNEC Report contained a lot of outdated and somewhat misleading info. We'll do a more extensive update later today to clear the air.
The good news for you and other North Carolina residents (such as my brother and sister) is that NC now DOES have net metering. For more info, check out "North Carolina Approve Net Metering":
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=38428
In fact, you may be better off than us Virginians, because NC also offers a GreenPower program, whereby an electricity consumer can sign up to have his/her electricity generated from green sources (more info in the link above).
And, it appears that NC has some subsidies for homeowners seeking to go green. We love your blog--maybe you could pull together a few other sources as a guide for your fellow Carolinians with respect to this important issue.
As for your question about whether a household could make money selling money back to the utility--in theory, yes. As a practical matter, probably not, certainly with solar (absent a large subsidy) (See the Curmudgeon's post about the still lousy economics of home photovoltaic systems--Solar Energy: Good Feel, Bad Deal) However, if you had a farm with a good deal of land, you could make money with wind power.
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