{"id":12320,"date":"2015-02-23T10:43:18","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T15:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=12320"},"modified":"2015-02-23T10:43:18","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T15:43:18","slug":"minnesota-follows-austin-with-value-of-solar-tariff-better-than-net-metering-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/minnesota-follows-austin-with-value-of-solar-tariff-better-than-net-metering-or-not.html","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota follows Austin with Value of Solar Tariff: better than net metering, or not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nYes, it’s better than the unequal “net metering” Georgia has now,\r\nwhere your one-and-only utility pays you a rate they determine,\r\ntypically their “avoided” rate of not generating energy by some\r\nother means, which is usually a lot less than what you pay your utility.\r\nIs it better than real one-to-one net metering?\r\nThat’s a harder question, because even if it pays more now, it’s\r\nless predictable.\r\nIn any case VOST has spread\r\n\r\nfrom Austin<\/a> to Minnesota.\r\n

\r\nHerman K. Trabish, GreenTechMedia, 10 April 2014,\r\n\r\nA Rising Tension: ‘Value-of-Solar’ Tariff Versus Net Metering<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
\r\nSource: Institute for Local Self Reliance\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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\r\nThe Alliance for Solar Choice, a group made up of\r\n\r\n leading solar\r\nservice providers, is a staunch defender of net energy metering. And\r\nthat has brought it into conflict with solar advocates calling for a\r\nmore precise “value of solar” calculation.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nTASC’s defense of net metering divided stakeholders in Minnesota who\r\neventually pushed through the nation’s first legislatively mandated\r\nand PUC-approved state value-of-solar tariff. In South Carolina,\r\nTASC’s intervention could halt compromise net metering legislation\r\ncrafted by a coalition of advocates and local utilities looking to\r\ncreate a value-of-solar formula.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nTASC wants to protect net metering, which credits rooftop solar\r\nowners at the retail rate for electricity delivered to the grid.\r\n“This is a stable and highly successful policy,” TASC\r\nExecutive Director Anne Smart has written. “We need to maintain net\r\nmetering, not ‘fix’ it.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNet metering is key to the third-party ownership (TPO) business\r\nmodel leveraged by TASC founding members SolarCity, Sungevity,\r\nSunrun and Verengo. By effectively making use of federal tax\r\ncredits, net metering and investment funds, TPO companies have\r\ndriven unprecedented U.S. solar growth over the last two years.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe article notes utilities make excuses for why they don’t like\r\nnet metering, and VOST addresses those through a detailed examination of:\r\n

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