The fight in Florida is the
beginning of what will be a growing riff between utilities and advocates of
solar energy. To frame the present situation in Florida, it is currently
illegal in most of the state to sell solar to a third party. If you sold
electricity to a third party, you would be considered a utility and subject to
the rules of a utility. This becomes an issue when you look at the very popular
business model for solar companies to install and own panels on a home and then
sell the electricity to the residence. The homeowner doesn’t have to stake the
upfront capital costs, but can still reap the rewards of having solar.
Utilities are against this because it propagates solar use which cuts into
their revenues. While, there are ways around this issue, such as PWRStation’s
program of leasing or renting portable units, it’s a huge blow to the
proliferation of solar in Florida.
The Floridians for Solar Choice effort
is trying to change this. It is an effort primarily backed by the Southern
Alliance for Clean Energy and other environmental, clean energy, and social
organizations. They have sponsored the Florida Right to Produce and Sell Solar
Initiative Amendment. The Amendment limits the ability of the government or
utilities to impose barriers on the sale of solar electricity to customers at
the same or contiguous site as long as it’s under 2 MW per day. This would not
only allow solar companies to own solar installations on people’s homes, but
allow for other forms of solar financial models such as community cooperatives.
The opposition to this is the
Consumers for Smart Solar backed by the utility companies. They have
counteracted by proposing a bill of their own. It is called the Florida
Right to Solar Energy Choice Amendment. It states that it ensures the right to produce solar
for your own use. This you can already do, so in essence, it changes nothing.
You will still not be able to sell solar in Florida. The more important part of
this campaign is to confuse voters in an effort to torpedo the effort by
Floridians for Solar Choice. It is meant to protect utilities from the spread of solar systems.
The
latest on this is that the Floridians for Solar Choice effort will most likely
fall short of the 639,149 signatures required by Feb. 1, 2015 to get on the
November 2016 ballot. As of Dec. 25, 2015, Floridians for Solar Choice has
271,000 signatures. The signatures are good for 24 months, so they can continue
the effort for the 2018 ballot. Moreover, what’s more troubling is the big money
lobbying and disinformation campaign put on by the utility industry. $5.9
million was raised by Consumers for Smart Solar (the utilities) versus $1.9 million
by the Floridians for Solar Choice effort. The utilities were clearly
successful in their confusion campaign creating enough mix-up to derail the
original effort.
The fight in Florida perfectly exemplifies the issues that
solar and distributed Energy in general will face. A new energy structure needs
to be molded that takes into account solar and renewable’s unique
characteristics. Solar's unique financial business models need to be allowable and utilities need to be properly compensated. There are lots factors to consider which will play out in very
opaque ways, as exemplified by the fight in Florida.
Sources:
- https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Right_to_Produce_and_Sell_Solar_Energy_Initiative_%282016%29
- http://www.flsolarchoice.org/
- https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Right_to_Solar_Energy_Choice_Amendment_%282016%29
- https://smartsolarfl.org/
- http://www.pwrstation.com/
- http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article33164295.html
- http://www.utilitydive.com/news/second-ballot-initiative-emerges-to-challenge-floridas-solar-choice-measur/402439/
