Clean-energy companies in Massachusetts ride the ‘solar-coaster’

FRAMINGHAM, Massachusetts: Legislative uncertainty is holding back Massachusetts solar companies, according to local business owners and clean-energy advocates.

“There’s a term that we use in the industry called a ‘solar-coaster,’” said Mark Durrenberger, president and founder of New England Clean Energy of Hudson.

Between 2016 and 2017, Massachusetts lost more than 3,000 solar The Solar Foundation. Durrenberger said he laid off about a third of his workforce last year when growth didn’t follow expected trends.

In Ashland, Solar Flair presi- dent Matt Arner said his company has lost projects and reduced staff “dramatically.”

“Generally the environment for solar has gotten a lot harder over the past couple years,” Arner said.

Owners and advocates blame constantly changing policies, particularly around incentives.

“It’s really hard to run a business when you have all these policies ... coming in and changing,” Durrenberger said, adding that he’d like to hire people, but doesn’t want to have to lay them off again. “It makes it really hard to forecast.”

It’s also hard to sell solar panels to people when the companies can’t tell their potential customers how much they’ll save, company presidents said.

The northeast chapter of a national advocacy group, Vote Solar, thinks local legislators can help. The group is focusing on two major issues in Massachusetts - net metering caps, and a Department of Public Utilities-approved change to electric bills of Eversource customers with solar panels.

Net metering

“Net metering is basically the way that Massachusetts compensates solar customers for their solar pow- er,” said Sean Garren, northeast director for Vote Solar. “If you invest in solar, you get paid back for the clean local power that you’re putting back on the electric grid.”

If a place generates solar energy without using it – say, a house with solar panels on the roof, not using electricity because residents are not home – the meter will actually run backwards. Customers will see a credit on their electric bill, Garren said.

The state has caps in place, limiting how much businesses and municipalities can get back from larger solar arrays. Residents are largely exempt.

Legislators raise the limits now and then, Garren said, but that causes a jerky solar economy, then slam hard into the cap.

“Imagine this kind of whipsaw stuff going on the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning industry,” Durrenberger said. “It just doesn’t happen.”

Ideally, Garren said, he’d like to see the caps eliminated. Vote Solar is asking legislators to raise that cap by 5 percent. That could last a few years, he estimated.

“We actually think these caps are outdated and unnecessary,” Garren said, “and they’ve certainly caused us a lot of that stop-start issue in the industry.”

If everything stays on course, Eversource residential customers with solar panels can expect to see a third line on their power bills in 2019.

In January, the state Department of Public Utilities approved a measure that would increase solar bills and add a demand charge based on a customer’s highest use of the month, according to State House News Service.

“It’s pretty confusing to explain,” Garren said, “which is part of the problem when you’re talking about imposing this on residential customers, for instance.”