PUC supports solar energy ‘made in PA’

Out-of-state projects won’t earn credits

Pennsylvania lawmakers and the governor intended to boost the development of in-state solar projects with the passage of a law last year, the Public Utility Commission said on Thursday, voting to reject a proposed interpretation that would have allowed a glut of out-ofstate solar credits to continue to depress prices in Pennsylvania’s market.

The unanimous decision by the five-member commission largely supported the position of the law’s drafters and advocates, who said their intention was to “close the borders” so only Pennsylvania solar projects can participate in Pennsylvania’s market.

PUC Chairman Gladys Brown said the law’s language “is not precise,” but its purpose is evident.

A competing interpretation offered by the commission in December would have rendered the law “essentially meaningless” because more than 80 percent of the megawatts certified to satisfy the state’s solar mandate are from out-of-state facilities, the state Department of Environmental Protection had said.

If all of those projects had been grandfathered, they would have fulfilled Pennsylvania’s solar requirements “indefinitely” and there would be “no new incentive to develop solar in Pennsylvania,” the agency said.

Instead, the PUC voted Thursday that only credits from those out-ofstate projects that were under contract with Pennsylvania electricity companies at the time the law was signed in October are still eligible, until the contracts expire.

The decision “sends a really clear and strong signal to the market” and indicates that the commissioners recognize the economic development opportunity the law was designed to promote, said Sharon Pillar, president of the Solar Unified Network of Western Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards law requires electricity companies to get a fraction of the energy they sell from solar sources.