In Indiana, however, there are 100 fewer jobs in the solar industry than there were one year ago.
“A lot of other states have already accepted the fact that we need to diversify our energy harvesting,” said Alex Jarvis, owner of Solar Systems of Indiana. “Indiana is kind of going backwards.”
Jarvis believes this regression appears in Indiana House Bill 1320, which will be brought to a vote this week.
When people who have solar panels generate excess energy, they are allowed to sell that excess to utility companies. The companies pay the retail rate for that energy, which they then sell back to their customers at the ?same price.
The bill, which has sparked heated debate between the utilities lobby and environmentalists, would decrease the amount of money solar energy producers could earn by cutting the amount utilities companies must pay for the excess energy. The bill would also let utilities charge a “user fee” for maintaining the electrical grid solar users take advantage of. Along with these monetary changes, the bill would establish new safety standards and guidelines for solar technology installation and allow citizens to lease solar equipment.
“The main reason we’re supporting House Bill 1320 has to do with fairness,” said Dave Arland, a spokesperson from the Indiana Energy Association. “People who don’t have solar energy are subsidizing the costs of grid maintenance for those who do have solar. We still think people should be compensated for their excess energy, just not at the ?retail rate.”
In response to this claim, Jarvis said solar users do indeed pay a metering fee to access the grid. He also suggested utility companies might have alternative motives for ?supporting the bill.
“For them, it’s an opportunity to craft legislation that will give them more access to the technology and the ability to kind of control renewable energy activities,” Jarvis said. “They say that they’re going to start leasing energy equipment to people, but they’re going to twist the law so that you’ll really only have one place to turn for those leases, and that will be the utilities ?companies.”
Arland said he believes this leasing ability will help solar power grow in ?Indiana.
“The intent is not to kill solar in Indiana,” he said. “The intent is to help it grow by providing more avenues for people to get renewable power.”
Arland echoed the claims presented by Mark Maassel, the president of the Indiana Energy Association, at the House committee hearing. The hearing was attended by the panel along with 42 people speaking against the bill, three people suggesting that the bill be delayed for further study, one neutral speaker and only two supporters of the bill, one of whom was Maassel.
The opponents believe the bill would be detrimental for Indiana’s previously budding solar industry. Most of them are not demanding the bill be entirely rejected; they simply want more studies to be done before the state takes such a drastic step.
“The utilities are using the political arena to make this legislation go quickly through the process without enough information to back up their claims,” Jarvis said. “Normally something like this would go through the public utility commission, which usually mandates a considerable amount of studies and evidence.”
Kenneth Richards, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, discussed the complicated nature of the debate. It’s especially difficult, he said, to determine the economics of the net metering system or the ways in which the utilities buy energy from solar ?users.
“Sorting out an efficient and equitable price structure for the net metering system is complex and needs to balance both the cost of production and distribution on the electric utilities side of things and the social benefits of diffusing the solar technologies,” Richards said.
Jarvis said he believes the majority of the public would benefit by delaying the bill for further study, but fears Indiana’s conservative politics and the strength of the utilities lobby will push the bill ?into law.
“It’s a political strong-arm move driven by old conservative ideas,” he said. “It’s important for people to call their representatives and tell them what they think. Solar energy is an interesting market and an amazing field to work in. Hopefully, with more state-level support, we’ll be able to grow ?and grow.”
