Susan Ladd: House bill marks progress for renewable energy – Greensboro News & Record (blog)

Could it be that the N.C. Legislature finally has seen the light when it comes to solar power?

I looked out the window Tuesday to check for flying pigs when I saw praise for a renewable energy bill from sources as disparate as Gov. Roy Cooper, House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), The Environmental Defense Fund and Duke Energy. Less than 24 hours later, Competitive Energy Solutions for N.C. had passed the full House.

The devil may prove to be in the details of this 20-page bill, so dense with jargon that the average homeowner would find it nearly unintelligible. But if it lives up to its billing, House Bill 589 may indeed represent a major step forward in diversifying the states energy portfolio and offering customers more clean-energy options.

One of the bills sponsors is Rep. John Szoka, a Cumberland County Republican who has been working for years to legalize the sale of third-party solar. Szokas Energy Freedom Act, introduced in 2015 and supported by many Democrats and Republicans in the Guilford County delegation, would have made rooftop solar installations accessible to people of all income levels by allowing customers to lease the installations and buy power directly from solar-energy companies.

Szokas district includes Fort Bragg, which is working to meet renewable-energy goals set by the Department of Defense. HB 589 would reserve at least 100 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity for military installations and at least 250 megawatts for the University of North Carolina.

Residential customers could lease rooftop systems that provide solar power and reduce their electrical bills, and Duke would offer a rebate program for residential and commercial rooftop solar. The bill also encourages community solar programs and establishes a competitive bidding system for new solar construction.

This sounds like a lot of progress, but critics of the bill say it still puts too much power and control into the hands of Duke Energy, the states primary electric utility provider. Excess energy produced by rooftop solar could be sold back to the power company, but the customer might have to pay a fee for that service, says NC WARN, a nonprofit energy watchdog group.

NC WARN, which is battling Duke Energy for the right to sell power from a rooftop solar installation to Faith Community Church in Greensboro, wanted third-party sales of solar power instead of lease agreements. Community solar programs would be controlled by Duke, and the bill allows Duke, one of the largest electric power companies in the U.S., to compete with solar companies on building large-scale installations while offering less favorable contract terms, NC WARN says.

Still, its one of the first bills to emerge from the N.C. House that encourages the growth of renewable energy instead of trying to kill it outright.

In the past two sessions, legislators have targeted wind power with bills that would outlaw or place a moratorium on new wind farms. The Military Operations Protection Act introduced in March would halt the permitting of wind farms pending a study by the General Assembly to determine whether wind farms interfere with military operations. The Department of Defense already reviews such projects.

Former Rep. Mike Hager (R-Burke, Rutherford) filed bills in session after session to roll back the 2007 Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, which requires Duke and other utilities to meet an annually increasing percentage of their energy needs through renewable-energy resources or energy-efficiency measures.

Between 2007 and 2013, this policy spurred $2.7 billion in renewable-energy investment and the creation of 36,885 clean-energy jobs, according to The North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. The state now ranks second, behind California, for the total amount of utility-scale solar capacity.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, solar has created more than 9,500 jobs in the state, more than natural gas (2,181), coal (2,115) and oil generation of electric power (480) combined.

More than three-quarters of North Carolinians favor the REPS program, and more than half would like to increase the required percentage of energy produced by renewable sources, according to a 2017 poll conducted by Conservatives for Clean Energy. The poll also showed that a majority of North Carolinians 86.7 percent of Democrats, 82.3 percent of unaffiliated voters and 79.1 percent of Republicans would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports policies encouraging renewable-energy options.

Maybe GOP politicians are paying more attention to their constituents. Maybe this bill is just sweet enough to satisfy the big-energy special interests that long have influenced policy in the General Assembly.

Either way, this bill does represent progress.

Longtime advocate of renewable energy Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) said that, although she had some concerns, this bill does a lot of good for renewable energy in the state.

As the numbers on investment and job growth demonstrate, what is good for renewable energy is good for the state.

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Susan Ladd: House bill marks progress for renewable energy - Greensboro News & Record (blog)