{"id":262,"date":"2016-01-25T09:36:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T14:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/?p=262"},"modified":"2016-01-25T11:06:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T16:06:58","slug":"maine-reaches-milestone-will-review-net-metering-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/maine-reaches-milestone-will-review-net-metering-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine reaches milestone, will review net metering policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maine reached an important solar power milestone recently, which is bringing concern that the state could end up following in Nevada&#8217;s footsteps regarding net metering.<\/p>\n<p>The milestone: There is now enough solar power &#8212; from combined commercial and residential sources &#8212; in Maine to to account for as much as one percent of the total load taken on by Central Maine Power on days with peak demand.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As Solar Power Hits Milestone, Maine Utility Wants to End &#39;Net Metering&#39; Policy <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9h99xU8oD5\">https:\/\/t.co\/9h99xU8oD5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; MPBNnews (@MPBNnews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MPBNnews\/status\/688124576459431936\">January 15, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Now that the one percent threshold was reached in 2015, a <a href=\"http:\/\/news.mpbn.net\/post\/solar-power-hits-milestone-maine-utility-wants-end-net-metering-policy#stream\/0\" title=\"review of net metering policy in Maine is required by law\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>review of net metering policy in Maine is required by law<\/strong><\/a>. Because of this, some solar industry advocates worry about possible changes in solar energy policy that could be proposed that would ultimately be a detriment to residential solar customers in the state.<\/p>\n<div id=\"inlink\"><a href=\"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/future-of-residential-rooftop-solar-power-in-nevada-is-now-cloudy\/\" title=\"Future of residential rooftop solar power in Nevada is now cloudy\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1024px-Vegas_PBS_4-150x150.jpg\" title=\"Future of residential rooftop solar power in Nevada is now cloudy\" alt=\"Future of residential rooftop solar power in Nevada is now cloudy\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/future-of-residential-rooftop-solar-power-in-nevada-is-now-cloudy\/\" title=\"Future of residential rooftop solar power in Nevada is now cloudy\"><h4>Future of residential rooftop solar power in Nevada is now cloudy<\/h4><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/future-of-residential-rooftop-solar-power-in-nevada-is-now-cloudy\/\" title=\"Future of residential rooftop solar power in Nevada is now cloudy\" class=\"hide375\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Residential solar customers in Nevada <a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/net-metering-changes-makes-future-of-solar-in-nevada-unclear\/\" title=\"are currently fighting against net metering changes\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>are currently fighting against net metering changes<\/strong><\/a> that just took effect in their state. Updates to solar energy policy have shifted some costs away from utility companies directly to the customers.<\/p>\n<div id=\"inlink\"><a href=\"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/battle-between-nevada-lawmakers-and-solar-customers-intensifies\/\" title=\"Battle between Nevada lawmakers and solar customers intensifies\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1024px-Giant_photovoltaic_array-150x150.jpg\" title=\"Battle between Nevada lawmakers and solar customers intensifies\" alt=\"Battle between Nevada lawmakers and solar customers intensifies\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/battle-between-nevada-lawmakers-and-solar-customers-intensifies\/\" title=\"Battle between Nevada lawmakers and solar customers intensifies\"><h4>Battle between Nevada lawmakers and solar customers intensifies<\/h4><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/battle-between-nevada-lawmakers-and-solar-customers-intensifies\/\" title=\"Battle between Nevada lawmakers and solar customers intensifies\" class=\"hide375\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n<h2>Negative consequences, negative reaction<\/h2>\n<p>Those affected by the changes in Nevada <a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/nevada-solar-battle-heats-up-lawsuit-filed\/\" title=\"have not taken it lightly\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>have not taken it lightly<\/strong><\/a> and are currently fighting against the new regulations that make it more expensive to use solar power in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Is the same battle about to brew in Maine?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Utilities around the country are trying to kill rooftop solar and net metering because utilities are monopolies, and it\u2019s the only form of competition they\u2019ve faced in over 100 years.<br \/>&#8212; Chris Rauscher, policy director at Sun Run, as <a href=\"http:\/\/news.mpbn.net\/post\/solar-power-hits-milestone-maine-utility-wants-end-net-metering-policy#stream\/0\" title=\"told to Maine Public Broadcasting\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>told to Maine Public Broadcasting<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<span class=\"source-attribution\">Orginally published on &rarr; <a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/will-maine-follow-nevadas-footsteps-and-reverse-course-on-net-metering\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Solar Energy Local<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some solar advocates worry about possible changes in solar energy policy in Maine that would ultimately be a detriment to residential solar customers in the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,5],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}