Battles over net metering in the United States are often contentious, however the conflict in Nevada is notable for both the severe and retroactive nature of the changes to the policy and the degree of national attention that it has received.
However, despite a protest that organizers estimated was attended by 1000 Nevada residents as well as celebrity speakers, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) has shown no sign that it will back down.
After hearing extensive arguments yesterday, PUCN voted 3-0 to deny a motion to delay implementation of the changes until appeals can be heard.
This is despite national scrutiny over the changes, which advocates and solar companies say will stop the states distributed solar market dead in its tracks. Wednesdays protest featured Actor Mark Ruffalo and Tea Party activist Debbie Dooley, and Democratic Presidential Candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have also criticized the changes.
One reason for the national attention may be the retroactive changes to the policy. The changes to rates, additional charges and lower valuation for solar exported to the grid will be imposed not only on new customers, but also customers who installed solar PV under the previous rules.
Few states or nations have imposed such retroactive changes, which void the legal certainty of investments and open such policy moves to legal challenges.
A separate motion for reconsideration of the changes has been filed by multiple solar organizations, Nevadas Bureau of Consumer Protection and the Attorney Generals office. However, the same PUCN which voted 3-0 to impose the changes and 3-0 against the delay in implementation will hear this appeal.
The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) has additionally filed a lawsuit against PUCN.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.