Standing Up for Solar
Solar is by far the best-known and most popular form of renewable energy. The benefits of generating power from the sun and reducing your energy bills are well understood. And now there’s a compelling new benefit: you can sell your surplus energy freely.
In a recent piece in CNHI News Indiana we learned about farmer and inventor, Mike Straeter, who owns seven New Holland Agriculture dealerships in northern central Indiana, and also works with farmers throughout the state to generate solar power on their properties, enabling them to sell surplus energy. Among the products he sells at his company Ag Technologies is SolarCAM, a type of solar panel that is easily adjustable to maximise solar power generation whatever the season.
Straeter’s client base has grown to include 124 customers, and the business is headed for a target of 3,000 kilowatt-hours in 2017. His investors’ savings have grown as well, with a 30% tax credit for those who invest in solar power and also via net metering, which calculates refunds based on surplus energy produced.
However, a controversial bill signed into law in Indiana this year will see the amount credited back to producers greatly reduced. Those who currently have a net metering system will be exempt from the reduction for the next 30 years, and those who have a system installed in the next 5 years will be exempt until 2032.
How big is this reduction in credit? Currently, Indiana residents who generate energy receive 11 to 13 cents per kilowatt-hour for their surplus energy when it is sold back into the grid. After 2022, it will fall to roughly 4 cents per kWh.
Despite critics believing that the new Indiana law is part of a broader nationwide push to muscle out smaller companies while investor-owned utilities across the U.S. carve out a share of the market, from our experience, this isn’t the case. Utilities absolutely understand there are benefits from putting solar power on the grid, they just want to control it.
One way this significant loss could be mitigated by Straeter and his customers is to sell their surplus energy to people other than the main grid operators. A peer-to-peer marketplace like Power Ledger’s provides generators and prosumers with the opportunity to offer surplus energy at prices they set themselves, providing consumers and local businesses the opportunity to choose what kind of renewable energy they purchase, and at what price.
Engaging in a peer-to-peer energy market like Power Ledger’s is an attractive financial proposition for both generators and customers. But just as valuable is the control it gives those who engage with it. Rather than feeling powerless when rebates are reduced or prices are hiked, participants have the ability to more actively control what kind of energy is consumed, and its market price. And that control really is priceless.
