SEIA applauds Massachusetts’ passage of clean energy bill

The Massachusetts state legislature passed a bill that includes several provisions related to clean energy, including measures that clarify tax treatment for solar projects.

The legislation — An Act Creating A Roadmap for the Next Generation of Climate Policy – serves as a blueprint for shifting to clean energy.

“This legislation is a roadmap that will ultimately help the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decarbonize its economy. There are several positive developments for the solar industry, including measures that encourage the SMART program to serve more low-to-moderate income customers and exempt certain businesses from the Commonwealth’s solar net metering caps,” David Gahl, senior director of state affairs at Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said.

This legislation comes after the Solar Energy Industries Association SEIA negotiated a compromise with state tax assessors.

“After months of negotiations, the bill now includes a provision that clarifies how taxes are assessed by towns and municipalities on wind, solar, and energy storage systems. In short, homeowners and small businesses will not see their property taxes increase when they install small solar systems. Larger solar systems will be exempt from taxes if they already have an agreement in place for other tax payments,” Gahl said. “This is a reasonable framework and one that should provide clarity to the tax law and increased certainty for both large and small solar firms. We commend the legislature for including this compromise in the final version of the roadmap, and we urge Governor Baker to sign this bill into law.”