SEIA urges Nevada assembly to advance net metering bill

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) sent a letter recently to the Nevada Assembly’s Committee on Commerce and Labor to advance a bill that would again allow all homeowners to sell excess electricity back to the utility.

The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) eliminated net metering in 2015. While the decision was partially reversed last year by PUCN when it grandfathered in net metering for existing customers, the bill, AB 270, would return Nevada to its former net metering policy.

SEIA said that since eliminating net metering, the state has lost almost 3,000 solar jobs. PUCN has stated that the revised order reduced the number of applications by residential homeowners and small commercial businesses in Sierra Pacific Power Service territory from 983 in 2015 to 41 applications in 2016.

“Prior to 2016, Nevada had been a national leader in distributed generation, [and] more specifically rooftop solar,” SEIA said in the letter. “However, in late 2015 with the dissolution of net metering, we have seen a tremendous implosion of what was a vibrant, growing industry.”

The letter also noted that the elimination of net metering has caused national solar companies to stop doing business in the state or put plans on hold and caused local companies to closed down or change their business plans to install technologies other than solar.