People tuned into the housing market and construction industry in the Fredericksburg area know firsthand the increasing popularity of residential solar power. As the initial cost comes down, more homeowners are putting photovoltaic rooftop panel technology to use, and the clean energy it produces is more important than ever.
But the forecast is not all sunny days for residential solar power systems. Utilities like Dominion Virginia Power anticipate declines in revenue from the rising popularity of homeowner systems. Those customers’ bills are not only reduced, they are paid for the excess power they feed back into the grid. The process is called net-metering. A “net zero” home is a household that pays nothing for electricity.
By mostly any measure, Dominion presents a pro-solar image. Through its Solar Purchase Program, it advises homeowners and businesses on setting up net-metered solar collection systems. Conversely, it has announced a pilot program in which it sells Dominion-generated solar power directly to customers.
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It is in the process of building its own solar energy farms, the power plants of solar energy generation, that are key to its energy diversification efforts. One of them is in Fauquier County and promises to generate enough power—20 megawatts—for 5,000 homes.
For Dominion, solar is a sure thing. Compared to nuclear or even clean coal power plants, these fields of solar panels offer countless advantages. They are quicker to build—perhaps a decade quicker—and they face fewer regulatory hurdles. What would you rather live next to, a field of solar panels, or a nuclear power plant?
And the benefits of solar are well-known. It’s renewable, non-polluting energy from a source that will last forever, as far as our planet is concerned.
But there is no question that Dominion and other utilities around the country see residential and private commercial net-metering as a long-term threat. Dominion will make persuasive arguments—especially to easily persuaded lawmakers—that it needs the power to recoup or at least somehow limit the tiny but growing market share net-metering represents in order to maintain a healthy bottom line.
And according to The Associated Press: “Virginia’s 2015 legislative session was a good one for energy giant Dominion Resources Inc., the state’s most politically influential company. Legislation it wanted passed, passed. Bills it didn’t like did not.”
Under pressure from Dominion, for example, an approved increase in the size cap for net-metered projects from 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatt was a negotiated compromise from the initial proposal of 2 megawatts.
Like every other industry, Dominion’s business model evolves over time. It must adjust to the growth of small-time net-metered solar energy without penalizing its producers.
There’s no question by now that solar power will be an evermore integral source of clean and plentiful power here and around the world. Its growth at every level must be welcomed and encouraged, not inhibited in any way.