Today the Senate released their version of the Energy Bill filed by Senator Mike Bennett, which in it's current form includes a number of different pieces of legislation rolled in to one.
The bill includes the "utility bill" language, giving utilities full cost recovery for the systems that they develop, but also including a mandate to purchase at least 5% of their development capacity from systems under 2MW. FARE is currently filing an amendment to bring this 5% carve out for small systems up to 15%. In an effort to incentivize purchase from small scale systems, FARE is filing an amendment which we have already had adopted in the House, to give the utilities ownership of the inherenent Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) if they purchase the electrcity from small systems.
In another ray of hope for the small scale industry, this bill also includes a voluntary check off program for ratepayers to volunteer to fund a rebate program, allowing up to $2 per watt for residential systems up to $10k per system and up to $50k for commercial systems. This langugae can be found beginning on line 342. Working jointly with FlaSeia, FARE is filing an amendment to use a portion of the funds collected through this program to pay down the backlog of rebate monies owed unless more Federal money can be found to pay down the backlog.
The bill also includes the PACE program.
No comments:
Post a Comment