Affordable‑housing developers and VHFA urge short extension to group net‑metering sunset to align with Solar for All rollout

Developers of affordable rental housing and the Vermont Housing Finance Agency on April 10 asked the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee for a short extension of the statutory sunset on virtual group net‑metering so they can use pending federal Solar for All funds and an upcoming VHFA program to put solar into low‑income multifamily buildings.

Kathy Bayer, vice president for real estate development at Evernorth, told the committee that the organization has developed thousands of affordable rental apartments in the region and that this is “the first time we have had access to financial incentives for solar.” She presented Bay Ridge Apartments in Shelburne as an example: rooftop solar there would offset about 15% of the building’s electric load, and a separately sited 150‑kilowatt system already installed for the project increases the total offset to about 51%.

Mia Lawson, Special Programs Manager at the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA), said VHFA’s “immediate interest in community solar is the $62,400,000 federal grant for Solar for All funding.” VHFA expects a tranche (described in testimony as about $22 million) to be administered to support multifamily affordable housing through a program (referred to in testimony as the MASH program). VHFA and developers said on‑site rooftop solar alone will not suffice for many multifamily buildings because roof area, condenser placement for heat‑pump systems, and other constraints limit how much generation can be installed on the building footprint.

Both Evernorth and VHFA asked the committee for an extension of the existing group net‑metering sunset to provide a “bridge” until a successor community‑solar approach can be finalized. Kathy Bayer suggested in written testimony a 2029 sunset extension to align program availability with Solar for All implementation. VHFA staff said that standalone bills under consideration provide shorter extensions: H.352 would extend the sunset to 2026, while H.289 does not include an extension. Committee members and VHFA staff discussed a shorter, 1‑year extension as a possible compromise to provide runway while successor‑program rules, financial modeling and PUC implementation are developed.

VHFA emphasized timing constraints: the agency must submit a program plan for Solar for All to EPA by late 2025 and the report language creating a successor program (the Act 179 working‑group recommendations and the RE4C concept) is not expected to be implemented before 2027 under current timelines. VHFA warned that without additional time the agency cannot finalize lending and grant terms, because it does not yet know whether successor programs will permit PPAs, tariffs or other arrangements that would replace net‑metering for affordable housing off‑site projects.

Committee members asked for further stakeholder input, including utilities and the Department of Public Service, and discussed possible guardrails such as an overall capacity cap for extended group net‑metering to limit rate impacts. No vote was taken. Representative Kathleen James asked staff and stakeholders to continue coordination and indicated the committee might consider a shorter extension to avoid disruption to developers while broader successor‑program rulemaking proceeds.