Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Solar topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee considers SB 228 to expand community solar access and raise size caps for low‑ and moderate‑income projects
Summary
Sen. David Waters introduced SB 228 to expand eligibility and increase size limits for community solar and small customer‑generator projects, and to allow more flexible group net‑metering arrangements.
Sen. David Waters introduced Senate Bill 228 to revise New Hampshire’s community solar and net‑metering rules, including increasing the size cap for small customer generators and low‑ and moderate‑income community solar projects, permitting members to sign with more than one group host, and clarifying which public entities may host projects.
The New Hampshire Department of Energy said it is neutral on SB 228 and identified several drafting issues to resolve, including administrative complexity if on‑site customer‑generators were allowed to be group‑host members and the interaction with pending net‑metering rulemakings (the department referenced an ongoing rulemaking for a net‑metering 2 framework and the department’s 900 rules). "The department believes that removing some limitations could be administratively burdensome for the utilities, and lead to increased cost for ratepayers," attorney Matt Young said.
Lindsey Burgoyne, director of policy and government affairs for Revision Energy, said the bill takes "reasonable and incremental changes to net metering that will foster self generation" and specifically praised provisions that would expand access for low‑ and moderate‑income residents and public entities. Burgoyne recommended clarifying language so that renters are not excluded and to preserve previously included special‑purpose districts and public housing authorities in the definition of eligible municipal hosts.
Representatives of Eversource and utility billing staff warned the committee that allowing a customer to participate in both on‑site net metering and off‑site group projects or to sign multiple group host agreements would create substantial manual billing complexity under current systems and could increase costs (those costs would ultimately be borne by ratepayers). "Our current billing systems are not able to adequately track both credits from a customer's own exports and any proceeds they may receive from a group host," Eversource witness Griffin Roberge said.
Housing and community advocates (New Hampshire Housing, Kearsarge Energy, public housing representatives) testified the bill would improve the economics of low‑income community solar, increase the reach of a federal Solar for All grant and allow larger, more cost‑effective community arrays that produce deeper savings for low‑income tenants.
The Department of Energy staff and utilities offered technical edits and cautioned about inadvertent exclusions (for example, changing language from "households" to "homeowners" could exclude renters). Stakeholders agreed to work on drafting changes; no committee vote occurred at the hearing.
