Industry witness tells Vermont committee H.716 would restore value for behind-the-meter solar and encourage battery uptake

At a Feb. 12 hearing of the Vermont House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, Mike McCarthy, president of Sun Common, told lawmakers that H.716 — a bill concerning net metering — would end the state-level charge (described in testimony as a "negative adder") applied when homeowners consume the solar power they produce behind the meter.

"This bill would end the tax on the energy that promoters produce when they use it on-site," McCarthy said, framing H.716 as a measure to give on-site consumption a full 1:1 value while leaving export compensation and any export adders in place. He said the change is needed to shore up the economics of residential solar following recent federal tax-credit changes.

Why it matters: McCarthy told the committee the combined effect of the federal tax-credit reduction and Vermont's negative adder has sharply weakened the return on typical residential projects. Using the example given in testimony, a roughly 10-kilowatt rooftop array that cost…