DESCRIPTION
Imagine you bought a new, efficient air conditioner. It cuts your electricity usage 10%. You'd expect your bill to go down 10%. So would someone who put in a set of new solar panels. But in many states, that's not the case. Even after they complete the technical process of interconnection, solar users can be set back by pitfalls in the financial arrangement of net metering. There are a few simple principles that can make sure clean energy customers can make back their investment:
Make sure clean onsite power is paid the same as grid power. Doing otherwise can make it impossible to pay off a system. Many utilities charge solar users full retail rates for all the power they use but pay only lower, wholesale rates for the power they create – as if they were a coal plant 500 miles away from where the power was used, instead of a solar panel up on the roof and wired directly to their own load.
This despite the fact that solar comes on line just when it's most needed – during the sunny, hot midday hours when power is at its most expensive.
Allow large systems for large loads. Many states unfortunately enforce low system capacity limits that allow small systems to participate, but keep the largest, cheapest solar systems off the market. The solution to making sure customers don't oversize their system is to make sure there's no incentive to do so – not to cap systems across the board.
Permit significant deployment. The purpose of any solar policy should be to deploy panels. Restrictions that keep small generators to an insignificant percentage of retail sales prevent success right off the bat. Any grid concerns are handled by the interconnection process – so why put a cap on how much clean, customer-sited generation goes in?
Eliminate special fees for customer generators. Whether called "standby fees" or by another name, these fees attempt to charge the customer for saving energy. Customers who reduce grid strain and emissions prices shouldn't owe their utility money for saving energy any more than they would for turning off the lights.
Establish "rollover" provisions. During the hottest summer months, when electricity prices soar, a solar home might put out extra power to its neighbors, bringing that customer's usage to less than zero. Those "rollover credits" should be available in the next months to offset their bill – not donated to the utility, nor sold at a wholesale price.
In all cases, the intent of the law should be to allow customers to save energy – not to build a for-profit power plant in their rooftop. But preventing that is easy; by stopping any rollover annually, and paying only wholesale rates, you can ensure that no one can make money from their system – only save it.
Solar customers save energy – they should save money, too. Learn how to give customers energy choice so that their energy savings can help pay for their solar investment. 
Next: Pillar #3 of 4 
