Posted by Annie Carmichael
The Nevada Legislative session adjourned last week, and I find myself singing along to the Rolling Stones: You don’t always get what you want, but when you try sometimes, you get what you need. We are counting both wins and compromises in Nevada, but as we see legislative sessions wrap up in states across the country without getting new solar policy across the finish line (largely due to extreme focus on budgetary issues) – Vote Solar is declaring the 2009 Nevada legislative session a success for solar energy.
Sunny Nevada is already home to a number of impressive large-scale solar plants. Vote Solar started the legislative session with an ambitious plan to help the Silver State build out a small-scale solar market to match. Together with the Solar Alliance, we advocated for legislation that would require NV Energy, the main state utility, to invest in distributed solar projects on homes and commercial properties.
After months of program modeling, discussion and debate with Nevada legislators, we saw some success with the passage of SB 358 (and resounding wins on the large-scale side with AB 522 – learn more here):
SB 358 (Horsford): Summary of primary solar provisions:
** Implements a new Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requiring that the state’s investor-owned utility generate 25% of its energy from renewables by 2025; increased from 20% by 2015.
** Requires that 6% of the RPS come from solar resources beginning in 2016, an increase from the current 5 percent.
** Establishes a more efficient 30 day application approval process for the state’s SolarGenerations rebate program. Eligibility capacity and categories for the program remain unchanged (1 MW for schools, 760 kW for public buildings, and 1 MW for residential and small commercial under 30 kW), but increase the capacity limits at 9% per year, leading to roughly 97 megawatts by 2020 if the program is efficient run and fully subscribed.
** Enables municipalities to finance renewable energy project through special “tax districts,” a provision that could clear the way for Berkeley FIRST type municipal finance programs that help eliminate solar’s upfront cost to property owners.
Despite plenty of hard work from both solar advocates and our champions in the legislature, SB 358 did fall short on one of our original proposals, the addition of a 5% DG solar carve-out to the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Nevada already has an aggressive RPS that encourages the large-scale development we have seen dominate the market to date. Designed to specifically carve-out some space for smaller scale projects, our policy ask would have required NV Energy to help deploy 450 megawatts of solar at Nevada homes, businesses and other buildings by 2025.
Through the process, we were thoroughly impressed with the level of personal engagement that many legislators devoted to developing a DG solar policy goal. In particular, we note the constructive and dedicated work of Senators Horsford and Schneider, Assemblyman Bobzien and their staff, particularly Dick Cooper and Scott Young, who asked tough questions of the utility and of us. Those productive conversations will undoubtedly continue through the off-season and into next year until we’re able to make solar more accessible to folks in the great state of Nevada.
All in all, we think this session was a start of a great thing: a solar powered economy that will bring new jobs to Nevada, while cleaning the air, and reducing reliance on out of state energy resources.
