Solar Thermal Electric

Massachusetts Community Renewable Energy - Neighborhood Net Metering

The community renewable energy program in Massachusetts was first brought to legislation on July 2nd, 2008 through Chapter 169 of the Act of 2008 within Massachusetts' session laws. This Act introduced "neighborhood net metering" to Massachusetts, establishing the framework for community net metering projects. Neighborhood net metering is any Class I, II or III net metering facility serving 10 or more residential customers, served by a single distribution company and located within the customers' neighborhood. Net metering facility classification definitions may be found within the act here.

An important addition to neighborhood net metering comes from the Code of

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Delaware - Community Solar Rules

On September 17th, 2021, the Governor of the State of Delaware signed into law Senate Bill 2, which amended the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act and the Electric Utility Restructuring Act of 1999 to accelarate the adoption of community-owned solar photovoltaic systems in Delaware and to establish a process relating to community-owned energy generating facilities (CEFS).

Below are some of the key features of this program.

  1. The community-owned energy generating facility shall not have subscriptions larger than 200 kilowatts constituting more than 60% of its capacity.
  2. A community-owned energy generating facility shall not exceed a capacity of 4 megawatts.
  3. The
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New Jersey Community Solar Rules - Remote Net Metering

New Jersey's community solar program is governed by the Solar Act of 2021 (L. 2021, c. 169) which established a new Successor Solar Incentive Program, also known as the “SuSI Program”. The SuSI Program implements the Clean Energy Act of 2018 (L. 2018, c.17) and the Solar Act of 2021 (L. 2021, c. 169). The SuSI Program provides incentives to eligible solar facilities to enable the continued efficient and orderly development of solar renewable energy generating sources throughout the state.

The program provides one New Jersey Solar Renewable Energy Certificate-II (NJ SREC–II) for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of solar electricity produced

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Shared Clean Energy Facility (SCEF) Program

Residents or businesses can choose to invest in, or lease, a renewable energy system installation on the rooftops of their homes or businesses, or on their properties. However, some Connecticut residents and businesses are either not able to, or elect not to, invest in or lease an individual property installation for a variety of reasons (e.g., high installation costs, unsuitable rooftop orientation, shaded property, or because they rent instead of own their properties). Subscription to a shared clean energy facility (SCEF) provides an option that can be used to overcome such barriers, thereby expanding access to renewable energy to more

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Maine Community Solar

Community Solar in the state of Maine is governed by by P.L. 2019 c. 478, P.L. 2021 c.390, and Chapter 313 of the Public Utility Commissions (PUC) rules. These rules govern the state's Net Energy Billing (NEB) Policy. Under NEB there are two programs which customers can participate in "Community" or shared renewable projects, a kWh credit program, which is available to all electric utility customers, and a tariff rate program, which is available to non-residential customers.

Net Energy Billing kWh Credit Program

The kWh program allows customers to choose to participate in a larger project on a

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Community Renewable Energy Amendment Act

D.C. Act 20-196, enacted on December 13th 2013, established a community renewable energy program in the District of Columbia. This program sets a production capacity of 5MW on all systems, along with a minimum of two (2) subscribers. Community renewable energy facilities (CREF) may offset no more than 120% of the subscriber's electricity consumption over the prior 12 months. All individual billing meters must be within the District of Columbia. Credit rates will be applied to customer's each billing month, and will be allocated by multiplying the quantity of kilowatt hours allocated to each subscriber by the subscriber's CREF credit

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Non-Residential Renewable Energy Solutions

NOTE: In May 2018, S.B. 9 signed into law and made significant changes to the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard and Net Metering policies. The law ends net metering to new customers when the Virtual Net Metering, Low Emission Renewable Energy Credit, and Zero Emission Renewable Energy Credit programs end on January 1, 2022. The existing net metering customers will be grandfathered until December 2039. Starting January 1, 2022, new customers will be able to select a buy-all, sell-all option, or net billing option under the new Net-Tariff program. The Public Utilities Regulator Authority (PURA) has finished implementing the new program

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Enhanced Community Renewables Program

The Enhanced Community Renewables Program is one element of the Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) Program, which was established by Senate Bill 43 of 2014. The Enhanced Community Renewables Program allows a customer to purchase a share of a community renewable energy project directly from a developer and receive a bill credit on their proportionate share of the system's production.  The program is capped at 600 MW statewide. 

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State of NY Commercial PACE Financing Program

Note: In 2010, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which has authority over mortgage underwriters Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, directed these enterprises against purchasing mortgages of homes with a PACE lien due to its senior status above a mortgage. Most residential PACE activities subsided following this directive; however, some residential PACE programs are now operating with loan loss reserve funds, appropriate disclosures, or other protections meant to address FHFA's concerns. Commercial PACE programs were not directly affected by FHFA’s actions, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not underwrite commercial mortgages. Visit PACENation for more information about PACE financing
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System Benefits Charge

The New Mexico system benefits charge was replaced with the passing of the Efficient Use of Energy Act
As part of New Mexico's Electric Utility Industry Restructuring Act of 1999 the legislature created the Electric Industry System Benefits Fund for renewable energy, customer education, and low-income assistance. The fund is created through a charge of 0.03¢/kWh beginning January 1, 2002 and doubling in 2007. The charge is collected from all electric utilities, both private and public. The funds will support renewable energy up to $4 million to be used by school districts, cities, towns, villages, or counties. Renewable technologies
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