JEA board, staff discuss revamping solar plan

JEA staff shared options for its board to consider later this month as leaders at the publicly owned utility look to revamp how it handles solar power, a proposal unpopular with advocates of rooftop solar panels.

Staff members briefed the board of directors on Thursday to share their rationale for a reduction in the rate it compensates rooftop solar customers for energy they send back to the grid while simultaneously tripling the solar power in JEA’s portfolio.

The proposal has been criticized by environmental activists and those who install rooftop solar panels.

The JEA chief executive officer and chief financial officer recommended two implementation options to the board for changing how the utility compensates current rooftop solar customers who return unused power to the grid in exchange for credits from JEA:

n Grandfathering in existing net metering customers, giving them the current rate (about 11 cents per kilowatt hour) while changing the rate for new net metering customers to 7.5 cents

n Phasing in a new rate for all net metering customers beginning Dec. 31 with the current rate being gradually reduced to 7.5 cents.

“We’ll charge our customers what it actually costs us to buy that solar energy,” said CFO Melissa Dykes.

Board chairman Tom Petway said he believes either proposal is fair to current customers.

“Nobody was guaranteed a solar rate forever because they have solar on their rooftop,” he said.

JEA’s stated goal with solar rates is to treat all solar providers the same, to pay 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour, regardless of whether it is from a large solar farm or an individual customer.

Opponents of the proposal argue it is regressive and discourages people from installing rooftop solar by significantly reducing the economic return. Pete Wilking, owner of Jacksonville-based A1A Solar, said the premise of the JEA proposal is flawed. He questioned how the staff arrived at 7.5 cents to credit solar customers. He contends there are a number of factors that JEA did not consider, including the reduced need for capacity on the energy grid and green energy, which is needed as utilities are being required to move toward cleaner energy.

“The future of the grid is going to look so much different than it does today,” he said.

JEA is paying current net metering customers more than it will pay for solar through its new contracts. Rooftop solar advocates disagree those customers are being subsidized and point to the many benefits, stating the power is sent nearby to neighbors, not through the power grid, and that those customers – not JEA – funded the power source on their homes.

Petway said they must think about all 450,000 JEA customers when considering this proposed change that would affect about 500.

The current average electric bill for a JEA customer is $124 a month with average net metering customers paying $17. Under the proposal, that would increase to $33.

Also, as part of its proposed solar changes, JEA is entering into contracts that would add 38 megawatts of solar in the next 18 months at a cost of $5 million, adding enough power for 5,000 houses a year. JEA currently has 12 megawatts of solar available. Even with the expansion, solar would only be 1.4 percent of JEA’s energy portfolio. The board did not vote and did not allow public comment on Thursday, but Petway said the workshop was about education and board dialogue on the issue. Petway expects the board to vote on the proposal at its April 19 meeting, when there will be a public hearing.

Sebastian Kitchen: (904) 359-4161

JEA board, staff discuss revamping solar plan

ReNewable Now: Sun shines on New York solar energy boom by Staff Writers New York (AFP) Feb ...

The good news continues to pour in on the solar side.  Kudos to NY for opening the doors to some very large sites:

“On a rooftop in the Bronx far from the skyscrapers of Manhattan, 4,760 panels soak up the winter rays. Welcome to the solar power boom in New York state.

Robert Kline, director of commercial sales for the Ross Solar Group that installed the panels, is delighted.

“It is the largest (solar) installation in the history of New York City,” he tells AFP.

The 1.6-megawatt installation on the Jetro Cash and Carry has been proudly singled out by New York governor Andrew Cuomo as a prime example of a drive to haul the state into a new dawn.

New York has long lagged behind California and even neighboring states, let alone Europe, when it comes to generating solar energy, but that is slowly changing.

In 2012, Cuomo set up the public-private NY-Sun Initiative with $800 million, and 300 megawatts of solar capacity have since been installed in the state, more than during the previous 10 years.

Cuomo now wants to extend the program until 2023 with an additional nearly $1 billion to generate another 3,000 megawatts.

Experts say that would create 13,000 jobs and bring down greenhouse emissions by 2.3 million tonnes a year.

California and Arizona are home to more than 80 percent of solar installations in the United States, but Cory Honeyman — a solar analyst at GTM Research — says New York is coming into its own.

“New York definitively is one of the hotter markets to watch, as we expect a really significant ramp up in build out of projects for both residential and non-residential markets,” he said.

- Public awareness on the rise -

This is a godsend for more than 400 specialized companies competing for their share of the ballooning market.

In the Bronx, one of them, OnForce Solar, saw its revenue triple last year and hopes to double it again this year, chief executive officer Charles Feit told AFP.

He says he has doubled, even tripled staff every year since he started and that it was the economic argument that was driving business home.

“Politically, the winds are with us… public awareness has definitely risen,” said Feit at his large premises where several new offices are in the process of being built.

“In New York City, there is so much opportunity,” agreed David Sandbank, OnForce president and vice president of the New York Solar Energy Industries Association.

While Manhattan is a problem due to strict regulations, other boroughs are full of huge rooftops and business owners looking to save on some of the highest electricity costs in the country.

Sandbank said the NY-Sun Initiative was intended to pave the way for a stable solar industry and said some specialist firms from California have now expanded to New York.

“With longevity and transparency, we’re creating an industry,” he told AFP, adding 3,300 new jobs had already been created.

Jetro Cash and Carry hopes to save 40 percent of their $250,000 electricity bill a year, says Kline.

Contracts are pouring in and Cuomo recently promised grants to schools that build solar panels.

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg also announced last year that a solar energy farm would be built in 2015 at Freshkills, a former landfill on Staten Island.

It is to be the largest solar farm in New York, capable of producing 10 megawatts of electricity.

But it’s a long road ahead.

Solar energy represents one percent of renewable energy production in the United States, itself 12 percent of total electricity production, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The US solar energy market grew nearly 30 percent from 2012 to 2013 and Honeyman says it could overtake world leader Germany in terms of new builds in 2014 for the first time in 15 years.”

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ReNewable Now: Sun shines on New York solar energy boom by Staff Writers New York (AFP) Feb ...