Resonant Energy 2022 Massachusetts Climate Bill Summary

Apr 29

May 5, 2022 - Update on lawmaker negotiations

By Leonard Schloer and Isaac Baker

On April 14, 2022, the Massachusetts state senate passed an extensive revision and expansion to last year’s sweeping Climate Bill. This year’s bill, the “Act Driving Climate Policy Forward,” is likely to go through changes as it is reviewed by the house (full language available here). It is up to us as stakeholders in clean energy and environmental justice to advocate for this bill and ensure it stays intact in the few months before it is voted on by the House.

While this year’s bill is not quite as extensive as last year’s, there is still a lot to unpack, especially for small-scale solar. Before we dive deep into all the relevant proposed legislation, here is the high-level synopsis of the three most significant issues for Resonant that will impact our work with affordable housing, nonprofits, and low-income households across MA:

Outlawing Predatory 3rd Party Electricity Contracts

$426 million has been taken from mostly low-income households through ballooning electricity contracts negotiated between predatory energy suppliers and residential customers. These contracts have fabricated an undue burden on families and (understandably) fostered public distrust in energy providers within low-income communities and communities of color. These predatory organizations have made the work of communicating about positive next steps households can take to actually save money on their electric bills much more difficult. This section will outlaw new and renewing predatory competitive supply contracts in the residential market.

Increasing the Single-Phase Net Metering Cap to 25kW AC

A net metering cap increase to 25kW AC for single-phase projects is significant. Dozens of Resonant solar projects have been limited to 10kW AC in size not because of limited roof space or low electricity usage, but simply because they needed to stay below this policy threshold to ensure they would receive full value net metering credits for any excess production in summer months. Raising the cap makes sense, and would be great news for residential households that are increasing their usage by electrifying heating, cooling, and personal transportation and would also help small commercial projects, like the nonprofit and affordable multifamily projects we work on.

Expanding the Single Parcel Rule Exemption

The single parcel rule has severely limited the benefits of going solar for organizations with multiple buildings on a single tax parcel, or multiple electrical meters on a single building. This change brings a blanket exemption for affordable housing providers and significant exemptions for other organizations and scenarios (e.g. condo developments with scattered single-family homes or townhouses on a single parcel). It’s a common-sense change that will have a huge positive impact. Without this in place, we have to spend thousands on legal fees preparing briefs for the DPU to review exception requests, which can take over 12 months for them to review and approve.

These are transformational changes, but the bill needs your support to ensure it isn’t watered down in the coming months.

The best thing to do right now is to call your State Representative since the senate has already voted in support of these issues.

You can find your local legislators and their contact information at:

https://malegislature.gov/search/findmylegislator

If you’re interested in more than the top three issues, keep reading!

What follows is intended to summarize the provisions that will impact Resonant Energy and our community’s areas of focus: environmental justice and equitable solar PV deployment. For more summary of all of the climate provisions not just related to solar PV, including EVs, wind power, and changes to natural gas policy, check out the WBUR Bill Summary.

Section 4 Overview - Clean Energy for Higher Education & Technical Schools

This section amends a previous bill to add matching grant funding for solar PV, battery storage, and other clean energy projects at public higher education institutions and vocational-technical schools.

This is great news for our publicly-funded learning institutions in Massachusetts, many of which may not have the upfront capital to benefit from investments in clean energy. Savings from these projects will hopefully open up more resources (and cleaner air) for students in the Commonwealth.

(Lines 49-63; pages 4-5)

Section 6 Overview - Clean Energy Workforce Development Program

This section adds a requirement for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MACEC) to start a workforce development program geared toward the clean energy economy. This program will specifically target women- and minority-owned small businesses (W/MBE), as well as residents of environmental justice (EJ) neighborhoods, former fossil fuel workers, and any other underrepresented populations within the clean energy workforce.

(Lines 67-92; pages 5-6)

Section 7 Overview - Clean Energy Investment Fund

Following the previous section, this adds another responsibility for the MACEC; a clean energy investment fund. This fund will have broad objectives around clean energy. It will seek to support:

Clean energy research and development in the technology space
Clean energy training programs at public higher education and vocational institutions
Matching federal funds for clean energy research projects in Massachusetts
Clean energy infrastructure improvements

The fund will also support studies investigating:

The relationship between clean energy infrastructure and existing natural habitats and ecosystems
The intersection of commercial fishing and clean energy industries

All good things, in our opinion!

(Lines 93-128; pages 6-8)

Section 35 Overview - Single-Phase Net Metering Cap Increase

This section increases the cap to qualify for net metering credits on a single-phase system to 25kW AC, from 10kW AC. 10kW AC was a relatively small amount for most buildings other than a single-family home. As a result, many solar installations limited themselves to this cap, even if more building usage and roof space were available.

This change will allow many more types of properties to take advantage of the favorable full net metering rates, and ultimately bring more renewable energy to the commonwealth’s grid. While a proposal to raise this cap to 60kW for both single and three-phase was rejected (which would have been very impactful for our affordable housing and nonprofit projects that currently face a gap between 25 kW-AC and 60 kW-AC in the state’s policy around net metering), this section still marks progress for small scale-solar.

(Lines 327-330; page 17)

Section 36 Overview - Market Net Metering Update

As an addendum to the previous section, this section clarifies that for single-phase projects greater than 25kW AC, Market Net Metering Credits (MNMC) will be applied. MNMCs are generally worth about 60% of the net meter credit value.

Previously, MNMC were applicable to single-phase projects over 10kW AC (and three-phase over 25kW AC). With the change in section 35, this section updates that language as a logical follow up to keep all of the definitions lined up and consistent.

(Lines 331-338; pages 17-18)

Section 37 Overview - Expanding the Single Parcel Rule Exemption

This section brings much-welcomed relief to the rule limiting a single net metering facility per tax parcel. The change will allow unlimited net metering facilities for affordable housing (defined as low or moderate-income). It will also allow unlimited net metering facilities up to 2 MW AC; on any public or government-owned parcel, on any “separate and distinct” rooftops on a parcel, or installed more than a year apart on a parcel.

This is big news for Resonant and our partners, as many of the affordable housing providers we work with have multiple buildings on the same parcel. Over the past few years, we have worked to streamline the exemption process to overcome some of these hurdles, but we welcome any easing of these restrictions. This will save time and money on projects for many of our current and future clients.

We are looking forward to the wacky interpretations surely to come from the unsurely-worded “separate and distinct rooftops” definition.

(Lines 339-354; page 18)

Section 43 Overview - Outlawing Third Party Residential Electricity Contracts

This section outlaws the sale of individual retail electricity contracts sold by non-utility companies. As evidenced in a recent AG report (and written up by WBUR), these scam contracts charged residential customers an extra $426 million over five years. Lower-income residents were disproportionately affected by these contracts. In many cases, these door-to-door scammers would sell contracts promising lower utility rates for the first year, with ballooning rates for following years hidden in the fine print.

It goes without saying this is great news for residents. Some of these contracts were also binding in such a way that they prevented solar PV installations without exorbitant contract buy-outs. All of them created ill will and skepticism of our industry through hyper-aggressive marketing and sales tactics. A ban would be good news both for Massachusetts residents, as well as the clean energy industry.

(Lines 500-508; page 25)

Section 50 Overview - A Successor to SMART

Rounding out the relevant items on this bill is a requirement for the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) to provide the legislature with recommendations for a successor to the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) incentive program.

These recommendations should consider many of the same factors that the current SMART program attempts to consider; the various benefits of distributed generation facilities (from financial and emissions savings to equity benefits), time-differentiated rates, and the siting of projects in underserved areas (in more densely populated EJ communities instead of greenfields in central MA, for example).

The DOER is given a deadline of December 31, 2022, to submit these recommendations. However, we shouldn’t expect a successor program to actually come into effect for another few years, as the SMART program was only just recently extended.

(Lines 654-667; page 32)

If you are interested in moving these issues forward, again, the best thing to do right now is call your State Representative, since the Senate has already voted in support of these issues.