The Alliance works diligently with regulators, utilities, and solar companies to ensure your right to rooftop solar. Utilities nationwide are fighting against fair credit for the electricity that solar customers put on the grid. We want to see your investment in clean solar energy reduce your bills.
Net metering is the policy that allows customers to tie their renewable energy system and receive fair and equal credit (1:1) for the energy they send to the grid. Nationally, utilities have been attacking this policy. The LPSC dropped their “retail net metering” policy and adopted a “distributed generation” policy which deeply devalues (roughly 1:3) the energy customers provide to the grid. The New Orleans City Council has held the position that New Orleanians who put solar at their homes and businesses should receive equal credit for their excess energy. New Orleans is the only parish in the state that protects full retail net-metering credit.
Unfortunately at the state level we have seen major changes in policies that gutted residential solar across Louisiana. In 2015 the state Legislature scrapped its generous solar tax credit program, which covered as much as 50% of the first $25,000 spent on a rooftop system. Then in 2019, the state Public Service Commission (LPSC) changed its regulation, and lowered how much utility companies had to credit residents with rooftop solar for the power they produced for the grid.
The Alliance was adamantly opposed to these changes to net metering as they undermine the investments of residential solar customers and decimate LA’s residential solar economy.
Since the creation of the federal legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act, new programs are in development that will make solar accessible to many more utility customers. One program from the EPA called “Solar For All” will invest over $150M into Louisiana’s solar economy, specifically to reduce barriers for low income households, residents who cannot put solar on their own homes, and even communities who are installing resilience hubs with solar and energy storage. Other elements of the IRA will allow non-profit organizations to take advantage of incentives they could not access in the past.
The Alliance was successful in helping craft rules that allow communities in New Orleans to invest in and share community-owned renewables projects. The rules include carve-outs to ensure low-income customers have access to this solar resource, with virtual net energy metering to ensure a reduction in their energy bills.
