In 2015, the Nevada Legislature, occupied with historic education reform and tax bills, inadvertently killed Nevada’s fledgling rooftop solar industry. The 78th legislature passed SB 374, lifting the 235 megawatt cap on rooftop solar, but at the same time providing that the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUCN) “Shall not approve a tariff… or authorize any rates or charges for net metering that unreasonably shift costs from customer-generators to other customers of the utility.” On December 15, 2015, the PUCN issued an order concluding that under SB 374, it was compelled to cut by two thirds the rate NV Energy paid for electricity generated by rooftop arrays.
In the wake of that decision, Nevada lost several hundred good paying jobs in the solar industry and lost any claim to leadership in the green economy. The solar industry filed lawsuits seeking judicial review of the PUCN decision, Governor Sandoval convened a New Energy Industry Task Force, and the Reno Gazette Journal opined that stakeholders should “just fix it.”
These efforts did not result in the problem being fixed. While the PUCN ultimately decided to restore the previous rates for consumers who had already purchased net metering systems, that did little to bring back the industry. Like any problem created by hastily drafted and ill-conceived legislation, the solution is to be found only through thoughtful and deliberative legislative leadership.
The Nevada Legislature has three critically important clean energy bills in front of it this term. AB 405 provides a rate schedule for net metering customers that will encourage consumers to install rooftop solar without imposing any significant costs on ratepayers. SB 392 creates a mechanism to create community solar gardens so that condo owners, renters, and other people who cannot install rooftop solar can still participate in the green economy. AB 206 raises the amount of renewable energy that NV Energy is required to provide from 20% currently to 50% by 2030 .
The benefits of reclaiming Nevada’s role as a leader in the green economy are many.
The Nevada Legislature has an opportunity to provide the leadership needed to place Nevada squarely in the center of the burgeoning clean energy economy. AB 206 and AB 405 have passed the Assembly and are now pending before the Senate. I urge our elected representatives to take this opportunity by thoughtfully considering and deliberating this legislation, thinking through any necessary changes, and sending these bills to the Governor for signature. I urge everyone else to contact your Senator and Assembly member to voice your support.
In the wake of that decision, Nevada lost several hundred good paying jobs in the solar industry and lost any claim to leadership in the green economy. The solar industry filed lawsuits seeking judicial review of the PUCN decision, Governor Sandoval convened a New Energy Industry Task Force, and the Reno Gazette Journal opined that stakeholders should “just fix it.”
These efforts did not result in the problem being fixed. While the PUCN ultimately decided to restore the previous rates for consumers who had already purchased net metering systems, that did little to bring back the industry. Like any problem created by hastily drafted and ill-conceived legislation, the solution is to be found only through thoughtful and deliberative legislative leadership.
The Nevada Legislature has three critically important clean energy bills in front of it this term. AB 405 provides a rate schedule for net metering customers that will encourage consumers to install rooftop solar without imposing any significant costs on ratepayers. SB 392 creates a mechanism to create community solar gardens so that condo owners, renters, and other people who cannot install rooftop solar can still participate in the green economy. AB 206 raises the amount of renewable energy that NV Energy is required to provide from 20% currently to 50% by 2030 .
The benefits of reclaiming Nevada’s role as a leader in the green economy are many.
- It is abundantly clear that climate change is not a theoretical problem to be dealt with by future generations, but a pressing and existential calamity that needs to be addressed twenty years ago.
- The clean energy economy will create, by some estimates, 28,000 jobs in the state of Nevada – jobs that pay a living wage, cannot be outsourced to the developing world, and that won’t be replaced by robots.
- Finally, solar, wind, geothermal, and other clean energy resources will help ratepayers’ pocketbooks. The cost of generating clean energy has fallen dramatically over the past decade, and is expected to continue to do so. In addition, renewable generation resources create price stability in energy by providing a hedge against volatility in the fossil fuel markets. Anyone who tells you that natural gas prices will be stable for the foreseeable future has probably not picked up a newspaper since the Johnson administration.
The Nevada Legislature has an opportunity to provide the leadership needed to place Nevada squarely in the center of the burgeoning clean energy economy. AB 206 and AB 405 have passed the Assembly and are now pending before the Senate. I urge our elected representatives to take this opportunity by thoughtfully considering and deliberating this legislation, thinking through any necessary changes, and sending these bills to the Governor for signature. I urge everyone else to contact your Senator and Assembly member to voice your support.
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