To the Editor:
July 1 will mark one year since Bowling Green Municipal Utilities implemented the solar penalty for rooftop solar.
Since then, I believe that no one in the city has invested in solar. The original claim that the solar penalty was not intended to discourage individual investment in clean energy has been proven wrong.
What homeowner would pay the up-front cost to install solar without a payback over the life of the panels, knowing they could be penalized even more in the future?
When we installed solar and geothermal, we acted to lower our carbon footprint and contribute clean energy to Bowling Green. As the summers become hotter, our solar panels will reduce grid demand and provide energy.
There are grid issues with supply and demand, and that must be addressed by the highest levels of government. Discouraging individual solar installations is not the solution to grid problems.
Such policies have been tied to large utility lobbying efforts. Individuals who invest in rooftop solar do so at their own expense and cannot recover their cost of construction in rates as the large utilities can, so a payback calculation must be made; whereas utility-scale solar can pass costs along in rates.
This is an uneven playing field causing grid problems, and that is a problem that must be addressed — but not at the local level.
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission was petitioned to investigate big utility lobbying practices, stating, “As the rise of renewable energy competition and changing regulatory landscapes challenge electric utilities’ century-old technology and business model, the electric utility industry is engaging in unfair competitive, unfair business, and consumer-harming practices that warrant the Commission’s investigation. The Petition includes detailed examples of two classes of electric utility abuses: (1) unfair competitive actions that harm clean energy competitors, including consumers generating their own renewable electricity; and (2) unfair and deceptive acts, including corrupt dealings and voting interference, that enrich utilities and ultimately drive up consumer electricity rates and decrease consumer choice.”
Even with some oversight of investor-owned utilities from the PUCO and Ohio Consumers Council, American Municipal Power and Bowling Green utilities do not even have that, so greater public input and oversight are needed.
The disastrous Prairie State contract and year-long policy to penalize rooftop solar are examples of what happens when public and regulatory oversight are lacking.
Leatra Harper
Bowling Green
