State officials tout solar-energy progress

At the Oct. 10 meeting of the MMA’s Policy Committee on Energy and the Environment, three state officials discussed the success that Massachusetts has had in promoting energy efficiency and solar power.

Meg Lusardi, director of the Green Communities program, noted that for the second straight year, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has ranked Massachusetts first in the nation.

The 103 Massachusetts cities and towns that have qualified for Green Community status have committed to a five-year total energy reduction equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 13,358 homes. The savings are expected to deliver $6 billion in savings to municipalities, residents and business, Lusardi said.

In 2011, the Mass Save program reduced energy consumption enough to provide electricity for 109,707 households and saved enough natural gas to provide heat and hot water for more than 14,883 households, according to Lusardi.

Mike Judge, coordinator of the Department of Energy Resources’ solar carve-out program, also highlighted the state’s accomplishments. All but 11 of the state’s 351 cities and towns now have at least one solar-generating facility, he said.

Overall, Judge said, the state has added more than 162 megawatts in solar capacity this year – an amount that exceeds all previous years combined. That puts the state on course to easily meet the Patrick administration’s goal of 250 megawatts of solar capacity by 2017.

Christopher Eicher, counsel to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, credited the net-metering provision in the Green Communities Act with helping to boost solar energy. Net-metering allows local governments to sell the electricity they generate from solar panels and other small onsite renewable energy sources back to utilities, at a fair market price, to offset their electric bills and generate revenue. Concerns raised by local officials helped to persuade the state to increase the amount of energy that could by sold back to utilities from 2 percent to 3 percent, Eicher said.

The Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy also responded to municipal concerns that solar projects were being delayed or halted because utilities could not determine when or if their projects could connect to the grid, Eicher said. The resulting legislation requires the Department of Public Utilities to approve an enforceable, standard interconnection timeline, which must be implemented by November 2013.