The July 23 Metro article “Wind, solar subsidy set for review” raises concerns about Massachusetts’ net metering program, but ignores many of its positive effects, including job creation, local power generation, declining renewables costs, and cleaner grid impacts. Net metering reduces barriers to customer installation of small distributed renewables, allowing those customers to be fairly compensated for power sold into the electric grid. This encourages residents, municipalities, and businesses to adopt renewable energy.
Because renewables and energy efficiency are Massachusetts’ only indigenous energy sources, we turn to them in order to keep energy costs low. The more that renewables and other forms of clean technology are used and developed, the lower costs get, benefiting all consumers.
Net metering does have its costs — the average residential customer would pay an additional 4.5 cents a month — but its benefits far outweigh this minimal price, especially when one remembers that the average energy bill has declined by $38 a month since the passage of the Green Communities Act in 2008.
The proposed increased cap on net metering would benefit consumers, businesses, and the economy