Arizona solar industry unloads on corporation commission for cutting commercial incentives
By Patrick O’Grady
Managing Editor. Phoenix Business Journal
There has always been a quiet concern among the solar industry about how the Arizona Corporation Commission was handling various yearly renewable implementation cases.
This year, the concern is much more palpable, and the nice words that follow one of the votes are noticeably absent. And when the national organization for the industry weighs in, it becomes much more interesting.
This is what happened after the ACC decided on Wednesday to cut back on residential installation incentives for Arizona Public Service Co., and to completely eliminate the commercial incentives portion of the program.
The Solar Energy Industries Association, the Washington-based group that usually weighs in on federal policy, took a shot at the ACC for not only cutting back on commercial incentives but increasing the amount APS could funnel into projects that would directly compete on the private market.
“It was a great day to be a regulated monopoly,” said Court Rich, an attorney with Rose Law Group in Scottsdale who has represented several solar companies. “It was a bad day to be in the free market.”
