By Evan Wyloge | Arizona Capitol Times
As summer dawns and temperatures rise, the struggle over Arizona’s solar energy policies promises to heat up in coming months.
The state’s largest utility company is preparing to ask government regulators to change the way a key solar energy incentive is structured.
Arizona Public Service managers say they face new challenges as more rooftop solar systems are put into use: Energy price structures that once fit into the utility’s business model efficiently now cause increasing costs for non-solar customers. And they threaten to weaken the energy provider’s ability to raise capital for system-wide investment.
A combination of adjustments is needed, they say, and in July representatives from the energy giant will offer a proposal for one or more of them.
The proposed adjustments would affect the “net metering” that allows rooftop solar users to offset their energy use and even sell energy back to APS. The change means the money-saving benefits those customers gained could shrink. Solar companies that have thrived at least in part due to the current price structures and incentives see a threat.
Discontent over a possibly weakened Arizona solar industry has resulted in organized opposition to any change that would hurt the net-metering program. Former U.S. Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr., who has been a steady advocate of solar power since his days in congress, leads the campaign.
