Guest column: Rooftop solar-killing bill was a giant misstep
The net metering bill, HB 741, was recently passed by the House and the Senate and will be sent to the Governor’s desk to be signed. It is questionable who this bill is supposed to really help and what problems this bill was even solving. The legislation, backed by Florida Power & Light, allows the utility company to lower the rate at which it buys excess power from homes that have solar panels installed.
Net metering was a system put in place to incentivize people to install solar panels on their homes. The offset costs helped residents to be able to afford solar panels. The bill passed the House with an 83-31 vote, and the Senate with a 24-15 vote.
An advertising campaign was run claiming the supposed problem this bill was supposed to solve was that wealthy homeowners with solar panels were being subsidized by Florida residents without solar; and that this bill would allow residents without solar to stop subsidizing the wealthy.
However, both Democratic and Republican leaders commented that there was no independent study done to assess if there was such a subsidization taking place. Without any data, it is not known to what extent this alleged problem even existed. Moreover, some state leaders commented during committee hearings that this bill is premature. Less than one percent of homes have solar panels installed.
That makes it questionable how much of an issue this could have been for utility customers. Perhaps the existing net metering system should have stayed in place for at least enough time for more residents to get solar, as that was the purpose of it. Now it is gone, with less than one percent of consumers having solar panels.
The number of Florida residents installing rooftop solar will surely go down. The existing net metering system allowed lower-income residents to install solar panels, because they could have used the credits from selling their power to help pay for the solar panels. Under the new system, it seems only wealthier residents will be able to afford solar now.
While the advertising campaign generally said this bill would help lower and middle-income residents, it seems it will do the opposite in practice. Fewer residents will be able to produce their own power now and will have no choice but to purchase electricity from the power company.
Florida should be incentivizing residents to get rooftop solar for a multitude of reasons. Rooftop solar gives residents more personal autonomy and self-sufficiency by allowing them to produce their own power. Also, Incentivizing renewables is necessary to mitigate climate change.
Given that almost all public testimony for this bill was negative, the bill will result in fewer people being able to install solar panels on their homes, and the bill will kill jobs for small businesses that install solar panels. Who did this bill end up helping in the end?
Michael Manias is a third-year law student at Florida State University. He hopes to have a career in policymaking for the state of Florida.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Guest column: Rooftop solar-killing bill was a giant misstep
