LONGMONT
— With an array of solar panels behind him, Gov. Bill Ritter signed a
Homegrown Renewable Power Act into law Wednesday afternoon at a
Longmont-area farm.The “net metering” measure, House Bill 1160, requires rural cooperative
electric associations and certain municipally owned utilities to allow
their customers to be paid a fair rate for excess electricity generated
by those customers’ solar, wind or geothermal energy systems.
The bill’s backers have said it will credit those homes and businesses
for the energy they’re contributing to their utilities’ grids and
provide clean energy to additional customers.
Dozens of representatives of environmental and agricultural
organizations, rural and municipal utilities, and state and local
government agencies showed up to witness Ritter sign the bill on Steve
Szabo’s farm at 8449 N. 79th St. south of Longmont.
There, Szabo said, he and his wife, Debbie Lane, already use a
photovoltaic solar system to provide all the electricity needed to run
a geo-exchange system for heating and cooling their energy-efficient
home and for hot water, as well as some of the electricity needed for
electric appliances.
Stiff winds gusted throughout the signing ceremony speeches, prompting
Ritter to joke that “if you’re going to have a press conference
involving solar, count on the wind blowing.”
Ritter said the new law will help “engage homeowners and businesses
throughout Colorado in the promise of the ‘New Energy Economy’” because
“we believe it brings fair and equitable net metering to Colorado
citizens.”
Szabo, who already has a net metering agreement with the Poudre Valley
Electric Association, said in an interview that in a year’s time, his
current solar system probably would not produce an excess of
electricity.
But if it did, or if he expanded his present system, the new law would
require that Szabo be credited for that excess electricity generation.
Szabo said he spent only $603 last year on heating and cooling and on
hot water for his 5,000-square-foot home that was completed in 2006.
He said his system put out 9,212 kilowatt hours of electricity last
year and that he used 7,400 for heating and air conditioning, leaving
1,600 for the house’s other power needs.
Ritter said the new law “ensures that if someone invests in solar
panels for their home, while those panels are producing electricity
during the day when they’re at work, they get their full credit for
delivering that power to the grid. Their meters will run backward.
“When they come home and use energy at night, the meters ... again run
forward,” Ritter said. They’ll only get charged with the net usage of
the energy.”
HB1160 was sponsored in the Colorado House by Brighton Democratic Rep.
Judy Solano, a retired Erie Elementary School teacher, and was carried
in the Senate by Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont and Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus,
all of whom were present for Ritter’s signing.
The measure applies to residential customers of rural electric
cooperatives and municipal utilities when those customers have solar or
wind devices generating up to 10 kilowatts. It also applies to
commercial, agricultural or industrial customers who generate up to 25
kilowatts from on-site renewable-energy systems.
The new net-metering law, which is to take effect in August, requires
the electric cooperatives and municipal utilities to credit a
customer’s excess generation on a one-to-one basis against the
customer’s energy consumption.
Said Shaffer: “This bill will allow homeowners, ranchers, farmers and
businesses to generate their own power and stay on the grid regardless
of which utility company they use.”
Municipally owned utilities covered by the bill are those with more
than 5,000 customers each, including Longmont, Loveland, Estes Park and
Fort Collins.
A similar net-metering measure already in state law applies to large investor-owned utility companies.
Pam Kiely, Environment Colorado’s legislative director, has predicted
that partly because of the new law, “in the next decade we could have a
half-million solar roofs helping to power Colorado, an important first
step towards stronger clean energy solutions and fighting global
warming.”
Ray Clifton, executive director of the Colorado Rural Electric
Association, said in a statement that “while all of Colorado’s electric
co-ops already have policies providing net metering at varying levels,
this new legislation will set a uniform minimum standard for giving
co-op members credit for home-grown energy.”
Szabo said that as a member of a rural electric cooperative, he’s
concerned about the risks posed by Americans’ overreliance on fossil
fuels.
Szabo said the old technology of coal-fired power plants “will be in
the mix for a while, but we need to move forward on aggressive
energy-efficiency measures and clean energy development as quickly as
possible.”
John Fryar can be reached at 303-684-5211 or jfryar@times-call.com.
