In 2013, my wife and I built a home in Maine powered by 6.2 kW of Sunpower Solar panels installed by Revision Energy.  Our solar panels are part of a “net-metering” program that has covered all our electric bills and has delivered significant solar energy to the “grid,” now operated in our region by Versant Power.

Net metering is a program for home-installed solar panels, by which a homeowner can use credits for extra power generation, during the day and during the summer, to cover costs of power use from the grid, largely at night and during the winter.  Typically, we generate more power than we use, so we get energy billing credits.  But, also typically, we don’t use all those credits, so within a year they are a gift to Versant.

During the past three years, we have sent a net of 9700 kWh to the gird, worth more than $1000 at current rates (Standard Offer Service).  At the same time, during the 11-year period of our operation, we have seen a tripling of the monthly “connection fee” that links our generation to Versant’s grid. In a very real sense, the connection fee subsidizes our monthly gift to the power company.  With the belief that net metering has raised the electric bills for all customers in Maine, the program is now under fire.

The net-metering program was instrumental in our decision to install solar power, which is critical if we are to reduce reliance on electricity derived from fossil fuels, which are a major source of global warming impact.  The impacts of climate change in Maine are well documented in the recent report, Maine’s Climate Future (2015), which shows significant economic losses from rising ocean temperatures on the reproduction of lobster, coastal flooding from sea-level rise, and lower revenues in the maple sugar and ski industries from changes in winter climate.  Solar is a beacon to the future.

We can hope that the Legislature in Maine, and similarly throughout the country, will maintain the net-metering program for solar power.  Solar power is essential to our future economy, health, and stabilization of climate.

 

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Adapted with minor modifications from its first appearance in the Bangor Daily News, 27 February 2025