By Bill Davis, senior editor | South Carolina may finally be ready for solar power.
C. Dukes Scott, executive director at the S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) announced this week that his office, which oversees utilities and other power-generating issues, has finally put the finishing touches on its process for guiding the expansion of solar power in South Carolina.
For years, solar regulation was left in the hands of the utilities, and critics contended they slow-footed the process so they wouldn’t lose any power, pun intended, to citizens generating their own.
But last year, the state legislature passed a law to hand the responsibility to ORS. Since then, there have been no major leaps in solar installations across the state, according to Scott, because everyone was waiting for the state’s process to be completed.
“Six months out from now, we should have a better idea of how the solar market is doing across South Carolina,” in conjunction with other renewable energy sources identified by the state’s Definitive Energy Resource (DER) program, according to Scott.
The DER program also put goals for solar implementation, along with similar goals for landfill, wind, and hydroelectric power generation. Interest in solar energy has increased nationally as technology improvements have coupled with cost reductions to make solar more and more viable.
Scott said that there was already some good news for individuals wanting to convert roof space into solar panels as the process has already yielded one certified company that can lease panels.
Several churches across South Carolina had been thwarted in past efforts to use their roofs for an additional revenue streams, as churches had done in other states. Scott said the leasing company would be able sooner rather than later to begin leasing the panels.
Net-metering — buying back power
Another important piece of the legislative solution crafted last year was to mandate that utilities buy back power generated by solar sites at rates comparable to what they were charging on a retail level.
South Carolina seems to have had some good luck on this issue: utilities in many other states have complained they were paying retail for power they could generate otherwise at wholesale rates. Scott said neither South Carolina Electric and Gas nor Duke Power, two heavyweights in the energy generation and distribution market in South Carolina, have complained about the net metering rates.
Hamilton Davis, watchdog on energy and climate issues at the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, said the legislature and Gov. Nikki Haley have created a much more “fertile landscape” in South Carolina for solar growth than was available when utilities regulated the industry.
But, Davis warned, there may be need for more policy tweaking or legislative solutions going forward. State agency Santee Cooper is not held to the same goals under the DER program as the utilities, he said.
Santee Cooper is one of the largest power generators in the state, but instead of delivering the power to consumers like a utility, it distributes a large portion of its megawatts to electric cooperatives across the state, which then pass on the power to customers.
Davis said he was especially concerned by the Santee Cooper board’s recent decision to implement an interim fee schedule that would charge property owners who chose to install panels.
“Santee Cooper has basically adopted one of the most regressive anti-solar polices in the nation,” said Hamilton. “For a state agency, you would not think it would make a move opposite to legislation that was just passed by state government last year.”
Santee Cooper spokesman Mollie Gore said the agency, while committed to growing renewable energy in the state, also wants to make sure it doesn’t shift the cost of these newer technologies to all of its customers.
While he agreed with Davis’ concern for possible policy tweaks, Mike Couick, the president of The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, said that his organization was being singled out by a national solar advocacy group for its successful approach to solar energy.
Worried about loopholes
Solar panel activist Jim Kubu of Solarize South Carolina said he worried that since the state’s “landscape is peppered” with cooperatives, there could be too many loopholes for homeowners to get excited. Solarize South Carolina has set a goal of getting 2,000 solar panels installed on roofs throughout the state in the next year and a half.
Kubu used himself as an example of what can go wrong without uniform rates.
The house directly across the street from his is serviced by an electric cooperative, which means he can get better deals and rates from his power-provider, SCE&G, than can his neighbor.
Kubu said the solar field, in general, has benefited in recent years from technological improvements, cost drops and tax credits on the state and especially the federal levels of governments. But without uniformity in net metering rates and the possibility of set-up fees, some property owners could be put off.
Additionally, South Carolina, unlike neighboring North Carolina and Georgia, and nearby Florida, doesn’t have what Kubu called a “solar bill of rights,” which would trump homeowner association covenants against solar panels. Kubu said he hoped the legislature would become proactive rather than reactive on this issue.
Davis observed, “There likely has got to be a critical mass of frustrated homeowners for the legislature to respond.”
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