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Solar Users, Advocates Remain Optimistic About Energy’s Future In Wisconsin

Changes To Utility Rates Last Year Left Some Concerned About Consequences For Solar Industry

By
Demmbatz (CC-BY)

Solar energy users and advocates at this past weekend’s Midwest Renewable Energy Fair near Stevens Point said they’re optimistic about solar’s growth, despite controversial rate decisions by the state’s utility regulation agency.

Last year, the Public Service Commission allowed some power companies to increase their fixed monthly rate for customers, and in some cases approved charging new solar users more to be part of the electrical grid. Some in the solar industry feared there would be a drop-off in new customers due to people deciding it would no longer worth it to invest $10,000 or more for solar panels, photovoltaic inverters and other gear.

For now, however, there are signs the growth in solar isn’t stopping.

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At one of the many solar industry booths at the Energy Fair — an event organized annually by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association — Bert Hodous from the western Wisconsin city of Arcadia said he’s thinking seriously about adding solar panels to his home to reduce his use of energy from coal or natural-gas fired power plants. Hodous said that desire outweighs the prospect of higher monthly fees from utilities.

“They’re just being predictably grabby,” said Hodous. “And there are costs to any new technology, but we have to embrace what’s possible and not get distracted by some of these extra costs.”

The go-for-it approach of some solar customers pleases solar designer and installer Jim Kerbel of Photovoltaic Systems, a business in the central Wisconsin community of Amherst. Kerbel said that ever since the utilities won their rate cases, some customers have been buying smaller systems. Others, he said, are spending a few thousand dollars more to add a 5-foot-long large storage battery on their property.

By buying that battery, Kerbel said, people can avoid the higher monthly solar-related charge from the power company.

“The nice thing about having a battery too is, then you have a backup. If the utility goes off, so what? You got power. And then the neighbor calls you because the Packer game is on and they want to come over. This has actually happened many times,” said Kerbel.

Kerbel said soon, companies will be making more durable batteries.


Summer Morgan of GRID Alternatives speaks at the Energy Fair. GRID Alternatives is a nonprofit working to help lower-income people access solar power.Chuck Quirmbach/WPR

Michael Vickerman of the clean energy group RENEW said he expects more faith communities, local governments and certain businesses to bring together resources to go solar. He said there are state and federal incentive programs ready to help at least through next year. Though solar still only accounts for a relatively tiny percentage of power generation in Wisconsin, Vickerman sees utilities as being dinosaurs for trying to put up barriers.

“This is increasingly at odds with customer aspirations for more control over energy use, cleaner resources and a more interactive platform,” said Vickerman.

But Wisconsin’s largest utility, We Energies, rejects the notion it’s trying to stifle solar.

“That’s a total misrepresentation,” said Brian Manthey, a company spokesman.

Manthey said everyone needs to help pay for power lines, poles and other infrastructure.

“What we want is to make sure that we have policies and rate structure going forward that is fair to all of our customers,” he said.

Manthey added their goal is to make sure costs “won’t shift to those who can’t afford solar panels or other customer generation.”

But in a few communities around the world, the poor are getting help to go solar from organizations like GRID Alternatives, a California-based nonprofit that says it’s working to bring renewable energy to everyone. A spokeswoman at the fair asserted that the organization has helped install “5,000 systems doing almost 19,000 kilowatts.”

None of that power generation is yet in Wisconsin. But unless there are more pro-utility rulings from the PSC, groups like GRID and for-profit solar installers seem confident that the state’s growth in solar won’t stop.