We would like to publicly thank New Hampshire Sen. Jeb Bradley for his leadership support of the recently passed legislation to double the cap on net metering in New Hampshire.
Net metering essentially allows anyone with solar panels to obtain credits during sunny days when more electricity is generated than needed (the net excess) to balance out cloudy dark wintery days that don’t generate enough electricity to meet their needs.
New Hampshire has an annual limit or ‘cap’ on the total amount of mega volts of electricity generated by solar that is allowed to participate in net metering.
Raising the cap has stabilized this growing industry that has generated hundreds of small business jobs in New Hampshire during the past few years. It also now allows cities and towns like Lancaster to forge ahead with plans to install 120 kw of solar panels for $25,000 annual savings in municipal electric costs to the benefit of all taxpayers in the town (as reported on New Hampshire Public Radio: nhpr.org/post/lancaster-eyes-solar-energy-seeing-25000-annual-savings).
Additionally, with the help of local installer Donny Whitelaw, the raised cap will allow Habitat for Humanity to place solar on the roof of its next home, making the house even more affordable to its owners.
None of this could have been possible without the leadership and support of Sen. Bradley for the raised cap and hopefully we will next see a reasonable and sustainable model that provides ongoing stabilization of the financing for solar for all.
