As a Mainer who put solar panels on the roof of my family’s home, I’d like to offer my perspective on the ruckus over net energy billing.
When we built our home 23 years ago, we wanted to include solar to reduce pollution and fight climate change but couldn’t afford it. By 2017, the price of panels had fallen so far we dusted off our dream of generating clean electricity. It was still expensive, but with the federal tax credit and the net energy billing promise of getting credit on our electric bill for every surplus kilowatt-hour we produced, it became a smart investment.
But we weren’t motivated just by the benefits of clean energy. Our electricity provider, Central Maine Power, had been bought out by a multinational corporation, Iberdrola, and service was declining. As self-employed entrepreneurs with home-based businesses, we couldn’t afford frequent outages. And our monthly bills were getting ridiculous. We…
