No Fossil Fuel attended the Environmental Business Council’s Renewable Energy Committee Meeting on February 22, 2012 to discuss Massachusetts sticking points for solar development. The issues covered included:

1. Interconnection/Net Metering Regulations (D.P.U. 10-11-A Order). Presentation by Mimi Zhang, Sustainable Energy Advantage
2. SREC Pricing and lack of long ten commitments
3. Local real estate tax treatment / sales tax treatment
4. Regulation of installers and contractors
5. Local permitting issues and attempts to adopt zoning which blocks solar
6. Article 97 (Imposes a significant process on conversion of park or recreation land): Several recent projects involving solar and telecom have appeared to be hurt by attempts to broaden the land subject to protection to include all water department property

The industry was well represented by seasoned solar developers, municipal and regional representatives, and key tradespeople.

No Fossil Fuel is working with a group of renewable energy policy leaders to address these important issues through legislative solutions. I’ll be posting more information on our work and how you can get involved in a post soon.