Steve Ricketts is a partner in Solar Energy Solutions, the largest and oldest company in Kentucky’s fledgling solar installation industry. Steve and his partner Matt Partymiller and many other solar installers have been forced to drop everything and fight utility-sponsored anti-net metering bills during the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions. Kentucky is ranked 48th for solar friendly policies by SolarPowerRocks.com. In fact the only policy that keeps Kentucky out of last place is a relatively weak net metering policy. The system size is limited to 30 KW and the total amount of solar that can be installed on any utility’s system is capped at 1% of peak load. Existing systems are a long way from hitting that cap.
So, why did the utilities feel the need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbyists and PR agencies to try to demolish this policy? Steve provides some insight into the utilities’ tactics and offers advice for future net metering battles in Kentucky and other states.