Like many in Ohio, my family is weighing our desires for independence and financial stability as we chart the future of our small farm. We want a property plan that puts our land to good use and turns a reasonable amount of work into a stable income. Building a community solar farm provides the future we’re hoping for, but families like mine can’t do so without a change in Ohio law.
To see why, it’s helpful to understand what it would take to create a community solar installation on my family’s property. An energy supplier would lease a section of our farm for 20 years (a little less than the lifetime of a solar panel). Beyond our written agreement and an occasional meeting, they would handle the entire process, from the paperwork, to the installation, to the final removal of the panels. In fact, the lease would include a legal guarantee that they would remove the solar equipment when it expired, so our land could be returned to whatever use we saw fit. At a going rate of $800 to $1,000 per acre per year in other states, leasing property for a community solar installation is a financially sound choice for our family.
There is one problem, though: Ohio utilities law does not allow other homeowners to buy the power produced by a solar farm on our land. Under current state law, my parents can only produce as much power as they consume. Those who want to reap the benefits of clean, cheap, local power, but don’t have the means to produce it themselves, are usually out of luck. This legal state of affairs hurts not only the farmers and others who host community solar, but also the individuals and businesses who benefit from the power source, as well as the electricians who work to bring the solar farms to life.
The restrictions on solar are even worse when compared to the lack of production controls on other energy sources. Many landowners enjoy the benefits of unlimited consumption and sale of oil and gas from their land. In contrast, current law limits solar installations based on past electric bills in a way that discourages people from becoming truly energy independent. If a homeowner wants to change their heating source to rely on only the electricity they generate themselves, they cannot install the solar panels in advance. Ironically, one solar provider suggested increasing our allowed solar capacity by installing air conditioning and wasting electricity! That ridiculous logic is a sign of a system in need of reform.
While several legal frameworks could fix this problem, perhaps the most flexible is virtual net metering. With virtual net metering, our neighbors take credit for the power produced on our farm and the equivalent amount of power usage is subtracted from their energy bill. If the community solar power is cheaper than the going rate of electricity, then up to a thousand houses in our area could benefit. If not (an unlikely scenario, given the dropping price of solar power), nobody is forced to join the program.
Utility companies certainly deserve compensation for the use of electricity infrastructure, since transmitting power from our property to others requires the use of their power lines. Those costs can easily be factored in through fixed charges or minimum bills, eliminating any fears that the cost of the lines would shift to others on the grid.
Twenty states have virtual net metering or another community solar framework. By joining them, Ohio could provide revenue to farmers, savings to homeowners, and work to electricians and solar installers. At the same time, they would increase the independence, resilience, and efficiency of our energy system. As they ponder replacements for the shame that was House Bill 6, I hope our lawmakers pursue the changes needed to make community solar farms a reality in our state.
Ben Moran is a Ph.D. student in biology at Stanford University where he studies how human land-use choice affects the health of wildlife. He also manages forestry on his family’s property in Minerva, Ohio.
Reprinted from the Opinions, Cleveland.com.
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