Gov. Jodi Rell’s veto of the Energy Reform Bill last week wasn’t the death knell for solar power in Connecticut, but the fading industry will have to struggle to thrive in the state.
With all incentives for commercial solar projects under the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund gone, companies hoped the provisions in the energy bill would bring back work shipped off to solar-friendly states.
“There is absolutely zero opportunity in Connecticut without the energy bill,” said Mike Silvestrini, president of Middletown-based Green Skies Renewable Energy. “Eventually we will have to make a decision on whether we can remain in this state.”
Proponents of the energy bill, passed on the last day of the legislative session, lauded its commitment to lower electricity rates, renewable energy industry, energy efficiency and the environment.
For the solar industry, the legislation would have provided incentives to build large projects on commercial facilities, a boom for companies trying to survive only through smaller residential jobs. With enough economic support, the intent was to give solar energy firms enough business that economies of scale would kick in and the industry would become self-sustaining.
“The problem here in Connecticut is that these programs have started and stopped and started and stopped,” said Michael Trahan, executive director of Solar Connecticut, a non-profit promoting solar power.
Rell vetoed the bill May 24, saying she felt it would have failed to achieve the legislation’s main goal — to reduce electric rates throughout the state. While Rell applauded the effort to revive the solar industry, she stated in her veto letter that now wasn’t the right time to begin a $1.4 billion incentive program.
“We haven’t had a commercial solar project in Connecticut for a year … Without the governor signing the bill, there is no commercial program for at least another year,” Trahan said “Two years without a commercial solar system sold in Connecticut is criminal. We are supposed to be a leader in clean energy.”
The solar industry in the state boomed when the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund provided incentives to make solar electric projects more cost-effective, Trahan said. When the funds for commercial projects ran out, the companies looked elsewhere for work in states with program such as New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio.
The market condition has reached the point where all construction Connecticut solar companies perform is out of state, save for a few small residential projects, Trahan said.
Green Skies Renewable Energy does the majority of its business through power purchase agreements, where Green Skies builds solar arrays at its expense and sells the generated power to the company hosting the facility. Federal and state incentives are key to making this strategy profitable, Silvestrini said.
“We can’t make that model work in Connecticut,” Silvestrini said.
With solar companies leaving, existing businesses in Connecticut are denied a chance at a clean energy that could reduce and stabilize their electric bills, Trahan said. Any companies wanting alternative energy will miss out on the opportunity.
But at least one solar-supporting business won’t let the loss of the incentive program keep it from building more solar power in the state.
Pilgrim Furniture, with three locations throughout the state, launched a solar array in 2008 on the roof of its Milford store as part of the company’s effort to reduce its impact on the environment. The state and federal incentives available at the time helped make the decision to go solar easier, but they weren’t the overarching reason, said David Bassett, vice president and managing partner.
“They weren’t a tipping point, but it will be the frosting on the cake,” Bassett said. “If you were interested in doing something good and green, it makes it easier.”
When the Pilgrim Furniture store in Southington needs its roof replaced — a project at least eight years away — Bassett said the company will put in another solar array, even without the state incentives.
“We would do it anyway,” Bassett said. “It makes the break-even point longer away, but we are a local business that will be around for a long time, and we think this is important.”
This is the second year in a row the solar industry got strong legislative support that failed to materialize into a real program. In 2009, a nearly identical incentive bill passed the Connecticut House of Representatives but fell short of passage in the state Senate.
Proponents of these programs and alternative energy will continue next year when Rell will no longer be the governor, said Christopher Phelps, director of Environment Connecticut. But the solar industry can hold out for only so long.
“Our urgent needs will be more urgent a year from now,” Phelps said. “That exodus of clean energy jobs out of Connecticut will increase.”
