🔒Solar bill draws business support, cost warnings as lawmakers weigh clean energy overhaul

Connecticut’s major energy companies are backing a proposed overhaul of the state’s clean energy incentive programs — but with strings attached, as they raise concerns about ratepayer costs and program design. Eversource Energy, Connecticut Green Bank and fuel cell-maker Bloom Energy filed testimony ahead of a public hearing Thursday before the state legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee, which began at 10 a.m. The proposed bill — House Bill 5340 — requires state regulators to design replacements for three expiring solar incentive programs; legalize small plug-in solar panels for homes and apartments; and create a new agrivoltaics program supporting solar installations on working farmland. The bill’s main section deals with programs that set the terms under which homeowners, businesses, farms and community solar projects get compensated for the electricity they generate and sell back to the grid. All three programs — Residential Renewable Energy Solutions (RRES), Non-Residential Renewable Energy Solutions (NRES) and Shared Clean Energy Facility (SCEF) — are set to expire at the end of 2027. RRES covers rooftop solar for homeowners and small multifamily buildings; NRES is the commercial equivalent, serving businesses, farms and municipalities with projects up to 5 megawatts. The SCEF program takes a different approach, allowing customers who can’t install their own panels — renters, condo owners and others — to subscribe to a share of a larger, off-site solar installation and receive a credit on their electricity bill. The bill doesn’t rewrite the programs directly, but instructs the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to design successor programs, and sets parameters for what they must include. For the residential program, the bill introduces the option of time-varying rates — meaning what a customer gets paid for exported solar could vary depending on when during the day it’s generated, rather than a flat rate. It also creates more favorable terms for low-income customers and affordable housing residents, giving them the option to sell all their generated electricity to the utility rather than just the excess. The bill’s biggest proposed structural change is to the commercial program. Currently, NRES uses competitive bidding — developers compete for contracts and market forces help set prices. The bill would replace that with a “walk-up” model where PURA sets compensation rates administratively and developers apply at those pre-set prices. Eversource strongly opposes the change, calling the departure from competitive bidding “risky.” It points to Massachusetts as a cautionary example. That state adopted a similar approach and ended up with solar compensation rates roughly double what Connecticut projects had recently bid in competitive auctions — driving up costs without meaningfully accelerating deployment. While supporting the continuation of clean energy programs, the utility warned that poorly designed successor programs could accelerate an already steep cost curve. Eversource said its annual cost of compensating distributed energy customers — rooftop solar owners and others — has grown from under $10 million in 2015 to nearly $180 million in 2025. Existing projects, the company said, could add at least $2 billion to customer bills over the next decade. For the community solar program, the bill sets a $16 million annual spending cap and directs PURA to prioritize enrollment by low-income customers — particularly those who have fallen behind on their utility bills. It also gives PURA the option to restrict participation entirely to low-income customers or residents of environmental justice communities. The bill directs PURA to launch proceedings for successor programs by July 1, 2027, issue final decisions by April 1, 2028, and have utilities offering new compensation programs by July 1, 2028 However, that schedule would leave incentives lapsed for roughly six months unless the legislature acts to extend them, according to testimony from Connecticut Green Bank, a quasi-public financing agency that has channeled more than $3 billion in clean energy investment into the state since 2011. The Green Bank urged lawmakers to ensure the existing programs stay active until successors are ready, but otherwise backs the bill broadly. Bloom Energy, a California-based manufacturer of industrial fuel cells with installations at hospitals, universities and major employers across Connecticut, asked the committee to specifically include fuel cells in the successor program study. The company argued its solid-oxide fuel cells can deliver reliable, around-the-clock power that intermittent resources like solar cannot. That makes them particularly valuable for dense urban settings, multifamily housing and critical facilities where rooftop space is limited. The Working Lands Alliance, a farmland preservation coalition, fiercely opposes the bill’s agrivoltaics section, arguing that Connecticut’s limited prime farmland — already under pressure from development — should not be further eroded by large-scale commercial solar. The group urged the committee to prioritize siting incentives for brownfields, parking canopies and rooftops instead.