Solar industry rebates from Ameren Missouri will expire if the Missouri legislature does not act by then, and Missouri solar industry leaders are urging Jefferson City to not let this happen.
According to Caleb Arthur, member of the Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association, solar is one of the fastest-growing economic drivers in the state, with 3,800 job created throughout Missouri, and over $450 million put in the local economy from solar over the last four years.
Caleb Arthur started his solar company Missouri Sun Solar in May 2012 with only three employees but now his business has grown to 45 employees. He said without the rebates, it will be difficult for his business to continue at the current pace. Consequently he may have to lay off about 30 people in the next three months.
“A huge part of my company is going to be just lost overnight due to the rebates abruptly ending without a stable step back,” Arthur said.
Arthur thinks that among all the other solar companies combined, out of the 3,800 jobs there will be about 3,000 jobs lost over this rebate ending.
The Missouri Renewable Energy Standard requires that utility companies generate 5% of their energy from renewable sources by the end of the year, and 15% by 2021. However, they cannot raise customer rates by more than 1 percent to achieve that goal.
Solar industry representatives like Arthur say Ameren has not been able to prove that they hit that one percent. Arthur thinks the company would not have to raise their rate to pass along the rebates because he believes they already have the money but refuses to pay it out.
“Notoriously, in every state it always comes down to the utility companies versus their users. And solar companies are on the user side most of the time because customers are building out the solar. [...] Ameren likes solar but they want to own it, they don’t want their customers to own it because if a customer has solar and don’t have an electric bill anymore then theoretically they have lost that customer,” explained Arthur.
Bill Barbieri, director of Renewable Strategy, Policy and Generation for Ameren Missouri, said the company has a limited number of dollars for the rebate problem under the provisions of the Renewable Energy Standards.
“The actual dollars that Ameren will then spend in total rebates as well as buying renewable energy credits from our customers, is going to end up being greater than $102 million,” he explained.
All of this money has been or will be paid to customers, solar installers and developers who have installed solar equipment.
Barbieri said Ameren Missouri set aside dollars for applicants who met all of the program requirements. That way, when a homeowner completes a solar project, the money will still be available.
If the legislature does not act, the program will end on June 30th of this year. But Ameren has other plans to encourage solar.
“We are starting the construction of our utility scale solar project, and that’s a 5.7 megawatt project that will provide the overall solar benefit to all customers not just those that installed solar at their homes,” said Barbieri.
Ameren estimates that 46 to 48 megawatts are generated through the solar industry installations that are associated with the rebate dollars.