Although this article is accurate, I don’t think it fully conveyed the negative effects of Governor LePage’s “Gross Metering” policy, and why so little solar had been installed in Maine. Under that policy you had to sell ALL the power your solar system generated to the utility at a discounted rate, then buy your own power back at about twice that rate. For example, once the policy was fully phased-in, if your solar system generated, say, 10,000 KWh annually and you used exactly 10,000 KWh annually, you would have to sell the 10,000 KWh you generated to the utility for $645, then buy your own power back from the utility for $1407 (using 2021 rates). Although you consumed no net power annually, you would pay the utility $762 (plus the monthly connect charge). That made it almost impossible to reduce your bill by more than about 50%, and resulted in paybacks of 20 years or more for most solar systems.

I liken this to growing your own tomatoes because you like tomatoes, but being forced to sell ALL of them to Hannaford’s for $1 a pound. Then if you want to eat the tomatoes you grew, you buy them back from Hannaford’s for $2 a pound. (I don’t mean to pick on Hannaford’s.) I think most people would consider that outrageous, and it’s why I decided against installing solar when I moved to Maine. That policy was replaced with a net metering policy under the current Mills administration, and I just installed a solar system on my house.

One small difference in the current net metering policy for private rooftop systems compared to some other states is that if you produce more energy annually than you consume, you don’t get paid for the excess. The utility gets to keep any excess for free. If you generate more energy in a month than you use that month, you get a KWh credit on your bill. You have 12 months to use that credit. If you don’t use it in 12 months, you lose it.