With the end of the Legislative session in view, REV provided an update on the status of energy policy initiatives in the Vermont Legislature to REV members and the general public. The presentation covered REV’s efforts to:
- Promote more efficient solar siting and permitting by eliminating “Single Plant” proceedings: Vermont’s “single plant” law is a barrier to building solar projects near one another, preventing us from maximizing the utilization of desirable solar sites, such as brownfields and sites that already host solar. REV is working to ensure that renewable energy projects do not have to rebut a presumption that they are a single plant simply because they are close to another project.
- Expand access to the simplified net metering registration process: REV is working to raise the size limit for the fastest permitting process (net metering registration) for ground-mounted solar arrays from 15 kW to 25 kW. A bill to do this received unanimous support in the Senate and is now in the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee.
- Reauthorize the Standard Offer & community solar: REV advocated for a bill that would have authorized an additional 100 MW of Standard Offer capacity with a carve-out for Community Solar projects. While this bill did not make it out of committee, Senators showed a great deal of interest in finding a path forward for Community Solar.
- Defeat the Governor’s RES Rollback: The Scott administration is support two bills that would undermine last years landmark Renewable Energy Standard update by converting it to a Clean Energy Standard (allowing nuclear power to qualify) and by adding “cost containment” measures that would make it dramatically less likely for Vermont to hit its Tier II requirements. REV is committed to blocking this effort.
View the presentation slides.