Rules, Regulations and Policies
There is significant effort by states to support customer-sited renewable energy generation through adoption of policies, regulations, and laws to overcome market hurdles and improve system economics. Many of these actions, such as interconnection and net metering standards and renewable portfolio standards, affect regulated electric utility distribution companies.
State and local governments are employing policies from the basic to the sophisticated to require or support the use of solar energy technologies. Policy approaches can be as simple as ensuring that a rooftop PV system has legal access to the sun, or as proactive as requiring a utility to obtain a certain percentage of their electricity from solar electric generating systems. This section of the web site examines the major solar policy approaches, how they are being used, and by which states.