Community Solar is yet another subsidized boondoggle

New Mexico’s so-called “environmentalist” advocates are always looking for ways to make YOU pay for their allegedly “green” schemes. The Energy Transition Act of 2019 remains as the worst such law, but “community solar” recently received some coverage in the Albuquerque Journal and it is worth highlighting how, yet again, green schemes are hurting our pocketbooks.

For starters, so-called “community solar” just doesn’t make sense. There are good reasons that it has not taken off after 5 years. The “idea” behind community solar is to make solar accessible for those who can’t afford to buy and install panels on their own. It is unclear why using electricity generated by utilities which are also mandated to embrace wind and solar is unacceptable.

Either way, as the Journal article notes, “Those (solar) tax credits now expire Dec. 31, 2027, which means that New Mexico’s community solar projects need to start work fast to capture the incentives.” So, this program (like all solar) is a creation of subsidy programs.

On top of that, again like all so-called “renewables,” massive and expensive changes to the electrical grid are required to accommodate this diffuse source of electricity:  “… PNM does not find it appropriate that all utility customers should fund upgrades that are driven for the benefit of private, unregulated subscriber organizations,” PNM said in a filing. In other words, community solar shifts the costs of these grid changes from community solar beneficiaries to the rest of the utility’s customers. Not very fair!

And don’t be fooled, the primary beneficiaries of community solar are not the customers, but the solar businesses cashing in on these subsidies.