SolarCity halting sales, installation of rooftop solar panels

By Daniel Rothberg

Published Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015 | 3:08 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015 | 7:31 p.m.

SolarCity is halting the sale and installation of rooftop solar panels in Nevada after regulators on Tuesday approved cutting the amount NV Energy pays solar customers to buy excess power.

The Public Utilities Commission also changed the flat service rate for customers with solar panels.

SolarCity issued a statement today saying that while it is stopping sales immediately, it will continue to serve existing customers.

“This is a very difficult decision but Governor (Brian) Sandoval and his PUC leave us no choice,” SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive said in a statement. “The people of Nevada have consistently chosen solar, but yesterday their state government decided to end customer choice, damage the state’s economy and jeopardize thousands of jobs.”

Sandoval appoints commissioners to the PUC, but indicated before the vote that he would not attempt to intervene in the decision. He said any party to the PUC’s order can ask the commission to reconsider its decision or seek judicial review.

In a statement after SolarCity’s decision, Sandoval slammed the industry for urging his office to intervene. He said the industry should respect the legal process, not resort to “bullying tactics such as threatening mass layoffs of Nevadans.”

The state has supported the solar industry, he said, noting that Nevada raised the net metering cap and provided monetary incentives to SolarCity.

“I support a solar future for this state,” Sandoval said. “However, the state must also strike a balance between helping to develop the solar industry which I believe has tremendous potential while ensuring just and reasonable energy rates for all Nevadans. Traditional energy consumers are subsidizing rooftop solar consumers and the state must determine the best way to help develop an emerging industry while ensuring the families who consume traditional energy sources are not paying more just to finance the rooftop solar marketplace.”

SolarCity, chaired by Elon Musk, vowed to fight the PUC’s order.

Under a policy known as net metering, NV Energy credits solar customers for the excess electricity they generate. Solar companies estimate the change will cut the credit from about 11 cents a kilowatt hour to about 3 cents.

They estimate the fixed charge for solar customers will double. NV Energy is in the process of calculating the exact rates.

For existing customers, the new rates will be implemented gradually over the next four years. NV Energy has 17,255 net metering customers, a vast majority of them in the southern part of the state.

The PUC’s justification for the rate change is that solar customers avoid paying for some fixed costs NV Energy incurs, resulting in a shift in costs to nonsolar ratepayers.

According to the commission, the annual shift in costs to other ratepayers is about $623 for each residential net metering customer in Southern Nevada.

SolarCity and others have criticized the decision as a means of protecting profits for NV Energy, which is regulated by the commission. Multiple groups have called for legal action. SolarCity says it is reviewing its options.

Since expanding to Nevada in 2013, SolarCity has invested heavily in the state. The company says it employs some 2,000 people here and has several facilities in Nevada, including a headquarters and regional training center.

SolarCity’s statement calls the PUC’s order a “massive bait and switch.”

“The Nevada government encouraged these people to go solar with financial incentives and pro-solar policies, and now the same government is punishing them for their decision with new costs they couldn’t have foreseen,” Rive said. “These actions are certainly unethical, unprecedented, and possibly unlawful. While the rest of the country embraces a clean energy future, Nevada is moving backwards.”

Sunrun, another solar company operating in Nevada, has not made a decision about stopping sales.