Bill > LD359

This bill modifies Maine's net energy billing programs by significantly restricting how distributed generation resources (such as solar installations) can be used for billing credits. Specifically, the bill requires that any distributed generation resource must be located on the same side of the electric meter as the customer, used primarily to serve that customer's electric load, and have 100% of its net energy billing credits allocated to the customer's retail account. The bill eliminates previous provisions that allowed multiple customers to share financial interests in generation resources and removes language about project sponsors. It also narrows the types of distributed generation resources that can participate in net energy billing, effectively limiting the programs to smaller, customer-sited renewable energy installations. Additionally, the bill makes related changes to property tax exemptions for solar energy equipment, stipulating that such equipment must generate energy solely for on-site use beginning in the 2025 property tax year. The changes appear designed to more tightly control and localize renewable energy generation and net metering arrangements, potentially making it more difficult for larger shared solar projects to operate under previous rules.