RENEWABLE ENERGY Roundtable.

• Author: Bicknell, Lindsay

This month, Utah Business partnered with Holland & Hart to host a roundtable event featuring renewable energy experts to discuss sustainable business practices in Utah. Moderated by Adrienne Bell of Holland & Hart, here are some highlights from the event.

Q What is the state of the renewable energy industry?

Ryan Evans | President | Utah Solar Energy Association

Nationally, there's no turning back on renewable energy. Across the country, the number of states that are adopting it more, the number of large corporations, small companies that want to implement cleaner electricity options are growing and growing exponentially. Utah is a little bit of an unknown and I think that's the challenge we face due to certain policies and regulations here. We certainly have great opportunities, but there are limiting factors that keep us from keeping up with what the potential is nationally.

Paul Gaynor | CEO | Longroad Energy

There's a fair amount of momentum in the renewable energy industry nationally, but it's definitely in transition. Most of the growth in the industry has been driven by federal incentives; production tax credits (PTC) and incentive tax credits (ITC). On the wind side, those production tax credits are going away. So there's a big bubble of activity in 2020 on the wind side, but that will very rapidly decline over the next two or three years. And the same thing is happening on the solar side, it's just a little bit staggered.

So if you think about the long term for Utah, you have to assume that those incentives are going away. And then what is the competitive advantage of the state vis-a-vis other states around it? And the reason that's relevant is that today, Utah is exporting energy outside of its borders. And it's a great opportunity for Utah to become kind of a massive net exporter of solar energy. But you've got to get other people on board.

Dan Black | Chief Legal Officer | Vivint Solar

It's definitely true in the DG space as well the federal ITC for solar is already declining. And those companies that are capable of safe harboring and taking advantage of commencing construction roles are going to be able to, but your homeowners can't. So those companies that are purchasing solar can't take advantage of that. They're already eating four percent of the ITC this year and so on until it's completely gone for the residential tax credit in four years. And then in the commercial space, it's only 10 percent. Meanwhile, you've got net metering policies that are about as draconian as I've ever seen being proposed by PacifiCorp, and you have a state declining tax credit as well.

So it's a recipe for completely killing the DG market in Utah. Compare that to other states we're active in, and while there are always regulatory challenges, California is going through what they call the metering 3.0, and that's going to be challenging because they have their own unique issues, renewables aren't going anywhere in that state. So there are lessons to be learned from neighboring states that have messed up when it comes to renewable energy policies, but it's going to take more than just the utility being pushed. We need voters and we need our state and city governments to take action.

Q What are the key policy proposals that you're monitoring and how might they impact the industry?

Michael Shea | Environmental Manager | Salt Lake County

There is a possibility of the ITC and PTC getting renewed. But I'm curious what you see the two different futures [looking like] if they do get renewed, how much more penetration can we get versus if they're not, [and] what the market is going to look like over the next five or 10 years?

Paul Gaynor | CEO | Longroad Energy

I'm skeptical that there's going to be a straight renewal of PTCs or ITCs. By the time the ramp down is complete, then wind and solar costs will be at a level where they won't need any subsidies. Solar prices continue to come down and down and down in terms of the cost to install, so that's pretty competitive and it just depends on where you are.

For purposes of how big the market is without it versus with it, the solar market is a lot better positioned than the wind market just given the trajectory of solar costs and there's kind of a brighter...