Rooftop solar debate: xcel proposes less pay for power fed back to grid.

While Xcel is breaking new ground buying from centralized solar farms in Colorado, the company is less interested in buying solar-generated electricity from residential rooftops.

Xcel currently pays Colorado customers 10.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for feeding surplus solar power back into the grid but has proposed to slash the payment by more than half to 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Why? Xcel spokesperson Mark Stutz calls the difference of 5.9 cents a "hidden subsidy" paid by customers without rooftop solar to support those who do.

"If you put a 10-kilowatt system on your house, your system benefit to the utility, in our opinion, is about 4.6 cents," says Stutz. He says the proposal doesn't eliminate the 5.9-cent difference, just pushes to call it what it is. "We need to recognize there is a hidden incentive. The other side doesn't want this to be recognized as an incentive."

Adds Stutz: "We support solar. We're just trying to support the right kind of solar--which is large, centralized solar. That's where our customers get the most bang for the buck."

Net metering isn't an issue in Colorado alone, as many states are seeing similar pushes against net metering for distributed solar generation.

The so-called "bill mill" that is the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, has pushed legislation in more than 15 states that would dampen renewable mandates, and now has fired a new policy salvo against net metering. (Stutz says Xcel is not an ALEC member, but hedged on an outright denial that ALEC is financially supporting the company's proposal to reduce net metering in Colorado)

Critics argue the organization is fighting for the interests of a few fossil-fuel producers and utilities, rather than public good.

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