Modesto’s solar industry fends off perceived extinction threat

The Modesto Irrigation District will negotiate new pricing with solar representatives rather than risk destroying the rooftop industry throughout the utility’s service area, the MID board decided Tuesday.

In a lengthy meeting, farmers also learned that they’ll get 36 inches of water this season, up from a 30-inch estimate only two weeks ago and double last year’s 18-inch allocation. Also, the board agreed to keep going its drought-coping innovation of allowing MID growers to buy and sell Tuolumne River water among themselves, at any price.

Solar workers, spilling from the board chamber into an overflow room, warned that a staff proposal to reduce incentives would decimate sales in Modesto and other areas where the district provides electricity. The change, to be voted on April 26, would nearly halve the yearly subsidy for new solar customers without affecting people who already have solar panels, the district said.

“I will lay off people. I will not sell solar with this plan,” said Justin Krum of 1st Light Energy. “This will kill solar in this area.”

The dire prediction was repeated by several other speakers.

“My dad works very hard to support our family,” said 12-year-old Emma Nelson. Her father, Paul, said his company would be forced to “transplant our employees to other places, like we did in Turlock” when the Turlock Irrigation District made a similar change about a year ago.

Jay Wilson said he’s already been through such a crisis, “uproot(ing) my family” from their former Las Vegas home when Nevada erased solar subsidies. “The decisions you are making have real consequences on real people,” he said.

Board member Jake Wenger questioned those claims. A TID report says 35 vendors have sold 112 home systems since that district’s change, amounting to nearly 10 percent of its total residential solar output.

MID had 2,475 customers with solar panels as of January, of which 2,374 were home accounts and the rest spread among businesses. State-mandated rules cost the district about $900 a year for each residential solar account, the MID says, or about $2.5 million a year.

A utility can reduce incentives, however, once solar grows to 5 percent of its total energy production, and MID is at that threshold. Assistant general manager Scott Van Vuren issued a “last call” for new applications Tuesday; the district’s website, however, says it’s no longer offering incentives.

Van Vuren proposed halving subsidies for new solar customers by negating their ability to carry over excess production credits from day to night and from sunny days to cloudy. Mid-State Solar’s Aaron Yakligian said that would make it impossible for vendors to predict savings for prospective customers, who must rely on such numbers when contemplating an investment in solar.

Oakdale’s Brady Anderson said solar representatives, some of whom flew into town expecting a 30-minute meeting with MID’s staff, saw that window cut to only 16 minutes. “Give us more time,” he asked.

The board agreed, and scheduled a public workshop to be tacked onto its April 19 meeting, where a compromise – if one is reached – might be explained, followed by a final vote April 26. Both meetings start at 9 a.m. in the chamber at 1231 11th St., Modesto.

Tuesday’s hearing had tense moments.

Paul Nelson chastised board member Paul Campbell, who initially praised Nelson’s daughter before saying she was “misinformed” and launching into a lecture about government intervention in the free market and the futility of slowing climate change without cooperation of countries such as India and China.

And board member John Mensinger shouted at Emerson Drake, a Modesto resident, saying Drake was “full of nonsense,” “crazy” and “intellectually dishonest.” Drake, a frequent board critic, had questioned whether board members Nick Blom and Mensinger should participate in decisions affecting their pocketbooks because both own solar panels and receive MID subsidies.

MID General Counsel Ronda Lucas said it’s OK because such votes treat all solar customers alike; three of MID’s board members also are farmers, an industry hugely affected by other board votes.

Wenger said Mensinger’s “behavior was not appropriate” and apologized on the board’s behalf.

The irrigation cap was increased to 36 inches because of recent wet weather.

Open-market water sales among MID growers, which the district calls its “farmer to farmer” delivery program, was narrowly approved two years ago amid the drought because some board members feared price gouging, and must be revived on a year-to-year basis. But most participants say it’s about flexibility and not greed; for instance, peaches typically need more than 36 inches to thrive and the transfer program helps growers meet that need, supporters say.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 7:12 PM with the headline "Modesto’s solar industry fends off perceived extinction threat."